Discover what Story Street members are working on
This week we’re featuring Story Street member Eileen O’Neill Connors.
What’s your current project?
My big project is a memoir plus titled Authentic: A Mystery and a Memoir. It chronicles nine months as assistant director of an art gallery in New York City during the 1990s, and digs into the mystery of a newly-discovered painting that I encountered at the time by the Renaissance master, Titian.
Can you tell us a little more about it?
Straight out of university, I landed a dream job at an art gallery in the heart of New York City. It was everything I wanted: a big life far away from the sheep farm, surrounded by glamor and money, with a whiff of romance and danger, and most importantly, art.
On one of our first outings together, my new boss took me on a sales visit to a potential client. While the two men discussed business, I was drawn to the only ornament in the client’s Park Avenue apartment, a life-sized painting of St. Sebastian by the Renaissance master, Titian. In a moment of unguarded wonder, I accidentally enraged the client. He put me in my place with an unsettling display of power.
Chapter One of the memoir begins on that day, and subsequently follows two timelines. The first traces the nine-month rise and fall of a smalltown girl in the big city art world.
The second timeline details my search for answers to questions–about a painting, a mysterious businessman, and a possible coup–-that lingered with me for thirty years. The memoir explores art as both sacred and profane, and how we choose to curate our lives and find our authentic paths.
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