Hello. You forgot to present the text to which this question refers. The text is:
(1) He’d moved close to the wall and was standing very still. (2) It took her a moment to figure out that he was examining her brushstrokes. (3) (But only artists did that. (4) Was he a closet artist, too?) (5) Finally he moved back and let out a long, incredulous breath, and it struck her that she had been holding hers as well. (6)“Tell me about your work,” he said.
(7) This was hard. (8) She had started painting two years ago, and had never talked to anyone about it. (9) Even her parents didn’t know. (10) When they came for dinner, she removed the canvases from the wall and hid them in her closet. (11) She sprayed the room with Eucalyptus Mist and lit incense sticks so they wouldn’t smell the turpentine. (12) The act of painting was the first really risky thing she had done in her life. (13) Being at the gallery, she knew how different her work was from everything in there, or in the glossy art journals. (14) Her technique was crude—she hadn’t taken classes and didn’t intend to. (15) She would probably never amount to much. (16) Still, she came back from work every evening and painted furiously. (17) She worked late into the night, light-headed with the effort to remember. (18) She stopped inviting people over. (19) She made excuses when her friends wanted her to go out. (20) She had to force herself to return their calls, and often she didn’t. (21) She ruined canvas after canvas, slashed them in frustration and threw them into the Dumpster behind the building. (22) She wept till she saw a blurry brightness, like sunspots, wherever she looked. (23) Then, miraculously, she got better. (24) Sometimes now, at 2:00 or 3:00, her back muscles tight and burning, a stillness would rise around her, warm and vaporous. (25) Held within it, she would hear, word for word, the stories her grandmother used to tell.
O They were unaware of it.
Explanation:
Right at the beginning of the text, we can see that Ruchira's interest and artistic talent was a secret for the whole family and friends. That's because the narrator shows that she didn't tell anyone, not even her parents about her interest in painting or the paintings she was doing, which will cause everyone to be surprised when they find out, as well as her husband , who was incredulous when he realized the artistic quality she had, since he never saw her painting. In short, no one was aware of Ruchira's interest in painting.
