Casey's Last Ride (2025) Original Charcoal Drawing by laleliyegidentramvay

Someone once asked me: if you were only allowed to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? This drawing is my answer. It is Kris Kristofferson's "Casey's Last Ride," and rather than say the title out loud I decided to draw it, note for note, the way it exists on paper before anyone plays it.

I drew the sheet crumpled on purpose. A song you would choose as your only song is not a pristine thing kept in a folder. It is folded into a pocket, carried around, opened and closed until the paper goes soft and the creases turn into permanent scars. The tear across the middle is part of that too. What I wanted was the object as it actually ends up looking after a lifetime of being needed, not as it looked in the store.

What I hope for is a kind of double take. From across a room this looks like a photograph of an old score, or like a real sheet of paper somehow pinned flat to the wall. Up close it is pencil. And then, if you know the song, you hear it while you look, which is the closest I can get to putting a sound on a wall.

Materials used:

charcoal

Details:

• Charcoal drawing on Paper
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 53 x 73 x 3cm (framed) / 40 x 60cm (actual image size)
• Framed and ready to hang
• Signed on the front
• Style: Photorealistic
• Subject: Still life