Life of late

I feel as the time passes here l become more entrenched in daily life, and the act of writing a blog is less frequent or even substantial. So l will make more of an effort to bring to life, our adventure, and caste off my daily routine.
And this can start with the fact we are moving from our wonderful apartment in Santo Stefano piazza to Via Cesare Batiste. The reason is simply we need a bit more room, blame it on the trip back to Teneriffe and the open space and size of the house there. Also the fact the boys are turning ten soon, and we feel, and so do they, especially Ewan that they need their own room. The new apartment is also cheaper, and comes with three incredibly frescoes ceilings and a Venetian chandelier. The kitchen is about four times bigger than the one here, so we should be able to swing a female serbian tiger in it, and the kids will have their own play, study room, full of light and space. Of course leaving Santo Stefano will be sad, as it is the best piazza in town, and close to so many wonderful bars, restaurants and shops. But Cesare Battiste is closer to school and not far at all from the main piazza and other shops.
We have discovered a new ice cream shop, owned by our landlords son, and we all agree that we think it is the best in town, Hunty in particular thinks his straccialla is the best he has ever had, and that is high praise.
The boys and l continue to have lunch together every tue, wed, thur out of the school grounds, due to the contamination we would have caused by bringing food into the school grounds. The whole lunch saga is becoming quite the talking point at school, as the school has decided to bill three times a year parents for the meals, and if the child is sick, or misses school, they pay anyway, unless they bring a doctors certificate. This along with the cost going up has made many parents look at the opportunity of bringing their kids lunch, so maybe, fingers crossed l can cause a revolution and we can get a couple of tables in the lunch room, to have for our kids to eat the lunches the parents supply. I love the idea that the mensa (lunchroom) could be divided into the haves and have nots, possible ending in a massive food fight, with of course the final image a pie hitting the principal in the face, ohh the joy of slapstick.
We have just had a delightful guest stay, Di Managan, director of the Wangaratta Regional Gallery. It was great having a guest , just for one night and two days, who was eager to see the riches of Bologna, and Di never rested, walking from gallery, to museum to church, with a quick stop for an apertativo at Zannarini. I have a solo show at Wangaratta Gallery next year, which after Di and l went through it, l feel will be a wonderful show.
Hunter has been a bit sick the last couple of days, and he has tonsillitis, but after some medicine is back bouncing around, annoying all of us.
A couple of days have passed since l wrote this first piece, and l just heard Hunter ask Jayne for a hair dryer for soccer. As he says that when they have showers after their match's all the kids dry their hair with dryers. I have seen this process and it does concern me, thank fully Ewan refuses to have a shower.
We leave to Barcelona today for 5 days, and we are looking forward to it, the boys are becoming so frustrating, especially in regard to their homework, the level is getting worse. They basically dont seem to care, and l fear this comes from the classroom. Jayne visited San Luigi school, which the International school is attached to, it is an Italian catholic school, and very old school. She met the english, language teacher who may take the boys , a couple of afternoons a week through english and italian, and from that we can judge if they can get up to speed to go to San Luigi. We think the stricter, old school method may be good for them, and they will see most of their friends from the international school at soccer or over the weekends. But their new class would have 20 other students compared to 10 at the international.
They play each weekend in a soccer match, and this weekend they played very well indeed, even l with my basic italian could understand the compliments the other parents were saying about them. Hunters speed and skills and determination were as expected high, and Ewan got his teams first goal, and assisted in the pass to the other two. the coach even moved him to striker because of his natural instinct to position himself. He does seem sometimes away with the birds, and slow, but suddenly he bolts down the field, l guess like all full forwards.
Its their 10th birthday in a couple of weeks, and  at the moment it is going to be like last year and no party, unless as we have explained their behavior improves. And then of course on the 1st December it is my 50th.
And so until next time, we must go and see Gaudi, Dali, Miro, Barcelo and Tapies.

