Baker

Drawing and Story by Sandshoe

The landlord where I boarded and my meals were cooked and dishes done, my clothes washed, ironed and jazz played incessantly was enchanted with the line drawing (1988). Could he have a copy and frame it so I secured a good copy he sent to professional framers. Nothing was too good for the cartoon that he would simply go to the cheap shop and buy a frame for a few cents.

It was duly hung in the narrow space between the corner of the wall meeting the living room area and the frame of the door into the kitchen from the dining alcove. I mused on it curiously from my seat at the dining table opposite the landlord’s. His back was to it where he sat ready to exit into the kitchen to service meal times, wonderful concoctions of meals it felt to me eclipsed every time until the next evening’s meal by the breakfast that was his sourdough bread and home made marmalade … I pause as my mouth waters … spooned into a presentation dish out of a jar labelled and inscribed with copperplate calligraphy he attended at the local library with the mums to learn for the purpose.

My curiosity remains how extraordinary it is that simple depictions made by single lines communicate across space and time so we recognise imperative, movement, personality and so on.

I was pleased to have allowed flights of fancy at previous lodgings attempting minimalist line drawing.

He showed me his recipe book.

When he had been Sales Manager for a major paper firm in New Zealand before his retirement, he suggested to his management that agreed he design a recipe book to be distributed in parts clients were awarded each time they purchased consignments of paper per bundle and collected in a holder the company supplied.

I felt honoured that the cartoon was regarded so well. The recipe book was beautifully presented and illustrated with stock drawings that were classic 50s of the sort muted with a brush of random wash.