Portrait #16: Gil

I first heard about Gil when I got accepted to Sarah Lawrence. My down the street neighbors, the Brancaccios, had moved from LA when I was 14 and knew someone from LA who was going to be my year. They were like oh, this guy Gil is awesome, and its so funny because he's a Jew named Gentile! Ha Ha You Should Say Hi To Him When You Get to School. I had pretty high expectations because this family was my favorite out of my parents friends because they were the most intellectual (and famous... David used to host Marketplace on NPR before they moved. and Mary was an awesome English teacher at my high school and really knew how to talk to teenagesrs, I noticed at my mom's 50th birthday party.)

But then I got to school and found this weird looking guy who seemed like a cave person. I didn't say Hi to him until I was at a party during orientation this year (or was it last year?) and as soon as he spoke I realized he was totally NOT a cave person. We totally bonded over knowing Nick Brancaccio since this kid had been in all my art classes and I wanted to be his friend and he and Gil were both into stuff like architecture and drawing. I was so down.

Then Gil and I took the same sculpture class and he totally sculpted a poop for his mold-making project. I thought it was the most brilliant and strategic use of a mold I had ever seen. I hope he makes a million of them and sticks it in someone's room or office who he does not like.


Anyway, Gil was hard to draw because while he has very distinctive features, it didn't look like him until I got millions of marks down to make his hair big enough. John, who is the sitter in the next post, sat behind me and watched and was very encouraging, shouting things like "WOAH that was a good move" when I scratched in some dark eyebrows above Gil's glasses. Gil was very pleased because not only did I get his masking tape on his glasses (SO important) but I made his nose bigger and longer. When his special someone, Zara, came in and saw the drawing, she said the same thing and was like "wow I bet he's so happy you made his nose bigger" and he smiled because it as true. Mostly I really liked making the patterns on his sweater because I think they capture his personality. Also I think his expression ended up really funny.

Here is another picture I drew of Gil once during class: