Folds and Craters

A Leporello In Celebration of Life color pencils by Meera Rao

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 -Week 3

During the the past two years because of the pandemic closings, the National Museum for the Women in the Arts has offered an Art Chat every Friday introducing women artists from their collection. I have thoroughly enjoyed attending those online chats rarely missing any. On Friday January 14th, during the art chat we were introduced to book art in Leporello binding and encouraged to fold a sheet of paper and draw along during the event. I took bits and parts, a color or form from each of the artworks from the three artists of the day and filled my page.  In book binding, Leporello binding is a concertina folded pages with front and back boards.   Leporella fibriata, I learned later because of a lucky spelling error  is a hinged orchid from Australia. While contemplating the page for week 3 in the Smithsonian Engagement Calender 2022,  I decided to fold my artwork and hinge my leporello like a leporella to the page.  Perfect for my 'upcycled'  dairy and art journal for sketching the pandemic years! 

The painting 'Luck Lines' on the opposite page in the Smithsonian engagement Calendar is by Nicole Eisenman. "Often steeped in allegory yet resistant to easy interpretation, Eisenman's paintings acknowledge the complex social and political structures that shape contemporary identity. 'Luck Lines' foregrounds the line believed by palm readers to reveal one's destiny encouraging us to consider whether our lives are predetermined or shaped by individual will."  

My page before folding

A Glorious Sunset  watercolor by Meera Rao 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 Week 3

The photo in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 for week 3 was a photograph of the Greek village of Oia, Santorini by LucVI.  The caption on the photo reads "Part of the Cyclades, a Greek island chain in the Aegean, Santoni is also renowned for the important archaeological site of the Akrotiri, once a Minoan Bronze Age city buried in volcanic ash in the 16th century BCE."  As luck would have it, in my camera roll for that week in 2021 was a glorious sunset from my own backyard :) We may not have a volcano near by, but we have the Chesapeake Bay Meteor Impact Crater - 'worlds best preserved wet-target impact crater.' formed around 35.5 + 0.3 Million years ago in the late Eocene epoch era.  Scientists have proof that the continued slumping of the sediments over the rubble of the crater has helped shape the Chesapeake Bay

Beauty, Death, Time and Recipes !!

Red Bench at the Cemetery  watercolor by Meera Rao 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 Week 2 

A winter storm blanketed Washington DC the first Monday of the year. At the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC, the beauty of a snow covered red bench sitting amidst snow capped tombstones was very unsettling in a way. The photograph of the watch on the opposite page seemed to further that feeling reminding me of the ticking clock of life.

When I read that it is an uncommon watch and belonged to Helen Keller, I was intrigued. The touch watch by Rossellini & Fils c.1865 Geneva, Switzerland, designed to tell time in the dark, with pins around the edge that correspond to the hours on the dial, was a gift to teenaged Helen Keller.  ‘A revolving hand on the back of the watch stops at a point between the pins that corresponds to the hour and approximate minute. With the hand and pins as locators, it is possible to feel the approximate time.’   

While I was mulling over the concepts of beauty, death and ticking clock, I stumbled across this quote written by Albert Einstein on the passing of his friend Michele Besso : ‘Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.  That means nothing. People like us, who believe in Physics, know that the distinction between the past, present and future, is a stubbornly persistent illusion.’ Sounds like ‘Maya’ - something right out of Upanishads that I been reading and and trying to understand !!! 

Color mixing : greens. Watercolor Meera Rao 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 week 2 

The photograph for the week in Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 week 2 is of ‘cordial recipes from James Smithson’s  receipt book’  :  ‘Honor the Smithsonian’s 175th birthday by toasting the founding donor, James Smithsonian (1765-1829), with one of his cordials- aniseed, peppermint or cinnamon. Smithsonian, a chemist recorded formulas for a wide array of his favorite compounds that found use in tooth powder, boot black, and cough drops.’ 

Looking through my photographs and sketchbooks I discovered that ‘color recipes’ for green by mixing different yellows and blues was what I was working on during that week. :) 

Cheers! Be Hoppy !

Guinness Barrel House  pen & ink and Pitt artist pens

Last Sunday, we met family from Out of town at the Guinness Brewery in Baltimore. It turned out to be  a perfect place to meet - as we chose to gather at the open area in the complex with picnic tables. Since we were there as it opened late morning, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The kids ran around and played happily and adults were all very happy to meet each other after long pandemic separation!  There was a lot of happy catching up and we were too busy for much drinking or eating :)  A few hours of seeing each other and renewing bonds gave us some comfort. 

Guinness Brewery  view from Parkinglot  pen & ink, watercolor and Pitt artist pens

The sketches done in the parkinglot were quick ones  done in the car while waiting for the place to open. I added color at home. The Barrel House sketch was done at home. It was the view from our picnic tables. I like the effect of adding a touch of color to mostly black and white sketches. I was experimenting on how much color to add in each of these sketches. 

Guinness Brewery view from Parkinglot   pen & ink and Pitt artist pens

 

New year and the Theme Continues !

Hydrangea in December from our garden watercolor by Meera Rao 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 week1 

Happy New Year !! Wishing all a happy, healthy, creative year ahead!

I am back at it again - sketching simultaneously in my 2021(retroactive) and 2022 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar as a continuation of my 2020 theme of ‘Sketching the Pandemic Year!’  I haven’t come up with any other project to keep me ‘engaged’ and had these two beautiful books on hand. So I  continue to record something for each week while still mulling over other ideas ! This way I will have at least 106 sketches done this year :) 

“The ‘Dyber Amertrine’ photographed in the 2021 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar is a quartz variety mined in Anahi Mine, Bolivia, that is part amethyst and part citrine, accounting for the unique purple and yellow orange color combination seen in theses gems. Although faceted and carved by hand, the ‘Dyber Ametrine’ also represents the state-of-the-art cutting techniques used by gem artist Michael Dyber , including ‘Dyberotic Optic Dishes’ that create optical illusions.”

The fading, drying hydrangea is from our garden photographed last December. It mirrored the colors and beauty  of the ametrine and was the motivation for me to continue sketch-journaling in these Engagement calendars! 

Cooper’s Hawk  watercolor by Meera Rao 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 week1 

As with the owl in the previous post, I identified Cooper’s hawk calls I heard on my daily walk last week using the Merlin Bird App from Cornell Ornithology Lab. Two days later I saw three of them again in the same area circling above.  Using bird guides and my own blurry photographs I sketched it in watercolor. 

The explanation in the 2022 Smithsonian Engagement Calendar about the dove photographed on that page : ‘Artis Pablo Cano created this card for Helen Kohen, a noted art historian and critic, to thank her for a gift she had given him and to tell her how he was using it. The front of the card features a drawing of a dove and the back includes a sketch of a design for a telephone booth shaped like a women’s head.’  I guess now that page has a dove and hawk :)