Taken in the bathroom of the Epic Cafe, where my daughter hangs out in Tucson. We waited there for two days for her to visit us and while we did we met a lot of her friends and made a number of new ones as well.
She was standing in the back of the vintage store, trying to step out of her closet into the real world. She had found her style, her look but she was still tentative about stepping into the limelight, about getting attention for who she was. But she was halfway out and you can’t get all the way out without first going half way. I knew she would make it eventually.
She sold me the paper coasters in Tucson and had a trucker hat on and I asked if I could take her photo but without it on and she said she was vain but she would let me and I am glad she took the hat off because her eyes were cool.
The brilliance of the sun on her and the chair and the piercing nature of her look were so intense that not only was it hard for her to open her eyes, it was hard for me to not be blinded while taking the photo.
She was sitting across from me as I was holding down the fort waiting for our daughter while my unwife went browsing the little stores on 4th Avenue in Tucson. Turns out she was acquaintances with my daughter. I told her we were hoping her friends would watch out for her since we didn’t live in Tucson and she said she would, but was leaving to move back home to Oregon in three weeks.
She had moved to Tucson to become independent and discover new things, just develop on her own, which she had done for 6 months. But she was homesick for family and felt that the lack of structure to her life in Tucson, without the familiar obligations and connections was very hard. Her Uncle was in the hospital and she felt bad not being able to visit him.
She is a good and strong young woman, I think she will have a great life.
She was at the front desk, then in the gallery as I looked at the exhibition. We got into a long discussion about the images in the show and that led to a discussion about my work which led to me asking her if she wanted to create some art with me which led to her saying yes which led us outside to take some photos I will use in a collage and also some straight portraits, of which this is one.
Our daughter was housesitting at this gated ranch in Tucson and we waited outside after our initial conversation.
She ended up locking herself in the house and asking us to call her landlord, who came down to help out. She also called the police who came and told us (which we already knew) that she was an adult and could make her own choices, but that they would go talk to her.
They were able to talk her out of the house and she came out the same time her landlord arrived. She agreed to go get an evaluation, but only if her landlord took her, not us, and report back to us later that day. And that is what happened.
My middle daughter went missing earlier this year. We believed she was in Tucson but had no communication for about 6 months. Her younger sister went to Tucson and found her. Her mother and I (we are divorced) followed a number of days later to talk to her about some issues.
