A Painting Family: Preserving our Heritage
My Daddy could draw. Everyone used to be amazed at his skill. He was deaf and tongue-tied and his unique talent was amazing to many folks. Since he couldn't speak very well he communicated by drawing. Sometimes I'd draw to communicate with him too since I couldn't get my point across otherwise. We communicated like this and through an expressive and animated "homemade" sign language. But he taught me perspective on buildings and how to make an object have mass and bulk by shading. We were extremely poor (note the too tight and too short dress I'm wearing in the photo below) and had no tv. We usually drew on paper sacks form the grocery store. Remember those? These days I would call that, "recycled, toned and textured paper"! :) Anyway- Great lessons! I was always happy when told that I got my artistic abilities from this sweet man.... The Castleberry Family in 1962: Daddy (James Albert), Patsy, me and Momma (Willie Mae). Older brother Jerry not s...