Picasso - Art and Lies

I really enjoyed reading Jeanette Winterson's Art and Lies, and her portrayal of the character "Picasso". Picasso has been virtually ignored all of her life, for she does not fit into her seemingly perfect family. Yet what seems perfect, always contains its faults. Her father is what Picasso calls "dead", a defeated spirit vowing to bring every other being into his dead zone. His only problem is that he has no hold over Picasso, for she is vibrating with life, with color. Picasso's mother is an unsatisfied housewife, never accepting of Picasso, trapped in a black and white world. Picasso's brother is the most fascinating. His envy of Picasso, and her vibrancy for life, has led him to insult and humiliate her the only way possible, through sexual force. While he claims to "love her", his only control over her is by raping her. A families love is supposed to be unconditional, unwavering; yet Picasso is not sure whether to relic in the piercing dagger of a fraudulous love, or a love too deep to imagine. She lives in a virtual world of color. Crimson reds. sunflower yellows, she is able to see a certain reality through color and art. She constantly refers to the sun, the sun that "magnifies" reality. While her family shy's away from the sun, fearing a consuming recognition that will blast apart all of the lies they have structured themselves upon, Picasso embraces the light. Picasso contrasts the revealing sun with forgiving rain. She often wonders if the blame is on herself for failing to be lovable; if she had fit in better to this black and white family perhaps her brother would not need to rape her, or mother not condescend her, or her father not want to kill her spirit. Picasso must "lean on" this wall of rain, allow herself, her family to at once be forgiven. As much as Picasso craves this luscious color, she also must fear it. For illuminating her own world forces her to make sense of her past, of who she was and who she has become. She has realized the sinister nature of marriage, a fraud that her parents and millions of others have signed over to. "Till death us do part", yes for there is a parting of ways from death, both parties become dead to one another in the act of marriage. Her entire family is so afraid of color, of letting someone else realize any of their own intricacies. It is all a fraud, and yet Picasso finds joy in forcing light into their lives. Each member is stained with the past, with memories, hopes, dreams never realized - yet they desperately try to maintain their pristine appearance. As much as Picasso fears memory, she is also infatuated with it. Things that are no longer present, things hidden and covered, take form of their own through imagination. Those things are more prevalent in the present and future life than tangible, present objects. An old house torn down, an arm amputated - since they no longer are visible, the mind begins to create. In the end, Picasso proves that everybody is an artist. We may lie about the past, about the present, yet we are forever visibly stained with the truth. There are those that create lives desperately trying to shield away all color, and those that try to erase past lives by immersing themselves in color in the present. Regardless we are all at work creating art, creating a past, present, and future.