This is the first Monday in November and the Art League of San Carlos had their first meeting of the season. I got there late, and as I sat in the only empty chair in the room, I looked around. There was one other guy in there with me and 40 or so women and everybody had some little object in front of them they had been assigned to draw. Everybody, that is, except me.
Our instructor-for-the-day Sue walked over to me and said, "I know you. You can draw. I want you to draw..." she paused, looking me up and down.. "your shoe!" And then she walked away.
The Shoe came off and went up on the table I shared with four women, each drawing their own objets d' arte: a hat, a small vase, a picture of an owl, a wire basket. No one else in the room had to remove a piece of their clothing to draw (except, perhaps, the woman with the hat). I guess I should be glad Sue didn't tell me to draw my shorts.
After an hour Sue marched over to me, swept my drawing up into the air and said, "I knew it!" She strode to the center of the room with the Shoe Sketch held aloft, showing it around. She shouted, "This Shoe was drawn with Authority!" Everybody applauded (including me) and I was returned to obscurity once again... except for two women at an adjoining table who reached over and grabbed my model, the Shoe, and placed it on their table. "You can have your shoe back when we're done with it," one of the women said. "Here," said the other, "you can try drawing our toy mice..."
