Vivian Nightwood

Depending on whom you ask, Vivian Nightwood may or may not have been shipped West on an orphan train, where she may or may not have fled her cruel farm parents at the first opportunity to seek her destiny in the city. She may or may not be the supplanted heir to a textile fortune that was misappropriated by her lecherous half-brother, against whom she may or may not spend her idle hours in alehouses plotting revenge. Whomever you ask, do not for a moment believe anyone who tells you that she grew up comfortably in a modest home in Downers Grove, surrounded by crocheted doilies and over 75 hand-painted porcelain cat figurines.

Inspirations: Djuna Barnes, Louis Aloysius Bertrand, Anne Carson, Henry Darger, Frida Kahlo and Francesca Woodman