This is a drawing on an ostrich egg of American Paul Robeson and Englishwoman Peggy Ashcroft. The drawing is done with graphite pencil and ballpoint pen. The surface of the egg was polished by myself using various grits of sandpaper. I did make a videotape of the various stages of completion of this drawing. This is my first drawing on an egg and was completed in 1999. The surface was polished to the smoothness of glass and then the area to be drawn on was roughed to a texture desirable for drawing upon. To gain proportions, a bullseye pattern with radiating lines was used. The standard grid would not work on a round surface. The drawing took 270 hours to complete.

Paul Robeson was the Man of the Century, as far as I am concerned, relative to integrity, talent, and overall inspired ability in the various fields of pursuit...Law (Valedictorian of All White College), Football (1st professional black football player), Language (spoke 20+ languages), Acting (7+ movies including Showboat, Singing (numerous records and live performances would attract 10-50,000 people), Orator (famous for speaking out against lynchings), Stage (set records for 296 consecutive performances on Broadway as Othello. and so on and so on and if you did not know, for his stance against lynchings and McCarthyistic policies of those times (1930's-'50's), Paul Robeson's passport was taken away for more than 10 years, denying all international singing concerts he had become world-famous for and likewise was denied all forums and arenas here to perform. And so now you know...the most talented intelligent man of the Century was a prisoner of the United States of America and so with all this in mind...I felt creating a work of art dedicated to Paul Robeson would be appropriate to provide a remembrance of this supreme talent. I do not know much about Peggy Ashcroft, only that she, too, went on to become quite famous as an actress. The time period depicted here on this egg is 1930.

I have never offered this work for sale and am considering an auction in the near future of this drawing on an ostrich egg. I do realize this is one of a kind and this may be the finest rendering ever on an egg, so if I do offer this work for auction, the reserve price will be reflective of these facts. Also see Sneak Previews for another work on an ostrich egg. This work was very difficult to photographically reproduce.