Lisa Kaplan 100 Days: 2015

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Thank you to everyone who helped and attended my show!

The 66 drawings selected for this exhibit are part of a series of 300 drawings that were started in March 2012.

My two sons purchased caran d’ache color pencils and architectural drawing supplies for my birthday, and Mother’s Day, in order for me to create these artworks.

Many of the drawings are part of my “Blue Star Series”. Blue Star Mothers is an organization that I joined when Alex, my younger son, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.

Alex told me, when they gave me the art supplies, to make 300 drawings in 300 days and when I would be done, he would be home.

I entered the drawings in a blog and the last drawing was posted the day he flew home.

There was a short period of time during the deployment when no family member at home heard from his or her loved ones. To say it was an intense time is an understatement. I have included excerpts from emails during, and after that time.

On September 11, 2012, Alex “im’d” me that he was out of Afghanistan. Words cannot express the relief I felt that day.

Eleven years earlier, Alex was a freshman at Stuyvesant High School, and witnessed the destruction of the Twin Towers.

Color plays an important role in this work, as well as symbols of stars, trees, and geometric shapes. Drawing kept me sane during the time that Alex was deployed, and it has become the way I deal with many incidents that occur in my life.

Lisa Kaplan