I call this drawing “After Dine” because it is study of a drawing done by Jim Dine.  Jim Dine is a major American artist who is famous for drawing/painting hearts and bathrobes, but it is his figure work that I love.  Dine, after being successful as a pop artist, went to Europe and studied the figure for three years–he is a modern master of the figure and of  the face.  There is a long tradition in art of copying from other artists–it is one of the ways artists learn from other artists.    Harold Bloom, in the “Anxiety of Influence”, talks about how poets are enthralled by master poets until they do a “misreading”  of the master’s work–that is, they rewrite the poem but this time with their own, unique voice.  All art is a revision of the art that went before it–nothing is entirely new.   I learn a lot by doing master studies and, for me, it creates a sense of community–artists communicating with other artists across time.  “After Dine” is a misreading of  Jim Dine’s original drawing, a  sketch of his wife, done in my own voice.  Thanks Jim Dine!