Beatrice Wood

Beatrice Wood was an American artist, writer, and ceramicist. Before editing The Blind Man, she studied painting, acting, and dance in France, where she met the likes of Sarah Bernhardt and Isadora Duncan. Back in New York, her work was exhibited in the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917. She eventually moved to Ojai, California, to live close to the philosopher J. Krishnamurthi, and taught ceramics at his Happy Valley School. She was often referred to as ‘Mama of Dada’, which is also the title of a film about her life. At age 90, she started writing, encouraged by her friend, the French writer Anais Nin. In her best-known work, her autobiography I Shock Myself, she recalls, among other things, her involvement with New York Dada and modernism; the memoir and Wood’s life also inspired the character ‘Rose’ in James Cameron’s film Titanic.