Light Eyes

I’ve occasionally taken photographs of people I’m drawing.  I don’t have a clear reason.  I never draw from the photographs.  I think it must be that I’ve seen something that I want to keep that isn’t about drawing.  

These are never good photographs.  But I keep them and pull them out and look at them sometimes.  I kept this particular photograph for years and then suddenly had the idea to paint out the parts I didn’t like.  

The poet Donald Justice, offering advice to poets, said keep the good parts, get rid of the bad parts.  I paint out the bad parts of photographs.

I painted the photograph I call “Light Eyes.”  It was the first time I’d done this and I was excited about the result.  I began to work on other photographs I’d saved, painting in different ways, sometimes drawing as well or collaging.  After a time, the painting I’d done on “Light Eyes” seemed less successful so I put it aside.

Recently I pulled it out and thought to try again.  I made more prints and painted them different ways and then printed them differently and painted those.  I’ve been looking at four of them for awhile and decided I didn’t need to choose.   I like the way they play off of each other so I’ve kept them together.  “Light Eyes” is my most recent book.