17

Sandy Van Winkle

What was your first thought when you received this number?

That there was nothing in my life that correlates to the number 17! I was was 17 once, I read 17 magazine, and I couldn't really come up with anything meaningful.

What happened next?

I decided that I needed more suggestions for the number 17- I wasn't coming up with anything off the top of my head. So I googled the number 17 to see what's all out there that might mean something- and there's all kinds of stuff. But when I saw sonnet 17, I thought it might have possibilities. I'm by no means a Shakespeare expert, but I thought that there must be something there worthwhile. So I read Sonnet 17, and there was just that portion of it- 'If I could write the beauty of your eyes..." I read through that, and it seemed like something I could sketch. I've been kind of dabbling in that a little bit. So I had a little bit of an epiphany from that, and went on from there.

It's so interesting how the eyes really are the window to the soul, and we try to describe them with words, and it's just not really possible.

Especially in a sonnet. He's trying to express this, and there's so much emotion behind it, but there are no words. And even an image doesn't capture it, because it's just so amazing. This poet lies- there's no way all this beauty is from a person. Anyway, that's what touched me, and I figured it was something I could work with.