Drawn Lines

Vickie Dodd portrait--Sound Healer

I went over to have dinner with my brother, David, in Port Townsend last Friday night. He said, "I don't like to draw, it's too hard."

I, myself, do enjoy the discipline of drawing. It's something that one must keep after, like practicing a musical instrument or a sport, like trying to have a sensate conversation with a bipolar schizophrenic person...one must stay on one's toes...and always wonder what will initiate a misstep, right off the tight rope, onto the rocks below.

I've allowed myself to get side-tracked from my series of 100 Hot Flash Women for way too long now, first paper dolls, then the fabric journal, then vacation.

David's wonderful big, big studio at Fort Wordon

 I did a little drawing when we were in Ashland, but nothing that I'd want to show.
Painting is scary for me, which is probably why I postponed resuming, but I started this painting of Vickie Dodd before I side-tracked, so it was a little easier to come back on the second or third try.

I guess the things that we Really want to be good at are the scariest. I bought Kaffe Fasset's autobiography in Ashland...I just love to read about how other artists succeed. Here's a quote from one of his teachers, "Paint as well as you can. Don't worry about your style. It will arise from the weaknesses you can't correct."
                                                                      David collects and arranges in his wonderful
                                                                      pieces...and layers and stitches...more layers of

David's approach is arranging

           mystery.

           I was eating grapefruit on Sunday morning, and 
          looked at my spoon, a small sterling one, with a
           slightly pointed tip, perfect for digging out the    
           sections. On the handle was my grandmother's
           initials: HL, on the back: May 23, '07

Grandma's silver spoon

 

The spoon is a line drawn between me
and my grandmother, over a hundred
years ago, with my ancestors' lips
touching the same silver.

The tarnish from storing the silver in the
sulphorous air of my last home is starting
to wear away in my "new" home, with use

Grandma's spoon back

and washing.

USING--objects or our talents--keeps 
them fresh and bright.


Let your self be infected by the Excitement of Possibilities--jump in and create!--Don't worry!