Sometimes people just show up in my life : that's one reason that I love working in one place where people know that they will find me a lot of the time. I like that : it really helps to sustain me through the long days of work that I love but are also quite fatiguing by the time you get close to the end as it was on this evening.
I love to document and preserve things to as to refer back/ go back to them at some late time.
In this case it was last night - Saturday evening on January 23rd, 2010 in Cleveland Park N.W. Washington D.C. as I scanned through some of my older pictures taken last year in 2009. I was looking for inspiration and stories to add to my blog sites. I was also looking to bring some closure to 2009 as I knew that I had many pictures and many stories that still remained to be formed and later seen/ put on this screen in a scene or scenes of sorts - as each photo in and of itself is a complete scene to be seen?!?! Yikes! Too much ' I want to scream - with joy, oh boy! Of course ... Mr. Ed is a horse of course .... remember that old t.v. series Sara? I know your mother there leaning on my office door remembers Mr. Ed the speaking horse! How timely it is that out of the hat/bag I should pull this bit of trivia Sara as my brain waves somehow were led to it by bits and pieces of words and trains of thoughts/ tangents leading from one wee connection into another one of more import and meaning ...
I have you all smiling here as you got ready to move Sara. Your whole family of friends and family came to help you and to celebrate. I am glad that you wound your way towards my store as those that come here I believe make up my larger family and I like this thought very much as I know I have told you all over the years. It was especially nice to have your mother here.
We were all gathered in the office because I was showing you my blogs and I believe that the one we were looking at here was the one of the motorcyclists all gathered in D.C. for Veteran's Day celebration ( Rolling Thunder ) recently. I was showing you some of the pictures that I had snapped before arriving at work on that recent weekend.
I think this was all inspired by your shiny navy-blue Vespa that I once saw outside the store when you showed it to Mike Martin and me. It sure was big and impressive. That was still when the other Sara was still living in Cleveland Park ...
This was a nice serendipitous time and I believe that later we went out to the tasting table and celebrated with some sparkling wine and i drew quick portrait sketches of you all that I gave to each of you after completing them. I only wish that I had taken pictures of you holding them up in front of you so that I could have a memory of them.
It's my art and my gift to both the people that I sketch as well as to preserve and capture the moment and in my own artistic way put my stamp on it. I think that most people appreciate this and I sure do enjoy doing them.
I always catch people off guard as they do not see it coming and then they have trouble understanding what I am doing and believing it as I am doing these sketches. I do not look down at the paper as I do them : I look directly at the person and do not ask them to pose for me. They talk and move and I hope are not too self-conscious as I do them. I try not to direct attention to what I am doing but people do notice and do comment even when they do not comment with words. I can see it in their expressions and gestures and I just continue to draw them all the while : no matter what.
I am looking for fluidity in the quick sketches of their heads and faces. I may do four or five within a ten-minute period - sometimes even more. It depends on my sense without looking down as to how the mood may have changed and how much ink I may have already applied.
Sometimes I want the sketches quick and easy and more of a line outline without too much detail. I want one quick impression before they move and change the position of their head and gaze. I like these a lot and always try and include some as they, too tell part of the story.
It has become my great pleasure to do these and have now done them for perhaps five years or more? I believe that I started them back with Alphonse Mellot of Sancerre, Loire Valley France. He visited the store and did an in-store wine-tasting with Laurent Givry the president of Elite imports with Cindy back in late 2005 or was it 2006? I only did one of Alphonse or was it two? I gave it to him and I understand that he now has it framed and in his office. Laurent saw this and was quite surprised. I'm glad that he shared the news with me because it does let me know that it does mean something to those that I sketch quickly.
Anyway, this was a lovely visit with Sara and Matt and the others. Cheers and Happy New Year to you all and until we meet once again and recreate this wonderful moment all over again...
Enjoy, TONY
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