I'm taking a figure drawing class at UCLA... and so I've been doing more sketching lately. This is a picture of Amina Lawal, a Nigerian woman who was recently aquitted of charges of adultery (she is pictured below with her daughter Wasila, the living evidence of her crime). Under her village's Islamic custom, adultery carries a penalty of death by stoning.

Overall I like the class. The model was good, the teacher is nice enough, and even has a sense of humor - overheard at the first class:

"Hmmm, yeah, I'd just erase that..."

and...

"Well, I'd go ahead and call that done. I mean, you might do something else and wreck it, and then you'd feel awful."

He didn't say anything at all to me. I'm not entirely sure how to take that.

posted by Lorna Brown at 2:56 AM