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Insipiring!
Dear Michael:
I actually got a little teary-eyed reading your beautiful story.
When I was sixteen, I modeled for a local artist (Fort Lee, NJ) named Elizabeth Case. She lived nearby my aunt who had commissioned several portraits from her, and who eventually purchased the pastel study which I now own (below).
Her cluttered studio had a small north window. I can remember having to climb around things to reach the chair and resume the pose each day during specific hours.
She spoke in poetic phrases with a voice made husky from cigarettes and wine. Her joy was greater than her uncertain income. She taught me how to pose a model by allowing me to speak and share my dreams with her. She was confident that within that small space I would fall back into the pose she decided on often enough to capture a likeness, while finding something far more important: my spirit.
Happily, Ms. Case found job security as a U.S. Naval Artist and lives happily in South Jersey now, I am told.
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