Day 50: Giant Waterbug, and a Story of Childhood

As a kindergarten student in subtropical south Florida, I was used to seeing the wayward large cockroach (we're talking the 1.5 - 2 inchers) enter the classroom and cause its localized pandemonium in that section of the room until some brave little student stomped on it. Then like good little monkeys we would all run over to make sure it was dead. Threat neutralized.

One bright sunny kindergarten day after a heavy rain the previous night, the teacher was reading to us when suddenly the biggest cockroach anyone had ever seen began to make its way across the floor in a strange hobbling sort of fashion (not at all quick like the usual suspects). Everyone gasped, some screamed. It was almost the size of some of our shoes - easily 4 inches - larger than kindergarten brains could fathom. The grotesque hobbling made it worse. The teacher urged us to calm down but made no move. A brave boy came out and stomped on it dramatically, but the hobbling continued. Now everyone screamed, this monster was resistant to stomping! It continued hobbling for a while but eventually succumbed to repeated stompings. Our teacher was not pleased with our actions or the bug guts and gathered a million paper towels to pick it up.

Later on in life, I realized this childhood encounter with a freakishly large cockroach, which has always stuck out in my mind as a moment of absolute horror, was not a roach but a giant waterbug, a member of the order Hemiptera. Epiphany! I actually felt bad for it now, and all the weird things about it now made sense (the knowledge that it wasn't a giant cockroach made the situation less traumatizing somehow).

Thank god there was no such thing as 4 inch cockroaches...right?

(nobody google that!)

[February 19, 2020]

Comments

Day 82 (Day 5 CS) - Collection

"What do you collect? Work with a collection of your own or borrow one." Pure Admiration It's funny, I only recently acknowledged to myself that yes, I do collect something: literature and art books from Heian-era Japan (794-1185), and here is a prompt for that. I just acquired the Choju Giga art book seen in the background (hooray!) which inspired me to recycle two projects from October 2015's CreativeSprint and use them in a different context. The mantispid was made on CS 2015 Day 1 and the painting is a miniature print-out of a mock Choju Giga drawing I did on CS 2015 Day 8 . The easel and paintbrush are made of kraft cardstock. [April 6, 2016]

Day 15 - Historical Precedent

Day 15 Learn about something that happened today in history and make something inspired by it. Rhinoceros Beetle Gong I now realize I may have misread the prompt. I thought I had to merely learn about some piece of history and use that as inspiration, but I'm sure on this day 1,000 years ago, 500 years ago, or even last year, a gong was sounded. Oh well! On the 15th I went to the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Phoenix and based my project on the many gongs in their collection. They had a display illustrating how gongs are traditionally made (i.e. - labor intensive), and I learned that there are generally three types of gongs ( suspended gongs or tam-tams which are flat; bossed which have a raised center, are tuned, and sometimes suspended; and bowl gongs which are more like large bells). They originated in China, their first uses are thought to be as a signal for the workers to return from the fields since some gongs are loud enough to be h...

Day 8 - Master Works

Day 8 Recreate or interpret a work of art you admire. This is based on a famous panel of the Choju Giga scroll (Animal Caricatures or Scrolls of Frolicking Animals) which was created sometime in the late 12th century in Japan. Similar to the original's ink on paper, mine was rendered in India ink and red acrylic ink on Bristol paper. I've replaced the rabbit with a click beetle trying to right itself, and the frogs were replaced with mantids (feeling ill today and my hand started cramping after I drew the beetle. The mantids aren't as well done as I would like. I may redo this sometime because I think it came out cute otherwise). The top "seal" in red says sumimasen , which is Japanese for excuse me! and the lower one is my name in Japanese. This was fun to make, but sketching with a brush is a lot harder than it looks, and no erasing! The Choju Giga artist was truly a master, I very much admire the brush work in the original. Here is the o...

OniOniOniArt

Search This Blog