The Women on My Street

There are five widows on my street alone.

I meet them at pickleball, at the grocery store, in passing. One told me her husband had just died, and she showed up to play pickleball anyway because she needed somewhere to go. Everyone needs somewhere to go and neighborly support.

I am a 65 year old woman and painter living in Santa Cruz. I work in traditional Vietnamese lacquer, a rare, labor-intensive technique I studied in Hanoi, and for years I have started each painting by making a sketch, usually of women all over the world. In Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, Jordan. Women carrying water on their heads, laughing. Women who asked me afterward: am I really that pretty? The answer is always yes.

During a crisis in Pakistan, I opened my studio to foreign aid workers, mostly women who were overwhelmed and far from home. They came for coffee, talked about what they were navigating, and posed for me while I sketched. I put music on and they told me they were able to relax. We both left filled up.

I want to recreate this in Santa Cruz. I will invite the women on my street, and women like them across Santa Cruz, into my studio one at a time for tea. We'll talk, listen to music, and I'll sketch them. They'll leave with a drawing of themselves seen clearly, maybe for the first time in a while. Just tea, conversation, and a portrait they can keep.

Interested in sitting for a portrait?
Email maylene@maylenerasmussen.com