During Marsha’s many years of serious illness I would often take her to local shopping malls for minor exercise. She was reacting poorly to heat so the AC that these malls offered was essential. The walking was the point, and Marsha had some mild stimulation by way of the comings and goings within the retail establishments. Meanwhile I began to notice other things. I began taking hundreds of aerial views of shoppers around the koi pond at Aventura mall during my initial dabbling in color. I started to examine the architecture and building materials. I watched the behavior of the security staff - scanning the bar codes of certain locations with their check-in monitors. (What would happen if I altered the bar code with a Sharpie?) Eventually I focused on the maintenance staff. I started to notice their carts, their tools, their uniforms. I had flashes of the work of Joel Daniel Phillips and Carol K. Brown. Like the homeless subjects in their work these individuals had an interesting presence-absence relationship to their surroundings. People rushed by as uniformed custodians would be lifting impossibly large bags of garbage. The mall goers took them for granted. But every now and then I would catch one of these uniformed people having a genuine conversation with someone else. There was humor, warmth, concern, and even anger. Once I even caught one guy stopped dead in front of a jewelry store window, looking longingly at merchandise I took dozens of photos. Unfortunately, when I suffered a calamitous iPhone failure in the Fall of 2017, I lost almost all of these shots (their loss had been the only way out of the financial ultimatum Apple offered me) Fortunately, I had managed to save Shirley. 

 

Shirley (I read her name tag) was coming toward Marsha and me as we walked through Dadeland Mall. There was something about her somewhat active approach to clean up that caught my eye. I took the photo that eventually became the basis of this Figurines drawing from a great distance. This meant almost no detail was available. (This has been a long running issue. My memories of Ralph King have helped train me to deal with it) I particularly liked the way that her hold on the broom and dust pan made her look like she was almost skiing. Think of a slalom racers leaning against their poles.

 

This was the first drawing that was NOT a commission that I finished after having returned to restaurant work in early 2017. That I could incorporate this work into my already demanding schedule seemed quite an accomplishment at the time. I was to begin work on Svetlana the following month, and I have subsequently thought of these two together as the apron figurines. Looking back, it may not have been an accident that I chose this precise moment to put my long practice of photographing service staff into a drawing.

 

The actual drawing was relatively minimal and quick due to the lack of detail. I liked the success of the intense darks - something I would push even further in Svetlana. But I remember feeling a bit let down that the dustpan was my favorite rendered area. I wished I could have included more. But I was pleased with the overall pose and the sweep of the hair. The angle of the extended hip and her intense focus downward was enough to make me think this very sketch like drawing was good enough to warrant the effort.