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Sunday, December 16, 2018

Scrooge and the Gift of Giving

The air now is cold  but not crisp. It's wet and grey-toned here.There must be at least 50 shades of it. Hardly a cause for celebration. The sky is mostly overcast, giving a dull and laden feeling to most everything under it. Certainly including me. 

No birds sing. Exception: the crows and ravens still quarrel, sounding a bit impatient with the state of things. Strong winds sometimes break through this diminished daylight, with occasional gusts blowing away the endless clouds and fog to show a moment of sparkle upon the waters or a glimmer of distant snow-covered mountain. 

Winter-solstice is approaching. I feel like a bear., Truly. I should be hibernating, but there's just too much to do. Although I do want to do much of it, a seasonal lethargy has gotten into my bones and makes me cringe at taking action. Instead, it directs me to the couch. Where I have been sick with a cold-flu-(whatever) just to justify it.

Not the right attitude for Christmas, Chanuka, and winter holiday season. Humbug! I feel like Scrooge, without his ill intent. I'm just morose and lethargic. Hardly a time to join in on the generic la la la la lah. More in tune with some old blues music, which is exactly what I have playing. Oh, Bessie. 

Nothing like the blues to get a gal out of this sorry state. Which brings me to the good news in all this glum . It's a genuine gift of giving in the form of an art donation to the VGH-UBC Art Foundation. For many years this foundation has collected a rather remarkable art collection, with works adorning Vancouver's main hospital locations. Art acts as a form of connection, healing, joy, contemplation, enrichment, and all the many varieties of experience it offers. 

I am very pleased and grateful to know that three of my works have just this month been selected for the Art Foundation collection. I have donated the paintings, and am told they have a new setting in mind for them, which I will be most interested to see. Even on less than happy occasions visiting the hospital, I have been so very impressed by the art that greets me in all sections of it. How much of a difference art makes. Perhaps this is especially so when it is seen in unlikely moments and settings. 
I'm so thankful to be a part of this. 
All Things Bright, Greeting, and Praise: 3 paintings by Janet Strayer, VGH-UBC Art Foundation

And so, I will end on this up-note and wish you well this season of gifts and giving.

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about creative life, travels, tips and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News at https://www.janetstrayer.com

Regards, Janet 






Monday, August 6, 2018

Island-Hopping Art

Saturna Island, a little-known wonder of the world, is home ot many creative people... as you might imagine it to be. 

Yesterday, for example, I went to a book-launching  for the first novel published by a friend and neighbour, Lyne Gareau. Her book, La  librarie des Insomniacs, written (and currently available) in French, will no doubt soon be available in English as well. The launching was held at a gorgeous and locally well-known spot at Saturna's east-most point, the FAB building, a Saturna Heritage Site.
photo by:http://saturnaheritage.ca/node/10

Another creative event is coming soon. In this one, Saturna Island shares a bit of the spotlight with its neighbour, another of the very special southern Gulf Islands (an archipelago west of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia,

A group of artists from Saturna has been invited to show their artwork at the Sea Star Vineyards on Pender. Island  This vineyard has been making a good name for its wine ... and for its art exhibitions.


I'll be showing a few paintings with the other Saturna Island artists mentioned in the poster  (original painters, photographers, textile artists) from Saturna. We're a bunch of interesting individuals. You can find out for yourself at the opening celebration.

 If you have the opportunity to visit during our art exhibition, please raise a toast with us... to ever-inspiring art and creative life!



More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about creative life, travels, tips and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News at https://www.janetstrayer.com

Regards, Janet 




Thursday, August 2, 2018

Saturna Island Studio Tour 2018

Saturna Island is magical place to visit... and this tour is a very congenial way to meet the creators and see their work in their own studios. You can see original paintings, fabric art, photography, and ceramics, and woodworking. 
Check out the artsaturna.blogspot.ca for full into.
This showcase of the fine creative artists and their work in their studios on Saturna Island has been a an event  for some years. Very different from the mostly crammed studio spaces in city-tours, the studios here are in wonderfully unique rural settings.  You can also see a group show  to give you an overall view of what's in store.
It's a fine time to visit if you can make it! I'll be partiipating and we can meet at the PRISM Gallery  near the ferry dock.

