Diwali - Festival of Lights; Feast of Color

I've always grouped Diwali with the other autumn/winter festivals - Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa - but I've never had any direct experience with the event. As soon as I entered the Seattle Armory I was delighted with the color and vitality that was just beginning to build. The armory stage was the main focus. I saw the performers but soon I spotted the staging area where performers waited for their turn. I was enthralled. Sitting on my fold-up stool against the concrete walls of the armory I could watch, unimpeded and largely unnoticed as a rainbow of performers chatted, stretched, practiced, watched and waited. 

Later I went upstairs and found cooking lessons, a delightful puppet show, an art room and an enthralling view of the light-filled kandeel (lanterns). 

Hindus in earlier days set kandeels afloat high, a gesture to invite the spirits of their ancestors moving around to come back home and be with them during the festival time; hence the name akasha deepa (lantern of the sky) or AkashaKandil. Wikipedia

As the sunlight flooded the banners it looked to me like they couldn't help but fulfill their purpose. 

Color and Dance at Diwali Festival

10/20/18 Dancers at Diwali festival

Although I had heard of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, I didn’t know that Seattle held a festival for it until last year, when I saw correspondent Ujjwal Mahajan’s sketches of the event. As soon as I did, I put the festival on USk Seattle’s calendar so we wouldn’t miss it this year. Held at the Seattle Center’s Armory last Saturday, Diwali was full of color, music, dancers, food and everything else I enjoy about festivals.

I spent most of my time near the main stage, where small groups of women performed traditional dances wearing vibrant, colorful costumes. Capturing their fast, flowing movements was a fun challenge.

When I needed a break, I went upstairs, where quieter activities were taking place, like a cooking demo. I missed the names of the dishes that were being prepared, but they involved simmering onions, beans, other vegetables and lots of spices. It was difficult to concentrate on sketching with the delicious smells coming from the demonstrator’s pots. “Whatever you eat should have lots of colors,” she advised, and every dish “should have six tastes.”

10/20/18 Cooking demo

10/20/18 Applying henna

With a few minutes left before the throwdown, I stopped to sketch a young woman applying henna in intricate patterns to the hands and wrists of other women and girls. The henna came out of a small tube like the kind used in cake decorating. The patterns were so beautiful that I was tempted to have my hand done too, but she had a huge line of people waiting.

This festival was so much fun to sketch that I would love to see it become an annual fall event for USk Seattle!

Not Diwali

We rearranged our usual schedule to attend and sketch the Diwali Festival at Seattle Center Armory.  Except I didn't sketch the festival...more on that below. 

As I often do, I traveled by light rail into Seattle. While parking was no problem at the station, the train was standing room only, crammed with University of Washington fans headed for the game. So it was a sea of purple.



When we arrived at noon, though it was the start time for the festival, almost nothing was set up. The welcome and dancers on stage did start on time and the lanterns were hung from the ceiling.  




Since the festival wasn't fully underway, I decamped to sketch something I'd had in the back of my mind. Typewriter Eraser, Scale X is a sculpture of a large-scale typewriter eraser by Claes Oldenburg. I sketched it in it's previous location in the Seattle Art Museum's Sculpture Park. A couple years ago it was moved here, in front of the Frank Gehry designed MoPop (Museum of Popular Culture, formerly the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum). Just to add a third Seattle icon, I included the Space Needle.



At that point, I could have gone back to the festival. But, since I still had over an hour and I'd brought my MoPop membership card, I decided to zip through the Marvel exhibit. I knew there were a couple sculptures that I might want to sketch. This Spider Man photo op had a convenient bench right in front, so it's the one I picked. I got to see some people doing cute and funny poses with it. This little one was the best!




Our sketch throw-down and our group photo:




 

More photos of sketch outing.
 
Photos from the MOPOP Marvel exhibit