The Best Seat in the House

Line Dancing is drawing to Music I closed my eyes and played vinyl LPs on a record player and the ink simply poured from my pen. It was the summer of 1978. I had just returned from Paris and my head was filled with fashion and glamor, strolls along the Avenue de Champs-Elysees, the most famous street in the world, it means the Elysian Fields, which indicates that someone thought this street was heaven on earth, and just like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, all symbols of Paris. The Seine was a colorful array of boats and ferries along the Left Bank with its art galleries and art supply stores. I was travelling with fellow designers, all graduates of The Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. We were drunk on champagne from fashion week, and exhausted, so we flew to Nice on the French Riviera where Princess Grace hosted a lavish wedding for her oldest daughter, Princess Caroline's first marriage. The royalty of Europe was in attendance in their bustling skirts and jeweled tiaras. The sparkling Mediterranean Sea was a proverbial traffic jam with yachts from all over the world, and small planes hovered above before landing on a very small airstrip. They have all come to celebrate, the rich and famous and Monarchy. And, of course, to meet some young and pretty unchaperoned American girls on holiday.When I returned home to my beach cottage on Long Island, I designed my boutique, Ruby Stars, Objets d'Art, Accessories & Apparel, in posh Locust Valley. It was here that I created these drawings, which lay in a gift box from Saks Fifth Avenue decomposing under my bed for more than 40 years. When I reflect on my life, I know with no uncertainty that, with a smile on my face to rival Hirschfeld's Carol Channing, I am the luckiest girl alive. Dedicated to Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) They call him The Line King and if you knew him, which I did briefly, you also knew NINA, his daughter. He drew Broadway with his pen. He entertained millions. And he touched me. Occasionally, I can see something, a hand, a foot, a look, a face, that is, to my eye, his hand on mine. I am ever gratefulListen to the music, close your eyes, and draw what you hear.