Gare Barks

[Dwight Decker]

Howdy good peoples...

In answer to Per's query about Gare Barks...well,
maybe I shouldn't have mentioned this at all because
now I have to explain it. Yes, Gare had only one
complete arm. I think she was missing a hand and
a forearm on the other. I don't know what the story
was. She managed to become an accomplished painter,
of course, and she didn't seem too hampered by her
lack of a limb the day I visited the Barkses some
20 years ago. Many, if not most tasks (like
painting) can be done one-handedly with some
practice and adjustment. However, she did seem
sensitive enough on the issue that she posed for
photographs with only the one arm in view. It
probably would have been really tasteless if the
Topolino artist had not drawn her with both arms
in that "Duck Man" story. It's not really
important and would just distract from the point
of the story with an irrelevant side issue.

Uhmm...to amplify on something I said above since
it's too late to change it...if you're right-
handed, of course you'd paint with your right
hand, but you'd also do a lot of other things
with your left hand, like reach for things off
to the left side while your right hand was busy
doing something else. If you lost your left hand,
the quality of your painting wouldn't suffer,
but you'd have to use your right hand for 
everything, which would slow things up. Am I
making sense? I'd better quit before I really
get in deep...!

--Dwight Decker