This is how India feels.


 Your eyes are melting, the mind is static, unable to make a coherent thought,  on the brink of delirium. But you're surrounded by chaotic beauty. Upon closer inspection the beauty is all poorly done dirty splotches of color. It's pretty great. 

The last of the sketchbook! Well,  the first one. I've always got songs stuck in my head,  so I'm drawing them out now apparently. I'm leaving Delhi, my beloved prismacolors did not arrive and don't feel like waiting around in hell. Udaipur was great, took a painting class,  which turned out much better than the one in jaipur. I'll post about that later. And I managed to sell 2 drawings from my sketchbook! The ones below. 

In other,  extremely exciting news,  I've got 2 festivals I'll be participating in over the summer! ! Cascadia NW (July) and Rainingman (Sept). You should come to both :)

So here's the other mural I did in the patient room. Much tamer than the other one and hopefully peaceful. I really started running out of paint at this point, hence the clouds. "yeah, I'll just have white splotches, yeah!" On a side note, it would get so windy the giant rocks holding the curtain down actually blew off the windowsill. Yipes!

Proof I painted it. It was great, get a thermos of some joyous french press coffee, work from 9-3 (taught math at 3). Overall, it took 2 weeks per mural. The best of times. I also did some flower/butterfly accents and a logo,  but no photos for those. 

This is the only other painting in the village and what a beauty it is! I think it's Saraswati, don't exactly remember though. It's painted at the up school. Not sure why she's so angry and dem boobs!

Hello!!! I've had to do some fancy footwork on multiple devices to get this to work. . . so hopefully it actually does. I also wrote this post over a month ago, so it's a bit outdated in the wording. I've officially left the village with immense sadness. I've been very fortunate to take up this opportunity and connect with so many amazing people! First, let's talk kids. Everyday, or every other day, depending on the rain and workload, a group of kids would gather on a rock and draw with colored pencils. They loved it! I would get asked multiple times a day by everyone (often about 5 times a person) if there'd be drawing later. I was great to see what the kids would draw, flowers (pools) were the most common object, followed by people (manches) and temples. I have no idea if I'm spelling the Nepali word correctly, most likely not, but it sounds like how it's spelled.

Most kids would be so excited they would show me their progress and ask if it was good (ramro). They could not leave until they showed me what they drew, even if I was in the kitchen having dinner. Very sweet and I loved all their drawings, even the scribblers. But there was some problems that would pop up. Caste. :( There is a big caste problem in rural Nepal and was very apparent during drawing. Three caste groups came to draw (who doesn't love to draw!?) which is why it often had to be on the rock and fighting/hoarding/tattling on others was common. 

The rock was common ground for all castes, being right of the footpath that continues through the village. To the left was the house I stayed in, a very welcoming, non-cascist(?). . . middle caste family. The lower caste children wouldn't feel comfortable drawing in their space and sometimes were chased off if they had wandered in. It seemed everyone knows the white people don't care about caste, which helped in facilitating a group drawing session, in helping ease possible tensions within the group. One girl in particular instigated a lot of problems, accusing the poorer children of stealing the pencils, not letting them use certain colors. Often kids would grab a handful of colors, a sharpener, and take their drawing to their own group. To which I countered with only providing one pencil sharpener. It worked out, overall the kids had a great time, but it was exhausting at times. Especially trying to communicate trust in them when I don't speak the language. The lower class children also had lower confidence in themselves and would try and slink away, embarrassed of their drawing. To which you make a big scene about how awesome it is. Again, it always started and ended with smiles but there definitely were a few snags.

Most of their drawings were very similar, like someone taught them how to do a flower and they all do it the same, same with birds and temples. But their people all varied and often changed every time they drew it. Such variety!

Ah yes, see you Nepal,  I'm outta here. I'm ready to leave,  perhaps not ready for India, but looking forward to a change.  The dump trucks here are beautiful! Each one intricately painted on all sides,  with pictures of deities,  mountains,  sunsets,  and each one has a cute phrase on the back. "CU", "you're the love of my life,  drive slow,  long health", "see you" being the most common. 

Some more drawings from the old sketchbook. 

This last one below was inspired by my favorite kid in the village,  Hansa. Easily one of the top students,  better than most older than him. One day, hanging out in my room he told me both of his parents are dead with a great sadness. This picture is in the style of the old death portraits they used to do. It's an interesting picture if you think about the time period she was alive,  what she's wearing etc.

Pokhara! A surreal reality. Murals in every shop,  multicolored lights even in grocery stores,  the place is a gem! I kinda kicked myself for leaving,  but was there for a wondrous full week and did the above drawing. This tablet camera really doesn't give the vibrancy justice. 

Some more sketchbook drawings. Woo. If I actually posted the drawings in sequential order you'd see a huge progression in psychedelicness (is that a word? ).