It was Julia’s First Communion and an occasion for a major family-and-friends fest. The dinner and dance was held at the Lone Tree Manor on Milwaukee in Niles, where Polish cuisine is a specialty. I mentioned this restaurant to a woman I was drawing a couple of weeks later and she immediately recognized Lone Tree Manor as a 
Polish place. See, my gigs are for learning. Anyway, everybody spoke Polish, the DJ made his announcements in Polish and the rock’n’roll was all Polish. The desert, of which I got a few nibbles, was to die for, of course, and then everybody, including me, got to take home some elegant Polish chocolate. What a treat!
At a party celebrating a child, the adults generally defer to the children. After I had drawn all the kids, some adults were also eager to see how they would appear on my drawing paper. Especially women, no surprise there.
Here I need to make a note about bodacious women. I always flatter women in my drawings. The hour-glass figure is my standard, for the simple reason that it pleases them and pleasing them is what I’m there for. It’s an unrealistic standard, however, and even though we all know that magazine images are photoshopped to some current cultural ideal, women still want to be seen in this idealized deception. Of particular focus, ahem, is the top measurement and women at a party standing or sitting around me as they wait to be drawn will freely talk about their cleavage—abundance of, lack of, need for, devoutly to be wished for, my husband would be so grateful if you could give me some… I’m not kidding, it’s what I hear all the time. Their language and gestures are very specific and therefore my marker just moves that way. Fun for everyone.
Thank you, Malgorzata! Podziękowanie! (I looked it up.)
I drew twenty-six people in three hours and in full color. I’ll post about half of them here.————–
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