Human Being
Well hello human being! I had fully expected to share my latest still life painting with you this week. It’s ready to go and fresh off the easel. And, then the Christian Cooper, avid bird watcher incident happened. You can click on the link in the previous sentence to get the skinny if you happened to miss this story. Before I elaborate further on this particular issue, I’ll share a reminder.
Reminder
Each week since January, I have been sharing a painting and sometimes a drawing. I call this weekly adventure “Favorite Things” and it has been a delightful adventure. I have learned so much about the discipline of working alone in a studio. But, I also have learned that unexpected events such as pandemics and irrational , even racist, people impact all of us. So, this week, my “Favorite Thing” to share is one of my favorite figurative paintings from my last year at art school. You may wonder why I share this painting now. It’s about the people, people!
People
As Barbara Streisand sings in her beautiful song from the musical “Funny Girl,” “People who need people. Are the luckiest people in the world.” Guess what? It seems we all need each other right now. And, yet, there is so much behavior from people indicating otherwise and worse.
It blows my mind that at a time when we are all experiencing an incredible upheaval in our lives, we aren’t looking for ways to reach out and connect with each other. Maybe it’s because we’re experiencing such upheaval that it’s harder to connect.
Different connection
Just a thought but what if we all realized what connects us instead of more divisive aspects. Like what? Well, check out the painting of the mighty model Dan. He’s just like you and me. He is made up of flesh and blood. And, if you look to the left of his gaze, you can see some sketches in paint. Guess what those sketches are? They’re painting tips from an instructor. He painted the shape of the back and shoulder blades at the top left. Then he painted the structure of the hips and pelvis. And then he showed how the hips connect to the legs. These were all intended to help me as I painted Dan.
But I think these drawings might help all of us to see our connections as human beings, too. We all have shoulder blades. We all have hips and a pelvis. And, if we’re lucky, our hips connect to our legs. I realize this is highly idealistic. But it seems we have to start somewhere?
Pervasive Problem
And, the problem that Christian Cooper had in New York City is not unique. Nor is it limited to big urban cities. Recently, a neighbor blogged about her harrowing experience on a morning walk right here in Raleigh. Can you believe it? She was out on a walk and got harassed to such a degree, she feared for her own safety. You can read her account of it here.
But please know, dear reader, that I am not here to paint (ha ha) a dreary picture of the human condition. I am asking you to consider some unique ideas.
New Ideas
What if we could all see each other as flesh and blood first. Really? Really! At least we start with common ground right? In fact, I wonder if we grew up with paintings of nude figures in our homes, if we would start to think differently. What if we observed all bodies as common ground, a starting place?
What if we could see flesh and blood whenever we meet someone? Wait…do I mean see everyone this way? Yes, I do. OK OK I know you, like me, may have some days when you avoid looking in the mirror. Maybe you’re feeling a bit overweight or bloated aka the Pandemic Paunch? Or maybe you, like me, were so skinny as a kid, you got told if you stood sideways and stuck out your tongue, you’d look like a zipper.
Well, guess what? It’s your body and it’s what you and I have for the duration, right? Gotta love it then? Yup, it seems worthwhile. But mostly I share a wish that no matter what your skin color is, you navigate this challenging time with more connections than divisiveness…more safety than danger…more humanity than cruelty. Thank you for reading and take care there, human being!
2 Comments
Beth Dyer Clary
May 29, 2020Okay, so this week’s post makes me want to ask you if you can make your images any larger in these posts? I want to really see them and all the details. Maybe it’s just me but I can’t seem to get a bigger or zoomed in image.
This was a great post to read, Julie. Very inspiring. As you know, I like to study your painting or drawing and write a response. Here’s this weeks. Oh these are never complete. Just the start. Who knows if I’ll finish these but they’re like you sketching I suspect – good warm-ups and exercises for my writing!
When Carlene walked into her figure painting class she about turned around and left. She had just left from breakfast with her friend Karen and was so mad she wondered if it was worth coming today. And who were they painting today? Of course, a black man.
“Come on Carlene,” the moderator spoke, “get yourself set up. We start in ten minutes.” The moderator was also her art mentor, Kyle. She loved his work. She thought she might love him. But she’d decided that was such a cliché she should get over it. “You okay? You look a little pale,” he asked, putting his hand gently on her arm.
