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16 days, crossing things off the list and postal updates…

By on February 10, 2012 in 4×5 photography, craft, darkroom work, Greece, nude studies, Paros, silver darkroom, skill and craft, spring in the Aegean, working

I haven’t been counting the days recently so imagine my surprise when I realized that I had only 16 days until I head back to Greece!  Amazing, really, just amazing.  I am very excited to return to Paros and the Aegean Center and begin working. It feels like I do no work here.  Although I take pictures and develop film I seem to spend more time combing through my Netflix queue and meeting friends for coffee and all that.  On Paros I have days full of reading, dark room work, digital work, artistic discussion and more that are much more fulfilling.  I also get more exercise which is good since I tend to loaf around here more than anything-and gain weight in the process.  This isn’t saying that I do not “get things done” because I do.  I have been crossing many things off the list recently and  am confident that I will be departing Ancramdale in ship-shape-and-Bristol-fashion.

The tree work and storm cleanup has been finished.  The place looks lovely and we are getting everything ready for spring, which is just around the corner.  No snow to speak of, but we are supposed to get some tonight and this weekend.  the ‘Farmer’s Almanac’ claims a big storm later in the month, but thankfully before I leave.  We shall see.  Mom’s care is all set-up and all the important adjustments have been made for her going forward for the next few months.  I have visited my father in Pittsburgh and followed through on that commitment.  The donations to charities have been made and I feel hundreds of pounds lighter than I as before–not so much material stuff anymore.  It has been a cathartic few weeks for sure.  I have also hired some new employees to replace my mother’s long-time home maintenance man.  He has been a good guy but in the past few years has begun to flake out due to burnout.  It is time to switch to those who have the resources and will to do the job.  I’ll bring the Mini Cooper up to the shop in Latham next week for a tune-up and then it will be ready to sit quietly until I return in July.  I’ll have someone drive it once in a while during my absence.

The boxes I have sent to Paros have all but arrived.  Three are on the island and have been delivered to the school, but four are still in customs, waiting to be released.  I have had to jump through some hoops to have them cleared but I think that they will be soon.  I’ll be charged a fair amount of money for their freedom, but it will be worth it in the end.  The other night I had to call Greek Customs at 3:40 AM to speak to the official there, but I think I have solved that problem.  It was not without a lot of help so, from the bottom of my heart, I thank those who eased the tensions and fears around this issue and acted on my behalf.  You know who you are!

On another note, I have so many wonderful interactions with other Aegean Center alums here in New York that I am bowled over by the solidarity.  First was the meeting at the Metropolitan with Jeffrey, Liz and the others and then the other day I met with some other former students at MoMA and the Met for a wonderful day of art and conversation.  Really great!  I am grateful to have had the time with them and thankful that I am able to do so.  Super photography, beautiful paintings and a lot of crappy post-modern junk have assured me that I am on the right path and that my ethics are true.

More to come…

JDCM

Showtime…

By on December 8, 2011 in 4×5 photography, darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, Wright Morris

We hung the student show today at the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts, here on Paros.  It is a very pretty show with a wide assortment of photography, painting, printmaking and drawing.  The vocal ensemble had their first concert last night in Naoussa and will have two more this weekend.  Overall I have a had an excellent time here this arm and am looking forward to being back here in about three months.  My photography has improved and I have also gained a little more patience with the younger students.  While I am no smarter than they are, I have experienced more of the world so I am perhaps a little wiser. Perhaps.

In the past few days I have thought a lot about what I will be doing next year while I am here.  Yes, my own photography certainly, but also the work with the director and painting in the spring.  On top of that I feel that it is time to begin work on my own book, probably in the format pioneered by Wright Morris and Andre Kertesz, the photo-text.  In this format the images on the page do not have to directly correspond to the text but by the end of the reading they have made sense as an accompaniment to the reading.  I have many other ideas but I will not share them lest I talk myself dry of the concept.

I have begun packing my stuff and will begin putting it in storage tomorrow.  I have to conduct the inventory of the darkroom supplies and print some last few pieces.  After that I head to Athens on Monday and back to New York Thursday.   Christmas, New Years, my birthday and then back here.  Time flies indeed.

