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I was born in San Francisco in 1893. Although I'm in my hundredth year, my official age is thirty-two. I've mentally decided to stay at that age because it was a time full of interests.
I was brought up in quite a good deal of comfort with a governess. I was taught to be a good little girl, to curtsey when I met people and call them by their last names. I was in a convent in Paris for a year when I was seven and learned to read French. My parents were generous; my father was in real estate and my mother wanted me to marry a stock broker. I did not want to marry a stock broker. I was in great rebellion.
I always wanted to run away from home. I remember when I was sixteen, my mother sent me with an old woman chaperone of thirty to Giverny, the village in France where the great painter Monet lived. I finally ran away from this old lady of thirty and got a garret in the inn that you had to climb to by a ladder. For a teenager it was a marvelous adventure. When my mother heard of this, however, she straightaway came down [from Paris], climbed the ladder with her high heels and stood in the middle of the room. For ten days I had painted three canvases a day. The room was lined with them, and I thought she would be thrilled at my industry. But all she said was, "How can you live in such filth. Look at all those cobwebs!" and took me back to Paris.
Finally, I did manage to run away when I was twenty-three. I was at the end of an unfortunate love-affair; and when somebody from the French Repertory Company asked me to go up to Montreal, Canada, and be the ingenue, I thought I wouId finally have the courage to make a break with my mother, otherwise I might not have the strength to continue fighting.
I enjoyed acting, yes, but my interest wasn't too great in the theater. I got out of the theater after eight or ten years. When I met people in the art world, it changed my direction of thought very easily.
I was very involved with some painters of that early period (1918-1921). I was in love with two men connected with painting--Henri-Pierre Roche, a diplomat and collector; and Marcel Duchamp, a painter. I knew the Walter Arensbergs, who were the first collectors of modern art, and I was also acquainted with Brancusi, the great sculptor. I heard conversations all the time and was more or less encouraged to draw and paint, which I've always done, although I've not taken myself too seriously.
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