"Luau Sketches... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!" Number Four!

You just know she's disapproving of something someone's said!

I've sketched this woman here before, but this one is my best of her. She always looks a bit "painted." She hasn't any eye brows, so she has them drawn on very dark with eye liner, I suppose. Though she is always well groomed, her makeup tells of one that demands to be seen. I like this sketch because I captured her personality better than I have captured anyone else in this group.

She has tight thin lips and deep set eyes that, to me, portray a woman who has her own standards and wishes ( or demands! ) everyone else live up to hers. I think everyone keeps their distance for good reason, and it confuses her when she gets ostracized. But being left out only forces her to sticking her nose in everyone's business. She can become quite catty, and when she does get too pushy, one of the men has to come in and assuage her hurt feelings. I don't know why the women of this generation seem to need a man's voice, to settle things down, but I rarely see any woman discipline each other in such a way unless they are kicking each other under the table. Maybe, they fear becoming catty.


Emotions can get pretty raw sometimes here. The group pretty much cares for each personality and embraces everyone like a great big family, so they accept her and her insecurities even though she can be a bit of a nuisance.

There's a distinct story being told here in this drawing, if one takes the time to look. It rarely occurs for me, but it did this time in this sketch. I'm happy with what I did... for a change!


Speaking of being catty. Sometimes, I have to escort my mom through the TV room where, at least, three or four, but sometimes, a dozen or so elderly men are watching Jerry Springer. Occasionally, there's a fight between two women that comes to fisticuffs, and I give the old guys a hard time about it. 

"Shame,"I chided them. "You guys just waiting to see two babes go at it!"

Then, one guy responds,"I wish they would put them in different colored trunks so I could see 'em better!"

As I started to chuckle at his comment, another gentlemen, who can best be described as an immobile, and rather mischievous little bulldog, replied as he pointed into the dining hall where mostly women play bingo and cards...

"Yeh, but it is safer in here, than in there!"

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III

"Luau Sketches... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!" Number Three!

This man has a great face to sketch, but I don't think...

The elderly man who quietly sat across from me at the Luau table has a great face to draw, and because he always wants to be incognito most of the time, he is perfect to sketch. But, even though I captured his likeness pretty well, his face has so much more character than I had time to put in. He sat quietly, rather disengaged from the rest of the luau madness. He wasn't really off in another world, like so many folks here, but seemed to tolerate everyone long enough to get his lunch and then, like a ghost...

... he was gone!

Copyright 2013/ Ben Bensen III

"Luau Sketches... The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!" Number Two!

Boss lady, Mrs. Lee, laughed when she saw this sketch...

Well, I started to cringed when the president of the club came by to see me sketching her... in all her Hawaiian regalia. The word had gotten around a couple of days before that the ever vivacious and witty woman from Brooklyn with the "yat"attitude" was gonna don on some "Don Ho." 

And did she ever!

From the flowered anklets up to a grass skirt that hid her ample waistline, but only highlighted the "D" sized coconut bra, Mrs. Lee posed and bowed for pictures as she glided through the aisles filled with her many adoring subjects! Her ever present microphone became a scepter, waving it high in the air, pretending she was blessing the congregation with "holy water!"

I think all those, dressed in colorful Hawaiian print shirts and Bermuda shorts, appreciated the fact that the "Queen of 'da Hula World" actually wore a pink tank top behind the ample and color filled leigh. Lee played it up in fine fashion, and all the members there, ate it up. And speaking of eating things up, when she arrived to the front of the stage, to read the minutes, take care of some business, then, say grace and address the red, white and blue, someone yelled out,"Okay Lee, when do we eat?"

She chuckled as she inquired,"Has everyone that wanted to take a picture of 'da pig wit the apple in its mout, done 'dat?"

"Okay, she said, beginning to speak the opening words of Grace Before Meals...

"Bless us, Oh Lord, and these Thy gifts...!"

"Indeed," I thought to myself... "Indeed!"

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III

"Luau Sketches...The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!

She goes by Dolores, Doris, or Dot!

She looked very nice today at the Luau. Doris, had makeup on, a multicolored leigh and a Hawaiian shirt. Like a San Francisco, late-blooming, flower child, her daughter added two hibiscus in her hair. Doris is usually rather demure and soft spoken. An octogenarian who defers to other boisterous, flamboyant and aggressive women at her table across from where usually my mom sits.

And no, my mom is not the demure type!

But, at the Luau, she must have felt her real self having been "prissyed up"by her daughter.  She was tapping her feet and tapping the table to many of the songs that were being played. She actually was singing with my mom to Jimmy Buffet's, "Margaritaville!"

I didn't even know my mother knew that song!

Later, as the festivities started to wind down, I laughed, rather demurely, at Dolores telling her daughter, "I feel like I'm back in the dating game, again!"

Her daughter, who's name I have forgotten, is a nurse that comes every Wednesday to take and read the members' blood pressure. She requested I sketch her now known mother, Dot!

I requested that the daughter take a picture of Dot and email it to me, which she did, though, I have yet to receive any email.

I then, did this sketch of her... all three of her at the same time, Doris, Dolores, and Dot!

Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III