Your comments are always welcome: click below this post where "no comments/comments" is noted.

Happy summering.




Saturday, May 26, 2018

PRISM Art Gallery Opens for the Season

June inaugurates my second Spring-Summer season at the PRISM Gallery on beautiful Saturna Island (open weekends and holiday Mondays 11am-5pm).The PRISM is located at a fine little spot near the ferry dock and pub, so you can drop in and browse when coming, going, or lingering.  

The new show features my paintings of fabulous faces.I love faces. They are like windows from which we look at others and others look inward into us. Faces fascinate if you just look. But we're not supposed to look, and certainly not to let our gaze linger. Perhaps that's why I especially love to paint faces-- real and imagined.You get to look and linger and see inside as well as out.  

These imagined faces I've painted come from fables (hence they are fabulous), dreams, reveries, and idiosyncratic amalgams of people known or created. Mostly female because I am.

I've used a range of styles for different purposes:Sometimes the idea (or abstract concept) of a face is what I'm seeking, so I've painted in an abstract style.Other times it's the emotive quality of faces, so I've painted expressively to catch this aspect.Yet other times it's the narrative quality of faces, the stories they hold within them, so I've painted what I think and feel the narrative might be. Themes expressed in these works include the links between human and animal, child and doll/puppet, and the beyond.



Saturna Island is filled with a variety of wonderful artists and crafts-people. Each has his or own studio, which I'm happy to help you locate. My own working studio seems a bit hard for many people to reach, so I've opened this new spot to welcome you to my artwork.

The B&Bs and camping spots on Saturna are well recommended and range across preferences and budgets. Plan a get-away here if you can. And include a visit to the PRISM.

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about creative life, travels, tips and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News at https://www.janetstrayer.com

Regards, Janet 




Sunday, April 1, 2018

Sorrento and Naples

Sorrento is a Treat

Living anywhere can be an adventure. But living away from home is one, for sure. 

In Italy. Today was another reminder of the dramatic contrasts of Italy.  Sorrento was our reward after our grueling stay in Matera during an unexpected snowfall (see blogpost)Nothing could be more of a contrast than our experience of this morning in Matera and this evening in Sorrento. 


We continue to think of Sorrento as a "reward" city when we want a respite from more challenging travels.  What a lovely and welcome site it is, even in winter, to come from harsher weather to this sunny seaside town filled with orange trees. 

A bit broken by our recent adventures in Matera, we decided to rest in the luxury of La Minervetta a  little boutique hotel in Sorrento. Here's looking out our huge window at Vesuvius. 

Vesuvius through hotel window (Janet Strayer photo)
                                     
                                      View of Vesuvius, Naples and Seagull over bay (from our window) 
             
The  Minervetta is a small and beautifully architected modern white house standing several stories along the slope lining the sea. The interior and all rooms are individually decorated with professional but also delightfully eclectic care, with wonderful art pieces and good books and magazines in all private rooms and in the hugely comfortable lounge and corridors. It's a feast for eyes and senses.

Unruly Naples: I Like It! 

We stayed in Sorrento but took the train daily into Naples --a city that eats cars, among other things. Every guide-book screams NOT to take your car into Naples if  you expect to get it back intact. Driving in the city is lawless. Every guide-book, as well as some city notices, also warns of pickpockets. We know: we'd been hacked by nimble fingers on previous trips.

But I like Naples. It's an overwhelmingly noisy and grungy city that has too much of everything unrefined. Since reading Elena Ferrante's books, starting with My Brilliant Friend,  which conveys the often brutal but very human life there, I felt a bit more of a  personal connection to Naples . Not that I'd take anything for granted as a visitor here.

Touring the Sights in Naples

It was just going to be a "look-around and make it easy" kind of day.  We ended up just strolling busy old streets, with construction repairs going on all over the city center. It was fun window-shopping along the main streets from the train station, no visible signs to guide us. 

