The high school students I worked with in the Roll Models project in 2006 walked over to MECA from Portland High School on Wednesday afternoons from October to May. Typically one would sit for a portrait, while the others would head into the printshop to work on their etchings under the supervision and guidance of a few of the other print majors. One afternoon, though, they decided that they wanted me to do a group portrait of them with my left hand! Agh! I had never worked this large before, never mind with my left hand, but I agreed. I ran down to the Art Mart and bought a big sheet of paper off the roll and tacked it to the wall in the print majors' hallway. The kids arranged themselves with pillows and chairs (Emily was not there that day) and stared at me - except Alice - she read the whole time. They said that it was very entertaining "better than TV" watching the drawing evolve before their eyes. For me it was physically demanding! My arm hurt, but I was determined to keep using my left hand. At one point, I picked up a mop that was sitting in a dirty pail of water nearby and used that to put a big wash in the background!! If you look up close on this drawing you can see the dirt traces. (Hey, it worked!) The whole drawing is kind of wonky looking but I'm very fond of it. In the last image posted here I played around in photoshop with levels and color balance to try to make it look like I'm part of the drawing...
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