When I was a teenager, I had friends that would disappear every summer heading south to Jamaica to visit with family. At the end of the summer, just before school, they would come back with tales of fun and adventure. Who wouldn't be jealous? This went on for several years. I never had the experiences they did, but, I did have the stories they told. Though, over the years, the memories of the stories they told me of their summer trips have melded into each other, I've managed to hold on to what I considered to be the spirit of what they shared with me. Teenage boys that we were, it shouldn't be much of a surprise where our focus was centered. So, such were the memories that stuck with us over the years; that stuck with me over the years. Memories of where they'd been who they'd met and what they'd experienced, memories they'd shared with me.
Every now and again I wax a little nostalgic and I remember the things I shared with friends when I was young. That includes the stories they told about their trips to Jamaica. And, even though I don't remember the details of their stories, I do remember the fun they had telling me and the fun I had hearing them. One day, during one of my "nostalgic" moments, I found some images that reminded me of the stories my friends told me. So, I used those images to help me record in graphite the daydream that my friends' stories inspired. This drawing was an exercise in shade and highlight. From the shade of her skin to the highlights of her dark curly hair, from the shade of the folds and furrows in the leaves to the highlights between the same, topped off with the shades and shadows of the leaves in the background bleeding sunlight between them. All enclosed in a circle of chrome, decorated like a wind chime.
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