This week I continue the church drawings, but these were all done in my bible. The
bible had sayings here and there, fit in between the scripture. I would drawing over
those sayings, or on the blank, end of chapter pages.
This one was of a teenager in church and I imagined what she was thinking while the
pastor droned on about things she really didn’t care about.
Asbury United Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK
Back in 1982 my wife and I had returned to San Jose after a year in Michigan. We
basically were broke so we had to live with her parents while we got back on our feet.
We lived in the five bedroom house my wife had grown up in. My father in law and the
family in general did everything themselves; cars, roofs, water heaters, wiring,
etc. It didn’t matter what it was, if it could be done without having a pro do it, it
was done.
My brother in law was working on putting in a new shake shingle roof when I went up
onto the roof to document it for my father in law. I spied the pool next door and my
original thought was how nice it would be to cool off in it. While I was up there
the neighbor’s daughter came out and jumped in the pool, quickly got out and laid
down to sunbath. All of a sudden a completely cool image came into my view finder.
A hard at work roofer, all business (which he was, he was completely oblivious to the
woman swimming and sunbathing) and the woman, completely absorbed in her pleasure
activity. Snap away I did until I got this composition out of it. It is one of my
favorite photos from the beginning of my photography work.
They came to me when I stopped at the convenience store, asking if I wanted to have my
car windows washed in exchange for a donation to their cheerleading fund to send them
to the national championships. They are from my daughters’ high school (they all
graduated a few years back) and they are currently state champs so I was more than
willing to help them out…IF they would also let me take their photos.
My wife and I chaperoned about 40 teenagers to Disney World in 2007. We went for a ‘Singabration’ (I started calling the participants ‘singabrats’ haha). The week was filled with images and memories and stimulation. Watching the kids sleeping on the bus on the way home from Disney World, I imagined what all the kids were dreaming of, what little flotsam and jetsam of memories were being glued together in their brains.
