This is a longish story about a drawing student/friend.

Gina took drawing lessons from me in Exeter before I closed my studio there in December of 2001. She began a drawing, and then left lessons to return to school and become a nurse.

In about 2016, we listed some old roofing on Craig’sList (actually Cowboy Bert did it for us because we were not versed in that particular method of selling things), and someone named Gina answered the ad. We talked on the phone, and I gave her directions to our house.

When she and her husband arrived, Trail Guy went out to take care of the roofing transaction. He came into the house and said, “You need to come out here and meet these people”.

It was a happy reunion! Gina didn’t know where I had moved my studio or if I was teaching any more. She immediately said she wanted to return to lessons, because now as a nurse, her schedule is flexible.

Imagine my shock and awe when she returned to lessons and pulled out the very drawing that she had begun way back when!

Three years later, (or is it two? four? I didn’t write it down), Gina finished her drawing. It is possible that I am even more excited about this than she is!

When she began this drawing, we were both in our early 40s and could still see little things. Still, the rule is “no faces smaller than an egg” (and by now, I’m thinking ostrich egg). I discouraged her from drawing a face this small, but she is independent-minded and did an excellent job of capturing a likeness. This is her dad on a Harley.

Gina spent months researching Harleys, looking at each separate part of the motorcycle to get everything as accurate as possible. She spent weeks trying to discern what model of car that was. (It is a Kaiser, something we’d never heard of.) Together we spent years inching this drawing along, figuring out how to handle the various parts and textures.

Finally, finally, almost done, and then Gina decided to put clouds in the sky. She spent weeks looking at clouds, and each week she would announce, “I really don’t know clouds at all”, and all of us of a certain age would snicker.

But wait! There’s more! As Gina and I got to know each other, we learned that we both had been on the staff of Hume Lake Christian Camps in our late teens. I was in the mountains; she was in the foothills. I tossed or lost my staff photo decades ago, but as we have learned about Gina, she carefully preserves things. Recently, she sent me this, and WE WERE ON STAFF AT THE SAME TIME!

P.S. Michael Smith-Jenson, I got your email. Thank you. I found you in this photo. I lost your email. I’m sorry. (I’m not nearly as careful or organized as Gina!)