JDCM

Promotional work, silver darkroom, boat strikes…and more…

By on October 23, 2011 in darkroom work, Greece, Paros, silver darkroom, Uncategorized

I suppose the first thing to report would be the horrendous economic situation here in Greece.  This is not really news, since the trouble is worldwide and everyone has been watching this little country sink lower and lower into disaster.  On the island, however, the situation takes on a different flavor.  Much of the protesting in Greece against the austerity measures has been in the transport industries.  Trucks, taxis, buses, train and boats all strike periodically.  Recently the dock workers and shipping crews have gone on strike, halting almost all boat travel through the Aegean Sea.  This cripples a seafaring nation like Greece with its outlying island and archipelagoes.  Paros is affected, obviously.  The current boat strike began last Monday and was supposed to be lifted today, just shy of a week.  Yesterday we received news that the strike had been extended to Wednesday, possibly Thursday. This is bad tidings for a small island dependent on the outside mainland for goods and service.  We are lucky to have local farmers selling vegetables and grocery stores that still have some goods, but meat markets are running out of product and I am concerned that petrol stations will run short in the next couple of days, especially if people make a run for fuel.  As my father told me, I am at the crux of history, so I shall keep my eyes open, my mouth shut and watch the intersections.

The promotional work I am photographing for a friend is moving along.  She only needs three or four pieces for her website, but that still means the same amount of work for me.  It is excellent experience and although I do not do this type of work often, I can see how my own aesthetic plays a large part in how I view the event.  I suppose everyone brings their own vision to this kind of work.  The results will reveal how I view this kind of labor.  So far, so good, actually.  Perhaps she’ll let me use one of these for the blog as an example.

The darkroom moves along and I hope to expose a roll of MF this afternoon and develop it as well.  I am scheduled to be working in there tonight but I have forgotten when I signed up.  I think 22:00hrs.  I have to print at least one piece from the Villa, maybe two if I am lucky, so I can show them to Liz and see how she wishes me to proceed.

I have picked an odd time to move to Greece.  I haven’t looked at any apartments yet, but that will be this week.  I have two, maybe three to check out.  One is a very humble flat in the middle of Paroikia and the other is a bit more lavish old house, I think, not quite on the outskirts of town. I don’t know the prices for either.

More to come…

JDCM

 

Pistoia, The Aegean Center, photography e studenti…

By on September 4, 2011 in Uncategorized

I am finally here at the Villa Rospigliosi in Pistoia, Italy for the fall term of the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts.  I have waited almost two years for this session, already having spent two spring sessions on Paros, the home of the Center.

Italy is lovely.  What can I say?  The villa is a 16th century affair with lovely wooden ceilings, old fountains (some in disuse) and stone staircases.  Lectures and classes are held in the rear garden, a deconsecrated chapel and in and around Tuscany in general.  We travel to Pisa, Venice, Rome and of course Florence.  The students are an energetic bunch with many questions and like I was at the beginning, not sure about where to go, what to do and who to speak to.  There are quite a few painters and writers and, in a few minutes we will see how many wish to practice the craft of photography.

Art History after this meeting, then dinner and then Dante…

More to come…

European relief, directional aids and new courses…

By on September 1, 2011 in Paros

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irene I was unsure as to the status of my flight to Italy.  Thankfully Air France did not cancel the flight, the weather cleared overnight and I flew out of JFK without mishap  or delay.  My hat is off to the staff at that illustrious airport and the fine job they did Monday August 29, 2011.

I arrived in Florence around 9:00 hours and had to wait a few hours until my room was ready.  The Hotel Orto di Medici was kind enough to let me sleep on a couch in the day room until 14:00 when I could check in.  A simple but clean room was presented to me and a crawled into the sack for some more shuteye.  That evening I walked around and found a decent trattoria: carpaccio with spicy arugula, baked beans with garlic and tomatoes and fried rabbit reminded me that I was no longer in America and safe and happy here in Europe, a place I seem to be calling home more often than not.  The next morning I awoke very early and took a dimly-lit walk through the empty streets, down to the River Arno and onto the Ponte Vecchio, devoid of tourists and closed for the night.  It was lovely.  The street cleaners went about their business as I strolled about, buying off the jet-lag and getting my bearings.  My internal compass is more-or-less realigned.  I returned to the hotel, snoozed for a couple of hours and woke up to one of the better continental breakfasts I have had.  The salami and mortadella were excellent, the cappuccino was tasty and they even had rice cakes as a choice over than toast.  I ate well, knowing that my day trip to Fiesole would burn off the calories.  I took the bus to Fiesole and walked around the Roman and Etruscan ruins virtually alone–after another cappuccino.  I came back to Florence by lunchtime and made my way from the Piazza San Marco to the San Croce area and visited the Museo Galileo, which is also called the Science Museum.  Wonderful, really fantastic.  Measuring devices of all types, styles, eras and functions were on display, most collected by the di Medici family over the centuries.  I was hit by an understanding of the nature of man, or of at least intelligent man.  We are born to measure, to divine distances and directions, pressures and quantities physical and ephemeral.  My common metaphor of the sailor’s compass is held up by the cases of quadrants, octants, sundials, Jacobs staffs, clocks and globes of any and seemingly all varieties.  I am inspired.

