I was watching this video tonight (or this morning - insomnia is back) of a Li-Young Lee reading at Cal some years ago, and the man who introduces the poet absolutely nails the description of Lee’s writing.  Completely and utterly and totally and all those awful adverbs.

But it made me realize that it was exactly the answer I’ve always struggled to produce when people ask me why I love Mary Cassatt so much. 

“And it was unsentimental.  It was awake and unsentimental, and why it was unsentimental wasn’t clear to me.  …Family intimacy is the most difficult subject, in some way, it moves us so deeply, and yet it surrounds…it doesn’t prove anything, you know?”

Cassatt paints family in ways that is almost unapproachably (not a word, eh?  come on, English, work with me…) honest.  It’s untouchable because it is the absolute truth, without sugarcoating the extremes of emotions.  It’s sort of like writing a thank-you card, and you realize that what you truly want to say is “thank you for your love and support,” despite it being the most cliched thing you can possibly put to paper.  It’s honest and raw and you can avoid over-sentimentalizing it in other ways.

Unsentimental.  Yes, I think this is it.