The Met is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Temple
of Dendur this month. The temple was
actually built in 15 BC in Nubia, Egypt.
But when the Aswan Dam was built it would have been
flooded. So it needed to be moved. It was awarded to the Met in 1967, and put on
permanent display in 1978.
The Temple of Dendur holds a special place in my
heart. In 2002 I decided that I wanted
to get back into art after neglecting it during my workaholic years.
Since what I really needed to do was to
practice, rather than taking a class, I joined The Met. I went over on Friday nights when it is open
until 9:00.
Because I needed to work on my perspective, I decided to do a
riff on Monet. Monet would paint the
same scene over and over with different lighting. I drew the same thing over and over again -
the temple - but from different angles each time.
I finished the first drawing in March. By the time I finished the fifth one in August
I had gotten my artist mojo back again, and it was time to move on. So I took the first drawing, combined it with some photos
from my trip to Egypt and a few hieroglyphics and did my first digital
collage.
Happy Anniversary Temple of Dendur!
PJ
PJ
(c) 2017 PJ Lehrer
