The House of the Wolf - P12
- THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF - F: P12 - A black ink and black color pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size coquille board. This drawing combines the icons of two chapter headings from the book, "THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF", by Basil Copper; "A Toast to the Emperor," and "Wolf or Werewolf"?
Creating the right atmosphere in these icon drawings was essential, the people had to look European, they had to appear natural to that time and place. I spent a lot of time rough-sketching them all before I settled on the ones you see in this series.
European people. So many of them came to America in hope of a better life that eventually "they" made America what it was up to the middle 1900s. I went to a fellow worker's wedding many years ago, his parents and the parents of his bride came from a small country in Europe, I think it was Rumania, and it seemed like everyone at the wedding was from there. I felt out of place, a young American lad, a stranger among foreigners.
But at the reception, when toasts were being made, a small old woman stood up when her turn came, I think she was my friend's grandmother. She placed her drink down slowly, on the table, and began by admitting her age, 92, and then she talked about how she and her young husband came to America so very long ago, hoping he could find a job so they could live a decent life. And he did, and life for them has been good here, and for the children they raised, and for their grandchildren. Here, in America.
And I watched as this old woman reached down to raise her glass and said, "So let us toast, not only to the bride and groom, but to the country that makes everything possible. Please stand and join me in singing, "God Bless America".
And as the guests all stood up and sang, I no longer felt like a stranger there, that old woman was not a "foreigner," she was as American as I, and so were they all.
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