Thank you Aunt Hazel

Hazel Thompson

Hazel Thompson

Aunt Hazel was an artist…not just someone who drew pretty pictures, but an artist who made her living that way.

Her studio was in my Grandparent’s home where she lived.  When I was invited into her studio, it was like entering another world.  I remember falling in love with a large portrait of a young man she had painted years before when she was an art student and Roosevelt was President.  He was wearing overalls, not denim blue, but a deep reddish orange.  He had a cap on his head, pushed over to one side like I would later wear mine, and a sack of books slung over his shoulder, tied together with a leather strap.  He was dressed like a factory worker, which seemed to be the style back then.  But I thought of him as a dancer.

One day Aunt Hazel asked me to draw a picture – any picture.  Her only instruction was:  “Try to make the picture cover the entire page.” I worked and worked on that drawing. First I drew a house, then a tree.  I drew a dog and a cat and an elephant.  But try as I might, I couldn’t fill the entire page. Finally I presented it to her.  She carefully looked at it and said: “Try putting some sky in the picture.”

After she died, my cousin Art sent me a series of drawings she had done about me when I was perhaps three or four years old. They must have been done for a class she was taking. I treasure them as if they were done for the Louvre.  The message is clear: “Davey Needs Your Help.” I got plenty of help from her.  Thank you Aunt Hazel.

Enjoy!

Davey Drawing 1

Davey Drawing 1

Davey Drawing 2

Davey Drawing 2

Davey Drawing 3

Davey Drawing 3

Davey Drawing 4

Davey Drawing 4

Davey Drawing 5

Davey Drawing 5

Davey Drawing 6

Davey Drawing 6

DaveyHazel2

Hazel Thompson

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