Label for a Charcoal Drawing 

9.8.20 | old art with new labels no. 7

Diane Jones, 18
Still Life Study, College Course, 1979
Charcoal on Paper
18” x 24” (45.72 cm x 60.96 cm)

The artist left her high school, tightly nestled within cornfields, for a square city block spanning 27th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, Manhattan. Tight security at this CUNY school warded off rapes, muggings, and hatchet wielding murders. NYC was not yet Broadway Disneyfied and it showed with a fast introduction to the agony of the homeless and the smells of garbage. Nonetheless, the artist thrived in the bustling, dangerous, creative environment. First semester brought a painting class: FA 101. This large charcoal is a study for an equally large oil on canvas that was completed that fall. The oil painting, presented as a Christmas gift to her parents, was met with a, “Nice, but next time let me choose the frame, please.” Welcome back to rural town, Diane. Pop the cork off that bottle of wine in the artwork and you guzzle down the spoiled liquid inside until you fly back to F.I.T. for semester two. Everyone say Binsky’s!

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From farm town to Gotham,
And back again, literally.
Learning never ends.