Bobbi snorted. “You’re taking love advice from this guy? That’s like getting directions from a fish in the desert.” Joe made a half-hearted grunt of protest. Bobbi waved him off and gave Nathan a pointed look. “Read that profile. It’s obvious she wants you there. You should go.”
“Hang on.” Joe blocked Nathan’s view of Bobbi. “Think about this. Your career is just getting started. I know you care about her—”
“I love her,” Nathan said. “I can’t lose someone else either.”
And that’s when Joe faltered. Despite the gaps that would always exist between them, this would be where they connected. The place where they’d both let something slip away and vowed to hold on tighter from now on.
Joe slapped his arm and said, “I’m proud of you,” with the weight of that promise in his voice. Nathan hugged him.
“I’m proud of you too.”
“Fuck.” Bobbi sniffed and dropped her spatula on the counter. Her eyes were damp and red. “Don’t look at me. Breakfast is ready, so just shut up and eat.”
How Rachel Thomas Mastered the Art of Scandal
By Carlos Fitzpatrick
You’ve probably never heard of Rachel Thomas. That’s perfectly fine with the woman herself. “I prefer it. The exhibit is a different experience without all the noise coloring your reaction.” The noise Thomas is referring to is a cascade of tabloid headlines and trending hashtags under her married name, Rachel Abbott. We won’t go into the details of the scandal here （a quick Google search will produce the entire sordid tale, including rumors of an upcoming tell-all memoir penned by Matt Abbott’s mistress） and Thomas doesn’t have much to say about the end of her very public marriage. “People make mistakes. Sometimes painful ones. That doesn’t mean they should be public.” But as we toured the empty office space that houses her debut photography exhibition, it was hard to ignore the optics of the building’s history as Matt Abbott’s campaign headquarters. I asked whether the location was an intentional dig at her ex. “I don’t bully people through my work. But I can’t control what someone takes away from it either. As soon as you hang art on the wall, it isn’t yours anymore. You can’t shape the emotions or assumptions it elicits. That’s pointless and dishonest.”
Thomas invited me to draw my own conclusions about her work, so here are a few reflections: The collection is stunning. And offensive. And uncomfortable. And heartbreaking. It’s confronting in the ways that good art should be. They’re primarily black-and-white pieces of an unfiltered life that she’s kept private until now. A large self-portrait of a sixteen-year-old Thomas, heavily pregnant in a messy, adolescent bedroom greets the patrons when they walk through the doors. Her affection for cigars is prominently on display in photos of her college years. Unedited photographs in both suffocating shapewear and lacy lingerie are framed and displayed next to collages of nude models in borderline pornographic positions. This isn’t the polished figure that frustrated the paparazzi with her inhuman ability to hide the smallest blemish from their cameras. This is the timeline of a life. It’s a conversation about the burden we place on the sexuality of Black women. It forces us to see Thomas, and her other subjects, as authors of their own narrative, rather than objects for lust or ridicule.
My second takeaway is that while Thomas may shy away from discussing her marriage, her affair with Nathan Vasquez, the son of recently deceased billionaire Beto Vasquez, is openly referenced in her work. In one of the few pieces that has been rendered in bright, saturated color, Thomas has created a dizzying spiral of newspaper clippings about the gala and photographs of Vasquez’s work, including the nude portrait that sparked her divorce. Up close, the piece is easy to dismiss as a chaotic collection of provocative news headlines and overexposed photos. But step back far enough, and you’ll see that the oversaturated yellows, red, and oranges are arranged into a shape and pattern mimicking sun stars. The piece is called Photosynthesis, a love letter amid a swirl of scandal that requires a change of perspective to truly comprehend.
As a journalist, I felt compelled to ask the questions that are on everyone’s mind. Yes, she has been approached by publishers about selling her story, but no, she isn’t interested in doing so. According to industry sources, the offers have been substantial. But whether Thomas is taking the high road or has signed an NDA along with her divorce settlement is, again, open for interpretation. One thing she will say is that she’s ready to move on from her public life as an Abbott. Just don’t call this a second act. “I’m not onstage anymore,” she says definitively. As with art, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.