WEBVTT 00:00:01.640 --> 00:00:03.180 [Art21 "Extended Play"] 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:09.860 I'm obviously a nervous guy and I was writing a female character, 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:14.060 through her memory and through her stories. 00:00:16.880 --> 00:00:18.480 It was sort of an experiment 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:21.000 to write from the standpoint of somebody who I'm not, 00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:25.460 which is certainly fraught with peril. [LAUGHS] 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:27.720 ["Chris Ware: Someone I'm Not"] 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:32.100 When I was in art school, 00:00:32.100 --> 00:00:34.220 I was told that I couldn't draw women. 00:00:36.440 --> 00:00:39.600 That kind of cuts out a whole half of humanity right there. 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:43.940 I distinctly remember being told by one of my teachers, 00:00:43.940 --> 00:00:47.100 "If you draw women, you're colonizing them with your eyes." 00:00:47.620 --> 00:00:49.820 Do you not draw women and then 00:00:49.820 --> 00:00:54.329 maintain an allegiance to some sort of experience that only you have had? 00:00:54.329 --> 00:00:59.840 Or do you try to expand your understanding and your empathy for other human beings? 00:01:00.820 --> 00:01:03.620 As a white writer, how dare I begin to think 00:01:03.620 --> 00:01:07.600 that I could write from the standpoint of even another person. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:14.890 What I'm trying to do here is draw a gesture of a woman 00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:16.890 slightly brushing hair away from her eye, 00:01:16.890 --> 00:01:19.060 but now it just looks more like she's got a headache. 00:01:19.880 --> 00:01:23.530 Joanne Cole acts strangely towards the younger woman, 00:01:23.530 --> 00:01:25.409 and that's because she thinks it's possible 00:01:25.409 --> 00:01:27.750 that she might be related to the younger woman 00:01:27.750 --> 00:01:29.880 because she's lost in her own memories and thoughts-- 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:31.579 but that's not clear to the reader yet. 00:01:31.579 --> 00:01:34.560 So I'm trying to balance a couple of emotions here. 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:36.890 I'm trying to make it feel that it's authentic 00:01:36.890 --> 00:01:39.140 and not just a bunch of nonsense-- or poorly acted. 00:01:42.160 --> 00:01:46.030 This particular character is an African-American elementary school teacher 00:01:46.030 --> 00:01:50.600 who is teaching in a private school in the 1960s and 70s. 00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:54.920 Hopefully I'm attending to some of the complexities 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:58.300 that a kind of slightly unusual situation might have brought up. 00:02:00.670 --> 00:02:03.380 I feel very self-conscious about writing a story like this. 00:02:03.380 --> 00:02:05.400 Am I doing the right thing? Am I doing the wrong thing? 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:06.780 Is it about empathy? 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:09.370 Am I introducing things I don't understand? 00:02:09.370 --> 00:02:10.370 Et cetera. 00:02:10.370 --> 00:02:13.200 It's a complicated question as a writer. 00:02:16.940 --> 00:02:18.500 [WARE] --Thank you for serving dinner. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:19.660 [MARNIE WARE] --You're welcome. 00:02:19.660 --> 00:02:20.340 [LAUGHS] 00:02:20.660 --> 00:02:21.540 [CLARA WARE] --Plop! 00:02:21.540 --> 00:02:22.240 [CHRIS WARE] --Plop! 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:26.660 Many of my teachers were trying to get myself and my fellow students 00:02:26.670 --> 00:02:29.140 to find the one thing that we were interested in 00:02:29.140 --> 00:02:30.270 and then write about that. 00:02:30.270 --> 00:02:31.410 I never wanted to do that. 00:02:31.410 --> 00:02:34.100 I wanted to be able write about everything-- 00:02:34.100 --> 00:02:36.120 and anything-- because that's what life is. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:37.120 [LAUGHING] 00:02:39.460 --> 00:02:41.320 --I have no idea what I look like chewing 00:02:41.320 --> 00:02:42.800 --but I bet I don't want to know. 00:02:45.660 --> 00:02:48.239 It's up to me as an artist to try to decide 00:02:48.239 --> 00:02:51.830 how much can I try to feel through another person 00:02:51.830 --> 00:02:54.080 and still have it not be 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:56.400 a sentimentalization or a falseness. 00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:04.820 I have to try to somehow push my limits and my understanding of 00:03:04.820 --> 00:03:08.020 how I feel through other people in what I'm doing. 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.980 And you risk falling on your face doing so, 00:03:14.980 --> 00:03:16.720 but that's a risk you have to take. 00:03:25.420 --> 00:03:27.380 What art is all about is trying to figure out 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.