Drēma Drudge
Drēma Drudge suffers from Stendhal’s Syndrome, the condition in which one becomes overwhelmed in the presence of great art. She attended Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program where she learned to transform that intensity into fiction. Her debut novel, Victorine, is now available.
Twitter: @DremaDrudge
Instagram: @DremaDrudge
Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
My number one favorite comfort food is cake. Even hearing “cake” perks my ears up. For some reason, just the concept of cake being in the world makes my heart happy. I suppose because first of all, good cake is beautiful, so it’s a feast for your eyes before you taste it. And I’ve rarely had a bad piece of cake. Because it’s cake!
I do make cakes occasionally, but I prefer to buy it because it’s always so much more beautiful when you buy it at a bakery.
Yes, indeed, food does inspire my writing. I have a whole (currently unpublished) short story collection about food.
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
Maybe it’s not fair for me to answer this question, because my debut novel is about art. Victorine came about after I laid my eyes on a slide of the Manet painting Olympia for the first time and then felt I had to go see it. The next summer, my husband and I made it to Paris, and I bawled as I stood in front of it. The next few months found me knee deep in research, with my novel as a result.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?
I paint a little. While I know I could paint better if I took some classes, I also hesitate to do that. My writing is something I have focused all of my attention on for so long. I went to school for it. I read books about it. I teach it. I want painting to just be for fun. But I do wish I could paint better, so maybe I will take classes someday.
That being said, I did win first prize in a local art contest for my very first painting. It was a watercolor. But I kind of feel like that was a fluke. It was a painting from the heart, and I haven’t put that much emotion onto the canvas since, because between the writing and the painting, I felt I wasn’t keeping enough of myself for myself. (Though I write fiction, I put vast amounts of feeling into what I write. It makes me feel shy sometimes.)
If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?
This one is easy! If I were curating a show, I’d put together an exhibit of Victorine Meurent’s paintings alongside the paintings others did of her. When I first started researching her, there was only a single painting of hers known to exist. But my husband and I uncovered three other paintings as well that are barely known. Her self-portrait is on the back of my novel, the first time it’s been published. I’m thrilled to have written about her, because before this, history forgot she was a painter. If it remembered her at all, it was for being a model for famous paintings.
What piece of clothing tells the most interesting story about your life?
There’s a colorful dress/tunic I wear. I bought it when I was losing a bunch of weight a few years ago. I wore it when I regained it. I have kept it all the way through my journey because its bright gold and teal colors feel like an outward example of who I am. If I had feathers, they’d be that color. It also reminds me that I lost the excess weight once and I can do it again. (Being a writer invites a sedentary lifestyle; I have to remind myself to get up and move!) It’s a very adjustable piece of clothing that tells me that whatever my size, I am always me.
