在线英语听力室

美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Old In Art School': An MFA Inspires A Memoir Of Age

时间:2018-06-20 08:50:52

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

At the age of 64, when some people would look at brochures for retirement1 cruises, Nell Irvin Painter, the acclaimed2 Princeton historian and writer, decided3 to go to art school - not just an adult extension course, but the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers to get a new bachelor's degree, then the famous Rhode Island School of Design for her MFA.

She is now a real-life, income-producing professional artist, too, and has written a memoir4 in her 70s about going to art school with students a third her age and how art school changed her view of what she thought she already knew. Nell Painter, who is also a Professor of American History Emerita at Princeton, joins us now from the studios of WBGO in Newark. Thanks so much for being with us.

NELL IRVIN PAINTER: Well, it's really my pleasure. I'm a big fan of public radio - have been forever.

SIMON: Well, thank you. We're big fans of yours.

PAINTER: Aw, thanks.

SIMON: Why wasn't just taking an Internet art course, let's say at Trump6 University, good enough for you?

PAINTER: (Laughter) You're talking to somebody from the New York area, here (laughter). Let's say, why not take a class at the Newark Museum? Well, I did. I tried taking a pastel class, but I found that I needed to do a different kind of art. You can call it contemporary art, if you wish. I didn't know what to call it at the time. But I knew that I wanted people to be able to look at my work for a long time and then discover what they were seeing - and what they were seeing didn't have to be what I had put in the work.

SIMON: Let me ask you about art school. The way artists look is something that you noticed.

PAINTER: Oh, yes. Well, personal beauty and ugliness have been an interest of mine for a long time, and how people look at other people. Self-fashioning - Sojourner7 Truth got me into it because she was very conscious of her self-fashioning. But at any rate, I had straightened my hair in art school. Nobody told me to straight - I mean, I have been wearing my hair natural, like, forever. And I'm wearing my hair natural right now. But...

SIMON: You're a child of the Age of Aquarius?

PAINTER: I'm older than the Age of Aquarius (laughter). I'm the age of Black Power and "Africa Must Unite." But at any rate, so I straightened my hair because I could kind of just feel, in art school and that world, my natural hair seemed kind of 20th century. It was like it was akin5 to my great handicap, which was my 20th century eyes. I really had to bring my eyes into the 21st century, which was a long-running process that is still going on. So I changed, and the way I look changed.

SIMON: You had hoped that art school would be an atmosphere that somehow transcended8 racism9, sexism, ageism.

PAINTER: (Laughter) Yeah.

SIMON: Well, that's why I ask. What did you discover?

PAINTER: Yeah, how innocent can you get? And for a little while, it did until it didn't. I think it's hard for a lot of Americans to face up to the fact that the culture we live in is inherently racist10 and sexist and ageist. You know, it always comes as a kind of nasty surprise. And it's silly of me to say it, but it came as a nasty surprise to me. I should know better. But then again, if I hadn't been surprised, that would've made me kind of a cynic, and I'm not a cynic.

SIMON: What happened?

PAINTER: The first thing that happened was I got put in one of those situations. Now, the situation today is a white woman on her phone calling the police because some black people are living or just being. So I went to the printmaking studio, and the little...

SIMON: This was at night, as I recall the story.

PAINTER: Yeah. Yeah, it was at night. And the place was empty. And the little monitor asked me if I was taking a class. It was something - it was a kind of obstacle that I recognize, and many other people of color will recognize, which says, explain or justify11 why you are here. And it really annoyed me. And then once the scales fell from my eyes and I returned to my society, it seemed quite trivial. But it made a difference at the moment.

SIMON: How did art school and painting and making art and your experience as a historian all kind of come together to make you view the human figure differently, and how we represent and understand the human figure?

PAINTER: It hasn't come together finally. There's no end to this, and it changes over time. My relationship with history, as I used to write it, and as I sometimes use it in my work, that was something that took several years, actually, for me to feel comfortable with.

And as I continue to wrestle12 with that and to deal with it visually, it's that I can do whatever I want with the figure. I can do whatever I want with history. As a historian, I had to be faithful to the archive. And I felt that when I was writing history, that what I was saying needed to stand for larger truths. I don't necessarily feel that way now. I hesitate there because 2017 changed my relationship with my times in my art.

SIMON: What would you tell people who think maybe they'd like to try a second serious career, but, you know, it's just complicated. It's time-consuming. It's a risk.

PAINTER: Expensive (laughter).

SIMON: Yeah.

PAINTER: Yes. I would say, first of all, how much can you tolerate? How much can you afford, in terms of money, in terms of time and in terms of energy? How's your health, for instance? Can you stand psychologically being totally ignored? (Laughter) So those are questions to ask, but they're so easy to answer.

And there's so many ways to do new things. You don't have to do it whole-hog like I did. There are so many ways. Yes, you can do it. But also know it can be very sobering because being old in our society, it's not for sissies.

SIMON: Nell Painter, her book "Old In Art School: A Memoir Of Starting Over," thanks so much for being with us.

PAINTER: You're very welcome. I've enjoyed talking with you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 retirement TWoxH     
n.退休,退职
参考例句:
  • She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
  • I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。
2 acclaimed 90ebf966469bbbcc8cacff5bee4678fe     
adj.受人欢迎的
参考例句:
  • They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
  • Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。
3 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
4 memoir O7Hz7     
n.[pl.]回忆录,自传;记事录
参考例句:
  • He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
  • In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中,她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。
5 akin uxbz2     
adj.同族的,类似的
参考例句:
  • She painted flowers and birds pictures akin to those of earlier feminine painters.她画一些同早期女画家类似的花鸟画。
  • Listening to his life story is akin to reading a good adventure novel.听他的人生故事犹如阅读一本精彩的冒险小说。
6 trump LU1zK     
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭
参考例句:
  • He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
  • The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手,作为他的王牌。
7 sojourner ziqzS8     
n.旅居者,寄居者
参考例句:
  • The sojourner has been in Wales for two weeks. 那个寄居者在威尔士已经逗留了两个星期。 来自互联网
  • A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. 出12:45寄居的、和雇工人、都不可吃。 来自互联网
8 transcended a7a0e6bdf6a24ce6bdbaf8c2ffe3d3b7     
超出或超越(经验、信念、描写能力等)的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 ); 优于或胜过…
参考例句:
  • He wanted assurance that he had transcended what was inherently ambiguous. 他要证明,他已经超越了本来就是混淆不清的事情。
  • It transcended site to speak to universal human concerns. 它超越了场所的局限,表达了人类共同的心声。
9 racism pSIxZ     
n.民族主义;种族歧视(意识)
参考例句:
  • He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
  • Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。
10 racist GSRxZ     
n.种族主义者,种族主义分子
参考例句:
  • a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
  • His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。
11 justify j3DxR     
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护
参考例句:
  • He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
  • Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗?
12 wrestle XfLwD     
vi.摔跤,角力;搏斗;全力对付
参考例句:
  • He taught his little brother how to wrestle.他教他小弟弟如何摔跤。
  • We have to wrestle with difficulties.我们必须同困难作斗争。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。