Sunflowers and Solomeo

See Corciano high on the hill??

Who would have thought that we'd be up in the early morning, scream down that very hill, run through a wheat field in search of a patch of sunflowers as tall as I am? It was foggy, so the temptation to stay in bed was great, but this real experience definitely won over any after-the-alarm-clock-goes-off morning dream.

Chuck taught and I worked all day in the printing studio finishing up some books and now we are off tonight to Solomeo, a remarkable village revived by Brunello Cucincelli, for a 9:00-everyone-in the-town eats-at-the-same-HUGE-table dinner (la buona cucina servita in piazza con paitti tipici della cucina umbria), entertainment (spettacoli musicali), art show and medieval market (mostre d'arte, mercato medievale e anticihi mestieri).

Cortonaland

We spent the day in Frances Mayeslan. Someday Epcot may have a Cortona ride - it is the Disneyland of Italy. Students were busy sketching, doing water colors, a bit of shopping, photographing and (as always) eating. It was an academic day preparing all the printmakers for their monoprints and inspiring them to focus on their final projects. Jasmine wore the perfect refreshingly white dress - right out of "Under the Tuscan Sun. "

The painters were in Corciano all day painting "li automobili and le machine." We all had a reunion at the piazza where the Trasimeno Blues Festival filled the night with music and the sandals-candals-and-belts vendors hawked their wares. The octogenarians of the village are astounded, the owner of the monastery is not the least bit interested: he is most concerned with the progress of the restoration of the 18th Century frescos and the moving of his herd of goats from one pasture to the other. Here in Corciano, with its 185 residents, there is still something for everyone.

Sunset in black and white

When one is constantly thinking of how to translate a scene into an etching, mezzotint or relief print, BLACK AND WHITE comes to mind. Remo loved that his olive oil remained green and it was fun to transform Chuck into a serious professor while watching a spectacular sunset from our gardens at the Monastary.

The Saint Augustino Monastary's orchard is probably over 500 years old and the trees bear little fruit. It is now an animal sanctuary and well as having a delightful chapel (last year, the courtyard was the setting for a splendid concert by the Corciano Chamber Musicians). The owner, Paolo, is passionate about saving the living as well as the historic. Every morning we greet the goats, deer and donkeys and also say "Good morning" to the Michealangelo look alike who is restoring the frescoes.

I am sooo excited!!! Tomorrow we go to Cortona (Under the Tuscan Sun) to sketch and Wednesday we have been invited to go to the unique village of Solomeo for a community dinner al fresco. If we get to meet Brunello Cucinelli, my life will be complete!

Un Cult - Sira & Remino

We are spending the weekend in San Gusme ( a small but very elegant, authentic and extraordinarily friendly village) about 15 minutes from Siena in the heart of Chianti Classico Country. In the morning, I was hoping to introduce Chuck to Remo, the charming wine-making and olive-oil producing octogenarian who Lauren and I met in the winter of 1999. He is, according to the people of the region "un libro vitalo" - a living book. And yes we was still hauling his wine in straw baskets, stacking bottles of olive oil and ready to tell us about his life - including pulling out a commendation from the United States for his resistance against the German invasion 1939-45. We calculated that he was about 14 years old when he took it upon himself to protect his village and help his friends and family survive. The town has a gate that the Germans drove a tank through and it stands an a reminder to everyone. We spent at least two hours tasting, "talking" and listening to him tell about history, his premium olive oil and his special wines. Chuck did masterfully and Remo clearly enjoyed a new audience. Chuck was surprised at the effort it took to translate and we returned home for him to take a mental nap while I designed a series of little italian grammar books.

In the afternoon we drove through Chianti Country via Villa a Sesta to Castlo Brolio, fortress and home of the Ricasoli family for nearly a millenium. I'd remembered the tales of the Barone, the castle, countryside, winery and generosity of the people from a Backroads Bicycle tour some 15 years ago. Nothing has changed, except the packaging has gotten more attractive and Grappa is much more popular. Of course, we bought a few bottles. People who comment on our blog may get to share them with us...

We returned to San Gusme for a little snack and now at 8:00 pm Chuck is taking Nap Number 2. This is a breakthrough!!!

If he wakes, we will go to dinner at "Sira and Remino" one of the three delightful restaurants in this little town . It is run by the granchildren of Remo. In order to built their business, they make stickers and posters "Sira and Remino- un Cult" and plastered them throughout Tuscany on buildings, walls and random places. Started a mysterious phenomenon and now their business is thriving - under the watchful eye of their sprightly grandfather, of course...

brutti e buoni - ugly but delicious

Before starting the day, it is highly recommended that one enjoy a cappuccino and a "brutti e buoni" biscuit-like pastry filled with roasted almonds, pinenuts, white raisins and dark raisins. Light as a feather and straight out of the oven.

