Star And Warrior

Brand New Baby Grand Daughter watercolor by Meera Rao

The baby is a year & half and finally I get around to post this little sketch from 2021!!  At least I did sketch it more than a year ago. I love it that this is being posted on the 14th Blog Anniversary! I wish I had a better image. I hope I will sketch many more as she grows up to fully realize her wonderful potential. 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Week 15 2021

The Kiowa Battle dress c 2000 by Vanessa Jennings (Kiowa/Pima) is "similar to those worn by female relatives of the warrior members of the Ton-Won-Gah, or the Kiowa Black Leggings Society. The yellow patches with the horse heads indicate a Vietnam War veteran from the US Army's first cavalry." I actually had not paid any attention to this photo on the opposite page in the upcycled sketchbook - the Smithsonian Engagement calendar 2021- while I sketched my grandbaby. It is one of the very few times I totally ignored the image in the engagement Calendar until it was time for me write about it in the blog :)

  

Star Magnolia from Japan At the national mall 

We planned the visit to DC to coincide the cherry blossoms in full glory. As we were walking around checking out various pockets of cherry blossoms around the National Mall area, I came across this marker on on of the star magnolia tree marking the gift from Japan many many years ago! 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar Week 15 2022

"The strappy petals of Magnoliastellata's flowers give this tree its common name- the star magnolia. Endangered in its native Japanese range, it is commonly planted in gardens for its beauty." And I found this one near the Capitol grounds.   

The Power of Words and Images

Jaume Plensa’s Silver Adagio at Planet Word  pen&I know and watercolor by Meera Rao 

We went to the Planet Word museum with our 8 year old granddaughter who was excited to show off the place. It’s a really fun ‘museum where language comes to life’ and is perfect for language/book nerds :) There are unique interactive exhibits on various topics like history of English, languages around the world, language of humor, poetry, advertising, music, children’s first words, and more!  There is playful poetry written on the bathroom walls ! Our granddaughter‘s favorite was a ‘secret book room’ in the museum that is ‘hidden’ behind a wall of shelf :) 

At the entrance is a sculpture ‘Silver Adagio’  by Jaume Plensa.  It is made up of stainless steel symbols from ‘9 different language systems : Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Chinese and Assamese’.  I was impressed there were three languages from India in that sculpture! It was fun to find them ! I read that Plensa’s sculptures often focuses on what it means to be a human ‘particularly in an increasingly globalized world. The meditative pose of the figure reminds us that we are not merely bodies but spirits that use languages to express themselves and connect to others.’ 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 week 9 Feb 20-26

 

The photo of the pin back button ‘Black Lives Matter’ is from the ‘Million Man March 2015’  that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the first Million Man March on the National Mall in Washington DC.  It is from the collection of National Museum of African American History and Culture. Thousands gathered and marched demanding an end to violence against black Americans. The button “features the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ which has become a movement and a rallying cry against racial violence and injustice. Plensa’s sculpture ‘speaks’ to the very same issue. I could not have planned the pairing for the week - pure serendipity! 

Palm Tree Brings Nostalgia  watercolor by Meera Rao 

Sheltering at home during the pandemic has meant that I looked out the windows and door at various times during the day and saw my own yard with new eyes ! Watching the way the sun shines and wind rustles the palm fronds on the tree near our front door brings back memories of areca nut and palm trees near my childhood home. On this particular day I felt an acute tinge of nostalgia. 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 week 9 February 21-27

In the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 for week 9, is the ‘Portrait of the Artist’  an etching by Shahzia Sikander. It is from the collection at the National Portrait gallery.  That etching spoke to me differently than the explanation given ! 

 

Colors in the Sky and Garden

Flying Colors watercolor by Meera Rao

The Great Backyard Bird count  this year was on February 18-21 and the website says 'the world comes together to watch, learn about, count and celebrate birds.'  I observed, counted and reported the birds I saw in our backyard. Over the course of four days, armed with a binoculars, I was lucky to see herons(great blue and night), an egret, ducks, ospreys, bald eagles, northern mockingbirds, cardinals, finches(purple, golden/yellow and house), pine warblers, mourning doves, Carolina wrens, sparrows, pelicans, cormorants, tufted titmouse, chickadees, woodpecker, red winged black birds and many crows. And I also heard one owl at night! I feel fortunate to have so many different kinds around our neighborhood. The birds I painted in the repurposed Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 though, are not true to what I observed - but mainly my experiments with painting them in direct watercolor without prior sketching. I am pleased how they turned out :) 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 Week 8 February 13-19

It is indeed a fantastic coincidence that the photo opposite is a different kind of colorful flyer : Boeing Stearman N2S-5 Kaydet at the Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center, National Air and space museum. "More than 10,000 Stearman trainers were built by Boing, which had purchased the Stearman company in the late 1930s- Kaydets, along with Fairchilds and Ryans served as the backbone of US army and Navy primary flight training in World War-II. This Kaydet was used to train naval aviation cadets until 1946. 

