James Bristol participated in a studio drawing group. Several models posed nude for the group, taking turns for each of the weekly meetings. Ben, a man in his late 70s tended to pose more than the others. He arrived promptly, and without pretense, undressed, standing or sitting a quite natural pose.
Sketching the wizened features of Ben's face, the drooping skin of his chest, his splotched hands, or seeing him peer at passing cars on the other side of the studio window, James thought about Conor MacAuley, a bedridden professor he knew ten years before, staring up from his bed at paintings on the ceiling---a man, like Ben, at life's twilight, contemplating, maybe, his existence, beauty, the great design, of loves lost or gained, goals met, struggles, the end. Maybe Conor lived absolutely in the moment, needing nothing and no more, not worried about what happened or what was to come---simply holding on to the present. The drawings in this book awaken a sense of self in each of us and how we determine our place in the great design of this life.