Today is Thursday, September 1.  I am meeting some spiritual friends for coffee and conversation at 13:30.  Before that I hope to beat some of the crowds to the Palazzo Pitti and then head to the Museo Zoologico la Specola.  In the afternoon My day is free to wander.  I would like to avoid the crowds for an hour or so and then come back to the hotel for a short siesta.  Then I’ll pack my bags.  Tomorrow I head to Pistoia, the Villa Rospigliosi and the Aegean Center.  First, however, I am meeting up with a fellow student at the train station, which leaves me with Friday morning free before I check out and dump my bags (carefully re-packed) at the left-luggage office, Firenze Santa Maria Novello.  I can only imagine what awaits me…

JDCM

On the road again…

By on August 29, 2011 in Paros

How often must I sit by the side of the road and wait for the donkey cart to take me over the next hill?   I think sometimes that this is one of the best parts of the trip: the waiting.  The times in-between waiting and arriving at the destination are mostly downtime–I chat with my seat mates, sleep if I can, watch some movies, listen to music and then I am getting off the plane and walking into the bright sun of the new world.

The Air France lounge is filling up with fellow passengers, many going back to France, but I will be connecting and continuing on to Florence where the Aegean Center waits for me with open arms and the hope of more knowledge, experience and a bright future.  I have entered a new phase, I feel it, one of growth and letting go of much of my past.  I am grateful for this chance to add something meaningful to the world and what that is I am not sure, but there will be something.  I have no illusions that it will be big or even memorable.  It will be a small legacy.  I am laying the foundations for this future.  As I write these words.

On another note I used to write these thoughts in a small spiral notebook for my eye only.  Today I am using my laptop and posting for the world to see and read.  This makes a difference because it allows me to still be as free as I was before but try for some more substantive content.

I’ll try to post more often and, as the days progress, with more actual comings-and-goings and a rundown of the day’s events.

JDCM

Coming down to the wire…

By on August 20, 2011 in Paros

It’s a misty and cloudy day this morning with nine short days before I head back to the Aegean Center, Europe and the future of my life.  Today I was supposed to go on a hike with some of the ‘Page’ editors, but we have postponed and will meet for lunch instead.  They wish to monopolize as much of my time as possible, but I must maintain balance in all things today.  There are the usual tasks that comes with every Saturday morning and there are those I wish to accomplish before I attend an arts opening this evening.  There is darkroom work today, that’s for sure.  I have 5 rolls of Ilford PanF 50 120 that I need to develop and hang this afternoon and tonight I need to print at least one, if not two, pieces for some people who allowed me to photograph on their property. If I get a chance, I’ll scan and add to the website before I scoot out next Monday.  I’ll need to tone those before I deliver them, that’s for sure.

I have run a ‘test pack’ and am fairly secure on what I am bringing and what I am leaving behind.  Since I will be in Italy for the first month I need to bring some nicer clothes with me.  Long pants, shoes, shirts, etc…One cannot dress down in Florence and Rome like one does on Paros.  The Italians frown on shirts and t-shirts in their churches and restaurants, and with good reason: it’s smacks of laziness, poverty and disrespect.

