Meeting Nefertiti at Tel Aviv

[By Marina Grechanik, in Tel Aviv, Israel]

Urban sketcher always attracts people. It’s easy to start conversation with someone sitting at the middle of the street and drawing his surrounding. It can be just a few words, someone would drop while passing by, or it can start real conversation and sometimes connection.

Last time I met my friend and fellow sketcher Nathan at the “Congress Bazel” bar, our sketching meetings almost always accompanied by some food 😉 After finishing plate with hummus and shawarma we had a perfect mood for sketching customers of this very typical Tel Aviv place.

Suddenly, colorful woman with dreadlocks designed into a tall tower on her head approached our table and started to talk to us. After a while, he and her husband passed to seat with us and we continued chatting as an old friends and sketching them, of course! She told us the she’s also an artist (sure!), she’s painting on a flour kind of oriental carpets (she showed us pictures). She also communicates with spirits and ghosts (of course!), if we need once. They live in kibbutz and are inviting us to come and to be their guests whenever we want. From the first glance Etti (that’s her name) reminded me the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, because of her hair style. “Don’t I look like Nefertiti?” – she asked me while I was drawing her. 

Sketching really opens a gateway the people’s hearts.