And then there is the requisite gelato break at 3:00, dinner around nine followed by a village-wide passagiata (after dinner stroll) then a bit of grappa and gossip on the piazza. Did we mention that shops are closed 1-4, all bank holidays and "gone on vacation" signs are handwritten and tacked up on many a store entry? We've just put on up on our apartment door and are planning to dash off to Fabbriano (think fabulous papers), San Gusme (think Tuscany Tours) and other random hilltown visits this weekend. I can't wait to visit Solomeo - the rehabilitated village recently built by "Bruno di Benevolenti"(my nickname for him), the high fashion Cashmere King and humanistic visionary of our decade - it is 10 minutes away. They have a festival starting this evening!

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita...

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,

Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,

Che la diritta via era smarrita.

Midway on our life's journey, I found myself

In a dark woods, the right way lost.

Canto I

The Inferno

We walk through this ancient forest every morning and back home though the shadows every night. A "fatto a mano" (hand made) book is in process.

Mezzotints, Monasteries and Nutella Pizza

An all day field trip to Todi a charming town in Umbria - so high on the hill that one has to take a tram to get to the city center. Of course, few cars, but lots of spectacular vistas. We needed to select something for our mezzotint prints ( a process involving 1-4 hours in preparing our copper plates to have them ready for burning then printing an image in every known shade of white-white to a rich, blacker-than-black velvet). Carrie Ann and Macy demonstrated how it is done and so we have our inspiration (along with Carol Wax)..

In Todi, we began our day at one of the fourteen churches ( five nunneries and six monasteries - I think they have salvation and righteous behavior covered in this town). Cryptic tombs ( no pun intended) and any little figures cavorted around the bases of the pillars around the front entrance - little four inch men relieving themselves and "ed ellli avea del cul fatto trombetta." the main sactuary was without pilgrims or visitors, filled with a subtle gregorian chanteause made the atmosphere all the more powerful.

Then, how about this experience followed by the notion of Pizza Nutella?? Too much juxtapostion in this country for me today.

I highly recommend reading The Italians by Luigi Barzzoni published some 40 years ago. I'm enjoying it thoroughly and seeing how he astutely observed it all - especially our love affair with everything italians all viewed through the veil of "charm." I am sure hid observations were before the days of Francis Mayes and Slow Food gatherings in Todi.

Forgot to mention Safet Zec

Lovely Lisa Cralle doesn't know if she is more intrigued with his art or his name. Ever heard of Safet Zec? But everyone we ran into said we must see this show at the Correo Museum (hidden on the second floor above the Florian in Piazza San Marco). This remarkable Bosnian artist lost his home and his entire body of work when his studio in Sarajevo was blown during the war. He now lives in Venice and dramatically showed all of us how to see the world in an entirely new way. Not only is he perhaps the most prolific and confident painter in the style of Wyeth, he makes painting the ordinary (shirts, bedsheets, interiors of row boats, studio reality) absolutely powerful.

On the heels of this experience, we had one of those quotidian events - the daily setting of the sun as we drove back to Corciano.

Back in Corciano, it is the gelateria owner's birthday so the whole town is turning out to celebrate at 10:30 p.m.tonight. I made him an accordian book with 50 candles - one on each page. He reciprocated with a credit for 50 kisses. I think that a person can't be in Italy anywhere for more than five days without running into some sort of celebration.

Chuck taught painting out in a field of newly rolled haystacks with an abandon farmhouse in the background. He did two marvelous paintings. I finished and bound a book on Italian moons, an accordian book, a pocket accordian book with "pochoise" printing and started a carousel book of an ancient olive grove (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrivai per una selva oscura che la diritta via era smarrita - Midway on our life's journey, I found myself in dark woods, the right road lost). Who knew I would love this sooooo much??? Perhaps it is that I have a huge uninterrupted amount of time to focus on something as small as a 5 x 7 book with deckled edges.

It is such a marvelous convergence of arts: ancient, hand- bound book techniques and this blogging business. Photos will follow. Now, we need to advance into a miniscule kitchen to cook ratalouille.

Octopus Salad

One would not think that seeing tables of writhing octopus at the Campo Pescarina fresh fish market would inspire a craving for octopus salad, but for those of you interested in the food aspect of our journey, I invite you to consider these little suckers. Of course, they need to be eaten under a canopy of green in a small garden restaurant (Agli Alboretti Risotteria & Cantina) just off the Grand Canal.