Each of the main streets branched into many little side-streets, each devoted to different products. One was filled with presepi, originally Christmas manger scenes in miniature, now extended to include whole village populations, political commentary, and activities involving moving parts. The sculptural quality of some of the work depicted was really quite good. Another little street was fitted with lovely old chocolate shops, another with embroidery and sewing shops. Outside stalls sold varieties of small items from keys to candy.  Probably anything could be found, if you knew where to look. Except maybe your car.

Santa Chiara

                Cloister, Sta. Chiara, Naples (photos Janet Strayer)


We ended up at the massive complex of Santa Chiara (monastery, church, tombs, archaeological museum, cloisters), built in early 1300's by the Queen of Majorca and her husband, King Robert of Naples. Too much, too big, and the architecture, well, just too heavy .... so we settled for a visit only to its famed cloisters. 




























The cloister, transformed in 18th C. grand Rococo style, has a brashly colourful floral decor. 
The  huge frescoes that remain visible (damaged by time and war) are religious in theme , but the tiles decorating the perimeter foundations of the pillared cloisters show bucolic scenes of  country life beside the sea (see above). You'd think the nuns who strolled there might have come from the Follies Bergère. The decorations seem so gay and frivolous.  Every inch of unplanted area is filled with decorated majolica tiles. What kinds of contemplative thoughts did this lavish decor inspire in cloistered nuns? 


photos Janet Strayer

Pizza Napolitana

Walking down from Santa Chiara we came to our final destination of the day in Naples: one of six top-rated pizzerias (by Michelin) in a city famous for its great pies. We ate in the last room of the plain, white-tiled L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. This place serves just two types of wood-fired pizza (red sauce, white sauce), but there's no need for more. We had one of each.













We walked back to the train station, having walked about 6 miles in Naples that day.  It was winter but the orange trees bloomed. The train was packed with commuters. It was dark outside by now, with the train travelling through tunnels and above ground. Every now and then the train doors opened and, though you could not see them, you could smell the scent of oranges in winter.  

It was a good trip. Car and wallets intact, and so much more to adventure to bring home with us.

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more recent posts about Italy, plus other travels and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at my  Creative Life News site here.







Saturday, March 31, 2018

The Oldest Inhabited Cave-City in Europe: Matera, Italy

Modern Life in a Cave: The Sassi of Matera

We are now visiting a very unusual place, located on the instep of Italy's boot. 

Matera is the name of this very unusual city in Basilicata (Lucania), Italy.  It is thought to be the oldest continuously-inhabited settlement in Europe (over 9,000 years). It also had the distinction of being one of the most deprived and impoverished areas in Italy until the latter part of the 20th century. 

looking across gorge from Sassi, Matera (Janet Strayer close-up photo zoom)

The oldest, perhaps most interesting part of Matera contains the Sassi (the Rocks), two areas along a precipice deposited on either side of a deep gorge. This area of highly porous limestone resulted in many caves and houses dug into the precipices. It is the ancient and continuous habitation of these caves and dwellings in the Sassi that finally put Matera on the modern map. It is now a designated UNESCO site (click link for what we missed).

Bad Weather

We picked a bad time to go to Matera. But it was the time we had free, and we'd made reservations online (non-refundable).  The weather wasn't too bad when we left our comfy place in Lecce: just overcast and drizzling. Basilicata province borders Lecce in Puglia, so how much worse could it get? No big deal. But the drizzling rain turned  to big, wet smudges of snow on the windshield as we neared Matera. In fact, we'd picked one of the worst times to travel. Today's headline (Feb. 26 as I write in Matera) from The Guardian International Edition reads:"Beast from the east' brings snow and frosty weather across Europe: Schools closed and transport disrupted as temperatures plunge across continent" 

The Travelling Attitude: Weather the Storm!

The worst time ever to travel! As seasoned travellers, though, we thought we could weather the storm. Part of the art of travelling is an optimistic, exploratory mindset without too many expectations. I think this is because you have to keep going, in any case; so you lower the bar of your expectations or you reframe them. That meant we were NOT ging to take the tour we'd wanted up and down and in and out of the many caves in what's known as the Sassi districts, and we were not going to see the famed Byzantine-frescoed cave sites scattered throughout the precipices forming the Sassi. But at least we were going to see a possibly more "genuine" Matera in all its cold and wet and grey reality. We would experience a very small bit of what the winter (one day of it, anyway) was like for those who had lived here year round ... and under much worse conditions than a pre-heated hotel room! So, with our re-booted expectations held firmly much lower than we'd originally hoped, we travelled onward.

