Saturday, January 17, 2015

Artnotes: Venetian Blind

Gondola Station  Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  18 x 21.5"    46x 55 cm
Cold morning in Venice  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 16   30 x 40cm
Gondolier making a repair   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas 12 x 16  30 x 40 cm
From End of Venice Laurie Fox Pessemier 16 x 32"  30 x 80cm

Salute/canal    Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  12 x 16"  30 x 40  cm
Fishman   Blair Pessemier    Acrylic/canvas  21.5 x 15  54 x 39 cm
Gondolas at Rialto    Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  9.5 x 12  24 x 30 cm
Passageway  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  9.5 x 12  24 x 30 cm  SOLD

Artnotes:  Venetian Blind



“Forget putting on my big girl panties and dealing with it:  I want to rock my tutu and throw glitter in the air.”  A note from my friend Jim this morning (he loves Venice).

Yesterday we got lost (not the first time) in Venice.  It is amazing how many twisting passages and blind alleys there are.  You follow someone who looks like they know where they are going and poof!you are looking into the canal.  Sometimes people follow us.  

Yesterday, we were at the church of Ss. Giovanni and Paolo – it is where many of the doges are interred.  It is a kind of Pantheon of Venice.  There are paintings by Bellini, Veronese and Guido Reni – not just canvases, but alterpieces and ceilings.  A huge horse sculpture (Bartolomeo Colleoni) by Verrocchio stands outside.   Sculpted tombs line the walls, impressive, if not created by the world’s greatest artists.  I have been reading John Ruskin’s Stones of Venice and just have to visit some of the sites he describes.    We are expecting guests (staying in hotels) the last ten days we are here, so we’re saving the blockbuster places to see with them.

We were lost in an area I remembered being lost in before.  I had planned to spend a month in Italy on my own, after graduating from Art History school, last century.  More than one person thought it unwise for me to go alone, so Tom came with me.   In fact, I am the last person on earth who wants “protecting”, and I believe he came with me because he was afraid to come by himself.  We cut our time in Venice short, because he didn’t like it.  I realize now, that he was afraid:  afraid of being lost.  

The essence of Venice is to be lost. It is unlike any other place in Italy.  It is a city of juxtapositions:  east meets west; byzantine meets gothic meets renaissance.  Arabesque providing some humor to the Renaissance, not every window is judiciously placed from the outside.  Not a place for left brain thinkers.

It is easier to like being lost when every minute doesn’t matter.  It is a luxury to discover things at a slow pace.  I am not sure whether Iphones don’t work so well here, or other people aren’t worried about just where they’re at.  Any day in Paris I see people staring at their phones to find the next goal; not so here.

I love being lost because it makes me a little scared.   I don’t want to live in fear (I do not like being the kind of scared that terrorism in Paris makes me feel), but a little uncertainty now and then leaves that crack of light in the door that can lead to wonderful stuff.  Who knows what lurks around that corner?



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