Makarapa Men

The World Cup is over, and South Africa is a bit deflated at the end of a magical month. It has flown past and I'm already feeling regret for not having got out and sketched as much as I would have liked to - but on Saturday I went to Melrose Arch where I'd heard supporters of the teams in the final were gathering. There were a few fans wandering around, but I found this 'flash shop' - just open for a short time, where township artists were making makarapas, the iconic converted miners hard-hats that have been creatively worn to local soccer matches for many years - first created by one Alfred Baloyi after watching a bottle flying through the air during a match in Soweto. Makarapa is the Xhosa word for migrant workers in the mines. They've been a huge hit with tourists, along with the raucous vuvuzela (pleas for the banning of which have fallen on deaf ears, ha ha) and these men have turned out many of them. At the shop you could design your own makarapa and they cut it out for you, and paint it, though they were so busy that I painted my own design of... tah rah... an Urban Sketchers makarapa!! Lucas, the man in the middle of my sketch, loved it and is thinking of doing a city themed series. While waiting for it to be cut my husband and I had lunch and I sketched the busy piazza outside. I'm sorry I couldn't get near to the final match or the stadium, but... Congratulations to Spain!

Marimba Band

Here are sketches I did a few days ago that I've been hestitating to post because they are just so rough and scribbly - a quality I really like in a lot of other people's sketches, but to me it just emphasises the agitation I was feeling at the time - trying to be inconspicuous, annoyed that what I was trying to achieve and show wasn't happening... maybe I'm just too shy to sketch in public... or maybe it's that I need to do it more... I was happier with the second sketch on the right than the first one, and maybe if I'd done a third...? Anyway! Enough with this introspection and the constant self-criticism (I truly am not fishing for compliments, which my blogging friends are always so generous with, it must be getting quite painful - will get over it soon. Maybe.) This was a lovely sunny happy group called the Soweto Marimba Youth League playing outside the African Market in upmarket Rosebank, one of the entertainments put on for World Cup visitors, who were actually the subjects I was after at the time. There were a few foreign languages and accents around and beaming faces thrust into the band for photographs, but they didn't look too different from any other shoppers. I'm going to have to daringly go into one of the fan parks or towards one of the stadiums before a match to catch them fully decked out in supporter's gear and filled with the Fever. This event is changing Johannesburg and South Africa in that most of us middle-class, middle-of-the-road citizens who don't venture anywhere unless it's in the seclusion of our own cars into a secure parking lot, are suddenly taking buses, trains and walking, walking! If the services continue and the 'gees' continues (you have to say that with a guttural gghhh and to rhyme with fierce, it means spirit, goodwill, vibe), I sure hope it does.

Viva vuvuzela viva!

Yesterday the United We Shall Stand parade swamped the streets of Sandton - tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people came to show their support for our team, but also to celebrate the fact that the World Cup is here, and demonstrate just how incredibly happy we are that it is. A sea of yellow jerseys interspersed with the South African flag colours, bouncing, throbbing, swaying - accompanied by the deafening, but sometimes reasonably melodious when played well, sound of vuvuzelas, and the odd kudu horn. Groups burst into song and dance, gathering new fans eager to learn the words and steps. The buses eventually made their way past, carrying the press and Bafana Bafana to rapturous greeting. What a wonderful day and spirit of everyone pulling together for this once in a lifetime event.

Standing up and sketching in a lively crowd like this was challenging to say the least, and I was squirmy as some came to peep over my shoulder, all I seemed able to make were illogical scribbles - and I do apologise to viewers and the architects for my buildings! I floundered with my pens, abandoning the fine Pitt pen halfway through the second sketch for the bolder Pentel brushpen and I gave up on colour until later at home, though I did it as fast and sparingly, with Pitt colour pens, as the quick sketches warranted. I'm feeling rather beholden to record as much of the World Cup activities as I can for Urban Sketchers, as there doesn't seem to be another sketcher attending. I'm not a huge soccer fan - though I'm certainly coming round - and I haven't even got tickets to any of the games. If anyone who draws anywhere in South Africa (Liz? Maree? Marie? Debbie? Cathy?) would like to attempt to capture some of the World Cup action, please do - you can share them on the USk Flickr site, or Facebook, or email them to me at catgat at mweb dot co dot za (small files) and I'll post them for you - bear in mind point #1 of the USk manifesto:

We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation. - not from photographs or memory.

Flags, flags, flags!

Things are hotting up for the World Cup (cooling down as far as the weather goes) and flags are busting out all over Joburg, on buildings, cars, restaurants - these flag-sellers at almost every traffic light and street corner are doing a roaring trade. I had an hour or more yesterday waiting for my son's exam to be over to sit in my car and sketch them. See a couple more over on Urban Sketchers.