A few kilometers before we reached Matera, we saw some strange out-croppings of eroded rocks and barren land that could be imagined as moonscapes. It had a very harsh attraction, even (or especially) on this overcast day that blocked out sky and sun. But, like other travellers, we were intent upon having our modern troglodyte experience.

Many years ago, we'd been to Cappadocia in Turkey, a similarly eroded landscape that also had archaeological traces of  Neolithic cave settlement (but were no longer lived-in). It also contained interesting frescoes tucked into oddly shaped caves in the rocks. But that was in the light of the sun. We'd even bathed our feet in thermal springs there. 

Sassi, Matera (Janet Strayer photo, Feb 26, 2018)

No such luck here and now. It was bleak when we got to Matera.The temperature was about -5 C. It felt even colder walking around the Sassi. The wind blew smacks of wet snow at us. All around us was cold stone and highly porous  rock. There was nowhere to go. Nearly everything was sensibly closed. Only a handful of  bundled-up people were visible, all of us taking photos with gloves on. This could get claustrophobic, I thought,  as I had to watch my steps along the very slippery stone pavements and steps along the rockface. Everything in stone and everything leading to more stone strata , now with houses (once caves) tucked into the porous rocks. Looking down, more stone precipice. 

 
This worn and harsh terrain is the landscape used for biblical dramas like Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) and  Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004), as well as the Amazon's city in Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman (2017). There is something other-worldly in its severity and lack of softness. Many have  taken what shelter they could in its many caves. And some have been exiled  here.
Carlo Levi, self portrait (part of painting)

This area became home to Carlo Levi, the Italian doctor, painter, writer (Christ Stopped At Eboli), and activist who was exiled near here as a Jewish and anti-Fascist political prisoner. Levi's penetrating description of the daily hardships and deplorable conditions experienced by the often starving, malaria-infested, and stalwart people who endured in this region helped to propel the inequities of Italy's southern regions to national and international attention after WW II. He likened the rock-faced, funnel-like Sassi of Matera to the imagined landscape of Dante's hell. 



the day before the snow hit hard: a piazza in the Sassi, photo by Janet Strayer

Matera now is nothing like the rawness of Levi's description. But neither is it a gentrified place.
night in the Sassi before the snowfall, from screened window in our room, Janet Strayer photo

It seems still to be evolving, with greater cross-Italian and international interest, re-settlement, improved housing conditions and hotels, as well as re-vitalized communities. The once disgraceful state of living conditions here have now been converted into a unique heritage site for the world to see. The New Yorker published an interesting article in 2015 about Matera from the perspective of its locals past and present. As it always does, progress has come at the price of loss.

A national embarrassment, the Italian government in the 1950's forcibly relocated Matera's cave inhabitants to more modern quarters, a move that lacerated their local culture while aimed at improving conditions.
Cathedral atop Sassi precipice in Matera (Janet Strayer photo)

Subsequently, people, including those with means, started moving back into the Sassi, renovating it, and now the European Union supports it with investment and tourism.
This remains a site that, in the midst of improvements, well remembers its recent past, visible in historical records and videos, and always in the landscape itself. It is a place worth knowing, but it is not a pleasant place in my regard. You'll read why as events continue. 
ceiling of our room in Sassi of Matera, Janet Strayer photo

We'll remember our visit for several reasons.The night we slept in the Sassi, we felt the coldness of the place, its unforgiving harshness, its stories, its ghosts. The wet snow that greeted our arrival turned overnight into a steady accumulated snowfall. The power went out in our room (we were the only guests). The caretaker served breakfast the next morning and told us to get on the move pronto, before they closed the roads. Trouble was, I felt awful. I'd hit my head at night, without remembering it, and the pillow was bleeding. I'd probably had a concussion and my head ached fiercely. No vehicles could come get us here. We'd have to walk in the snow to a main piazza, and maybe there we could find a cab to take us to the covered lot where we'd left our car before entering the Stassi.  Not on our life. And that's what seemed at stake. Forget about the famed cave-religious paintings which we never got to see. 