Tasty Beauty Watercolor by Meera Rao

The 'Beautification of America' 6c block of four stamps January 16, 1969 on display at the National Postal Museum  matched well with the beautiful yellow mustard flowers from our garden during this week in February 2021. But then we grow them also for the tasty leaves for cooking :)  It is always exciting to get fresh greens in February from the backyard! 

"The stamp block, designed by Walter Dubois Richards, was part of a commemorative set in recognition of First Lady Lady Bird Johnson's 'Natural Beauty' campaign. These stamps honored the accomplishments of Mrs. Johnson's initiatives which encouraged involvement from government and local community organizations. They proved popular with the general public and the initial printing of 120 million stamps had to be increased to 170 million."

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 Week 8 February 14-20

 

Water, Earth and Sky

Watermen  watercolor by Meera Rao 

Late post! This is from February - week 7.  We see watermen in the river early morning. My research says they are harvesting oysters during February. Later it will be blue crabs and fish. As I am a vegan, until now I never bothered to look up what they were harvesting!   Their bright orange and blue outfits and yellow boat are easy to spot even when its foggy and misty. I love to watch them working and moving about in the waters. 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 Week 7 February 6-12

The photo in the  Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 Week 7 February 6-12 shows "Raft used by Cuban 'balseros' in 1992" now at the Anacostia Community Museum. 'This small craft, handcrafted from scavenged materials, buoyed two men on their journey from Cuba to the US in 1992. Styrofoam blocks are adhered to a wooden substructure with tar and held together by the Tarred cloth that wraps around the hull. the two men in the raft were spotted by a Florida based non-profit during a flyover of the ocean and then rescued by the US Coast Guard.'

Discarded Fish Heads watercolor by Meera Rao

There are about 5 bald eagles and a pair of Ospreys that have claimed our backyard as a part of their territory. The bald eagles are year round residents but the Ospreys usually migrate around mid March to nest in the Chesapeake Bay area  and fly south for winter in September. The bald eagles don't eat the whole fish - they usually drop the fish heads to the ground and its feast time for the fish crows and turkey vultures that always show up as soon as the Eagles or Osprey land on the pine tree branch lunch spot with their catch. With osprey though, the crows have to contend with bits that fly off while tearing into the fish. There is always lots of drama as the crows try to steal from the Eagles or the Ospreys and the Eagles go after Osprey with the fresh wiggly fish in its talons!

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 Week 7 February 7-13

The pottery shown in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 Week 7 February 7-13, is by Jeri Redcorn (Caddo/Potawatani) and is at the National Museum of the American Indian. "Like her ancestors, Jeri Redcorn(Caddo/Potawatani) gathers clay, makes her pottery by hand, and rather than using a kiln, fires it in a pit using wood for fuel. Though many of her designs and forms draw inspiration from those her ancestors used hundreds of years ago, they are, in themselves, unique works of contemporary art."  I learned that the art of Caddo pots were lost for more than a century until Jeri Redcorn revived them after seeing the pottery exhibited in museums. These pots were used  ceremonially and may have been used to accompanied the dead to the next world.  Seems appropriate to pair them the fish heads I find in the ground around the pine tree in my backyard! 

 

Icicles and Blooms

Icicles watercolor by Meera Rao

In the last week of January this year, we saw some heavy snow fall and with it very interesting icicle formations as the snow melted slowly from the roof top.  It is indeed serendipity when I paired it with the photo of the week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022.  Debra Baxter's Devils Horns Crystal Brass Knuckles(Lefty) 2015 made with Quartz crystals and sterling silver was exhibited at the Renwick Gallery, Washington DC. 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2022 week 5 

Relief in Full Bloom  Faber Castell PITT Artist pen by Meera Rao 

Spring came early for us last year on January 27, when we received our first shot of Covid-19 vaccine! It was indeed relief in full bloom! We then waited eagerly for the second shot scheduled in three weeks :) 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2021 week 5 

Japanese flowering apricot Prunus mume 'Peggy Clarke' in the Smithsonian Engagement calendar 2021 is a digital image  by Hannele Lahti from March 2019 at the National air and space Museum, Washington DC Smithsonian Gardens. 'This deep pink, double flowered cultivar of the Japanese apricot is easily mistaken for its botanical cousin the Japanese flowering cherry. Flowering apricots are the first sign of spring, blooming before cherry blossoms have even begun to open.' 

