Wednesday, February 12, 2014

[in process] "Taking the Bus to the Library to Find the New Yorker Article My Mother Left Open on Her Bedside Table When She Killed Herself"

When I was watercoloring images of my mother last fall, I was marveling at how well I was doing emotionally and how little impact it all had. 

Ha! 

Some three months later, dare I reapproach?

*tiptoes back to the rough sketches from November*

Taking the Bus to the Library to Find the New Yorker Article My Mother Left Open on Her Bedside Table When She Killed Herself:

"Looking at War: Photography’s view of devastation and death," Susan Sontag, New Yorker, December 9, 2002
[links to article, no photos]









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Well.
Ugh.
Enough of that. I do like my little walking people, but I'd better choose a lighter topic to practice comic-izing, eh? With this topic, I'm moving too slowly to get much practice.

(I'm wondering, is the war photo I sketched, one panel up, recognizable?)

By the way, that SPACESAVER thingie is the control panel to move the shelves in the storage stacks. To save space, the movable shelves are squashed up against one another. They're on tracks, though, and one separates from another when you push the "move" button.

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I was inspired to go look at these again by the sketchbook drawings of Rachel Gannon, which delight me. Here's one:

5 comments:

Zhoen said...

It's like having a time-bomb mine field, ain't it?

Bookworm said...

I love your drawings - especially your figures. Please make more! A portrait of the city? A story set in the thrift store? I want to read it whatever it is.

The war photo looks like the Falling Soldier to me.

Cool stuff. My turn to be inspired by (and mildly envious of) your artwork.

Fresca said...

ZHOEN: Yout got it!

BOOK: And you got it too---I'm so glad the sketch is recognizably the Falling Soldier!
(SPanish Civil War, by RObert Capa).

You probably know there's been controversy about whether or not Capa staged that photo?
The most interesting (to me) evidence that he did NOT is the soldier's left hand--just visible, curled, next to his thigh:

"... the fact that the fingers are somewhat curled toward the palm clearly indicates that the man’s muscles have gone limp and that he is already dead....
* * * "It is nearly impossible for any conscious person to resist the reflex impulse to brace his fall by flexing his hand strongly backward at the wrist and extending his fingers out straight."

Having recently fallen on the ice, I can attest to that! And I thank goodness I didn't break my wrist...

Fresca said...

P.S. BOOKWORM: I'm going to order some of the comic drwaing books you've recommended and start fresh.
The thrift store is a mini-drama every day---good idea!

Fresca said...

Me again.
The quote about the Falling Soldier's hand is from this article:
"Proving that Robert Capa’s “Falling Soldier” is Genuine: A Detective Story"
by Richard Whelan, 2002
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/robert-capa/in-love-and-war/47/