Backback and bag in tow, we did our best. Me, with toilet tissue inside my hat that padded my bloody head, and with a stick (a mop handle) I'd taken from the courtyard to help me balance. My partner carried most of our load in his backback. I could barely walk but was highly motivated to get the hell out!

We couldn't find the piazza, having taken one of the many possible wrong turns in the Sassi. We slipped and fell on the slick and slanted stone walks,  snow falling in our eyes. We knew we couldn't be far from the piazza, but we also knew by now that there would be no cabs. They were suddenly part of another world. There was nothing I wanted more right then than to get out of this god-forsaken stone maze. Dante's hell came to my mind... just as it had to Carlo Levi.

We trod down another dispirited route, weary and sore, as a truck was inching its way down the road. Angels picked us up. They were stone-masons who'd been working inside the Cathedral and were going home to their nearby town before the roads officially closed. They didn't know Matera, but did their best to drive us to the parking lot where our car might be. Mercy.

It was the wrong parking lot. And it took us even further away from where we'd parked. We discovered this as we wandered around looking for our car. A woman noticed we'd been circling the lot on foot several times. We'd thought this was the only covered parking lot in Matera, but she told us there was another. It was much too far to walk, especially under present conditions. She resolutely escorted us to the police, located on an upper floor of the parking lot, telling us, in as much Italian dialect as we could understand, that this was absolutely what must be done to get us out of here. 

So there we sat in the police station hallway for several hours. At least we were out of the snow and could drink some water. A female officer told me I should go to the hospital, seeing my blood-matted hair (I'd tried to clean it, but the wound kept opening and hurt to touch). Nope, all I wanted was get out of Madera, thanks. No police cars available. All roads were a mess. We waited, limp in the corridor, deciding that our fate was sealed: we'd have to spend a wretched night in any place that would give us a room, even in the pokey. Several hours later, one very, very kind and competent officer told us he'd managed to order a police car from somewhere. He and his partner drove us through chaotic streets to our car. Mercy again.

We made it out, slowly inching our way among the other cars to the highway.  We followed a van of prison-inmates. It was a rough drive out, but here we are. And now it has become our own true story of a winter night in Matera.  How happy and grateful  to have survived this particular adventure. 

Your comments are always welcome: click below this post where "no comments/comments" is noted.

 

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Unknown Masters in Galatina

Finding the Unexpected

A TV show  brought us to Galatina in Puglia, Italy. We were home in Canada watching a show hosted by Anthony Bourdain on his travels in southern Italy. It featured a small bit of an old documentary that filmed incidents of  tarantism, a peculiar and local form of psychosocial malady affecting some women of the countryside. You can click here to see the original Italian documentary, La Taranta, 

La Taranta shows women seized by an apparently uncontrollable urge to move and keep moving. Witnessed by others in their community, they typically may end up at the local church, where a religious rit may relieve them of their spasms of movement. The dance, the Tarantella, reportedly derives from this malady. Quite different from the rawness of the movements shown in the documentary, the Tarantella dance is a festive celebration. You can read more the fascinating history of this dance in my related column on Taranto.

Galatina  

spider/Taranta motif at restaurant in Galatina

My focus now on Galatina will show you why this city needs special mention. The cult of the Tarante, with  its spider-dance, is only one reason -- though it is a prevalent one, as you can see by its motif adorning a local restaurant.

Galatina has been a focal spot for the preservation and reinvention of the Taranta cult. In late August, tourists may join The Night of the Tarantula (La Nottte della Taranta)an all-night music festival marking the importance of the Tarantella to this area. 

More traditionally in Galatina and surrounding villages, St Paul, patron saint of the tarantate, is celebrated to this day in an all-night event on June 28. It starts with a procession from Piazza San Pietro to the chapel of St Paul, followed by performances by drummers and other musicians lasting until dawn the following day, June 29 – the feast day of saints Peter and Paul. At early dawn the musicians, dancers, tarante and visitors gather at St Paul’s chapel to pay their respects before the crowds arrive for the official early morning Mass.

