Free Spirit

Tell us one thing you hope people say about you.

At 19 years of age I was accused of being a subversive influence on society and was charged with 4 months of imprisonment.

I was branded a trouble maker, and a dissident for not collaborating with the authorities on matters which I felt I had no business in. I stood my grounds and paid the price. 10 years later laws changed and my criminal record was erased. One could say I was ahead of the times.

I was already familiar with being an outsider. I understood, to some degree, that I didn’t entirely fit in to societal norms. At French Catholic school, growing up, I was constantly and insistingly being singled out and punished by the nuns. My classmates terrorized me and pushed me around on my way home from school.

In my little girl’s mind I couldn’t grasp why they hated me so.

At an age when most children and teenagers are indoctrinated into complying and fitting in, I had no such inclination and I was being punished for it, something I realized later.

Over the years, along the way, I’ve had much time to reflect upon my childhood and subsequently being labeled a subversive influence. A label which I confess rather pleases me and for which I’ve developed an affection. How many people these days can say they’ve been persecuted by both the church and the state? That’s the kind of shit that happened in medieval times right? Nowadays I’m being persecuted by social media as my artwork gets regularly flagged and blocked.

In a world where being you and giving birth to your true nature is practically forbidden, I feel I’ve earned myself the right to be referred to as a free spirit, true to her nature.

In the Cambridge dictionary, free spirit is described as a person who does what they want with enjoyment and pleasure and does not feel limited by the usual rules of social behavior.

My description would go something like this: a person true to their nature, who will not be boxed in or tied down, committed to living life their own way, craving lots of different experiences.

Not only is it something I know people say about me, more importantly it’s how I’d like to be remembered. This post would not be complete without extending my gratitude and thanks to the French Catholic school system and my father, for forging my unrelenting free spirit.

Photo: THE CONFESSIONAL is one of my anticlerical artworks.