Women singers

This week's theme at Olga Furman's #AnOdeToWomenChallenge is women singers or musicians. The offering of reference photos was eclectic, from Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross to Marlene Dietrich, Cher, and Barbra. But I didn't feel particularly moved by any of the specific pictures chosen, so I went looking for my own.

I've always had a soft spot for Janis Joplin. She died on my 15th birthday, and she wasn't really my cup of tea at the time: I was still listening to Bread, Seals and Crofts, and Simon and Garfunkel! But during the late 1960s, you couldn't avoid Janis if you turned on the radio—"Piece of My Heart," "Me and Bobby McGee," and that anthem "Mercedes Benz" crowded the Top 40 for weeks if not months. Janis was only 12 years older than I am, but she was so exotic and foreign to a kid who grew up fundamentalist and wasn't allowed to wear jeans to school until I was a senior, with her beads and her boas and her big raspy voice. I always wonder what she would have done if she'd lived past 27. Just one of a heartbreaking number of rockers who couldn't get out from under the urge to lose themselves in drugs or alcohol and made a tragic mistake.

The thing about Janis, though, is that while she was here, she was so joyful and exuberant, so charismatic. I hope I captured a little of that warmth and color in my painting.

"Janis"—Pencil, Daler Rowney inks, Uniball gold pen, Signo white gel pen, on 140-lb. Fluid coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.