When I was a girl I didn't care very much for dolls, but my mother and grandmother did. They bought dolls for me and my sister, and enjoyed them very much. Years later I discovered that Mom had saved our Barbies in a cedar chest in the basement, but that's another story.
In the 1950s and 1960s I was a farm kid and liked riding my bike and playing in the barn. There was one doll I liked though, Little Ricky. He was a big doll, almost infant size, with sleepy eyes, dimples, and a nicely modeled face. He came in a yellow sun suit with his name embroidered on the waistband. He came out in conjunction with the I Love Lucy television show, a show I watched all the time. I hauled him around with me, pushed him in a baby buggy, changed his diapers after I fed him water. Somehow he disappeared, and once I started collecting dolls as an adult I bought him at a show. I was excited to show Mom, but by that time she had forgotten him. She loved the pretty dolls, the Madame Alexanders, Shirley Temple. Even when I showed her a picture of me with Ricky she didn't respond. How could she not remember my favorite? Anyway, she is gone now, and we are selling our house. I am reconsidering what I might like to take with me, and Ricky didn't make the cut. I sold him to a lady in Florida on eBay, and today he is traveling. But because I loved him once, I decided to draw him. This is a quick graphite and colored pencil sketch in my little journal.
4 comments:
Wow - You are a fantastic artist!
I'm trying to connect with Shelfari members who blog. You have a nice one.
J. Kaye
What's great about this drawing is that you'll have the memory of the doll without having to actually keep the doll itself. So not only do you come out with a beautiful drawing but also all the childhood associations.
A delightful drawing of a childhood memory. :)
What a great drawing and memory to go with it.
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