My Palimpsest by Ololade “Lola” Quadri

For my sketchbook project, I had the idea just to draw the x-ray kangaroo, and I did. Then I looked at it and felt like it wasn’t enough. I looked back at the original Kangaroo palimpsest, and realized what it was really about. It wasn’t about the kangaroo, it was about time, and family (in a communal sense). The drawing itself wasn’t the point and it could’ve been of anything. The point was honoring the people before and after you, so I tried to replicate that. I put my name and age at the other side of the sketchbook, and decided to pass it around to as many people as I could.

When asking people to draw in the sketchbook anywhere, even on top of other drawings, I noticed that people were reluctant to do so, but my mother, friends, and the toddler didn’t care and went for it. Many of them refused to draw because they weren’t good at it, even after I explained that that wasn’t the point, or they thought the pages were too crowded and did not want to draw in it. In the cave drawing, the drawing itself wasn’t “good” per say, but that is what makes it charming in my opinion. And the Jawoyn Makers had no problems drawing over other’s works. I think this shows a difference in closeness when people refused to draw over other’s work since the people close to me were fine with it, and a person’s sense of embarrassment when asked to do something they don’t know how to do, even if it’s for fun. I think they felt that I would judge them if they didn’t draw well even though other kangaroos on the sketchbook weren’t perfect either.

I wanted people of many ages to contribute to the drawing to represent the passage of time. Old people as the ancestors, and the people around my age for the people of the present, and young people to represent the people that will come next. I wish I could have included more old and young people, but some old people were not receptive to drawing at all, and I don’t know many children. In hindsight, I feel like I could’ve went out of my comfort zone to ask more old and young people to draw in my sketchbook. The project was fun, and even though it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I feel I somewhat got the essence of the original art piece.