I think that my writing and painting share a process. With my paintings there is always an ugly, awkward stage where I am unsure about what to do next. The painting does not look like the image I had for it when I began. There is also the fear of overpainting and ruining something that was good. The best solution is to set the painting aside and give it time to “show” me where it wants to go. With fresh eyes, sometimes that means I paint over the whole thing and start again; sometimes a small tweak is all that was needed. The creative process is mysterious and unpredictable. See a character sketch below that has been through many of steps above. Ready for framing or back to the proverbial drawing board?
Our favorite place on the island was the small fair on Breezy Street near the pier. I guess maybe it should have had a name, but the sign just read “FAIR” in big red, white and blue letters. The reason we loved the fair so much was because of the man who lived there. His name was Early, and he lived in a shed at the back of the fair. Mama said he was special and said he was born too early and that’s how he got his name. He wore thick eyeglasses and one of the lenses was clouded. He wore three watches on his left arm. One day I asked him about the watches, and he said there was one for today, one for yesterday and one for tomorrow. He wore a wig that made of the kind of shiny yellow hair like my dolls had. Early had the biggest ears I had ever seen. They hung so low they could kind of swing. He let me touch them and they were soft like my grandmother’s powdery cheeks.
Early knew the name of every child who came to the island in the summer. He was different from any other grownup and we adored him. The fair had a small Ferris wheel, a pool with 3 boats for the really little kids and a pony to ride. The pony’s name was Sallie and she lived with Early behind the fair. Every day one of us at the fair got picked to brush Sallie after he showed us how to carefully brush her. That was the best day of the whole summer. She had a blanket for a saddle and a rope for a bridle and if it was your birthday, Early would let you feed carrots to Sallie. If you didn’t have a birthday over the summer, Early would pick you and say it was Sallie’s birthday and you could feed her the carrots. I thought ponies must have had lots of birthdays.