Friday, July 2, 2021

To The Possible Limit : Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 21

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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