"We Three"

"We Three"

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Morning in the Yucatan, afternoon in Zaire

I spent my morning up to my neck in Mayan myth, all about Quetzlcoatl, Xmucane, and the first four humans, Jaguar Quitze, Jaguar Night, Dark Jaguar, and Not Right Now. Really, that's their names. Just love those Mayans. In our Color Theory class, we are doing Mbuti cloth reproductions, which is really fun, like kindergarten for college students. We each got a big square of brown paper, which we wadded up and got all wet, then spread out to dry. We tore the edges so it is irregularly shaped, then began painting it like a crazy quilt, paying attention to dark and light, warm and cool, bright and dull colors. Each section then gets its own design, large and small, active and quiet, etc. I nearly went cross-eyed painting this one black patch with yellow tiger stripes, but it came out fine and really is striking. And I love the yellow patch that I decorated with black dragonflies. Not as thrilling or wonderful as some of the students who came before me, pretty rough around the edges (like me, I suppose), but it will be an original, for sure. How much fun can one little old lady have, anyway?

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