Day 12&13

(don't) FORGET & KIND

An unexpected illustration of a nearly forgotten family tale.

My great uncle is Barney Edward Youngblood. Uncle Barney died during the last global pandemic. No, not COVID, the Spanish Flu. He was a young man - only 25. He had only been married a while. . . to the woman on the left who would later become my grandmother. He left behind his widow and his young son, Wilbur. Wilbur died in 1965 on October 17th - almost 60 years ago now. Even his widow is gone, leaving this world shortly after Wilbur did on Christmas Day in 1965.

Though eventually all of us are forgotten by time, it saddens me that there is no one left to mourn for Barney. And so I will remember him. I hope you are happy Barney. I hope you have been released from suffering and have found peace.

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Yeah, I know you can still see the crease through the butterfly (which by the way symbolizes regeneration, reconciliation, and healing), but there was no good way to fix it.

This wasn't planned at all, incidentally. I drew the image for Barney because it felt important to honor him. The following day's prompt was Kind. The kindest person I ever knew was my grandmother, Ola Elizabeth Stallcup Youngblood. I don't know why 1) I attempted inking photo realism (it's ok, not horrible, not great) nor 2) why I drew her on the left half of the sketchbook page across from Barney! I'd already penciled the larger forget-me-nots on the top half of the left side trying to get the feel for them before I inked them for Barney.

I penciled in the image of my grandmother and the little girl below the forget-me-nots and knew right away it was supposed to live there and that I'd just told a family story that hadn't gotten much air play over the decades.

The little girl is me, by the way. And yes, I am chewing on my shoe. Clearly a future brain trust. Why am I in color and Barney and Ola are in black and white? Because I'm a brain trust, that's why and I'm telling you they've passed but that I am still inhabiting a three dimensional body for the time being.