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Aunt Tessa's current full name is Tessa Livingstone, but her former married name was Tessa Steinmetz. In the art world, she's infamously known as "T. Steinmetz".
Aunt Tessa is the aunt of Victoria 'Tori" Burns and is Tori's mother's older sister. She and her sister are described as being "different" from one another, with Tori's Mum being less ambitious and artsy than her older sister. Tori's parents sent her to live with her aunt to "calm her" and "help her stay focused".
Aunt Tessa moved to the USA years ago, so she only has just a trace of an Australian accent. She mostly sounds American. Tori didn't know much about her before living with her. Aunt Tessa had a falling-out with the family due to them not appreciating her lifestyle choices.
Initially, Aunt Tessa kept a cool distance from Tori and was quite mysterious. Tori described her as being "no barrel of laughs, with a permanent frown on her face" and as having strict rules such as "Don't make too much noise. Don't stomp around the apartment. Don't sing too loudly while doing the dishes." She also worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art painstakingly restoring antique picture frames. She worked so hard, she didn't even take off when she had the flu. At one point, she forbade Tori from entering three particular rooms at the end of a hallway in her apartment. The only companion she kept in the apartment was her pet parrot Waldo.
She also seemed rather cool towards Bagel, the dog Tori rescued from the streets, despite allowing him to stay until Tori found him a home. Eventually, she warms up to him and allows him to stay.
Later, Tori learned that Aunt Tessa was once married to a very good sculptor named Earnest Steinmetz, whose work was in museums all over the world. They lived in an artists' colony, groups of houses and studios, in Arizona, along with Henry Abrams. They were passionate about art and it was all they did. One day, her husband got into an accident that injured him badly. He only lived two years after that. They also had a dog named Fletcher that died right after him. Since then, Aunt Tessa burned her paintbrushes, moved to New York City, now living in a ritzy but rambling old Greenwich Apartment building, and bought back all of her artwork to erase her past. She closed herself off from the world.
Tori acknowledges that her aunt's will is stronger than hers, and like Tori, her aunt follows her own rules and no one else's. Tori was able to encourage her aunt to get back into art by promising to be less strong-willed, following some rules of the building, so that her aunt could be less strong-willed.
Aunt Tessa can be just like a tornado and just as passionate as her niece.
Lara was able to break her barrier by displaying good manners and an interest in the same art. In Bending the Rules, Lara was able to use Aunt Tessa's life and work as her inspiration for an Art History paper. They became good friends. Aunt Tessa was also inspired to use Nichelle Williams Watson as her model for future paintings.
Tessa is an artist and deeply loves art. Her home is decorated with beautiful works of art. Tori also describes her aunt as beautiful. She has high cheekbones, perfect skin, clear blue eyes, and white hair, normally piled loosely around her head. She usually wears exquisite silver and turquoise jewelry, like squash-bottom necklaces and long, dangly earrings, from the Southwestern United States.
Two of her paintings were kept at the Museum of Modern Art. They are of desert landscapes with sand, cactuses, and animal skulls bleaching the sun. Her style is known for a wave or ripple traveling from one end to the other. It was an Oil painting on wooden planks painted in 1968. When she decided to re-release her artwork, she held a show at the Abrams Art Gallery on Madison Avenue.
Later in the series, Aunt Tessa became closer with Tori after sharing her story and being encouraged by her niece to return to art. She even adopted Bagel into her home. In fact, Aunt Tessa is so much more loose, she allowed Tori to take her in-line skating in Central Park.
According to the online chat at Generationgirl.com, she learned emergency medicine when she worked in the Peace Corps.