Drawings

Abstract

^Drawings Elizabeth Layton Literature and Medicine 13, no. 1 (Spring 1994) 47-59 © 1994 by The Johns Hopkins University Press 48 DRAWINGS Figure 1. On the Death of a Child. Colored pencil on paper, 28 χ 22 inches, 1977. "No matter how old your child is when it dies, you tend to think of it as a baby." Elizabeth Layton 49 Figure 2. Pushing up the Daisies. Colored pencil on paper, 28 χ 22 inches, 1978. "This is my gravestone ... some child has pulled some daisies and laid them there on the grave. See, she is winking... she knows what's after this world. It's a hopeful picture." 50 DRAWINGS Figure 3. Pulling the Plug. Colored pencil on paper, 30 χ 22 inches, 1987. "Symbolic of the many means of keeping a body functioning. Restraint is a necessity. The symbols are mainly the machines and plug. ... I put a cockroach in symbolizing danger.. . her skin is the color of air, quite transparent." Elizabeth Layton 51 Figure 4. Traditional (Natural) Dying (Tender Loving Care). Colored pencil on paper, 30 χ 22 inches, 1987. "Intensive caring or only caring [is] what I was trying to say... time has run out, the bell tolls, candle is almost burned out, patient has become nothing (bed).... In the traditional way of dying, we spoon-fed a little ice, not enough to sustain life but sufficient to comfort the body and nourish the soul...." 52 DRAWINGS Figure 5. The Magic Gate to the Cosmos. Colored pencil on paper, 41 χ 29 inches, 1987. "She goes through the magic gate to the Cosmos, the pain of death almost unnoticed as she recognizes her welcome. In the world she is leaving behind are flowers, weeks, beauty, ugliness, cruelty, love... . She is far enough into the gate that she can tell it's not going to be a bad place. You can tell by the light in her eyes___" Elizabeth Layton 53 Figure 6. Void. Colored pencil on paper, 28 χ 22 inches, 1978. "I had this feeling that I was out in the middle of nowhere... absolutely nothing ... and it was such a lost feeling. I was lit up by a white light, but I didn't light up the black." 54 DRAWINGS Figure 7. Stroke. Colored pencil on paper, 28 χ 22 inches, 1978. "This is an out-of-body experience at a time of stress. With no feeling in half her body, she looks devastated. Yet, there is hope in the flowers and butterflies of her robe." Figure 8. Hansel and Gretel Lost in the Woods. Colored pencil on paper, 22 χ 28 inches, 1987. "Hansel and Gretel are lost in the woods, at the candy house in the realm of the wicked witch. In the upper Figure 9. Tfa's Motherless Child No. 4, "Her Bath." Colored pencil on paper, 22 χ 30 ^ inches, 1987. "Some Residents like their bath. Some don't. All seem to feel better ™ afterwards!" W er Sr > ζ Γι Figure 11. Buttons. Colored pencil on paper, 22 χ 30 inches, 1982. "Her strength is in her DrinciDles. m S1 r1 Figure 12. Indian Pipes. Colored pencil on paper, 22 χ 30 inches, 1984. "... an old Indian, as his time to die drew near, went out, or was put out, from the tepees to the mercy of the elements.... Here the old chief still sharpens his arrowhead. The old squaw knits on booties for coming generations' never-ending needs. Death zeroes in on the old people. Not something black and ugly but a silvery crystal softness." ...