“The Circle” pencil, pastel, and drybrush
2023 (nfs) When the COVID pandemic struck down hard and certain a few years ago, I was, fortunately, “stranded” (I’d just lost my own house) at a beautiful, old, mountain inn owned by friends of mine who, just prior to the pandemic, had returned to Israel for medical treatment. They were stuck there, of course (compromised immuno systems), and I found myself, having agreed to babysit the inn for three months, happily staying in that beautiful, suddenly quiet place. (with a majorly skeleton crew of three, for whatever guests slipped the quarantine nets) for eighteen months.
During that time (during which everyone seemed confused and unable to cope, over issues like toilet paper or restaurant closings), I was profoundly struck to hear from three, longtime friends (married, with more-or-less grown children) that they were simply telling their husbands and adult children that they were going back, for the duration, to take care of/guard their elderly mothers. In two of these cases, the families are, quite simply, wealthy……..but the daughters simply (only word for it) said “My mother needs me now, and I’m going.” and they all stayed (hired staff was unreliable, for various reasons) “until this is over”. And the daughters (all over sixty and due a vacation from taking care of other folks) stayed for the duration.
That impressed and heartened me a great deal. That’s Love and responsibility.
This portrait is of my since-college friend, Catherine Sullivan Oztekin.
I’ve painted her once before (go to: http://www.davidterryart.com/…/portrait-of-catherine…/). She doesn’t, of course, agree with me, but I think she’s one of those people who just grows lovelier with each passing year. She’s been married for decades and has raised two lovely daughters. I should emphasize that she’s also very funny….
Above all, she’s KIND….so, this will be present to her. She’d commissioned me for two other portraits of her family, which I’ve completed……but I can’t send them without doing this portrait of Cacky and her mother.
The only song for this (and DO listen is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7nHiBCUxu4
Carrie’s lyrics are:
“There’s a light in the kitchen, there’s a glass on the stand
Three women round the table and they’re holding hands
They’re taking care of the birthings, bringing food when they can
They’re easin’ the leavins’ and they’re holding hands
Oh, life can get tangled and jumbled sometimes
You can lose your way in this world, you can lose your mind
But there’s something in love on which I can depend
It’s the strength in women, holding hands
The night can be dark, so dark and wild
And life burns like a diamond
It’s unbearably hard
But it’s sweeter than honesty, right from the jar
Your eyes have the look of some different place
You’ve got one foot in heaven and one still in this land
So we breathe it in deep and we let it out slow
We’re holding up up while you’re letting us go
There’s a free falling feeling I’m lighter than air
And home burns like a beacon in your eyes
But somehow we get anchored somehow we get by
So, here’s to the women who bind the wounds tight
Here’s to the ones who sit talking half of the night
Here’s to the love and the lives that they mend
And here’s to the strength in women holding hands
And here’s to the strength in women holding hands
And here’s to the strength in women holding hands…“