Pastel on Strathmore

 

 

 



Circa 1985, pastel of a National Geographic cover. Since it won an honorable mention in our school's art fair, it has hung above my dad's chair or sat in my bookcase except for the last three years. For three years it has sat in storage. It was professionally framed at DeYoung's in Traverse City.

I loved the covers that year. I do no remember all of them, of course. But there were many issues pertaining to the Middle East and the desert cultures described to me by authors I loved simply because they wrote about a horse. The Black Stallion books mesmerized me. My Gramma Olive conspired with me to make sure that I finished the whole series whenever I met with opposition.

A woman wearing a serene face and playing the lute and this nomadic gent were part of my art class projects. I do not know what happened to that piece. It was not the success that this one was which is most likely the reason that I still have this. And I liked his face best anyway because he reminded me of the Bedouin from the Black Stallion and is a bit reminiscent of my cousin Patrick whom we always called "Uncle Eddie", at the time, an artist as well.

Now that I look at this again, he reminds me of Leonard Nimoy as the prophet Samuel.