Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sugar in Shreveport


Sugar
Originally uploaded by trudeau
Inspired by a van Eyck painting of Christ that I sketched in a Belgian museum this summer, I've been playing with this face and watching it morph.

The eyes seem characterful and somewhat unsettling. Clearly this is a sober and intense person. Angry? Possibly. Threatening? OK.

Partly it is a study of aging flesh. So many furrows in one face.

I think of him as a monk; one of a series. From age 14 to 18 I went to a Catholic seminary, a boarding school outside of Covington, La, in which we were ruled by monks. Order of St Benedict. Some were benevolent fellows. Many were old school-stern and even malicious.

Then why the title, Sugar? For the sake of irony, I think.

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