I am preparing to leave for a brief vacation to Ft. Lauderdale to visit dear friends; in between packing I am determined to post my latest entry for my Primer of New Spain: “B” is for Bats.
Yet another reason for my deep affection for the Mesoamerican culture is its appreciation for the winged mammals. Revered and feared, bats pop up multiple times in the Popol vuh, indeed there is a temple El Zots , Place of the Bats, devoted to them- I recommend checking out the link, there is a tremendous video of swarming bat madness .
But my own affection for bats is more tenderhearted, I love their vulnerable beauty, they seem to me so fragile and endangered by man’s irrational fear of them. Perhaps this protectiveness stems from childhood , bullies who I knew all too well, one day switched their attention from me to a little brown bat that somehow had fallen from its roofline perch. Exposed to the sun and the taunts of these vicious boys, the bat screamed in defense, a little high pitched awful sound. I was with my mother and she shooed the ruffians with their sharpened popsicle sticks away from the little fellow ( perhaps the idiots thought the little bat to be a vampire).My mother was afraid of bats, but she gently nudged him under the shelter of shrubbery, hoping against odds that he would survive dogs, the sun and imbeciles.
So this little blue bat is in memory of that little brown bat-and my mother.
watercolor on paper
11 by 18 inches
The following is a depiction from Copan, I love his frank randy silliness, I thought Clive might get a chuckle out of him.
Well I will be off for a bit, back next Thursday.
I have a large painting started and thankfully the initial penciling in looks as pleasing to me as it did last evening when I shut the studio lights. It will await my return, that is something I will look forward to.
until that time, take care,
LG
Boondocks Babylon 
i really love the way you’re presenting the letters! the twisting branches are so effective….the blue bat is fantastic, very very lovely, and i also really like the tiny bit of color-switch you did with that patch of blue sky, wonderful!!
the statue is…crazy? 😀
Thank ya Zoe!
The crazy is mad as can be, you really get a sense of the culture’s humor; I believe it is quite a serious statue, but still there seems to be humor as well.
Sweet bat story…..let’s hope he survived and went on to live out his natural life, without the bullies:)
Hello Carla, I hope so, he deserves at least that much, as do we all!
Gosh, who needs a trench-coat when you’ve got wings? I’ll have to remember that!
I do like your latest offering for the alphabet primer. I’ve been pretty fascinated by bats since childhood too. There were a bunch living in our attic, one of the few things to rattle my evil stepfather and send *him* running. Though I suppose I liked them well before that as well.
It does appear as if he is wearing a trench coat. I have a little taxidermied bat in our study ( I was assured he died of natural causes!) ,he is quite beautiful. i tried to capture that with my little blue fellow.
Sorry your stepdad was such an ass, my own father was brutal and an ass as well-artists need grumps to inspire us to beauty perhaps. Or else the gods are just very mean.
Anyway, happy the bats tormented your stepdad and tickled you!
Take care,
LG
Wonderful. Of course!
Thanks , i’m still thinking about Boleslaw Biegas…