Thursday was one of those with non stop spring drizzle days. So only Jenn and I showed up at the Capitol for sketching.
The legislature is not in session now, so the Capitol building was hosting tours for the public. The yellow school buses were lined up outside. We wandered the halls and found an exhibit of the model by Haiying Wu for his statue of Billy Frank Jr., which will be installed at the National Statuary Hall in the other Washington (D.C.) next year. Billy was a Nisqually Tribal member who fought tirelessly to ensure that the U.S. government would honor the promises made in the treaties with Washington tribes.
As I sat down in a poorly lit spot where there was a bench, I noticed a bronze statue of George Washington, eclipsed by one of the marble columns, and I happily pondered how many of our white men historical heroes are now being slowly upstaged by indigenous ones.
While Jenn did a spectacular rendering of the Capitol dome from inside, getting a real workout for the neck with constant looking up, I sought the fresh air outside sketching the dogwoods and lightposts under a bus shelter overhang.
And meanwhile elsewhere outside, such scenes tempt me to come back when the rain has stopped, or to bring an umbrella set up!
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