Pietrasanta, Lucca, Carrara

This weekend , we had an extended couple of days, thanks to Saint Petronio of Bologna, so we decided to leave on friday and go to Pietrasanta, a place that Michaelangelo got some of his marble. We stayed at a terrific eco, bio B&B. It is run by an artist, who was originally from the USA, but has lived most of her life in Italy, Kyle, and her partner Dado who like Kyle was the most charming and considerate hosts we have had. Getting to Almora was rather tricky, perfect directions, but as they say you come to a bridge on your left with the sign of the B&B, cross the bridge, well this is where l got a small concern, it was a terribly thin bridge, and l wondered what weight it could take. But what made me wonder most was where did the road go, as you looked at it, it just seemed to finish. So we turned the side mirrors in, and eased our way across, as we got to the other side, l realized that a road did in-fact turn to the right, very sharply, and the road got thinner. Now the mirrors are already in, so, and l know it did not help, but l sucked in and carefully drove around, careful not to smash the house wall on one side or roll over into a river below. Finally after a nervous couple of minutes we made it there, and as they said the second time is much easier. He was right, by the 6th time l was feeling much better, but still breathed a sense of relieve. So as long as you don't have to leave in an emergency, or drink too much getting there is fine. The place had lovely views over a small valley, was quite, but the sounds of birds and occasional cat squealing, or a car horn , as they warned on coming traffic down a thin road they were approaching. We woke each morning to a superb breakfast by Dado and chatted for a couple of hours with delight. Luckily we left sometime in the day to visit Lucca, which is a walled city, rather popular with tourists, reminded me of Sienna, as there were way too many crowds and accents. Had a terrible lunch at a place that trip advisor suggested, but l think that is because most people after eating there don't complain, so that reminds me l must write a review of the place. We hired bikes and rode around the perimeter wall which gave you a great look at the city and sense of size. The area around the wall is terrific, grassed moat area which you can play or ride the bikes, very green. on the wall top there are small porta buildings that have various offerings. One was a most detailed exhibition of a 100 or so mushrooms, and it was impressive. Puccini was born here, and his house is open to see, Ewan and l found it, but by that time Jayne and Hunty were somewhere else, so next time! We got back and made a careful trip down to Pietrasanta for dinner.
Pietrasanta is very arty, the most galleries in a small place l have seen, all mostly modern, and the main piazza had a sculpture on show, as well as in an old Roman church, which is dedicated to exhibiting artists. There are lots of very good restaurants, and it was not hard to get a good meal, that night we ate at La Vineria. The next night it was Giglio, both excellent. Piertasanta is full of artists who are getting their works turned in to marble by either local artisans, or what is popular now sadly laser and computer cutters. So the international artist turns up gives them his/ her marque and goes of to the beach for a few months, checking occasionally, and then returning home, and saying ohh look how good am l. Sadly artisans are nearly lost, as the few that are left come from  a generation where they began their training at 12/ 14 and worked in workshops on various area until decided what they were best at, some were doing fabric detail, others hands and feet, some faces etc.
On the last day we went via Carrara to see the marble mines. I am happy to say that we shall never run out of marble, though the arabs are doing their best. It was incredible to see mountains of white marble, blocks 9, 6, 3 x 2 x3 meters cut out at the top half, and even larger blocks lower down. They cut them with diamond chains in a very clever method, and the cost of the marble is obviously dictated by the pureness of the marble. Trucks then carry it down the very winding road, that has used massive blocks of marble to edge the side of the roads. They then reach a gate where the truck is weighed, and the quality priced, and then it is taxed on that. So the government is making money there at least.
The boys and l on the way out, jumped quickly to the side of the road and got some pieces of marble to try to carve at, l can assure you they will never miss those pieces, and we never got taxed which is always a winning feeling.