I keep humming the theme song to "A Room with a View" and very thankful that I don't have to wear those skinney-waisted, puffy sleeved Victorian costumes in any part of Italy this summer. I did, however get some sunglasses and am looking for a Ferrari to accessorize them.

One Hundred and Eleven

How can one every see Venice though new eyes??

We think that FROG BOY is one of the most refreshing new visions. He was temporarily covered with a glass cage to protect him from the fireworks of the Festival of the Redeemer. Normally he stands guard over the entrance to the Grand Canal.

After waking early amidst a fog of humidity, we met the students at 11:30 a.m. in the Paizza San Marco to hand out museum passes and encourage them to explore the city. We headed for Ca'Pesaro - a modern art collection housed in a mansion on the Grand Canal: Sorolla, Chagall, Max Ernst, Klimt, Mattises, Rodins and paintings of friezes were breathtaking. Hard to get to, but searching and discovering is the game plan here.

In the afternoon we met Paolo and antiquarian bookmaker who engaged us in a completely over-our-heads conversation about the history of Venetian bookmaking and the need to perpetuate a dying art form.

Friday July 16 was clearly the hottest day we've ever experienced. Even Chuck's childhood in Bakersfield did not prepare us for 80% humidity (our sunglasses were fogging, the windows were dripping wet) and 111 (actually 111.2) degrees in the shade.

We got up at 5:00 a.m. to enjoy the unearthly quiet and get to the Rialto produce and fish market. Muscular boatmen were unloading the freshest of peaches, tomatoes, strawberries, plums - everything at its peak of perfection, plus the freshest fish, scampi, octopus, snails and seafood that you could imagine! It all gets shipped in and arranged with extraordinary care by vendors who have probably been doing this for generations. It is completely eye candy!!! Countless inspirations for paintings, and at least 280 photos later, we headed back to the hotel for breakfast.

Sliding, sweating and generally melting our way back to the hotel we freshened up and headed out with Academy faculty, Macy Chadwick and Carrie Ann Plank, for a "cena passegiata" (we made that up) sort of a progressive dinner involving apertivi, ciccetti, lots of walking, crossing bridges, missing gondola taxis (traghetti) and being smashed into vaporetti. Have you ever had dinner in a sauna? I want to remember the Bucatini, Squid in Ink and polenta, but all that comes to mind is the "decorative" rotating fan that mocked us.

Wednesday was mid-terms and all the students have assembled quite a body of work. The printmaking and book arts class had an informal STUDIO APERTO and many of the town's citizens came to view the prints, books and chat with the students. It was impressive and fun - a great combination of energies.

After an all day ride in a bus (finishing that blessed Inferno and collecting quite q few appropriate quotes) we have arrived in Venice. Chuck skillfully maneuvered his way thorough an art store, men's clothing shop and striking up a relationship with a charming 80 year old bookmaker (fatto a mano) in the paper store. We discovered that cicchetti (little bits of fresh, colorful, tasty foods - fish, shrimp, salumi, squash, scallions - arranged artfully on toasts) and prosecco are the perfect snack anytime. However, a "Guidedueotto" is an astounding combination of ice cubes made of solid dark chocolate gelato in a glass of whipped cream is pretty amazing...

"Venezia" is getting ready for the Festival of the Redeemer; a night a of revelry, fireworks and gratitude for the ending of the plague that killed over 1 million people. The light is magical, the gondolas are beginning to be decorated and we have just finished dinner by the edge of a canal jammed with good natured water traffic.

Tomorrow we're up at 5:00 a.m. to go to the fish market before the tourists from the cruises even begin to wake up. We'll be downloading photos after we can get the airconditioning to work. Meanwhile we are m e l t i n g in the heat and humidity.

First Week of Teaching

Chuck started the Plein Air Painting first week on Monday with a critique in the Monastery and I went off to Bookmaking/Printing. The students are already 4 weeks into the program, so I am catching up presto! A little one hour project making a 16 page book out of one sheet of paper took me an anguished afternoon and now I'm onto a "storage book" - NOT to be confused with a scrapbook -that should take three hours (hmmmm...how about a day per page?). I am tempted to make something that is precious - remembering that there is definitely a wide gulf between deep 'n cute and Diebenkorn.

Alas, I thought I'd be so clever and read Dante's Inferno, learn Italian and actually pre-cut a little printing plate in the shape of the boot of Italy. Suffice it to say, my Italian is non existent (the 4th grade Spanish just LEAPS out my mouth, leaving a brain muddle along with a very perplexed listener). my little boot has been squished in the printing press and I am living the second level of the Inferno - I knew it was hot in Hell, but I had no idea there were so many mosquitos.

