Oculus Sinister. 8"x10" archival ink on 11"x14" Bristol board. Do you see what I see? Do you see little Heironymus who went to the grove of the sleeping gentle giant with his sister Annabella and their pet pig, Actinidia; their pet lagomorph, Snowflake and that newt he keeps close by? Oh don't forget his pet mouse Marganella. There are bees buzzing and butterflies hibernating. Far away, U.P. BLISS Bldg. 20 and 21 burn down. Oh that tall skinny guy, that's Edward. He is the anticlimax of the short and pudgy portraits of The Lesser-Known Dumptys I drew recently.
Sight
Last week I had surgery on both eyes. It was done to enable me to make more tears, as if my sorrow is not enough to induce them naturally. I was at the eye center for five hours. My husband was with me. He patiently waited with me while I entertained myself by drawing Yum Nam Poole. By the time my visit was over, I was blinded by headache and hunger. My eyes were very sensitive to light and I spent the afternoon in bed nursing a migraine headache.
I was seventeen years old when I assisted on the only enucleation surgery I ever had the chance to scrub. They don't happen very often. After all, how often do people get their eyeballs surgically removed? It was performed on the brother of an elementary school classmate of mine. It's a small world, you know, he now lives in the same city as I do. My sister's elementary and high school classmate who also lives here, is his best friend and he gave me my former patient's number last year. I did not call.
Our eyesight is one of those things we seem to take for granted or not consciously remember until it is disturbed or altered. We remember and focus on our weight more often than we do on the health of our eyes. I had photographs taken of my optic nerve. I tried to draw it above, if you can recognize it.
I used to be the life of the party. These days, for the life of me, I cannot make myself attend parties enthusiastically. I'd rather read or draw at home. Heck, I would even prefer to clean house. I do not have very many close friends. I like it that way. I have my sisters, a handful of very close friends and fewer still, intimate friends with whom I confide. We share a lot of things, mostly our philosophy and values, admiration, love and respect; however, sometimes we don't see eye to eye, and that's quite alright.
The above drawing was inspired by this 2008 drawing.