Pietrasanta piazza

icecream time, Pietrasanta

 

Slug home the boys made

Sculpture, Pietrasanta

Carrara mine

Hunty riding around Lucca

 

The boys with tiny turtles at Almora B&B

Lake Garda

Well just after getting back from Australia, we were invite to spend a weekend with Alberto, Angelica, Vali and Pablo at their holiday home. Perfect weather, and it is a remarkable lake, surrounded by properties, town after town, yet the lake is so big, it never seems busy, and always seems to have a mist over the lake, hiding the shape of the otherside. There was a regatta on that weekend, and we went out in their tinny to watch it, sadly there was little wind and we did not get the see the boats in full flight, as they really can go, sort of large skiffs, with outrigger style trapeezers to sit on, which then contract when not in use, putting more weight to the otherside. We had 8 people in a 5 man tinny, thankfully as the coast guard went by 5 of us were in the water, so l was ready to explain that we, had swam out and were not with the boat, but they never seemed too concerned, probably because there was no wind. Apparently tens of people die each year in the lake, mainly tourists, as  like the SSMinnow the weather can change very quickly, and you can get tossed. Very popular with the Germans, as is many parts of Italy. So we had a BBQ, and swam in the lake, the boys went fishing, and played volleyball. The perfect place to relax and exercise, something we find hard in Bologna. The next morning, l woke and watched the Eagles play North melb on the computer, with nearly a 100 point win, so it made the trip even better. Next year l am going to spend the whole finals at Lake Garda.

Corte Isolani

After a wonderful opportunity to exhibit in Villa Spada in late June, l was offered the space in Corte Isolani. It is a hugh brick wall about 20 meters high and 10 meters wide. The work was the "Bologna" series l had at Villa Spada, but instead of a round room 5 meters wide and 8 meters high, l was given this. The only thing l had to think about was the weather, as the wall is exposed inside the court. So l simply wrapped them in high grade plastic, to protect them from the rain and wind. this is the problem you have when you work in cardboard!
So after a nervous hang up a 8 meter ladder, drilling the pictures to the wall, while Jayne and Angelica held the ladder, what l hoped would take about 2 hours took the whole day, but finally it was up and looked rather good. I must say l like the plastic wrapping , it gave the work another dimension and sence of viewing Bologna through a different way. The work has been up now for nearly a month, in that time it has rained rather heavily, but not a drop has got through, and thankfully, no one has seen the need to press a cigarette into the plastic.
We are having an opening on October 11th, which will be good, and in the meantime, many hundreds of people have walked by and seen it. During this time l have been busy back in the studio, after a month not working in Australia, and l am on a roll. I have a few shows coming up, a group show in Hong Kong, and a solo show in Wangaratta , Victoria. And of course my monthly or so exhibitions in La Picccola Galleria.
The boys have been rather exhausting lately, maybe from coming back from Australia, or maybe because they can be!
Jaynes Italian moves along well as ever, and mine has moments of clarity, like yesterday, when a artist called Alessandro knocked on the studio door to have a look, he was passing by and saw the picture and me working on a woodcut print. So between his broken English and my shameful Italian we conversed, and l must say, l was surprised how much we spoke, l think it helped with his Italian being slow and him being from the north.
The boys and l have lunch every tue, wed, thur and it is working out well, so far no rainy days. The problem will be when it rains and the school policy not allowing us to eat a meal inside the school , unless it is provided by the caterers. But l may be able to swing a deal with the art teacher to eat in the art room.
So now l will stop, with Jayne continuing to practice piano with Ewan, who seems to not want to play piano, but other days he does, Hunter is just hanging around, bored and annoying all of us. This is after he suggested we join DOJO,  a teacher/ student motivational program, giving points for good and bad things. Unfortunetly, he gets upset when he gets a bad point, and therefore losses more points. This of course leads from his gambling habit, and needing to win at all cost. He is now at the computer hassling me and making me laugh at the same time, better go.

Secret business in New York

Bologna, installation

 

Hanging the show at Corte Isolani