ELI  DINER   
painting - printmaking

A stranger enters the studio, undressing - We talk
small talk, some politics,
What does he do, for whom did he model.
You find - or you don’t - mutual acquaintances.
 
The body’s nakedness bears but itself
the face reflects what’s there.
Nothing foreign casts its shadow.
No pose, only a position.
 
And when it is a comfortable one,
when there is no effort involved
and the model withdraws into himself
his face acquires a genuine expression, reflecting his feelings
at times his personality too.
 
The eyes look at the model.
One hand strokes the paper
checking its dimensions, its texture
pausing where the other would start drawing:
the center of the body, a certain wrinkle, the hands or toes...or face
which are especially interesting when the body is naked.
 
And you begin.
Drawing the impressiont
the relaxation, the embarrassment
the boredom, the concentration.
Suddenly his eyes move, examining you back, fighting back.
Assuming a mask
resisting the arrest.
 
A living body and a still one
the magic of exertion and the void of disappointment
interpreting on paper the moment of apprehension.
 
E.D.
November 1995