It is quiet here. Although there are small knots of tourists, mostly retirees, the nature of Paroikia has changed with the departure of many of my fellow Aegean Center students. There’s no more back and forth from classes or the digital lab, the darkroom or painting studios. The cafes are no longer host to small throngs of eager-eyed art students from abroad, at least from my perspective. I am still working in the dark room, though, at night when the air is, conceivably, cooler. This is really not true since the ambient temperature in the room itself is upwards of 70*F. I have had to begin cooling down the developer with ice packs made from 500ml bottles and even then it takes a while for the soup to drop to 21C. I am currently printing snapshots from my time here: landscapes, hikes and street scenes. Mostly for memory’s sake than anything else. Tonight I’ll enlarge a small landscape from a hike: olive groves, stone walls, rocky hills behind and puffy white clouds in an azure sky. It should be a pretty little piece and if I get it down I’ll make three copies for gifts.
I am having my horoscope read today by a fellow student from Belgium and it will be interesting to see if the reading matches up with my current life changes and bio-rhythmic waves. I am packing boxes for storage and shipping having already shipped my portfolios and a box containing my 4×5 back to the US already. The shipper said 3 to 5 days, which means a week at least. I hope they reach Ancramdale in good shape. The weather has been odd. The scirocco that has been coming through the Cyclades as of late has brought with it dust, hot Saharan winds and a general laziness that speaks of even hotter climes than Paros. Yesterday was hot and cloudy most of the morning and I lay on the beach enjoying the heat without the direct sunlight. Back at my flat and after my siesta I awoke at 4:30 to find that the clouds had rolled away and the sun returned in all of its blistering glory. ‘Hot’ is a relative term, but it was that alright. By sundown it had cooled a bit but I slept with the air-con blowing so at least I was able to get a full night’s rest without sweating.
I have been given permission to update my photo site with some of the figure studies I have created. I call this series ‘Opus’, which in Latin means ‘work’. They will be in series and I will have to have the prints scanned when I get home. It will take some time, but time I have. Strange…Many years ago I was in a rock band called ‘Furnace’. I wanted to create a larger, longer piece called ‘God-Family-Work’. This idea was pooh-poohed by the other band members and I was eventually drummed out of the group for being too irresponsible and lazy. Now I am creating a piece I call ‘Opus’. Perhaps this is a philosophical thread that has always run through my life. Today I search family, or more precisely a community of fellows; I continue my seeking for guidance from a Power greater than myself and I labor for the results I wish to attain. Am I living the design I hope to create?
More to come..
JDCM
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