portraiture

posted by laurabecker
but, last night’s activity wasn’t MY opening to TBA.
my opening occurred around 3pm yesterday when i went downstairs to get the mail at work (in the w+k building) and discovered a girl sitting at a computer talking to the screen and laughing.
she finished what she was doing, took a drawing she had created and thumb tacked it to the wall, and i sat down and took her place.
“hey” the girl on the computer screen said.
“hey” i replied
and then she drew my portrait. from her desk in her studio in oakland, ca. and we chatted as i tried not to move and i loved it.
she sent my portrait through her fax machine, where it went to pica’s offices, and then she said “how do you want me?”
“what?” i replied
“how do you want me for your portrait of me” she repeated.
“uh, what?”
“see the paper and pencils there – now it’s your turn, you have to draw me”
“OOhhh I see. cool” except not really cool since I can’t draw at all, but that’s not the point, obviously. I loved it. there I was doing what she had just done – looking at her, looking down, shading, shaping, erasing, drawing again. i wasn’t even that disappointed with the results. i gave her a quick peek at my attempt and she laughed and seemed to like it. then i thumb tacked it to the wall and went upstairs to open the mail.
that was it, no huge epiphany or big bang, just two girls drawing each other from two different states.
so, even though i totally planned on the big bang opening, things just don’t always turn out how you expect. and that’s what makes it better.