In order to keep my eggs clean, I line my laying boxes with shredded paper. I shred some of my own, and I occasionally bring home shreds from the office. Imagine my surprise when I went to gather eggs and found one egg with the name of my employer on it! I just had to get the picture ...
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  The concept of this print is setting this up to be a personal favorite. Not because it is a self portrait but because of the theme and because it breaks several new grounds. Outside of the Gale and Wesley print, I've never put more than one face on a print. I've always been afraid to - because if I screw up one face, the print is invalidated. This happened with the Gale and Wesley print as Gale came out looking more like Larry King - despite the fact that I'd already done a very VERY nice print of Gale - one my father now owns. Additionally, I've never drawn a woman's face in this type of print. Lots of bodies and body parts, but no face.
There are some striking changes, however, from the way I first presented this print to the present. In the beginning, I maintained that the face of the woman was a "composite image from clippings of what I would consider to be my 'dream woman.' "
I refused to display her face with any clarity on the web site, despite numerous requests.
Things have changed, however, and I'm pleased to finally be able to unveil this print and publish it in the virtual Cherokee gallery.Though I have two other nearly completed prints, they will wait until next year, as I wish to close out 1999 - and this decade and millennium - with this print, and open the new with a similar print.
Here's an excerpt from a note sent to family and friends regarding "Shore Leave:"
"The Eyes of Me" - the latest exhibition Cherokee art print was
finished on Oct. 17, 1999. This, a portrait of Willie Nelson, was
appropriately titled from his song "We don't run." I say
appropriately titled because I see much of me - much of my life - in
this simple print.
To carry on that theme, I've often been asked why I've never done a self portrait. After some thought, I decided to do just that. But this isn't just any self portrait. I used my imagination to picture what I might look like in another decade or so ... and we'll see how close I come to a fair representation.
"Shore Leave" - the next exhibition Cherokee art print, will be a self portrait, but so much more. As is my tradition, there will be plenty of extraneous detail and imagery in the print. Unlike previous prints however - all of which have dealt with my past life and experiences - this one will portray the present to far in the future ... going even beyond what life expectancy I may or may not have. In other words, some of you will find it "weird," hahhaa. So be it. :)
All preliminary sketching was done over the past nine days, and I'm setting the first ink strokes to canvas today. Also, this print will also feature the EXACT same fishing hat I reproduced on the portrait of Conrad Wolf ("No Greater Love") - a hat I purchased in Arizona several years ago when fishing with my father. This hat has almost become sacred to me for what it symbolizes and - more importantly - on whose head it has ridden, both in reality and in the artistic realm.
So I'm keeping busy and out of trouble. Flying solo and keeping one eye on the horizon, but another wary eye on the ground below. I've never flown well by instrumentation alone. :)
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Jim W. Coleman is an accomplished author and artist from Port Orchard, Washington, a small community directly across the Puget Sound from Seattle.
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