Leather

One  warmsummer morning  a few years ago, the sound of light traffic by my home was replaced by  the rumble ofmotorcycles.  Group after group of leather-clad cyclists passed by, heading I knew, for the annual Lake George "Americade" rally, a gathering that attracts thousands of hardy Harley-Davidson enthusiasts.  The "hirsute parade" lasted several minutes then  growled away down the street and turned northward.

I'd settled down to enjoy the return of relative quiet when one lone Harley crested the western hill and seemingly, "floated" by.  A bit of rough pavement bounced the bike and  something dropped to the road.  I walked out and  found these black leather gloves. Thinking traffic might do them harm and the rider would soon return. I picked them  up but he'd disappeared, never to return.

They live on here, left and right, one quite simple and the other tightly rendered.   They appear here separate simply because my copier cannot accommodate both together. I drew them side by side, deliberately different just for interest. (I may revisit that decision later) These two have been joined in my studio by several other pair, waiting their tun to be drawn, painted and possibly part of a series. 


BTW, there's no photographic intervention here, the drawings were done directly from the gloves as they lay on my desk.  I enjoyed the time I put in working on the highly finished one, (I DO like to draw!) but these days I'm more attracted to the simpler one.  I love the mark, the evidence of a hand at work. 


In a recent New Yorker article, art critic Adam Gopnik tells  about learning to draw. He says, "Drawing, I now think, need not be the bones of art, but skill must always be the skeleton of accomplishment."  (Thanks Rise!) 


Perhaps you'd like to weigh in on that in the comments area below.