There is great life here on Paros for those who wish to live it.  Being away from America is a blessing and a joy, with the exception of being so distant from family and all that  this means.  Granted we are all adults and have our own lives, but we do speak and write, two things I need to do more often with my family.  I am eating breakfast, nothing special on the menu but it is fresh and much better than American bacon and eggs.  The yolks are deep, bright orange and the bacon, although processed, is lean and contains just the right amount of fat to crisp up nicely and add salt to the eggs.  My coffee has been prepared in the classic fashion, a gift from the Turks and served this way from Bosnia throughout the Middle-East.   A small pot of cold water is put on the stove.  In it I spoon two tablespoons of coffee grounds and let it come to a boil.  I then let it settle, the grounds sinking to the bottom and clarifying the rich brew.  In America this is called ‘cowboy coffee’.  Little did those cowpokes know that the Byzantine Empire was drinking it this way a thousand years before they loped across the dusty trail.

The Aegean Center is moving along and I am working today, finally, in the studio with the first of many shoots for a friend. This is a promotional package for her singing career.  Tomorrow I am back in the studio for some male nude studies.  This is a good change for me since the female nude is so prominent in photographic history.  The male nude will always carry with it an element of homo-eroticism, a subject which can illicit nervous coughs and the shuffling of suddenly uncomfortable feet.

I have been meeting more of the locals lately and have heard of a house for rent on AndiParos, just across the straits.  It is a winter rental and very cheap, but alas, I will not be here this season.  Perhaps I can find out if it will be available next September.  It sounds ideal, if a little isolated.  Closer to Paroikia would be better for me, both in mind and body but the idea of having an artist’s retreat near the shore for the off-season is very appealing and the price is so low…I’ll find more facts and make decisions based on reason and the ability to keep up my end of the bargain.  That is the best course.  It is, after all, what Marcus Aurelius would have done.

The rain has moved through the night, drenching this little island in the Aegean.  The streets have been cleared of muck and debris, washed to the sea through the ancient gutters that wind their way through the flagstone streets.  The next few days are supposed to bring us more of the same, but that is alright.  As seasons shift here they bring with them the promise of change, inevitable and unstoppable.  What would life be without this constant?

JDCM

Today we make our preparations for leaving Italy, heading south and making a slow passage back to Paros.  We will be in Rome for a couple of days, then Athens until next Saturday and then back on the island.  Personally I cannot wait. I have a lot of work to do that I have not been able to accomplish here.  This is the longest I have gone without access to a dark room, so I am looking forward to getting in there and developing film, making contact sheets and printing.

It has been an interesting experience living with 24 other people.  I have not been in this dynamic for many years, perhaps as far back as then end of boarding school (1984).  The constant compromises and diplomacies involved can be exhausting and I have been thankful for my single room at the top of the stairs.  Some of  the younger students have never experienced this and in fact have never experienced many issues revolving around living on their own.  Doing Laundry, cleaning up after themselves, sharing bathrooms and dividing up kitchen duties are all new to many and there has been a steep learning curve.  Some have not risen easily to the occasion, but risen they have and mostly due to necessity rather than any skill or learning.  This is also how I learn, usually.  When the need becomes too great, change will occur.    Some of the teachers have had to act as parents in small roles and I too have had to assume a more adult role, but not always.  I am still a student here and I must remember that.

We have seen so much in our three weeks here.  Museums, churches and architectural sites in Florence, Siena, Venice, Lucca and soon Rome.  The Athens leg will be mostly a repeat for me, having been there many times myself.  I will probably use that time to connect with friends in the city and decompress from the fast paced travel schedule.  The news from Greece is troublesome and makes me a bit nervous regarding our upcoming arrival.  The economic emergency is escalating and there are more transit strike planned for next week, including a 48-hour mass transit strike on Tuesday and Wednesday.  What this means is unclear, but the option of hiring a small bus to transport us en masse from the airport to the hotel in mid-town Athens is now on the list.

Today I’ll head into Pistoia and go to the ATM for travel cash, the farmacia for some odds and ends and then come back and pack my bags.  I have already mailed a box to Paros from here and hope for the best.  My bags should be more manageable, not they weren’t before, but I have accumulated a few things along the way.

Time to head into town.  I’ll post again from Rome with updates on the transit strikes.  For now the sun is shiny and a fresh day awaits.

JDCM

As I wrote earlier we were planning to travel to Pisa and see the basilica, the campanile (the Leaning Tower), the baptistry and the Campo Santo.  We did all of these things and more.  One reason I am learning so much this session is the way that the teachers have mapped out our travels.  Yes, it would be easy to take the train to Pisa, then a bus directly to the site, but instead we took the train to the station and then walked through Pisa.  On the way we looked at and analyzed the architecture of this old city, architecture that tourists rarely see or if they do have no knowledge that they are looking at, let us say, a 13th century palazzo or church.  We stopped at a fantastic cafe and had a snack before heading off into the blazing sun and the historical sites.

