alice neel

"I do not know if the truth that I have told will benefit the world in any way. I managed to do it at great cost to myself and perhaps to others. It is hard to go against the time of one's time, milieu and position. But at least I tried to reflect innocently the twentieth century and my feelings and perceptions as a girl and a woman. Not that I felt they were all that different from a man's. I did this at the expense of untold humiliations, but at least after my fashion. I told the truth as I perceived it, and, considering the way one is bombarded by reality, did the best and most honest art of which I was capable." -- Alice Neel