Base

So the story of this drawing is this:

I made it in college—charcoal on paper. I was quite pleased with it. It was the first day of my Drawing II class, senior year. My professor asked us to write “Base” on the corner so that we would know all semester that this was the drawing we started with, one to compare others to. The thing was, I ended up liking this one best out of all the ones I did all semester.

One year while working at the Met, I entered it into the employee art show, which was very cool because the museum reserved for a month whole galleries for us that would be closed to the public. So my drawing hung on a wall where (I remember specifically) Vermeers had previously hung. With that osmotic imprint, I was quite pleased to give the framed drawing to my father as a gift.

My father promptly forgot I had ever given it to him.

Over the years, I have asked him if he ever found it, you know, that drawing that hung at the Met? Never did find it or remember receiving it. But I’m pleased to say that that was the last Bad Thing I recall my father doing. At least one that I am still bitter about.

 


Before it hung at the Met, the drawing hung in my downtown apartment. That is an ex off to the right, and a Berenice Abbott print to the left.