The American culture, or the ‘Culture of Death’ as I like to call it, raises this attitude to the level of acceptance.  What we consider mainstream here in the USA, i.e. fashion, music, food and general knowledge derives itself from abject poverty and ignorance.  The other day I was driving behind a large Ford pick-up with the proud emblem ‘Redneck’ on the back; the television is rife with political religious crazies espousing a dangerously medievalist and venomous doctrine geared towards the poor, the paranoid and the poorly educated; the radio airwaves are saturated with violence, misogyny and anger; I look around at the sullen faces of today’s youth and wonder who these people are that could be our future?  This can be a daunting vision, all of this.  I find light and growth in isolated pockets of humanism and spirit.  Arts communities are more important than ever these days, and of course they are the first programs to lose any outside funding front the powers that be.  That money must go elsewhere.  I am convince we are either on the brink, or already within, a New Dark Ages.  The Enlightenment is over, as is the Renaissance that preceded it.  But this is a natural cycle.  It is just our luck to be at the low end of the bell curve.

In any case I am out of here soon enough.  I’ll leave the bucolic Hudson Valley behind for a few months  while I engage in a lengthy peripatetic lecture through Italy and Greece.  I’ll try to update this as I go along, I hope more than I usually do.  Next post: Florence, Italy.

Caio,

JDCM

Back in Athens…

By on June 19, 2011 in Paros

How many times have I written that phrase?  It seems like more than it actually is.  In any event, here I am, back in Athens, en route to the US from my stay on Paros and the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts.  My time there was fantastic and tumultuous.  I created wonderful work but ended up losing friends and  connections for the future.  My own emotional needs steamrolled over the needs and lives of others.  I have made my amends to those who felt hurt.   I am sure that the bridges I help to build (and burn to the ground) will never be rebuilt.  As Shakespeare wrote, ” The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves if we are underlings.”

Athens is hot and full of life.  The EU is showing signs of wear and tear due to its unstable economic design and in Greece, as elsewhere, the protesters are on the street.  In Syntagma, in front of the Parliament, the Indignants have erected a small tent city.  There are marches daily by many political parties but  for the most part it is peaceful this weekend.  Last week there were firebombs, tear gas and police action but for now it is quiet.  The riot squad is very visible and in force.  I stay away form this kind of action as it could put me in danger some where down the line. I have avoided pictures of the protesters because it doesn’t feel right.  I am not a spy, snoop or the press so I feel uncomfortable possibly making them uncomfortable.  Plus that avoids any chances of violence coming my way.  Let’s avoid that, shall we?  Hawkers and food sellers have taken advantage of the small encampment and have set up their shops around the platia.  Economic irony.  Also ironic is the busy-ness of the McDonald’s across the street:  mostly protesters and so forth.

For now it’s museums, meetings with friends, and sleep in my over-priced hotel.  I’ll post a review of that on Trip Advisor when I get back to the US. For now some banking, a coffee and a meet-up with my mates.

More to come…

JDCM

 

The ghost town…

By on June 10, 2011 in Paros, Uncategorized

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

Packing it up, shutting it down…

By on February 1, 2011 in Uncategorized

The day I fly to Greece approaches.  In less than a month I’ll be back in Athens and in a world I am much more comfortable with.  For some reason Europe always makes me feel more at home and relaxed than here in the US.

I have begun packing.  I am mailing two boxes ahead of my arrival on Paros.  One contains sheet film for my 4×5 and b/w paper.  It is still cheaper to by European paper here in the US and mail it to Europe.  It’s because of the VAT.  The other box, which is much bigger, will have my 4×5 and medium format cameras coddled in bubble-wrap as well as some bulkier clothing and books.  March and early April can be wet and cool in the Kyklades.  This should lighten my carry-on and checked baggage loads a lot.

I have two shows this month:  the first I hang on Sunday and it is at the Rhinecliff Hotel and open with an artist’s reception on February 11th.  I am sharing the space with three other visual artists and I think the show will be up for a while after I leave.  The second show is the CCCA show I have already blogged about.  That reception is February 19th from 5-7PM and should be quite the time.  The third group show is at a nearby assisted living venue called Noble Horizons.  It will be a 14th Colony event and consist of small works.  I’ll have a nice b/w silver print for that one ready to go and in the hands of a close friend.

After tomorrow night I’ll be shutting down the dark room until I return in June.  I may still develop a roll or two of film, but the printing activity will cease.  I’ll discard any chemistry that won’t last and cover the enlarger.  Paper will go into the fridge.  My sisters will come and go through out the month and I have already delegated tasks to the caregivers for my mother’s well-being.  All is as it should be.

JDCM