Year of the Ram and Bruce Lee

2/7/15 Dancing lion (sketched mostly
from memory)

After last night’s deluge, the Pineapple Express gave us a brief reprieve this morning. We took advantage of it by dashing out to the Chinatown-International District to see the Lunar New Year celebration outside the Wing Luke Museum. Unfortunately, we were a little late, so the firecrackers started blasting away just as we got there, and with a huge crowd in front of me, I could hardly see the lions dancing! I had a slightly better view of one of the drummers, but I had to sketch the lion mostly from memory of the tiny glimpses I was able to see by standing on my toes. (I’d had a slightly better view two years ago when I met up with a few Seattle Urban Sketchers there.)

2/7/15 Drummer during the lion dance.

After the lion dance, we went inside the museum, where more festivities were taking place in celebration of the Year of the Ram. We shied away from most of the hub-bub, though, and ducked into a quieter area of the museum showing an excellent exhibit of Bruce Lee’s life. I sketched a bronze bust of Bruce that was conveniently close to a corner, where I could stand without getting in the way. (“No Photography” signs were everywhere in the exhibit, so I felt somewhat smug being able to sketch it!) I know the classic bust form is usually armless, but I found it sad and ironic that a man whose arms and hands were such an important part of his martial art form would be portrayed armless. Maybe it was a metaphor of his life being tragically cut short (he was 32 when he died in 1973 of cerebral edema).

The rain was already starting again on the drive home, and now the deluge is back. As we like to say around here, at least we don’t have to shovel rain.

2/7/15 Bust of Bruce Lee at the Wing Luke Museum.