The First of Many | Painted From Memory

The only thing I ask of you all is please do not laugh and point at me.  I am a serious artist, and I realize that this is a step outside of the box.  This is not digital art, nor a car portrait, a dog, a cat, a bird, a flower or a still life.  This is a re-creation of the first thing I ever remember drawing.  

I was four years old when I drew the original picture.  I know I was four years old because I remember showing it to my mother when we lived in our house in East Atlanta.  We moved from East Atlanta to Gresham Park in December of 1959 when I was four.  Four and a half in kid years, to be exact.  The original was done on paper in crayon, I’m sure.  This re-creation is acrylic on canvas.  I’m also fairly certain that the worm wasn’t in the original, and I think that the leaf rotors may have been turning.  I do remember that the reflection on the apple was there, made to look like a window.  I also remember that when I showed it to Momma, her daughter said to me, “There’s no such thing as an apple helicopter.”  Momma shushed her, thus quashing my first negative critique.

At the behest of the CEO of Still Cruisin’ Automotive Portraits and AquaHue Artworks, I have been… well, “urged” to post this painting and to write about it.  Not wanting to get fired or be subjected to “positive counseling,” I have complied.

I have been told that I have a very good memory.  That may be true, but a friend of mine said last week that she went upstairs to get her shoes, rearranged the bookshelf and then came back down without the shoes.  That is the story of my life.  I can remember what I wore to school on April 14, 1971, I just can’t remember where I put my car keys five minutes ago.  Or what day it is.  Or why I walked into a room.  But I do remember drawing this picture as a kid.  Jackie once asked me if I remembered my trip down the birth canal.  I told her that I actually did, and that it was kind of like one of those water slides at Lake Lanier Islands where you go down the tube before flying out and landing in a pool of water. 

I had memory issues as a child as well.  I could memorize and recite entire Bill Cosby albums verbatim.  But I couldn’t remember my homework.  My mother used to ask me how I could remember Bill Cosby but couldn’t remember my math homework.  Well, math wasn’t funny.  You couldn’t make the entire class laugh by standing at the blackboard doing mathematical equations…

Kidding aside, I realize that I am blessed with a very good memory.  I am thankful that I am able to remember a number of the details about growing up in Gresham Park, and that I am able to share those memories with those who were there with me in that wonderful place and time.  I used to get in trouble a lot in school for, among other things, drawing in class.  There were really not that many creative outlets in grammar school at that time.  We went to art class once a week.  Same with music class.  Same with the trip to the library.  My imagination would take over and WWII fighter planes, ships, super heroes, motorcycles and dragsters were much more interesting to me than long division.  To this day I really can’t do long division.  Thank goodness for calculators.

My friend, Butch, and I drew comic strips all the time in grammar school.  He did “The How Come Dept.” and I did “Grin and Laugh At It.”  Butch was apparently able to channel his attention span, however.  He made all A’s, graduated from Georgia Tech and became an architect.  I kicked around before landing at DeKalb Technical College and earning a diploma in Commercial Art.  While I was at DeKalb Tech, one of the required classes was Business Math.  It was practical math and we were allowed to use a calculator.  I made an A in the class.  I remember getting the report cards in the mail and running down the driveway yelling, “Momma!  Momma!  I got an A in math!  I got an A in math!!!!”  I had never gotten anything above a C in math my entire life.  Momma cried.  I went out and had a pitcher of dark beer to celebrate.

In the tenth grade I took Geometry, for some reason.  Try as I might, I just could not grasp it.  I think the teacher, Miss Jackson, gave me a D out of the goodness of her heart.  Which is funny, because I use geometry all the time now in my day job and in my art.  But it is applied geometry, not abstract geometry with theorems, isosceles triangles, negative reciprocals and other such jabberwocky. 

After graduating DeKalb Tech, I went to work for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, then got into Macintosh computers and graphic design.  I learned Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Quark XPress, all the programs.  I became obsessed with the computer and quit conventional drawing and painting altogether for about fifteen years, concentrating instead on digital art and design.  However, I never really forgot about the pencils and the brushes.  Art was always such a big part of my life.  I suppose that’s why The Good Lord put me on the planet.   I started painting again in 2006 and will continue to do so for the remainder of my trips around the sun.  Often times, painting from inspiration.  Other times, painting from imagination.  And sometimes… painting from memory!  Still Cruisin’! –J.