Getting Dressed in the Dark: An Artist's Way Home

GETTING DRESSED IN THE DARK : AN ARTIST'S WAY HOME is a raw and evocative memoir that explores the complexities of love, betrayal, and the healing power of art. When Rob confesses his affair with Gabriella's young friend, shattering their decades-long bond built on radical honesty, her immediate reaction is a punch to his mouth—a moment that unravels the life they had so carefully constructed. From their youthful days spent smoking in café corners, intoxicated by conversations about art and literature, to two decades of living an unconventional artist's life in a converted 19th-century schoolhouse in rural Maine, Gabriella and Rob created a world rooted in creative exploration. Their polyamorous relationship in the second half of their marriage was just another layer in a life defined by openness and experimentation. But Rob's betrayal rips apart not only their marriage but the foundation of their shared life's work. Through the lens of this crisis, Getting Dressed in the Dark journeys through the aftermath of devastation, reflecting on the meaning of art, trust, and identity. With poetic insight, this memoir contemplates what remains when the story you believed in most collapses—and how, for an artist, the material world becomes a path back to wholeness.