Shirley A. Mason

This painting was entitled “Blue is the Color of Love” when printed in the book “Sybil” by Flora Schreiber, however written on the back of the original painting is “Aquatic Forms #1, Shirley A. Mason”. This writing, along with the signature on the front of the painting was covered by tape. It is thought that Ms. Mason did this on order to conceal her identity. By doing this, she not only covered her signature, but also the original title of the painting.

This light and airy work is the view of New York’s Central Park from Dr. Wilbur’s office window on the 32nd floor of Rockefeller Center, and was probably completed sometime near the end of Mr. Mason’s psychotherapy, which concluded in 1965.

This stark, unsigned piece was probably completed before Ms. Mason began her psychotherapy in 1954. The images possibly suggest parental figures closing in on the unprotected child. The suggestion of an island conveys a sense of no possible escape while the foreboding cloud closes in from above. Isolation within a threatening world is recurrent in the early works of Ms. Mason and the alternative selves.

Possibly drawn during the time Ms. Mason was a student at Mankato State University in the 1940’s. While probably inspired by an actual classroom setting, it is eerily reminiscent the kitchen in Ms. Mason’s home which was the location of much of the horrific abuse suffered at her mother’s hand as a child. Note the prominence of the naked light bulb, unlikely in a classroom, which was one of the many objects used in attacks on Ms. Mason by her mother.

This dreamlike work of masked dancers is unsigned and the date of the work is unknown. The artist, presumably on the alternate selves entitled the piece “Street Corner”, in black pen on the back of the original. Note the figures have no mouths or hands.

This unique work was produced by the hand carving of a woodblock, which meant that the carving was done in the reverse image. The image conveys a familiar theme of an unsafe world and isolation as a means of protection. Mike, one of Ms. Mason’s alternate selves, who was a woodworker and one of two male alternates, probably did the carving, with the “M” in corner as his signature.