Blue Collection #9: warrior/the inside doesn’t always match the outside

Graphite and white charcoal on toned paper
Unframed
Drawing size: 12″ x 18″

When I first made this drawing, I wrote the following about it in a long ago newsletter to this list:

She sat on my model stand with pride, her chin raised, a slight smile on her lips. She had a zest for life, a curiosity and playfulness. She was proud and noble, shoulders back, reclined against a footstool.

She wore a piece of Icelandic rock around her neck in a small jar, a reminder of her lineage, and had a Viking tattoo of Odin on his 8-legged horse on her shoulder. She was fierce, in her own way, and fiercely proud. A pint-sized spitfire, with the Norse gods on her side.

I didn’t erase her wrinkles, or where the skin sagged a little; places where her age showed through. To erase those signs is to erase something essential about her. It is to deny her the battles and wars she fought and won.

$500