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Archive for the ‘My Drawings UTPA MFA’ Category

A humid, muggy, afternoon in the depths of September and the drawing class milled restlessly waiting for the model to arrive and start posing. Time passed, as it always does, and still no model. I approached the instructor and asked “What is the holdup?” Angel Berrios smiled faintly and replied, “The model has not come. I’m trying to decide if I should dismiss the class.”

Normally I would sigh to myself and wander back to my car but I have driven thirty miles to attend this figure drawing class. I want to draw! “How about I get my husband to pose for the class?” Now, I am not sure I can persuade Doyle to pose but desperation leads me on to say “I’ll go get him. He is reading in the car.”

Angel looks surprised, but agreeable, and off I go to the parking lot to try to cajole Doyle into modeling. He refuses, looking scandalized, but I persist telling him he can keep his shorts on and just take off his shirt. Finally he agrees, saying, “Why would the artists want to draw a seventy year old man?” “We don’t care! We don’t care if you are old. In fact, it would be interesting to have a model that is not young and buffed,” I assure him.

Away we go back to the classroom and he sits on a stool that spins and we all draw the lovely shirtless guy with the gray hair. Here are some of the drawings I have kept and enjoy looking at every so often. The variety is wonderful. We all looked at the same person. Here are the drawings.

And here is the real guy:

The Real Doyle Lavern

The Real Doyle Lavern

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The professor, Rey Santiago, introduces himself and announces (with a twinkle in his eye) “Two subjects for your prints are not allowed: ‘No FLOWERS AND No FAIRIES’.” About 30 students glance at each other with unasked questions in their eyes; no Flowers? He continues with explanations of lithography and woodcuts and kinds of paper then sends us off to buy supplies.  Returning to my studio I sit and idly begin to draw on the floor … the old paint covering the floor has left a lovely pattern … so I paint the forbidden flowers on the floor.

No Flowers Per Rey Santiago

No Flowers Per Rey Santiago

Not having painted flowers for years it becomes challenging. When I quit to let the oil paint dry I dedicate the whole exercise to Rey and take a photo of it.  Another semester begins !!

The goal for the Litho students is to produce a series of eight prints with 5 clean (CLEAN !!) prints of each image in the series.  The clean bit is the hard part … everything I touch has fresh ink on it … it is on my clothes, it is on my hands, elbows, the Rives paper I am trying to print on … not being a tidy person is definitely a handicap here.  Here are the results of three weeks of  ‘grit-your-teeth-labour’.  The title is My Feet – Your Feet .  It represents drawings of
the feet of my husband and my feet – intermingled – it is informed by our relationship of twenty years where we often sit near each other to watch TV and prop our bare feet together. Our feet have a tender relationship!

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Charcoal, September 20 - 26

Charcoal, September 20 - 26

Moving from canvas to drawing paper deleted the concerns of color.  The images are easily erased so corrections can occur … even repeated corrections as the erasures make the surface of the paper have a glow. The kneaded eraser is as important as the charcoal. These are about Line and Value. The ideal is to make a mark which perfectly expresses the item or idea you are trying to convey … like calligraphy … however!  if the line fails ERASE!
“FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD FOR NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE”  —  Janis Joplin song

Closeups:

The Cemetery

The Cemetery

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

Charcoal Drawing

The drawing on the 4 foot black paper (below) is titled ” Back to the Future” … it is about the eventual disintegration of this technology strangled culture … and we are all back to living in huts in the forest .. .a huge sunspot could return us to the forest in a minute of time.

Back to the Future

Back to the Future

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