| Any comments, suggestions or questions can be directed to the author. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you found something that you could enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own anything in relation to C.S.I., Alliance Atlantic, CBS, William Petersen, Jorja Fox or any other characters contained herein... I just like playing with them now and then while stretching my writing muscles. And if you think there's any money to be gained by suing me, you're in for a horrible disappointment. |
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| LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY |
| The Best Broad Ever |
| In high school, I had to do some graphic art for this class I took. I hated the class, and I hated the styles I was forced into using, but I decided after I did this piece that it was all worth it to have this for all time. The original is at Aunt Cath's house, but I had a couple prints made from it to give to Momma and Lindsey. When I did the original painting, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I worked from a candid photograph I had found while digging through some old picture disks. It kind of jumped out at me, because it showed something that few people ever saw of Aunt Cath; her vulnerability. I printed the picture out on some photo paper and kept it with me for a while. When I first started the assignment that led to this painting, I used a picture of a building I had taken, but I just couldn't get into the assignment. One of the other kids in the class happened across the picture of Aunt Cath and held it out to me. "THIS is the one you should be doing," she said. And when I looked at the picture again, I knew she was right. Eight colors, no blending, mostly clean lines, and the image of a woman's soul seemed to come up off of the canvas. All of her strength, all of her courage, all of her caring, and all of her fight in one simple eight color cut-out style painting. I didn't care about the assignment anymore, the only thing I wanted to know from the teacher was when I could take it home. The teacher tried to get me to enter it in some district contest, but I didn't care about that, I just wanted to take it home to show my mother. And when I finally wrenched it from the teacher's hands, it was worth way more than whatever that teacher thought it would be in some pointless school art show. My mother actually gasped when she saw it. That was better than any ribbon or savings bond in the world. And she confirmed to me what I had been thinking ever since it was finished; it would be the perfect present for Uncle Rick's birthday. When he unwrapped it the next week at his party, I got an even better present. While Uncle Rick smiled at the painting, taking in everything I had already seen, Aunt Cath just couldn't take the suspense any longer and walked around behind him to get a look. That was when it happened, with Uncle Rick totally lost in the image there on the canvas, Aunt Cath actually screamed. It was the first time in my life I ever saw her blush, and it was all my fault. Uncle Rick stood up from the couch, took the frame that was in the center of the living room wall down, and hung my painting in its place. As everyone stared at the painting, I could hear the hushed murmurs throughout the room. I was so proud of myself at that moment, that I was completely shocked when Uncle Rick put his arms around me. Softly, he spoke into my ear the words that ring out to me every time I see that work. "Thank you for capturing the woman beneath broad. Thank for seeing the real Catherine. That's the woman I see...the one I love." |
