And here is Dorothy Counts, the other party in that integration interaction. I started to call this "cringe," but she never did—she walked with her head high and her shoulders squared, and let it all roll off of her. And as a tall girl, she towered above a lot of it. But in the photo, you can see the slight feeling of panic in her eyes, and the way she holds her head shows just a little wince away from the chaos surrounding her. The dark circles under her eyes probably attest to sleeplessness in dread of these ongoing encounters. I tried to capture that in my painting, but don't know if I quite got it.
This one didn't paint itself nearly as easily as the Grimace boy—I think I was working harder for a likeness—but the colors and attitude did come through fairly quickly. I'd love to see these end up hanging together somewhere.
"Wince"—pen, Uniball, Daler-Rowney inks, Signo gel pen, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.
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