Book 26: PAPAZOGLU HAN – Page 2

GIANT LION CLAWS

Another day in the Istanbul Arkeolocikal Muze…-Theodosius Forum 386-393-Cadaver-like aged marble faces-3rd C-Cemberlitas-“Hellenistic”-Alexander-Giant lion claws-Boukoleon lion claw-Like a Sioux!-Flat griffin-TriciVenola ©2011

I love wandering through the museum drawing stuff. I just wish they’d let me sit down.

BOUKOLEON LION

-This thousand-year-old marble lion may have lost his nose but not his roar. Taller as a tall man, he was one of a pair that once graced a balcony over the sea at the Boukoleon Palace. They saw the Crusaders come, and survived them. *-Archeological Museum, Istanbul*
*-TriciVenola ©2011*

And here’s the giant lion and his claws. Found to my chagrin that I must now get special permission to draw in the Archeological Museum, so I got it. One hour later, I was able to fulfill a years-long lust to draw this lion. I did it in two sections, and merged them on the computer.

THE SAME FACE

Trendy young man with Alexandrian profile on the tram-Walks around Tahtakale with a cat on his head, pushing a cart covered with photos of himself.-They have the same facial structure…-TriciVenola ©2011

I miss the Cat Man. He disappeared shortly after I drew this.

Fine old hans, hundreds of years old, line the arteries connecting the Spice Bazaar, at the bottom of the hill, with the Grand Bazaar at the top. And here we are on a happy day walking between them. Photo by Ken Brown.

MUSTAFA IN THE GRAND BAZAAR

*-Mustafa – Grand Bazaar-TriciVenola ©2011*

I don’t know him and I’ve never seen him since, but Mustafa here is the archetypal Grand Bazaar Salesman.

MOMO OUT FRONT

*Momo outside his store-Grand Bazaar*
*March-April-TriciVenola ©2011*

This view is looking down the street from the shop, opposite the view in ‘Everybody Loves Gemini.’

Muhammed Rahimoglu walked through the Khyber Pass when he was three, as he and his family left Kabul, Afghanistan in the early 1980s. Forty families made the trip, and one brother got lost, turning up with another family after three days. Momo remembers being hungry, and an old lady giving him milk from a red wooden bowl. He sells them now, along with a lot of other glorious tribal art. Momo had the best Afghan shop in the Grand Bazaar, and now sells online at TribalArts.com.

EVERYBODY LOVES GEMICI

*Everybody knows Yilmaz Gemici- who sells packs of tissues in the Grand Bazaar.-Outside Momo’s shop.-TriciVenola ©Ocak 2011*

Gemini was so adorable I just had to draw him. He knew everybody in the bazaar. Then I learned that he was an engineer of note. He worked his whole life and invested his savings in a Turkish money fund that went bust after he retired. So he sells tissues. After that I stopped wanting to pet him, and we became friends.

This view is looking up the street from the view in ‘Momo Out Front.’