That was last week and as of an hour ago we have just returned from a three-day tour of Venice.  Amazing, really.  Bellini, Titian, Donatello, Piazza San Marco, San Giorgio di Maggiore, and on and on…What has impressed me the most in the wider scope of this experience is the understanding that between the 13th and 19th centuries (we concern ourselves with just the 13th, 14th and 15th) those we now consider ‘artists’ did not think of themselves as that at all. They were craftsmen, constructionists, designers and builders.  ‘Skilled labor’ is a better definition.  They did no work of their own and did not express themselves in the selfish fashion that many so-called ‘artists’ do today, myself included, by the way.  It was all under contract and they were all competing in a business.    This is a mind-altering thought for me and what its ramifications are I do not know yet.

As to the benefits of guided tours by knowledgable and interested guides and mentors…Most, if not all the tours one sees in these towns and cities are not run or organized by people that really care.  they are only in it for the money and ramble off spurious facts dragging their charges through crowds and making sure they all get a gelato break.  Our guide, Jeffrey Carson, is knowledgable and fun, gearing his lectures for his group of 20 or so students.   His facts are accurate and reasoned and he tells us important aspects, allowing us all to come to our own conclusions through research and enquiry.  I could easily look at al of these things myself, but the confusion has been cut away like so much brush and bramble, revealing the heart of the matter.

How lucky and I to be living this life!

JDCM

I have had a wonderful time so far during this component of the Aegean Center.  Traveling with this small group through Florence and Pistoia has been an eye-opening experience.  It is one thing to conduct the readings, research and so forth on my own and take the trip solo or with another person, but to be guided around by a very knowledgeable mentor is another.  The day-trips are not so much tours as peripatetics, designed to make us all think about the times we are studying and the people who lived and worked during those times. I have been seeing enormous gaps in my own education filling in.

As I mentioned we have been to Florence once and Pistoia twice.  Today we take the train to Pisa for a longer day trip.  Tomorrow we go back to Florence and then on MOnday we take a three-day trip to Venice.  On the days we are not touring we have classes here at the villa.  There is singing in the music room as Orfeas guides his vocalists; watercolor classes and drawing classes in the gardens; photography classes in the gardens as well.  Art History lectures are conducted before dinner in the upstairs chapel, which we have converted in to a small lecture hall.  Throughout the day there are students, young and not as young, reading, writing, drawing and using their cameras all around me.  I am engaging in these activities as well.  I am enjoying the watercolor classes as, like the figure drawing last spring, it alters the way I perceive the world and relate to it as someone within its context.

The other students are, on the whole, very enthusiastic about this experience also.  There are grumblings from some quarters but I feel these are the necessary grumblings of growth, coming mostly from students who have preconceived notions of what ‘art school’ is, what it has been for them and how the Aegean Center program differs from the myriad programs in existence.  It is wonderful watching eyes and minds open, my own included.

JDCM

With the demise of Kodak Plus-X comes the understanding that I support those companies that make film and employ workers and not worry about the terrible errors made in Rochester.  To that end I have been shooting Foma 100 and 200 speed MF film and like the results:  crisp, wide tonal ranges and pushes nicely.  The odd thing is that the poly stock used for the film base is light blue which, although it does not effect the print in the darkroom, still looks funny and does not wash off.  The initial anti-halation dye washes off, but not the base coat.    I am also using Ilford Pan-F 50 which is a smokin’ bit of film.  Both are consistent, stable and very available.

My attempt to find a space for a solo show has yielded no joy.  The lines of inquiry tossed out on to the sea have come back empty or with demands both financially and artistically too heavy for me to carry.  I am still hanging a few pieces in the upcoming 14th Colony  group show on August 13th and I hope to have some rural scenes in a hanging at a local health center.  Also, I have been clued in to another co-op, the real thing this time, in nearby Hudson, NY.  I will check that out tomorrow. There is also an arts co-op in the nearby town of Tivoli which I am going to investigate.  All of these are paths for growth, change and community–three things I need, want and cherish.  I’ll try to set up as much as possible before I head out to Italy and Greece in less than month.  Yes, on August 29th I fly back to Europe for another 4 months of art, art history and travel.

I’ll be taking a friend’s RolleiCord MkVI this time.  It has better glass than the Mamiya c330 and is half the weight.  I’ll take only one lens for the Canon 5D MkII (50mm L series), one lens for the Voightlander (35mm Skopar) and my  G11 point-and-shoot.  This  frees up a fair amount of space and bulk in the camera bag, which allows me room for the MacBookPro…

Still no response from those I have emailed.  Why am I the only one who follows etiquette in regards to email?  Not true, obviously, but please, people, throw me a bone here!

More to come,

JDCM