Dear Sarah - 010

Capybaras and drawing upside down

(Just joining us? These letters chronicle our full year of daily drawings and accompanying correspondence/conversation. Learn more about Sarah Harvey here. More info about me can be found here.)

Dear Sarah - January 10, 12025

The bathing capybaras were quite a sight. When the attendant turned on the hot waterfall there was a capybara stampede into the steaming water. They looked completely blissed out, their eyes closed, sinking into their communal pool. Having just emerged from the last of several hot soaks at the spa, I could relate.

Semi aquatic mammals from south America, the oddest thing I learned about them is that they eat their own poop for breakfast. Given how hard grass is to digest, this double processing helps extract the most nutrients from their foraging.

That's all I've got for this morning - over to you!

Dear Nikki - January 10, 2025

Upside down drawings

What a lovely capybara drawing! You really captured the blissed out quality you described. I had no idea that they ate their own poop, but it seems efficient. Unfortunately, it made me wonder how soon some influencer will come up with the "double digestion diet" wherein you pay a lot of money to have your poop processed into a delicious powder that you can add to a smoothie. Chocolate, cookie dough or coffee flavours available now. Your gut biome will thank you. Sorry. I digress.

I saw no interesting wildlife today, but I did go to a contemporary dance class for people 55+. This may not have been a wise choice for someone considerably older than 55, with an iffy back, who hasn't danced since her late teens. Both the drawing and the dancing are attempts to connect in different ways to my mind and body. TIme will tell if the body can take it. I could really use a few hours in a hot spring spa right now.

My drawings of the day are the result of copying a simple upside down line drawing without thinking about anything but drawing the longest lines possible to create the image. It's an exercise in looking hard at the lines rather than considering the subject of the drawing. So you're not drawing a beak or feet--you're just following the lines. And lo and behold! A bird!

The second upside down drawing was a little more complicated but I am delighted by the result--a supercilious chef who refuses to change his menu to accommodate diners' dietary requests. "Pas possible!"

It's such a great exercise--so freeing and playful.