Chapter 12
The art buyers returned.
Some for Mavis.
Some because scandal increases appetite.
I hated that.
She handled it better than I did.
One collector asked whether her pain inspired her work.
Mavis answered:
“No. Practice did.”
Excellent.
People love turning suffering into artistic credential.
As though cruelty deserves partial credit for beauty.
It doesn’t.
Her talent existed before Camellia exploited it.
Her discipline existed without humiliation.
Her mother’s influence mattered.
Her own choices mattered more.
We built the next exhibition around that.
No “maid becomes artist” marketing.
No Cinderella nonsense.
Mavis Fairbourne.
May you like
Painter.
Enough.
