1 00:00:01,640 --> 00:00:03,180 [Art21 "Extended Play"] 2 00:00:06,140 --> 00:00:09,860 I'm obviously a nervous guy and I was writing a female character, 3 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:14,060 through her memory and through her stories. 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:18,480 It was sort of an experiment 5 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,000 to write from the standpoint of somebody who I'm not, 6 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:25,460 which is certainly fraught with peril. [LAUGHS] 7 00:00:25,460 --> 00:00:27,720 ["Chris Ware: Someone I'm Not"] 8 00:00:30,500 --> 00:00:32,100 When I was in art school, 9 00:00:32,100 --> 00:00:34,220 I was told that I couldn't draw women. 10 00:00:36,440 --> 00:00:39,600 That kind of cuts out a whole half of humanity right there. 11 00:00:41,580 --> 00:00:43,940 I distinctly remember being told by one of my teachers, 12 00:00:43,940 --> 00:00:47,100 "If you draw women, you're colonizing them with your eyes." 13 00:00:47,620 --> 00:00:49,820 Do you not draw women and then 14 00:00:49,820 --> 00:00:54,329 maintain an allegiance to some sort of experience that only you have had? 15 00:00:54,329 --> 00:00:59,840 Or do you try to expand your understanding and your empathy for other human beings? 16 00:01:00,820 --> 00:01:03,620 As a white writer, how dare I begin to think 17 00:01:03,620 --> 00:01:07,600 that I could write from the standpoint of even another person. 18 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:14,890 What I'm trying to do here is draw a gesture of a woman 19 00:01:14,890 --> 00:01:16,890 slightly brushing hair away from her eye, 20 00:01:16,890 --> 00:01:19,060 but now it just looks more like she's got a headache. 21 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,530 Joanne Cole acts strangely towards the younger woman, 22 00:01:23,530 --> 00:01:25,409 and that's because she thinks it's possible 23 00:01:25,409 --> 00:01:27,750 that she might be related to the younger woman 24 00:01:27,750 --> 00:01:29,880 because she's lost in her own memories and thoughts-- 25 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:31,579 but that's not clear to the reader yet. 26 00:01:31,579 --> 00:01:34,560 So I'm trying to balance a couple of emotions here. 27 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:36,890 I'm trying to make it feel that it's authentic 28 00:01:36,890 --> 00:01:39,140 and not just a bunch of nonsense-- or poorly acted. 29 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,030 This particular character is an African-American elementary school teacher 30 00:01:46,030 --> 00:01:50,600 who is teaching in a private school in the 1960s and 70s. 31 00:01:51,990 --> 00:01:54,920 Hopefully I'm attending to some of the complexities 32 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:58,300 that a kind of slightly unusual situation might have brought up. 33 00:02:00,670 --> 00:02:03,380 I feel very self-conscious about writing a story like this. 34 00:02:03,380 --> 00:02:05,400 Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing the wrong thing? 35 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:06,780 Is it about empathy? 36 00:02:06,780 --> 00:02:09,370 Am I introducing things I don't understand? 37 00:02:09,370 --> 00:02:10,370 Et cetera. 38 00:02:10,370 --> 00:02:13,200 It's a complicated question as a writer. 39 00:02:16,940 --> 00:02:18,500 [WARE] --Thank you for serving dinner. 40 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:19,660 [MARNIE WARE] --You're welcome. 41 00:02:19,660 --> 00:02:20,340 [LAUGHS] 42 00:02:20,660 --> 00:02:21,540 [CLARA WARE] --Plop! 43 00:02:21,540 --> 00:02:22,240 [CHRIS WARE] --Plop! 44 00:02:22,580 --> 00:02:26,660 Many of my teachers were trying to get myself and my fellow students 45 00:02:26,670 --> 00:02:29,140 to find the one thing that we were interested in 46 00:02:29,140 --> 00:02:30,270 and then write about that. 47 00:02:30,270 --> 00:02:31,410 I never wanted to do that. 48 00:02:31,410 --> 00:02:34,100 I wanted to be able write about everything-- 49 00:02:34,100 --> 00:02:36,120 and anything-- because that's what life is. 50 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:37,120 [LAUGHING] 51 00:02:39,460 --> 00:02:41,320 --I have no idea what I look like chewing 52 00:02:41,320 --> 00:02:42,800 --but I bet I don't want to know. 53 00:02:45,660 --> 00:02:48,239 It's up to me as an artist to try to decide 54 00:02:48,239 --> 00:02:51,830 how much can I try to feel through another person 55 00:02:51,830 --> 00:02:54,080 and still have it not be 56 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:56,400 a sentimentalization or a falseness. 57 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:04,820 I have to try to somehow push my limits and my understanding of 58 00:03:04,820 --> 00:03:08,020 how I feel through other people in what I'm doing. 59 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:14,980 And you risk falling on your face doing so, 60 00:03:14,980 --> 00:03:16,720 but that's a risk you have to take. 61 00:03:25,420 --> 00:03:27,380 What art is all about is trying to figure out 62 00:03:27,380 --> 00:03:30,820 if the feelings that you're having are the same as the feelings that I'm having.