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a lady of the evening's nails

when i was a teenager, my father once joked that my freshly painted red nails made me look like a “lady of the evening” which i only realized later on meant “whore.” i imagine that any color would have offended his sensibilities, but that’s his journey!

anyway, after a few months of not loving myself enough to find the time, i painted my nails, and i painted them red.

a photo of a hand holding a card that says "wolf" and the nails are red

a photo of a hand holding a card with a wolf on it and the nails are red

i purchased that wolf card from a stationery/ephemera shop in montclair called parcel, many years ago when i lived a 10 minute walk uphill from there. i am so glad they’re still around, it is an absolutely beautiful store that, remembering them now, almost makes me miss living there.

i’m not sure what compelled me to buy that wolf card, but for the past several years it’s lived on top of this painting by my dear friend jim doran that i chose to hang upside down.

a painting where the top half is a skeleton and santan embracing each other and mirrored below them are a couple embracing each other. resting on top of the painting is the wolf card from the previous two photos

i’m the skeleton.

xoxo jenn

this was published March 21, 2021 under style art manicure beauty storytime shopping