Valerie asked Rose Rosetree:

Hi Rose - I have a question about something you said in your book “Bigger Than All The Night Sky.” I read how teenage you put big photos of Pablo Picasso’s eyes on your ceiling. So interesting! Why did you do that? Thank you!

Rose Rosetree Oh those eyes, Valerie! They were the centerfold pages of a big paperback, an art book about Picasso; black-and-white photographs showing one huge eye per page.

My Uncle Stan Kephart, an artist, gave me that book as a gift. (It was the only gift he ever gave me.) Admittedly, I never actually read this book on the great artist, but I did thumb through it, which is how I found treasure: those enormous pictures of an artist’s eyes.

Why did Teenage Me put them on the ceiling of my bedroom? For two reasons, probably. (My memory isn’t clear so I’ll reconstruct. Incidentally, I have no idea who helped me to fasten these two book pages securely on the ceiling, above my bed. Whoever it was did an excellent job.)

Why turn Picasso into my teenage pinup photo, as it were?

For one thing, I yearned to become a writer when I grew up. And nobody had ever gifted me with big, blown-up photographs of Virginia Woolf's eyes, or the eyes of James Joyce, or eyes belonging to any other writer. So these pix were as close to author’s eyes as I could find.

For another thing, I wanted somebody to keep me company. Insomnia was quite a problem for me, both then and for decades to follow. (Not in recent decades, fortunately.)

During those long, long hours of wakefulness, I could look up and see Picasso there with me. Even at night, there was always some light in my bedroom, just enough light for gazing into the eyes of the great artist.

You see, my bedroom had no curtains or blinds, and this was an apartment in Queens, New York. In the background, even at night, there was light from the busy neighborhood – just as there was perpetual background noise.

Sigh! Like you, perhaps, Valerie. And like many of you Goodreaders, quite likely, those teenage years of mine were not the highlight of this lifetime. Better times were coming.

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