I realize that sitting at a keyboard in my home office writing stuff for a living is cushier than most jobs most people have to do--I've done plenty worse and I'm grateful every day--but it still has its demands. This is a busy time of year for me, when several clients' projects all come due at once. Others who haven't already lined up people like me to work for them call in desperation, and if they're friends or the project sounds interesting I try to say Yes. I've got many irons in the fire.
Which I hope serves as an explanation and apology for not blogging as much as I'd like. I love you guys, really.
Last weekend my wife went through a bin of stuff we brought home from Mom's after she passed away and haven't really looked at since. She found this sketch I did of Kid Sis's and my feet as we sat side-by-side on a couch. I was 21 and Kid Sis was...much younger...and Mom framed it and displayed it for a while before relegating it to a closet.
(Click it to see a big version)
I have a dim memory of doing the drawing. It's in pencil on cheap newsprint (I jacked up the contrast to make the details more visible on this jpg). The date on the back tells me I was visiting home the summer after my junior year of college. Kid Sis and I liked to spend time drawing together, and she still has some of those awful, awful pieces I scribbled to amuse her. Really, Kid Sis, let the Ewok drawing go, all right? It's embarrassing.
I like the Rubik's cube. I like how Kid Sis's shoes are laced differently from each other. I actually have very fond memories of the shoes I'm wearing in the drawing: possibly the best-fitting shoes I ever owned, they felt like they were molded to my feet. I wore them past disintegration.
I also like how I could count on Mom to save things that evoke memories like these years and years later. I probably would've tossed it the day I drew it.
Fine, Kid Sis, you can keep the Ewok drawing.
12 comments:
I love that drawing, Brian.
I'm sorry, but I can't seem to put my reasoning into words.
I just do. So there.
-Amanda
Cool drawing. I think I remember that table...could I have remembered that table..? Maybe it was a simiilar piece of furniture...
Ah well.
Amanda, Thanks! No reasoning necessary, I won't argue with you!
R, Who are you and why have you been stalking my family all these years, peeking into our homes and memorizing our coffee tables? Please...just...(sob)...leave us alone....
:p
I'm not crazy about the Cube and the vessel it's in and the table they're on, still trying to get perspective right back then, eh? I do like EVERYthing else about it, Kid Sis's shoelaces are great, as are her socks. Like the folds in your pants also.
Yeah, my Mom died early this year and Big Sis is sorting everything. It is amazing the stuff she kept from our childhoods'...and our kids'...and our kid's kids'.
R, you could totally remember that table...we still had it at Vista, right? Can't for the life of me remember when or why it vanished.
Bri, I clearly remember that day. :)
And yes, keeping the Ewoks. And the unicorn. And Buck Rogers. And Scarlet Witch. And...
R, I know what might help...no matter what time of year, that drawer had a Swedish Christmas toy in it...a Christmas tree with a push button thing. The tree would spin, and there was a cheap plastic Santa inside that you would try to touch while it spun. We totally used to play with that. Remember?
Ya, I totally remember that christmas tree thing! All right, good; I thought I remembered it; glad to see I'm not just imagining things! :)
I agree with Amanda that there is something indefinable that makes that drawing beyond charming.
Kid Sis, forget the Ewok, I will pay you $50 to email me a .jpg of the unicorn drawing. I would've offered $20 but it's Canadian money and I think in Hollywood Dollars $20CAD *might* buy you a latte. It just didn't feel like good bribin' money.
ronnie
God no. I'm begging you, please, no black market in my 25-year-old doodles.
I had a good high school friend in whose yearbook I drew dopey cartoons. She grew up and moved away but I still see her every few years, and everytime I do she asks me if I'm famous yet so she can sell her yearbook for big bucks. If I have any "fear of success" neurosis anywhere in my psyche, that's its source: I'm afraid that all the bad art I've spread in my wake will resurface to haunt me. Better to remain obscure, I think.
Whatever happened to the Christmas tree spinner? I hope someone has it....
I loved that Christmas tree spinner! It was so cool!
Geez, it may be in one of the Christmas bins...it deserves a place of honor. If I find it, I'll treat it accordingly :)
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