Tea Time

Tea time. Watercolor and sumi ink. Vintage silk doll made in Japan. Didn't need a potholder but couldn't resist the appliquéd fabric shapes. The petite bowl turned out to be antique lacquer which began to crack when I floated a passion flower in water. In its former life, the bowl probably had a flattened doll's head, a silk tassel. The bowl is painted with a kimono design. My favorite thrift shoppe in Old Town Petaluma would sometimes got Japanese bits and pieces from the 40's, most likely brought home by men in the military.

Egypt Sketchbook Part 4

The top photo is the temple at Luxor (Thebes). This front section was built by Ramses II 1213 BC. The two earlier sections behind this were built by Tutankhamen and Amen-Hotep, 1327 and 1352 BC.

Imagining Egypt, A Living Portrait of the Time of the Pharaohs by Mark Millmore. Millmore creates computer illustrations of temples, structures and artifacts as they may have appeared when new and freshly painted. It is nice to see the structure complete, the missing obelisk returned from the country that pilfered it although it does look lovely in Paris where it seems at home and admired. Several obelisks have appeared in movies, recently in Angels and Demons.

The second photo shows Millmore's reconstruction of the Hypostyle hall inside the Temple of Isis that was on the island of Philae. Due to the construction of the Aswan dam bult in the 1960's, the Egyptian government and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), performed a massive joint effort, surrounded the island with a dam, labeled, removed and reassembled each stone on the island of Agilka Island. An impressive 10 year engineering rescue project as was the rescue of other beautiful temples. 2007 is the copyright date on his book.

The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb is in Egyptologist Elizabeth Peters' mystery The Tomb of the Golden Bird, a nice brief description of what it may have been like to be an archaelogist at one of the most exciting moments.