Several years ago while sitting in Church, I was, as usual doing a quickie portrait of an old woman while listening to the speaker.  I caught sight of a rather plain, but somehow interesting woman and proceeded to draw her.  It turned out pretty cool.  A person sitting behind me was watching, and at the end of the service asked me if I would give it to the woman.  I’m truly kind of shy about people seeing my stuff in that venue, but with a little coaxing, I was talked into doing so.

The woman who modeled came to me later in the day in tears.  She was a widow.  Very lonely.  She said she literally felt invisable.  She felt like nobody noticed or cared about her, to the point where she just was not even interested in living…that was until I drew her.  She could not believe anyone noticed her, especially enough to draw her from all of the people there that day!

I can’t tell you how good that made me feel, that my talent would be an instrument in helping this sweet old woman feel better.

[singlepic id=6 w=320 h=240 float=right]WELL LAST WEEK I got that wonderful Karma back!!!

My dad has been living with us.  My mom was too frail herself to take care of him anymore, so I got to be his caregiver.  (My art for the most part has been put on hold during this time).  My dad was doing a swift slide downhill and I knew his time was limited here on this earth.  It was a wonderful time…an honor.  But sometimes it was also a sad time, especially on days he lost ability.

One day was particularly hard.  After a difficult morning, he finally fell asleep, and I went into my back yard to have a good cry. I came back in when I was done and got onto the computer onto Facebook to see what the rest of the world was up to.  I am in a group of other artists called BAYANI ARTISTS.  We upload images of our “latest” and others critique, atta-boy us, whatever.  Earlier that week right after my dad had been bathed, hair washed, and his handsome-dude shirt put on, it was 6am and the light was really nice that morning here in Prescott, so I took a pic of him.   Somehow I got him to smile the sweetest smile, and the pic was good, although a little fuzzy.   I posted a blog with the pic on Facebook saying what a handsome dude my 91 year old dad was.  Anyway, I hadn’t been online in a couple of days and unbeknownst to me, Bayani, the web guru of the artist site had done a pastel of the image I’d posted of my dad!!!   And BOY WAS IT MY DAD!!!   I can not tell you how much it made my day!!!  I think I must have been cheered up at least as much as that woman in church many years ago!   Here is the pastel.  I’ve always loved this guys’ work.  It is realistic and abstract at the same time.  I love the way his strokes follow the contour of the person’s face.  Check it out and see for yourself!