Playing in my journal

Homage to Jackie Kirk, artist and teacher extraordinaire. (SOOC)

PLAYFUL is today's DDW challenge topic.

Facing pages from a journal (2011-2013). On the right, a playful drawing I made at Trinity Cathedral while listening to the Dean preach. On the left, a flyer sent to me by Jackie Kirk with news of her latest exhibition. She encouraged my playfulness in art and gave me the confidence to draw as I do. She loved my illustrated journals before anyone else did. She was a superb mentor, a master of the portrait and self-portrait, and remains a dear friend. In this journal entry I wrote:

Jackie is a brilliant and original artist. She was my art mentor in California. This self-portrait was in her show of 50 paintings at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in 1991. She subsequently published them in a book that she said I inspired. This is from a flyer of a recent show.

Jackie is a most playful artist. She did a brilliant series of paintings of her canary. Her children used to be embarrassed because if she had nothing else to draw on, she would draw on her clothes! I love her a lot and, oops, I owe her a letter. Her book is out of print and her presence has disappeared from the Internet, so I'm doubly grateful that she remains a force for good in my life.

Jackie, may your playful paintings and your brave life continue to set me a good example.

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"Witness: The Artist's Vision in the Face of AIDS" by Jackie Kirk and Barbara Swift Brauer (Pomegranate Artbooks, 1996) is a record of Jackie's 50-portrait show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Twenty-five of the portraits were of AIDS patients: men, women and children; the other 25 were self-portraits that Jackie made after each portrait.

This book is out of print but readily available used and through some libraries.