Jonathan Fisher Becomes Face #18 Today

"Jonathan Fisher: Face #18", oil, 12"h x 12"w, copyright Jill Banks 2011

Jon Fisher, a wood sculptor and the Communications chair guru of Great Falls Studios agreed to sit for me today. I canceled my still life class today, following suit with the Fairfax County School System deciding not to fight the icy roads and to catch up on a pile of "to dos" before my painting session this afternoon. What a relief unanticipated "free" time is! It takes away panic for a few hours and I had a whole lot more energy to paint and concentrate on Jon. This turned out to be one of those paintings that look just like the subject.

I was a member of the board of directors of Great Falls Studios with Jon. I graduated off the board a few years ago while Jon remained and continues to make remarkable things happen for the organization. One of my favorite perks of being a board member was to attend meetings with Jon with his continuous stream of wild ideas and hysterical one liners. He has a wonderful sense of humor and it strikes without his changing expression and the rest of us break out in irrepressible laughter. He's also somebody who questions everything ... and thinks of every possible scenario. What a great asset to keep us on our toes.

"Blue Quartz" wood sculpture by Jonathan Fisher

I learned more about Jon today and I'm glad to have had the opportunity. He was working to be a good model for me ... sitting still and talking a bit like a ventriloquist to keep his mouth from moving. No one's tried that before. Jon was talking about this being a bit like being in the dentist's office when they ask you questions knowing that there's no way you can answer at the moment. Perhaps.

There were some funny moments during the sitting ... but typing this made me think about another instance when Jon was up to no good. Part of our promotion of Great Falls Studios Annual Studio Tour (in mid-October of each year) is to put up blue balloons at our studio locations all around town. We are responsible for picking up signs and balloons from one of the member's studios and I arrived to pick up mine as Jon Fisher was finishing up. The hardware store in town lets us use their helium tank to blow up all the blue balloons ... but the tank was empty so balloons were dwindling down to nothing. Jon had his and I was getting mine and that was it. No more. So Jon walks out the door with his balloons and two seconds later we hear him say, "Oh, SH_T!" You know what we thought. Just kidding.

My wall of faces on day #18. Pretty cool, isn't it?

So today we had fun. Painting went well ... and #18 looks good up on the wall with the rest of my characters. It's starting to look like I'm doing something around here. I need to schedule some sittings for this upcoming weekend. Just haven't had time to do so yet. (It gets a bit complicated.)

For more info on my project, go to my 100 Faces in 100 Days Project Page on my web site and/or check out earlier posts on my blog to see faces #1 through #18.


Web: www.jillbanks.com
Blog: jillbanks.blogspot.com
100 Faces in 100 Days Project: www.jillbanks.com/jillbanks/100_Faces_in_100_Days_Project.html
Email: jillbanks1@aol.com
Phone: 703.403.7435