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But there's quite a variety of styles, and I'm glad to learn more about an artist who would otherwise be a complete unknown were it not for that poorly paid tarot card work. The photo of her at Wikipedia shows her to have a charming, playful and maybe even mischievous smile, and I gave her features a quick try:
Saturday, March 7, 2009
"Going 'Farr'"
11:31pm
There's lots of activities going on in Yuma this weekend. There's an antique car show, a gun show and a Native dance festival. Alas, Julia and I do not feel much like festivating. We did run some errands this morning, ending with a feast at Mi Rancho. I was craving salsa and chips and shrimp fajitas and I have leftovers to enjoy later.
After perusing the latest KMT magazine, or more precisely, inbetween, I napped on the sofa, with a blanket over me. The light and air coming through the open window and door was refreshing, too.
After a couple of chocolate cake donuts (yes, one of the errands was a bakery trip), I felt revived. I felt adventuresome enough to tackle a drawing. I'd saved this tiny photo of Florence Farr:
Wiki photo, "No higher resolution available."
From Wiki:
"Florence Beatrice Emery (née) Farr (7 July 1860—-29 April 1917) was a British West End leading actress, composer and director. She was also a women's rights activist, journalist, educator, singer, novelist, leader of a secret occult order, and one time mistress of playwright George Bernard Shaw.[1] She was a friend and collaborator with Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats, poet Ezra Pound, playwright Oscar Wilde, artists Aubrey Beardsley and Pamela Colman Smith, Masonic scholar Arthur Edward Waite, theatrical producer Annie Horniman, and many other literati of London's Fin de siècle era, and even by their standards she was "the bohemian's bohemian".[2] Though not as well-known as some of her contemporaries and successors, Farr was a "First Wave" Feminist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; she publicly advocated for suffrage, workplace equality, and equal protection under the law for women, writing a book and many articles in intellectual journals on the rights of "the modern woman"."
That's a lot of accomplishments in her relatively short fifty six years!
For the psaltery, I used two photos from Iowa State University Department of Music
Sunday, March 8, 2009 A
"Coming 'Close'"
6:33am
When I draw the face of someone long dead, of which there are only a few tiny fuzzy pictures, a great deal of imagination
goes into the drawing. Did Florence Farr look anything like I've depicted her? As she died in 1917, most of those who were alive in her day are now dead and those few who aren't were very wee children. No one's going to come to me and tell me, "She didn't look like that! You got her chin all wrong!" I may have gotten her chin wrong, but none of her friends will tell me just how wrong.
Similarily, when I attempt the face of someone more current to our times, who is famous, there is some distance there as
well.
Paul Newman
How close is my attempt to Paul's actual appearance? Those who knew him best, who were in his physical presence, will likely not challenge me. Most of us have only access to his movies and photos of him captured by the media, which cannot capture Paul's totality.
But it is different when drawing someone one knows. Any breach from their real appearance seems a personal offense. Over
twenty years ago, I attempted a quick sketch of our late Laura. In those rushing lines, I caught a bit of her more
'masculine' characteristics. She was not pleased at all, she even was angry, and it was several years before I dared another attempt. I don't think I drew _anything_ for a few years afterwards.
Later, Laura tried to encourage my artistic efforts, and I began drawing again.
It takes courage to create, as many creators have expressed. How many people with potential simply never try, never challenge the fear of failure? That fear can paralyze us if we allow it. Perhaps it is only when we balance possible failure of attempt with guaranteed failure if nothing is attempted that we can spring beyond enertia.
Does this drawing look like the people holding it?
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