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

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 53

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 53 December 27-January 2 

The nature’s jewels whether it’s the largest rough diamond mined and then crafted into a necklace or the vibrant colors of the blueberry bush in winter are all wondrous!  ‘The Cullinan Blue Diamond necklace’ in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar  2020  a gift given to his wife Annie by Thomas Cullinan ‘ features nine blue diamonds and 253 colorless diamonds in rose gold and silver setting made around 1910. Suspended from the bow is the 2.60 carat Cullinan Blue Diamond, named for Thomas Cullinan, then Chairman of the Premiere Mine in South Africa.’  It was to commentate the largest diamond ever mined at 3106 carrots.  That diamond was gifted to King Edward VII of England.  I don’t know if the miner who found the diamond received any bonus! 

Blueberry bush in winter colors watercolor by Meera Rao 

A year of sheltering at home savoring the beauty and wonder of nature, moved me to appreciate and be grateful for every day miracles. I revisited the  year 2020 as I  posted these 53 sketches and my thoughts! In January of this year I received my first covid-19 vaccine.  Yet, ten months later, the pandemic is definitely not quite over and life is going on in a new normal- much different and still masked! 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 52

The Great Conjuncture of Jupiter and Saturn 

On December 21 2020, we were fortunate to watch the great conjuncture of Jupiter and Saturn as the the planets appeared closest to each other in the night sky. It was a treat to watch it right from our backyard soon after sunset without a telescope ! The conjuncture happens once every 20 years when Jupiter overtakes Saturn in its orbit. This one was the great conjuncture because it is the rarest of the conjunctures between naked eye planets -separations of less than 10 arcminutes have only happened four times since 1200- this being the most recent. According to NASA website  : What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.”  We, at first could not really believe what we were able to see with the naked eye - double checking it on NASA and other astronomy websites, and watching live streams from astronomy centers. We went in and out of the house admiring the universe’s wonders ! 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 52 December 20-26

Grandma Moses Out for Christmas Tree 1946 (oil on pressed wood) graces this week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020. ‘This winter landscape includes a number of charming vignettes as people pick out Christmas trees, pull sleds up a snowy slope, and chop firewood.’  As sweet as the scene in the painting is, my cherished Christmas memory for years to come will be the great conjuncture !!! 

This is week 52 - but there is one more page and one last sketch to share to complete my ‘Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020’ ! 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 51

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 51 December 13-19 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar had an unexpected benefit for me - I learned a lot of interesting history through the photos for each week from the Smithsonian collection. The stamp pictured is a $1 beer revenue stamp proof single, 1871 Card, scarlet and black ink engraved frame and vignette from the collection of National Postal Museum. Who knew there was a beer revenue stamp !!! According to the write up on the page, “at the time this stamp was printed, the federal beer tax was $1 per barrel. Brewers purchased sheets of the stamps without gum or perforations, cut the stamps apart, canceled them and pasted them over the stopper of the beer barrel so that tapping the barrel destroyed the stamp. This 1871 proof contains two mistakes : Secretary of Treasury Hugh McCulloch’s name is misspelled ’McCullogh’ and the word ‘printing’ contains a typo.”

I am not much of a beer drinker - beverage of my choice is coffee with lots of soy milk ! This particular morning a rainbow fell  through the window across the tablecloth and the coffee mug - best start for a beautiful day ! The table cloth and the patterns on my cup complement the photo on the opposite page quite well. Savoring the moment, I knew what to draw for that week :) 

Rainbow cup watercolor and pen by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 50

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 50 Dec 6-12 

The shirt pictured in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for week 50 is from Harlem Globetrotters from 1960s. It is at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  The caption reads: ‘Although founded in Chicago in the 1920s, the Harlem Globetrotters name helped identify them as a black team. While barnstorming through the Midwest, the team developed many of the comedy routines that would lead to their international fame.’  Mushroom is a ‘fungi’ that is why I paired it with the Harlem Globetrotters  -  fungi /fun guy - get it ?  ;) 

