Monday, July 21, 2008

"Pig Cabin" and "Lemon Tree"


In May, I taught a painting workshop in Tuscany, in the mountains above Lucca. 
Creating art in Italy is difficult.
How do I sort out my sense of overwhelm?
How do I cut through the burdensome sense of history, artistic masterpieces, nostalgia, cliché, movies I've seen, books I've read?
How do I make my experience more immediate? And should I?
Everything is so beautiful - where is the real world? Do I want to find it?
Is this like diabetic shock? Sugar overload?
As luck would have it, it rained  six and one half days out of ten - beauty problem solved, which gave rise to another. Who would believe grey paintings of Tuscany in May?

1 comment:

Jane Smith said...

I love this painting of the lemons. My grandfather was from Mercato San Severino Italy and I grew listening to stories about the lemons in Italy.( Grande limoni bello) Very nice!

Ciao!