Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 21: May 17-23
In June, I plunged into the #30x30DirectWatercolor challenge (please check my Instagram or Facebook posts) and could not keep up with my blog :) So already late postings of my sketches in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 are now very late. The excitement of that week in May 2020 was the anticipation of the cocoon/chrysalis changing to butterfly and completing the cycle. Amazingly, the sketches paired wonderfully with the photo of Jose Bedia’s art work in the calendar:) Titled ‘To the Possible limit’ in acrylic and conte crayon the artwork pays homage to the balseros -Cubans who take the perilous ocean journey in homemade rafts looking for a better life and yet feel a bond to their homeland.
I found dot like Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars on the leaves of the parsley I had asked my husband to bring in from the garden to garnish the sandwich for lunch. I put those cut branches in a bottle with a bit of water and decided to nurture the caterpillars providing them fresh leaves everyday :) A few weeks later, I was rewarded handsomely as the caterpillars grew and eventually turned into chrysalis. I waited and watched them closely until one night I saw the chrysalis turning darker and the dots on it beginning to glow a bit. Next early morning I sat next to it with my cup of coffee and camera waiting eagerly. I had read the butterfly emerges as the rays of sun warm the chrysalis. The emergence took less than a minute but the butterfly took about 2 hours to open the wings and warm up before flying off. For a couple of the caterpillars that were in my dill plant I even had to buy organic dill from the grocery store as they had demolished the plant in no time ! But this was an amazing experience to see the butterfly emerge !
Parsley Seallowtail Butterfly and Chrysalis by Meera Rao
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