Jay DeFeo was an integral part of the historic beat scene in San Francisco at a magical time when rent was cheap, the art scene was hopping, and parties were plentiful.

In the late 1950's, her place on Fillmore Street was filled with a rotating cast of art world players - including other badass female painters Joan Brown and Sonia Gechtoff. The building became known as “Painterland." It was in her studio at 2322 Fillmore that DeFeo spent eight years working on her magnus opus, The Rose.

She herself rose to stardom quickly when she was in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with the likes of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly. Success aside, when the landlord raised the rent from $65 month to $400 month (let's all cry over current rent prices for a second), it was time to move.  DeFeo was burned out after spending so much time on one painting. Emotionally and physically worn out, DeFeo took a three-year hiatus from painting and moved to Marin County. The toxic fumes from the turpentine she used, as well as excessive exposure to lead in the paint had made her sick. Non-stop smoking also didn’t help.

When she started working again (this time employing non-toxic materials) she used photography, collage, and acrylic paint. Her subject matte included the cast from her dog R. Mutt’s broken leg, a dying pigeon that R. Mutt had maimed, and her false teeth she needed from having lost hers to lead poisoning. Alas, she died of lung cancer at the age of 60.