Mushrooms  Watercolor by Meera Rao 

 

I  found this beautiful, colorful mushroom in our backyard. I loved the colors and it’s shape. There was only one mushroom of that kind. Even after looking through guide books I was not able to identify it definitively. I was not aware that taking a spore print might have helped with the identification. I have since then been reading up on mushrooms/fungi and in awe of their underground network as well as their role in the ecosystem. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 49

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 49 November 29-December 5 

‘Richard Avedon’s eye catching posters of the Beatles- created at the height of the band’s fame- became icons of youth culture in the 1960s. This psychedelic portrait of John Lennon (1940-1980)-[ offset lithograph on white wove paper] appeared on the cover of a special issue of Look magazine in 1967 that chronicled changing times in a tumultuous decade.’ 

That is the explanation in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for week 48, and my colorful sketch for the week chronicles the unexpected fun I had with my granddaughters during the ‘shelter at home’ year.  We met via video chats. I quickly learned from them how to use all the different fun features :) We giggled and role played for hours. I am forever grateful for the silver lining that shone through during those dark pandemic days. Even though I am thankful that they are back in school, busy with their lives,  I really miss those video chats and the time we spent together chatting, reading, playing away happily. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020  Video Chat fun by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 48

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 48 November 22-28

The beautiful Yuit (Siberian Yup'ik) carved Eskimo ivory flatware (1920-23) from St.Laurence Island, Alaska, in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 pairs nicely with our Thanksgiving dessert plate :)  We had a simple thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us but we are still so grateful for this loaded dessert plate courtesy of our many friends! Sharing even during the pandemic shelter at home days added that wonderful rainbow to our lives. 

The Dessert Plate watercolor by Meera Rao 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 47 Nature’s Calligraphy

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 47 November 15-21

‘I think I will never see a poem

 as lovely as a tree’

~Joyce Kilmer~ 

My husband and I try to walk everyday and record 10,000+ steps. Every few weeks we get the urge to go somewhere different and change our routine a bit. As always, Nature, during the covid shelter in place days,  has been a source of magical moments and I have been documenting my joys, awe and surprise in small ways.  This particular day last November, we came across this tree with beautiful vines by the water looking like nature’s calligraphy.  Then I saw the photo for the week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 - Adel Ibrahim Sudany’s cover art for One Sky,2018 Album by the Rahim AlHaj Trio. The caption for that photo reads : ‘Sudany’s painting for One Sky echoes the statement of humanity’s oneness found in the music of Iraqi oud players and composer Sourena Sefati, and Palestinian American percussionist Issa Malluf. Sudany is an Iraqi designer, calligrapher, and professor of Arabic Calligraphy at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.’   

I feel a beautiful tree like that may have inspired the writers long ago to create flourishes and calligraphic styles! 

Nature’s Calligraphy watercolor and ink by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 46

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 46 Nov8-14. 

Deepavali, the Festival of Lights is celebrated in India and by Indian diaspora all over the world.  It is a five day festival around the New Moon day of lunar month of Karthika (October/November) observed by lighting of rows of Deepas/ Diyas/lamps, puja/prayers/worship, exchange of gifts, wearing new clothes, sharing of lots food and sweets, and of course getting together with family and friends. The festival is a celebration of good over evil, knowledge/enlightenment (light) over ignorance(darkness), While the stories behind the celebrations vary from region to region within India, the essence remains the same - cherishing the inner light, hope and restoration. 

It just so happens that I am lucky to have been born on one of the days of Deepavali festival- and in addition to my actual Gregorian calendar birthdate, my family also celebrated it on one particular day during Deepavali. So it is a very special festival for me! I sketched a festive ‘rangoli’ on the page using the age old dot system (this one has 5x5dots scheme) 

Rangoli for Deepavali by Meera Rao 

The photograph in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for that week is of William James Aylward’s American Schooners, Old Harbor Marsellie, 1919 Charcoal and Watercolor on paper. ‘Aylward was one of eight artists commissioned by the U.S.Army to join the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War 1. Having grown up around the docks and shipping of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin, he here adeptly captured American schooners docked in the harbor of Marseille, France. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 45

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 45 Nov 1-7 

Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 #repurposed 

What could be more appropriate for this week than the gavel presented to Susan B Anthony at an 1888 meeting of the National Woman Suffrage Association, an event marking the 40th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention in the United States ?  I spent twelve days around the Presidential election helping out with the Virginia Voter protection hot line. Hoping and praying to have a woman, who happened to be a woman of color, of Indian heritage, as Vice President, wanting to see nation back on right track, I had written and mailed hundreds of postcards over the preceding months.  Of course, Democracy cannot ever be taken for granted and all of us have to make a commitment to be engaged and keep it going.  