Tuesday morning started with painting on the streets of Corciano followed by a trip to Perugia, filling our van with art supplies and electric fans (they expect the heat wave to continue through the weekend). We will be off to Venice on Thursday to check out the known sights and their t-shirted tourists and participate in the Festival of the Redeemer (the plague indiscriminately killed some one million Venetians and somehow it just stopped one day - this is T.H.E. day they celebrate the generalized saviour with fireworks that start at midnight and last all night). When will Jonas Salk get such an honor?

Did we tell you that between the Catholic saints, politicians, music and foods (this appears to be the season of truffles, boar and jazz) and a general desire to celebrate anything we plan to catch AT LEAST ten celebrations. That is, after the painting students learn to control their values and lines and I finish my handmade "spy book."

Starting our Gelato diet

There are no calories in gelato cones if eaten daily in the Corciano Piazza after dinner (no earlier than 10:00ish). It is a well-known fact that the combination of diary, eggs, often fruit at its freshest and wheat are a fully balanced way to proceed into the evening.

Or so we are experimenting...

Pompeii

After a deum horribilum (two hours arranging our rented Alpha Romeo, of course getting lost getting out of Rome, getting lost out of Ostia Antica and getting lost on our way to Pompeii) we drove around and around Pompeii trying to find our hotel in the dark. How can you swear and cry at the same time?? All was rewarded by the multiple of kindnesses of strangerei - including the restaurant owner of Il Gallo Nero. After finally finding our sanctuary at the Hotel Forum, we returned to his garden delight to have THE BEST MEAL yet: the pizza that has made Napoli famous, bresaoloa and arugula, fabulous bisteca and a bottle of Cantina del Tiburno Fidelis 2005. They say that the volcanic ash makes for fertile vineyards. We now believe it.

Saturday: It has been my lifelong dream to visit Pompeii and I'd just finished ready a marvelous book about the last four days before the eruption. I already had a picture in my mind, but had absolutely no idea how marvelous it would be. We were up early and off to the Scavi (ruins) and girded for relentless heat, bothersome tourists and hawkers. Instead, their was a breeze, few tourists and ruins were magical - a whole city frozen in time (imagine a city of 30,000 people going about their daily activities arrested in their tracks. The volcano shot up some 18 miles high, raining debris and ash, the another blast killed over 2,000 people in 30 seconds), the buildings were decapitated and the city was left completely untouched under 8 feet of ash and debris for some 1700 years. To say it is a world treasure is a complete understatement. The "exhibit" is completely engaging and they have a new statement that captures the emotions of one of the most extraordinary archeological sites I have ever seen PompeiViva. I am amazed that Hollywood hasn't eaten this up and put every CG 3-D animator on this with Pompeii I, Pliny's Pompeii, Return to Pompeii and Pompeii Uncovered already scheduled for release in MMX, MMXI and MMXII, MMXIII.

Tonight we'll walk the same ruins by moonlight. They recommend sensible shoes. I recommend a quick prayer to Jupiter (evidently in 79 A.D. the city fathers decided to forgo his annual celebration and sacrifice). Sunday we drive east over to the Adriatic Coast on A-16 (also a great restaurant in San Francisco), sort of across the ankle of the boot of Italy, up to the thigh and then west over to Perugia. From there is is a quick dash to Corciano where classes will begin on Monday.

Electronic postcards

Rather that wait six weeks for a postcard, you get our whole
collection NOW. I am also creating hadn-bound books that will be like having little gems to carry around. We made a 16 page book today out of a single sheet of paperwithout a single staple or bit of glue. Next is an elegant "storage book" with pockets, windows, illusions and ways to memorialize all those bits of detritis usually ending up at the bottom of a drawer. How exciting is this? Ahhh, the folks in Pompeii had only papyrus...

Chuck as Eudora Welty's brother awaits his boarding call

A Monk's Room with a View

Here's the view from the monastery where we will be living.

The campanille and entry staircase

There are actually TWO Campanilli - one chimes on the hour and another chimes one,two or three slightly higher chords every fiftenn minutes. No need for a watch here.

Corciano gate

The cage to the left appears not to have been used for some time but it's presence renders this a very, very safe town. We leave our keys IN the front door. Corciano has been voted one of the most attractive hamlets in all Italy. Street sweepers are out daily. Musicians gather to play a concert on the rampart and poetry is around many a corner. And then there are those pesky art students drawing, painting, photographing and practicing their italian...

Summer in San Francisco

So here's Pat on the aforementioned warm summer's evening getting ready to bid us farewell - if only she could stop shivering. Where are those olympic mittens when you need them?