Girl defending herself against love

by Beaudoin, Maria Elaine.

BEAUDOIN, MARIA ELAINE. Girl Defending Herself Against Love. (Under the direction of John Kessel.) Kali Nichols is a young woman struggling to build an art career and a prosperous life for herself in New York City. She moved to the city on an art scholarship from Winston- Salem, North Carolina. While at Hunter College, Kali tries to sell her paintings with no success. But her life changes when she enters an art competition and meets an ambitious art dealer, Bailey Sterne, who offers to represent Kali in his drive to open his own gallery one day. As Kali struggles to create a new life for herself in New York, all of her work is ruined when her alcoholic mother who comes to visit her. Kali struggles to understand her relationship with her mother and her relationships with her other family members who she believes have abandoned her. As Kali fights harder to distance herself from the past, she finds herself being drawn back into it. In the end, Kali must come to understand her own relationship with her mother to understand herself and to be truly happy.