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 44

Great Blue Heron by the deck watercolor by Meera Rao

This Great Blue Heron Ardea  herodias is in our yard almost everyday! It is either busy fishing by the waters edge or staying in shade by the bushes grooming or ‘meditating.’  Scanning for the heron whenever we come out the back door is a habit now as we don’t want it to get spooked by us - though these days it accepts our presence in the yard :) This particular day it sat nonchalantly very close to the deck. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 44  October 25-31 

Pictured on the facing page in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 is ‘Xenacanthus, a freshwater spiny shark that lived in rivers and ponds during the Permian Period, 294-290 million years ago, preying on fishes, reptiles, amphibians and perhaps even large land carnivores that ventured close to the water.’ This Xenacanthus skull cast is on display with fossils of other aquatic creatures in the Hall of Fossils- Deep Time at the National Museum of Natural History. 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 42.

Ripe Bitter-melon Pod with Red Seeds watercolor by Meera Rao 

Often, we miss picking vegetables from the plant because they are well hidden and we don’t see them till they are ripe and bright! That’s what happened with this bitter-melon (a delicacy!).  When we finally picked it off the plant, I placed it on a shiny stainless steel plate and decided to let it dry in the sun.  It soon burst open exposing the bright red seeds against bright yellow-orange fleshy insides. Of course, I had to sketch the beauty :) 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 42 October 11-17

Nature’s color selections are amazing. The bitter-melon looks like it’s competing with the Scarlet Macaws (Ara macaw)on the opposite page in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for week 42. According to the write up on the page, the digital photo of the Macaws was taken by Sean Mattson, in July 2016 at Coiba National Park, Panama Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They are nearly extinct in the mainland but ‘lead a boisterous life on Panama’s Coiba Island, the largest landmass in the Tropical Eastern Pacific. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute runs a research station on the neighboring Coibita Island, providing scientists with access to fauna, flora, and coral reefs in this park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.’

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 Week 41

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020 week 41 October 4-10

The photo on the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020 for the week of October 4 is a colored planographic print of Le Tricolore balloon1874 at the National Air and Space Museum. “Claude Jules Duruof (1841-1899) became one of the aeronaut-heroes of the siege of Paris when at 8 am on September 20, 1870, he flew a balloon out of the city. This lithograph, signed by Duruof, shows his balloon Le Tricolore. In 1873 he and his wife ascended in it amidst threatening weather. When the crowd questioned their courage, he remarked, ‘Let us show then that we are not afraid to die.’ The pair disappeared into the mist and were forced down and presumed lost. Their rescue by an English Rescue boat was much celebrated.”

These balloon travels though pale in comparison to the Monarch Butterfly migration which is a unique and amazing phenomenon. They do a two way migration like birds do. Some fly as far as 3000 miles to overwinter in Mexico. The eastern population of N.America’s monarchs overwinter in 11-12 mountain areas in the States of Mexico and Michoacán from October to late March. Monarchs can fly 50-100 miles a day and take up to two months to complete the journey.  As I watched the butterfly emerge from the delicate chrysalis, it’s wings so dainty, I marveled at the nature’s miracle. Slowly as the sun rays warmed its wings the monarch butterfly stretched and took a couple of hours to get ready to fly off  and continue its adventure! 

Just Emerged Monarch Butterfly by Meera Rao 

 

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020: Week 40

Sketching the Pandemic Year 2020: Week 40 September 27-October 3 

Sometimes things just present themselves - like what happened on this particular day. To better see the process,  I had moved the glass jar in which a latecomer monarch caterpillar was going into chrysalis stage. Looking from above I could see the design from the plate under jar. And what a match for what was on the page for that week in the Smithsonian Engagement Calendar 2020.  ‘Josephine Folies Bergére c.1926 in watercolor and gouache on paper is by an unknown artist and is at the National Portrait Gallery.  ‘Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was barely twenty years old when she first performed at the famous Parisian music hall the Foilies Bergére, wearing nothing but a skirt made of artificial bananas. Bakers combination of comedic flair and athleticism created a sensation and for many embodied the exhilarating modern style of Art Deco.’

Caterpillar to Chrysalis  watercolor and pen by Meera Rao