Portrait of a Body

This book is a diary, a travelogue, and a thought exercise in the pursuit and practice of a lesbian identity. Delporte considers her own journey from compulsory and sometimes traumatic experiences with men to naming that disappointment and working to define her sexuality outside of that. She tracks her journey as a woman, as a feminist, as an artist gravitating to lesbian artists (memorably Moomin cartoonist Tove Jansson) and as a woman who celebrates her own body and aesthetic and sensual form. Wisely and quietly, her exploratory texts are bordered by soft, even dreamy, colored pencil sketches of some of the creative women she admires and their work, as well as observational drawings of curving, sloping feminine forms in nature—shells, moss, mountains, berries, and wildflowers. Delporte’s queer journey is specific to her own life, and this book feels like a meditative labyrinth rather than a memoir with sharp resolution. Perhaps the most impressive choice she makes is to situate her story within the essential context of feminist and lesbian artists who helped her see herself more clearly—both in salient quotes and visual homages.