Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 7

Week 7 February 9-15 2020 Caterpillar by Meera Rao 

I saw many caterpillars on a partially cut down tree in the yard. But by late afternoon they all had disappeared ! Don’t know if they ate their way to cocooning or were eaten by hungry birds looking for tasty nutritious morsels for their chicks ! There is a philosophical appreciation  for caterpillars in almost all cultures for the unique way they gracefully and patiently metamorphose and change life forms.  In Native American tradition caterpillar is believed to bring luck in love! So once again I smiled at how the photo of the corsage made of sea shells in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 paired nicely with the caterpillar.  

But reading further and diving deeper, I realized that the corsage was one of the ‘Art of Gaman’ created by Japanese Americans in Internment camps  during World War ll. ‘Gaman’ is a Japanese word from Zen Buddhism meaning enduring the unbearable with dignity and patience. I discovered that beautiful objects, furniture, jewelry, toys etc  were made during the those difficult years from found objects, scrap materials - a testament to their resourcefulness, perseverance in hard times, their humanity and  spirituality.  Delphine Hirasuna, author and curator of  the exhibit ‘Art of Gaman’ says : “Most of these artworks were done by people without any professional training. When the powers that be take everything away from you, the only thing left is your own creative expression, what you have in your mind. And so Art became in many ways essential to mental survival in the camps.”  Little did I know back in February 2020 that the whole world would soon need  gaman, the creative art of coping, in the year of covid! 

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Caterpillar watercolor by Meera Rao