my friends come to visit, part 2 (helen)
Written on December 17, 2008
helen and i went to high school together. the high school of the stars, though she was more of a star than i was. i first met her in my US history class in summer school, between 10th and 11th grade, and i was immediately scared to death of her. at crossroads we did summer school to get ahead, not because we were behind in anything. helen often sat next to me in film class and it took me a few weeks to put together the connection between her last name and the robocop poster on jim hosney’s classroom wall. of course, the added geek-cred-by-proxy just increased the general mystique.
helen was a real artist even back then as a teenager. now she’s a successful painter in new york, and while i’ve thankfully outgrown my teenage fear of her i’ve managed to maintain a general sense of admiration for her integrity and talents. i’m really pleased she took me up on my offer of a portrait when she was in town over the thanksgiving holiday, though i admit, it was sort of surreal to have helen verhoeven standing in my living room almost twenty years after i first met her. thanks, helen.
take a look at helen’s paintings at her website, here.
Filed in: friends,living room portraits.
Hmmm…what’s with all these “friends” , all totally hot, just “dropping by for a visit”?
Great portrait of the Mom though…that is a keeper.
“i first met her in my US history class in summer school, between 10th and 11th grade, and i was immediately scared to death of her.”
I know what you mean. I had a similar feeling about her when she was my classmate in elementry school in the Netherlands. When I met her again twenty years later at a school reunion, it was a much different experience.
Mischa