peita charcoal drawing

Sha Curington

XXinches x XX inches

charcoal on paper
1994
*****
i was 17 or so when i did this drawing of a detail of the pieta. i attended point loma high school and was in miss bradley's art class. hi, miss bradley! she was one of the two black teachers in the entire school and wore long curved dragon lady fingernails. but them nails didnt keep her skills down, she would hold that pencil all crooked and throw down. with this drawing, i fell in love with charcoal. charcoal is just so dark and black, and you can rub that into the paper and really feel it, charcoal was all the things i wanted in a pencil, but magic, b/c i didnt know such a thing like charcoal existed. except for barbecues.. this photo is so very washed out, the drawing is much much darker, the black much richer and deeper, than what it looks like here.