Artists

My mother, Dorothy Dell Dennison, and her sister Lucy, were trained artists. My mother was a 1930 graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. That year, they packed their easels and supplies and drove deep into Mexico. They sketched and painted landscapes in the wilds, and returned with their old Nash packed with paintings. I later learned that they had taken with them an ancient Maltby Henley pistol, patented in 1888. I could not but ask, whatever was that for? My mother shrugged … a tool of the artist’s trade … when walking the desert or sleeping in the car. 

Photo by Gustavo Romero Monterroza