“Girl With the Blue Shoe” is a favorite. I love it for the spontaneity
of the gesture and the narrative it evokes. The model, who has been a subject
for our workshop for many years, is a highly energetic and intelligent woman.
She is tall, lanky, and frankly, has a drop dead body! You can’t see it here
but her face is very MODIGLIANI. Moreover her energy is percussive and
deliberate. She is quick, assertive and very funny. I think I felt her energy
full on the day I did this oil bar drawing. 
This drawing inspired the following piece of Flash Fiction. Here is my ekprhrasis, that is, literary description
of a piece of art.

 “The Girl With the
Blue Shoe”

The model walked into the artist’s studio sometime
midmorning. It was the dead of summer, and the eastern exposure created a little
hothouse.  The artist pushed the sofa out
from under the skylight.

“Can’t we get the air conditioner working?” asked the model
as she shed the thin shift that hung like a dishtowel from her lanky frame. The
artist nodded without looking up.

 The General Electric, which was deeply shelved into a
window, had served the studio steadily for twenty -five years, but now the junk
sputtered and after some seconds, stopped.

The model had made herself comfortable on the fuzzy green blanket.
It smelled like fabric softener. “Mmm, Downey. No air? What about that stand up
fan? By the way do you love these shoes or what? Do you want me to leave them
on? I can leave them on. Don’t you love them? Do you still have that fan?”

Returning from the broom closet with a cheap standup fan,
the artist placed it to the side of the sofa so that it faced the outstretched figure.  She attached an orange extension
cord, dragged it across the room, and inserted  it into the paint splattered socket. The fan
worked. Next she slipped a disc into the player.

In a barely audible voice, poised at the easel ready to draw, the artist finally replied,  “Love the shoes. Love the blue. Let’s leave them on.”  

The model began to hum along to the Norah Jones cd, and that’s
the way they stayed until lunchtime.