This Site Came as a Total Surprise: Church of Santa Catherina 

There is another, and for me, even more impressive reason to visit Galatina. And it came as a surprise. 

After a brief but rather dull drive from Lecce, Galatina surprises you as a  pretty city. We looked into its large and expectably-decorated Cathedral of Peter and Paul  (featured in the La Taranta documentary mentioned).  It was impressive outside, but rather grim inside. The real treasure was to come.

We took a moment to peek into the city's perhaps less-known church of Sta. Caterina. I was absolutely blown away by the stunning art I saw, and that I'd never previously known even existed. It was way beyond any expectations I had ...  and that's a real joy when travelling and just exploring for its own sake.

 Unfortunately, the outside of the church was wrapped up for renovation, and you could see nothing of its features. Nevertheless, we walked through the wooden scaffold to find that the interior was open. WOW!

part of ceiling (Janet Strayer photo)


frescoes in Sta. Catarina/Galentina (photos by Janet Strayer)

nave (natural light, Janet Strayer photo)

ornately painted pillars, Sta. Caterina (Janet Strayer photo)
 



























The church of Santa Caterina in Galatina is a marvel to behold. Almost every inch of this large church is covered in beautifully intact frescoes. You can insert some coins for  lights come on, and then see almost everything covered in painted narratives. Ceilings, walls, even columns are painted. The style is consistent: a mix of Byzantine and early Renaissance influences that works to make a unique artistic and religious statement.

Gorgeous frescoes occur throughout Italy, with the Sistine Chapel being perhaps the most famous. But on a more intimate yet complete scale, the frescoes here hit home. Not since Fra Angelico's work in Florence or Giotto's in Padua, have I been so impressed by a single structure so completely filled with such interesting and original religious art.





Dating mostly from the early1 5th C, the frescoes are in remarkable shape. Not all were completed, and you can sometimes  see cartoons of the intended works on the prepared walls (an extra attraction for many artists). A few frescoes are in need of repair, but most are perfect. In general, they are just stunning in overall impact, plus they beckon you to come closer and see more.

wall and part ceiling of series of "Mary frescoes" (Janet Strayer photo)

We don't know the artists' names for sure, but they were stylistic masters (click for some suggestions and a good link for photos and text). They must have seen and been influenced in compositional motifs and stylistic concerns by early Renaissance work further north in Italy (Umbria, Tuscany). Yet, their work favours a different palette and the dramatic contrast of night-time settings.Talented in both stylistic and technical matters, the feast of frescoes beckons you to keep looking at them: the faces, the settings depicted, the flow of narrative, the use of space.

The Romanesque-Gothic church of Santa Caterina dates back to the late 1300's, and the frescoes are dated about 1420. Endowed by the wealth of the Count of Solento and his widow, the nave alone consists of a self-contained fresco composition that includes 140 picture compartments. The nave paintings extend across four bays. The largest group  presents the Apocalypse according to St John. It extends across three walls in the first bay of the nave and includes some fifty separate scenes. The Apocalypse is aways a show-stopper, in my opinion. But I'm also drawn to depictions Genesis and Adam and Eve. You can pick your own favourites, as I'm sure the parishioners did when "reading" this extensive pictorial narrative.

 





























I took a mass of photos under the poor lighting conditions. I've given you just a taste from a few samples I liked for different reasons: their blend of Byzantine and early Renaissance styles, references to their time (knights' armour),  their refinement, expressive quality, linear emphasis, spatial sense, or composition.

Other fresco series are dedicated to Mary, and yet others to Sta. Caterina. You can find something remarkable in any of them, in the different depictions of John the Baptist, of the slaying of the Dragon, or even of the small touches in the little figures (perhaps patrons) only marginal to the main scene.

























incidental figure (Janet Strayer photo)

One can tire of visiting so many notable churches and cathedrals in Italy. But truly, this is one not to miss. 

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about Italy, plus other travels and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News click  https://www.janetstrayer.com

Regards, Janet