isa: the encore
The first time I met isa maria was in the late 1980’s at a neighborhood pond where weekly swimming lessons for Floyd homeschoolers and Blue Mountain School students took place. isa stood out, not only because of her striking beauty, but because she was the mother of two babies and was carrying one on each hip. Later, I came to know her as an artist. Looking for ways to make income as single full-time mother, I agreed to model for the Floyd Figures Art group, of which she was a member. I was amazed at how quickly she sketched a pastel portrait of me and how well she captured my likeness. When I told her how impressed I was, she ripped it off the easel and gave it to me.
We were co-counseling partners for a couple of years. After taking a workshop on co-counseling, hosted by isa at her house, she and I became regular co-counseling partners. Every couple of weeks, I drove out to her farm in Check and we would take turns talking and listening, giving each other our undivided attention. During this time I wrote a poem about her clothesline. I remember her field of purple coneflowers. She was growing them to harvest the roots for making Echinacea tincture. Sometimes I would model for her while she sketched.
I held isa’s third baby days after she was born. Her marriage was ending and she was beginning to think out loud about living in Hawaii. Later, we were in the same improv dance class that performed as a group at the Mountain Rose Dance Recital. 
When Joe and I got married in 1996, isa offered to paint us. Dressed in our wedding whites, we stretched out on a futon on her back porch (where the light was good). “Sit in whatever position is most comfortable,” she said. “This could take awhile.” Joe, taking her directive serious, lay down in my lap. At one point, isa’s then-boyfriend, who was a rock climber, came to visit. He proceeded to climb and then hang from the rafters of her porch.
Because of the proximity of Joe’s and my hand, which placed our wedding rings center stage, isa named the wedding portrait “The Rings.” It hung in her first show in Floyd at the Old Church Gallery before it found its way to a wall in our home. The image was also featured in a story about isa, published in The Floyd Press.
Post Notes: The above is the result of the positive feedback I received on my Monday’s entry about my friend isa and her art. When I mentioned in a comment that she had done a wedding portrait of my husband and me, several readers asked to see it. You can visit isa’s website HERE.
November 11th, 2006 4:43 pm
Your friend sounds very interesting, and the portraits are lovely. Here from Michele’s today
November 11th, 2006 4:45 pm
You are lucky to have such a friend. One of our old friends, with whom we have now lost touch, made my engagement ring and our original wedding rings. We don’t wear them but I do wear a pair of earrings she made for me from old glass Mardi Gras beads and a pair of diamond studs, too. She was in New Orleans when we knew her. My husband knew her long before I did. She was an interesting character.
November 11th, 2006 5:04 pm
Brave and strong woman. I can see why you are friends as you both have art and strength in common. Hawaii is a paradise.
November 11th, 2006 7:35 pm
Those pictures are so great!!!
I forget how GOOD they are.
November 11th, 2006 7:56 pm
Thanks for the pictures, Colleen…both of them are lovely. I love the idea of Joe curling up in your lap. You are a lucky couple.
November 11th, 2006 11:21 pm
You are blessed to have such a talented friend.
Both pictures are lovely.
November 12th, 2006 5:17 am
Oh Colleen, I LOVE Both those portraits…that first one of you as just beautiful and the other obe is soooo sweet! I love that Joe has his head in your lap…
I would LOVE to see them bth bigger! (My syesight, you know….)
So glad you posted them and the very interesting background on how you met and know isa….!
November 12th, 2006 9:05 am
What lovely portraits, Colleen. You are indeed lucky to have her as a friend. I once modeled for an artist’s drawing class and he paid me by doing a charcoal portrait of me. Alas, it wasn’t a really good likeness (he made my nose too wide and my lips too think) but I still have it.
November 12th, 2006 1:50 pm
She has captured you beautifully. An artist indeed.
The wedding portrait is fantastic too!!!!!
November 12th, 2006 2:00 pm
Gorgeous paintings! This entry is a fantastic tribute.
November 13th, 2006 7:17 am
Oh, how lovely. The one of you and Joe is especially wonderful. I wish I could have her do a mermaid portrait-you know how I feel about all things oceanic, and her mermaids are just beautiful.
November 13th, 2006 8:19 am
I love those! Both portraits are wonderful. She is a true talent.
November 13th, 2006 9:54 am
Lovely paintings, Colleen and she certainly is talented. Just love her work. And thanks for posting the wedding one…I was one of the ones that requested it.
November 13th, 2006 12:37 pm
What an interesting back story. Wonderful how people keep cycling through your life.
November 14th, 2006 2:49 am
lovely. what a beautiful little tale of a friendship. 🙂 through hard but good times.
November 14th, 2006 10:18 am
Your life has been…and continues to be, very interesting!
June 11th, 2010 4:48 pm
[…] Notes: So now you’ve seen the After. HERE is the Before. Read more about The Floyd Figure Artists 2009 Faces of Floyd […]
January 22nd, 2015 12:41 am
[…] I announced to my women friends, who were gathered together for a tea party in honor of our friend isa being in town. “I put it in the Museletter, and so now everybody knows!” I […]