Art for Beer

Drawing pretty girls at the Pizza Hut was a way for me to treat my friends to some beer or Coca Cola. A nice napkin and a ballpoint pen was all I needed. Well, that, and a pretty girl with her boyfriend. The girl would notice me and want to see what I was up to, then the boyfriend would offer to buy us a pitcher of Coke for the drawing, or a beer for my older friends. I, being underage, couldn't really buy the beer, so we had to work something out with the manager. I became an attraction after a while. 

Not every drawing got us a Coke or a beer. Those that didn't were stapled to the ceiling over the counter. An older gentleman took to collecting the unsold ones. He paid for our pizzas, not just our pitcher of Coke. Drawing pretty girls at the Pizza Hut was good practice for me. In New York I paid for a number of dinners that way when I was having trouble making enough to buy food. At an outdoor restaurant on the East Side I would order what I could afford and hope someone would pay for a drawing.  Again, the management and I came to an understanding. These days I do these drawings for myself and my own personal collection. 

Time Machine to an Unknown Destination

Lisa, my second cousin, brought me some irises. She has always held a special place in my heart. Listening to her talk about art and learning pottery in college made Christmas parties that much more special. There they were, brightening up my studio for a couple days, while I worked on a prairie  landscape of Illinois. They sort of stare at you in their own way, provoking memories of the irises my Mother so cherished, while planting Lisa's smile in the middle of my prairie scene.

Their presence is too much, and down comes the prairie from my easel and up goes a fresh canvas. It's how it is in my studio, when letting my heart lead the way. It's summer, but I'm back at a Christmas party listening to Lisa talk about a master potter she is about to study with and my Uncle Al talking about a 1927 Dodge he worked on in a snowstorm. 

 Painting isn't always a straight road, it's driving a time machine to an unknown destination.