AN ARTIST’S FACE STUDENT RESPONSES


BY MARGIE FUSTON -


My fingers glide across the paper, covering perfect white with lines and smudges.


I stare at my face in the mirror,


let my hand build the point of my chin, the arch of my nose.


I coat my finger in charcoal,


guiding it under my eyes, creating the nights that keep me up


and the mornings that come too soon. I trace the tiny lines at the corners, the freckle on one cheek.


I resist the urge to carve my cheeks like a sculpture. When I am done,


I hold myself up for the class.


An honest portrait, someone says. They applaud my effort.


The next day,


I stand before the bathroom mirror, staring at my spotted canvas. I taint my fingers with cream that promises white perfection.


My freckle disappears under expert hands. The crinkles under my eyes,


the ones I have earned, are taken. I see no more late nights.


I sleep all day on a bed made of feathers.


My brush paints Orchid Pink on my cheeks, creates an illusion of something I might want to be. When I go out,


I hold myself up to be viewed.


You look beautiful, today, someone says. They applaud my effort.


NIC CARO


I’m reading Tings Tey Carried by Tim O’Brian, which I chose for Military History class. It’s a collection of short stories; a lot of different scenarios and hardships you have to face. It teeters between reality and insanity. Very psychological. – I love short stories because you’re compiling a whole book into a small amount. It’s tricky to catch a reader’s attention quickly. I love anything suspenseful – with that feeling of tension, hesitation and guessing what’s coming, it’s a whole new adventure every time.


ROSE KANIA


I love children’s books. Sometimes they’re so profound and yet so simple. It’s also where I started reading; my parents read me Narnia as a kid and when I weaned off of my father reading to me, I would take books to my own “reading spot” and he would recommend things like Lord of the Rings, GK Chesterton’s Father Brown; all sorts of books. – Advice to non-readers: Don’t read just to say you’ve read something but read things for value and personal meaning and you’ll love it. It’s hard to read things you’re not invested in.


ERIN DONOHO


My advice to non-readers is, try short stories or ask a friend who’s a reader what they like and why, or what they recommend, knowing you. If you get a story you enjoy, you become somebody else – you see how they respond to things and you learn about people. You grow in compassion and empathy; you get out of your own head and explore a world that’s not yours. It opens your eyes to different cultures and people.


MADISON CLINE


Tere’s a heightened sense to reading authors like Edgar Allen Poe and [Sylvia Plath’s] Bell Jar that puts you in a different environment and connects you to the words almost more emotionally. Te environment is more on the edge and I love looking into that and trying to understand it. I love settings that are a little darker and heavier, and that’s not necessarily my personality, but it’s very introspective and it makes you look at things differently, take them seriously and really consider certain concepts. It makes you think.


STEPHANIE WILCOX


I started reading Flames by Ginny L. Yttrup because I know the author, and it’s her newest book. She writes very “real” books – fiction but based on things she or people around her have experienced so it’s very intriguing. – I’m studying World Literature in Film right now, and the analyzing process of the older, mostly foreign films takes you on a journey where you actually have to think for yourself rather than being spoon-fed the story.


An Artist’s Face and Ruthanne’s Eyes are both featured in the most recent issue of Metonym


-- a yearly, periodic literary journal of original fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and visual art published by the English Program at William Jessup University. metonymjournal.org


JESSUP MAGAZINE 11


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