Travel with JoY

Chianti Classico wine in the cellars of CantiliciVineyard near Radda where we are staying this week. Winding roads up and down the olive and grape growing hillsides anticipates the rolling waves of a sailboat we will soon be on in Dalmatia.       After a few hours of riding the rough waves of Chianti hillsides we found this charming little village of Ambra. In the town square a group of locals had just completed a fundraiser walk for a cure for cancer. They were sitting along banquet tables having a dinner of charcuterie, roast pork, pasta, couscous salad with local red wine and the lovely treat, a dulci they called Peaches.     The Peaches are actually a yellow cake, rosy tinted with a core of cream.  I had shown the servers my list of allergies that I had translated to the local language and they seemed even more confused asking me to 'say in English'. Which didn't really help, when suddenly I realized I'd given them the list that had been trans...

Isn't the whole point of things, beautiful things, that they connect you to some larger beauty. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt I am an art collector and I am an artist. Those are two identities that I claimed with a bit of self doubt at one time in my life. First came the title artist. As a child, being an artist was one of three potential chosen professions. But being an art collector; hadn’t crossed my mind until years after I had begun to collect art. Like calling myself an artist, thinking of myself as an art collector somehow seemed too high blown for someone like myself raised in a working class family from Iowa. Both the title artist and art collector beg the question of definition. Being an artist is easier to define, whether we are talking professional or amatuer, an artist is someone who makes art. But then does it follow that an art collector is someone who collects art? Of course that is the case. But I think what is even more important is to differentiate  an art col...

Calvigny, 24 x 36" Self-portrait, 12x12" Venus' Nipple, 12x12" Conch, 36x36"

We leave for Grenada, in about six days. Excited anticipation is building to see what it will be. Will the bed be comfortable?  Will the water outside our door be good swimming?  How will the locals treat us?  What will I paint? Last year in Trinidad the birds were so beautiful and abundant I had to paint them. The spectacular national bird of Trinidad, the Scarlet Isis painting went back to the islands, to Barbados as a gift for for and from relatives.   The first bird influenced painting, Hummingbirth which was inspired by my little companion, the Copper-rumped hummingbird, will be in an exhibit while we are away, at the Janet Carson Gallery in Eau Claire,WIsconsin. Fabulous Florals is an exhibit of floral designs by area florists inspired by a work of art. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Hummingbirth .  I found a nice heavy canvas bag designed to carry golf clubs on a plane. I'm planning to load it with acrylics , rolls of canvas and stretche...