Masked People
Long before Covid struck I was drawing masked people. It first started with beauty masks that people put on. I guess my wife must have done it a few times and I thought it looked really cool, I don’t remember for sure. But I know that ever since I’ve loved the image of a woman with a beauty mask on. Somewhere along the way I started drawing faces with patterns on them, like ‘plaid person peering’ and recognized that as another type of mask. Back in the 80s and 90s I was doing a lot of figure drawing, either in the classes I was teaching or on my own. I got bored with just drawing the figure so I started playing around with layering translucent clothing on top of the body, mostly just to see if I could develop the skill to do it. But that lead to me thinking about covering and uncovering one’s body with clothing and that led in turn to the idea of a mask on one’s face.
The first time I drew a person with an actual mask on was when I moved to Oklahoma. I got a new dentist, Dr. Laura Murcko, and we hit it off. I always bring my sketchbook to my appointments and at one point, after she had given my novacaine and we had a few minutes before it set in, I asked her if I could draw her and since she had her mask on that is how I started the drawing. I did just a quick sketch then did the rest later. I don’t know if I ever showed it to her because she moved away shortly thereafter.
I would occasionally draw someone with a mask, like my daughter when she was going to a masquerade ball, but for the most part if I drew someone with a mask, it was a made up image, at least the mask part was, like the church image. I really did draw the violinist but of course she did not have a beauty mask on at the time.
Of course then came Covid and there were people all around with masks on.