A Sketchy Family History

 

          Pop never showed much of a penchant for drawing, but he had one trick that always amused us. Starting with a rather hourglass figure, he would add horns, eyes, and nostrils to make a cow’s head. In later years he returned to sketching to amuse his grandbabies, and here is a page that includes some early scratchings by the girls as he would let them try drawing themselves.

          Now Mom had much more of a history of drawing and would amaze us by producing realistic pictures. I remember a head of Kenny she drew soon after he was born. We also have an old spiral notebook with some drawings, including some very obviously Fifties-type ladies. I wish I had made scans of them while my copier was still working. The only picture I have from her in the computer archives is this sketch she did of John’s boxer, Millie.

          I don’t know how much influence Nanny had on Mom while she was growing up, but she did paint quite a bit in later years. We had some of her works hanging in Loop Drive for years: a moose walking through a river, a desert road surrounded by cacti stretching back towards blue mountains, a plane on pontoons landing on a lake. I joke that, just like Hitler, she did not use human figures very much. She was pretty good with flowers though, and they were most of her paintings. After Nanny passed, we found one enigmatic canvas by her of a disembodied hand floating in space, clutching a rose. It seems oddly occult.

          Now Mike never drew a whole lot, but when he did it had a strange, savage power. I remember a very early drawing by him of Omi, shown from the side, of her with a cigarette clamped between open teeth. He made rather devastating caricatures of us all, and this sketch by him of Mom, while rather stark, shows a strange talent for capturing a facet of reality.

          When it comes to me, I never did buckle down to drawing until middle school. I was pushed on by wanting to express something my reading, especially of Tolkien, and a couple of basic art classes. I can’t say I ever mastered proportion or a degree of realism (I was mainly dabbling and doodling), but I made up for that with frittering detail that made it look like I was really doing something. Here is my portrait of Mom, made with the help of a projector, and a self-portrait made using a mirror.

Now John, I say, is a real artist, drawing constantly since he was in grade school. His chosen mode of expression was the comic strip, which takes both drawing and writing. We have several epics by him scanned into the Archives. He also did most applying himself to his art, studying several books by famous animators and making constant experiments. Here is his portrait of Mom, and his impression of us boys as kids.

Kenny, I know, does some drawing, and I have a couple of examples of his work in the Archives, but not scanned. I think his style is somehow reminiscent of Mom’s. Most of his expression in Art is in the acting arts, of course.

Now coming to the next generation, we have John’s girl Morgandy, who just seems to be going from strength to strength. Perhaps it is not surprising, given John’s example, and his encouragement and support, something we never quite had from our parents. We had the occasional praise; they just never dreamed it would come to anything. Morgandy is learning very well how to use computer methods, a resource that we, as kids, never could never have imagined having. I think that in some ways she is the culmination of a generational dream. I can just imagine how pleased Mom would be. Here is one of her latest works.