Blood Water Paint Quotes

“And listen to me love, when a woman risks her place, her very life to speak a truth the world despises? Believe her. Always.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Why, though, does it take a mother, daughter, sister for men to take a woman at her word?”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Because she is not small. She is not weak. She will never, ever be feebleminded,
And above all, she is outraged.
The world will tell you not to be outraged, love. They will tell you to sit quietly, be kind. Be a lady.
And when they do? Be Judith instead.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“I wish men would decide if women are heavenly angels on high, or earthbound sculptures for their gardens. But either way, we're beauty for consumption.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Sometimes that’s all you need my love – another woman’s faith in you.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“I take a length of cloth and hold it to my head - a wedding veil. I do not regret the days of make-believe, but for every time I played at bride I should have played at goddess, river, warrior queen”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“There will come a day,
when this horror is not the
only color on your palette.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Others will tell you Daniel saved Susanna's life. But hear this: Susanna used her voice. She spoke her truth. She could not expect her words to change a single heart, but neither could she be silent.

Her words saved her life.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“But that’s the thing about perspective; the slightest shift transforms the subject.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Being in the right is not always the solace you might expect.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Because he is a monster. But he’s strong and powerful, and from most perspectives, he’s on the winning side. She has to ask herself – and women have asked themselves this question for centuries – would she rather be suffocated slowly for the rest of her life, or die quickly trying to accomplish something.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Piazzas, churches named for a teenager who gave life to the Christ. Sculptures, paintings, frescoes devoted to her holiness. But the only thing about her we remember, she was a virgin.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“For I am a little girl when they want to belittle me, a woman when they want me to bear a child.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Any man who breathes has more power than a woman in her world – and our world too.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“If you remember nothing else of Susanna, remember how she speaks her truth. She knows it will cost her something. She's not aware yet quite how steep the cost will be, but still she speaks her truth.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“No matter how many layers of paint pile one, I will always be the sketch beneath. Useful, even crucial, but never what’s admired by the world.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Words are power.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Not all stories have happy endings. I cannot promise this one will either. But I am certain you will be glad you stayed with Susanna to the end. She deserves that much - a witness, one who says I see you, hear you, I'm better for knowing your story”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Sisters share a bond unlike any other – thornier, but also tender, full of possibility.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“The disconnect of men
to women's bodies
stands to reason.
They'd have to care enough
to see the other as a subject
worthy of their earnest study.
My own oblivion horrifies me more.
I've been here all along
but somehow not.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Why should a little corner of the garden be so important to a woman like Susanna? A woman with a palatial home, and the finest garments. Because imagine it – if you live as she does, surrounded by endless people and their expectations, ones you cannot possibly live up to, you do not even want to live up to – that refuge might be the only place you are safe.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“These women who dare
to judge
your heart
by your body
will never have
an ounce of your worth”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“I can survive, a solitary creature. I have thus far. But just the thought that someone else might care what fate befalls me- it changes everything.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“I was no soldier, only girl
without a mother
or the sense to understand
this world without her.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“I do not regret the days of make-believe,
but for every time I played at bride
I should have played at goddess
river
warrior queen.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“Listen to me, Artemisia.
Your hands are not your life.
Your gift does not flow
from these bones and tendons.
They could slice off your hands
and you would still
find a way to paint.

You may have to let the bones
grow back together,
to let the wounds close.
But the body is its own
amazing piece of art.

It will heal, in time.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“They're not monsters, either. Not men you'd shrink away from on the street. On the contrary. They're men you'd see at Mass, who'd give you a polite nod while they greet your husband.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“But that day's not now.
And even if this horror
becomes an accent color -
a smudge of lead white
to highlight a cheekbone,
a bit of yellow ochre
the glint on a sword -
sometimes those are the pigments
that change one's perecption
of an entire work of art.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“But there are many things a woman never sees until she’s joined unto a man.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint

“In my mother’s mirror, my breasts follow. They’re not half spheres unyielding, behaving how a man believes they ought. They shift and change, they form and function, and they’re mine.”
― Joy McCullough, Blood Water Paint