Thursday, September 8, 2011

Sketched faces



I completed sketching faces in the little book I made from Home Depot paint sample brochures.  Some faces were drawn from magazine photos, many from illustrator Lisa Berning's faces, most were sketched upside down or with my non dominant hand. 



This exercise stretched me and resulted in erasing insecurities of drawing a face.  



I like to imagine what is behind a face, who is there, what thoughts might inhabit their world.




Now,  I will never be famous for my faces but I do enjoy drawing them and will continue.   Speaking of famous, I thought you would like to read one of my favorite poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

Famous

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth 
before anybody said so.

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom 
is famous to your bosom.

The boat is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it would do.

from Words Under the Words

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