Her Own Reflection

© Joan Ann Lansberry, September, 2009
(Loosely inspired by this young woman and "hattuhanna".)

September 12, 2009
(From this journal entry

At work, the song Tom's Diner came on. Usually it passes as a pleasant background. But yesterday, the singer sang these words of it seemingly a little louder, as if they were meant for me:

There's a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?

No she does not
Really see me
Cause she sees
Her own reflection...

I thought, there's a truth in that beyond the moment of a coffee drinker in a diner aware of someone outside. It is like that with all perceptions. Reflections of our ownselves obscure details of the other. Similarly, I won't worry about others perceptions, for they, too, have that reflective window between us. But occasionally the thin wall clears a bit...

Meanwhile, I thought, "what a good idea for a drawing!"

I am all out of my favorite 11x14 bristol board, and all I have left is larger or smaller. I chose larger, and so the original of this is on 18x24 inch paper. (What a bother to scan! It can't be done in only four scans, but many scans, copied and pasted.) Eventually I got an image I could work with.

I'm not sure how I will color it, whether by hand on a small printer print or digitally...