Saint Jill

This week’s drawing was a bit of mystery to me at first. Who is this thick-necked Asian woman smiling at me? Where did she come from? Rather then use a reference image, I decided to draw from my imagination this week and this was what (who) my brain tossed out.

My way into this character were her bangs, then the eccentric hairdo. I didn’t intend to make her neck so thick, but that is how she appeared, so I’ll accept her as she is. The way she is smiling, I think she’s accepting me back, but maybe she just smiles at people with nothing behind it, who knows? Pondering where she came from, it struck me, she was probably from Singapore, specifically from 1979. How do I know that? Because that is the date the Peter Bogdanovich movie “Saint Jack” was released, and I happened to have just had the good fortune to watch it at my favorite grindhouse, boutique cinema in London, The Nickel. “Saint Jack” is the main character played by Ben Gazzara who is an American ex-pat and pimp named Jack Flowers. The story is based on a book by Paul Theroux, which takes place in the early 1970s when the USA war in Vietnam was raging. Bogdanovich plays an intelligence officer who enlists Jack to “entertain” the troops on R and R. Jack charms his way through the backstreets of Singapore, glad handing the locals and other ex-pats a like. There is some action and things happen, but overall, it’s a character study of Jack, which Gazzara masterfully navigates with a light touch, swagger and rough humor that is lost now to another era. So, here’s “Saint Jill”, what I imagine would be Jack’s equal, a Mama-san to his Papa-san. Here’s hoping you have your own Saint Jack or Saint Jill smiling at you when you need it.

Until next week, let’s keep throwing that light and beating that drum and pushing back on the darkness.

OK HW