Carlene laughed. “That’s perfect. I look pale.” She looked at Kyle and steeled herself against his deep brown eyes. “I’m fine. Thanks. Just furious with the news of the day.” She moved past Kyle and went to the space where she set up her easel, canvas and paints.
“Oh, Carlene, I forgot to introduce you to our model today, Dan.”
The nude man walked toward me with his hand out and said, “Hi, nice to meet you.”
I shook his hand and thought of the man in Central Park who was just watching birds when that crazy white woman accused him of attacking her. I wanted to ask Dan what he thought about that incident. Kyle interrupted my thoughts.
“So, Dan, can you turn away from the group today, please? I want them to work on proportions of the torso. Thanks.”
“You want me to do something in particular with my hands?”
Dan had a sonorous voice. If he wanted to talk, Carlene would love to listen to him. She wondered if he was a singer. Or an actor, like so many of their models were.
“Okay everyone, take a deep breath. Get centered and we’ll begin in one minute.”
The thing that made Carlene even more apoplectic was Karen saying she’d probably react the same way to meeting a man, any man, in the Bramble.
“The woman had a dog,” I said to her.
Karen had shrugged and said, “He had dog treats.”
“And so?” I pushed my half-eaten omelet away from me.
“Maybe we should talk about something else. How’s painting going?”
Maybe, Carlene thought as she dabbed paints to blend colors, I should stop being friends with Karen. She dabbed the paint on the canvas here and there trying to get just the right shade to represent Dan’s skin tone. She shifted around trying to get the light on his torso in a way she actually thought she could paint. This painting of figures was harder than anything Carlene had ever done. She both loved it and hated it. But she knew she would not accomplish much at all if she couldn’t calm herself and concentrate.
She twisted from side to side trying to get rid of the tension in her body. Her paint was too orange. She took her favorite color, a blue called ???, and painted over what she had begun. Then she pulled over a chair that was up against the wall behind her and sat down, crossed her arms and just stared at Dan’s back.
Carlene wondered what the world would be like if no one wore clothes. She’d thought about that a lot since she started figure painting. People looked much more vulnerable nude. All their soft spots were exposed. Even a muscular back, like Dan’s, showed shadowy soft spots, places where a tender touch mattered more than anything firm or hard.
“Hey Carlene,” Kyle was standing next to her, “ what’s going on?”
She looked up at him. For some time now, she’d thought about what he would look like nude. She’d wanted to learn the lines and curves, the edges and soft spots of his body. She knew he was not muscular but more lithe. She’d always been more attracted to big muscular men: Kyle was not really her type.
“Carlene?”
She stood up. “Just wanted to study Dan’s torso for awhile.”
Kyle smiled and said, “You know what I’m going to say to that don’t you?”
God she almost hated him and his steady soft voice. She wanted to yell her answer. “YOU WANT ME TO FUCKING STUDY THE TORSO BY PAINTING IT!” But she didn’t. Instead she let out an audible sigh and just nodded.
“Let the brush draw you into the subject. Don’t worry about the color right now,” he said pointing to her dabs and marks here and there are the canvas where she tried to make the right blend. “This is about understanding this figure. This body’s unique features. It’s not a color study.”
Her head might just explode. Here she was reflecting on how humanity’s bodies hold all that make us individuals while also teaching us we’re all the same: bones, muscles, tendons, skin, hair. She was feeling good about humans and all they had in common and Kyle had to come and interrupt that.
Julie Holmes
May 29, 2020Hi Beth,
Thank you for asking about the image size! I definitely scaled the image back to make it lithe (like Kye’s body – ha!). Since we live in a time when websites and their images need to load as quickly as possible…and …typically …on people’s phones, I definitely scaled the image down. So, if you would like to see a larger version, let me know and I can send it to you!
Your ekphrastic interpretation of this painting is timely and relevant. Goodness though Carlene has so much going on in her head! I can see why that might interfere with her ability to paint, yes? Fact is, I guess we all are trying to figure out how to balance being “in touch” with all that’s happening right now and stay calm and get things done. Thanks for sharing!