Artnotes: Ah, City...

 Cefalu Pier    Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  15.5 x 23.5"  40 x 60 cm  

 Cefalu Fisherman's houses   Blair Pessemier   12 x 12"  30 x 30cm

 Sketch, Point Cefalu   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/paper  8 x 11"  20 x 27cm

 Sketch, Cefalu pier   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/paper  8 x 11"  20 x 27cm

Lady at the sea    Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/paper  5 x 5"  13 x 13cm

Segesta Temple   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/linen  15.5 x 23.5"  40 x 60 cm 

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View at Segesta   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen   12 x 12" 30 x 30cm

 Red Domes   Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen   8 x 12" 20 x 30cm

Boat at Aspra (Bagheria)  Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen  15.5 x 23.5"  40 x 60 cm 

Via Giovanni Meli, Palermo   12 x 19.5"  30 x 50cm

 By the Sea  Laurie Fox Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  12 x 12"  30 x 30cm

View of my neighborhood   Laurie Fox Pessemier   9.5 x 12"  25 x 30cm

 From our window   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/canvas  19.5 x 12    50 x 30cm

Red domes   Blair Pessemier   Acrylic/linen  12 x 12" 30 x 30cm

On the way home from Cefalu, we stopped in the little fishing town of Bagheria.  It is actually a part of Palermo, about 7 kilometers from the city center.   We stopped to see a museum/gallery, a kind of villa “squat” of a contemporary artist. 

I have had an aversion recently to museums, and at last minute we didn’t go into this one.   I am trying to find my inspiration from other “things” rather than seeing someone else’s artwork.  That said, I did do another “gold mosaic” painting today. 

We drove into the downtown of Bagheria, a bay full of old wooden boats and fishermen.  This is not just a theme park, but a smelly wooden boatyard by the sea.   The colors were fabulous, enhanced by bright sunlight.   What a difference the sun makes, the pure, clear sun, not the refrigerator white haze of so many cities now.

We walked around, Harika attracting the attention of a stray boy dog her size and look.  She was not amused, but he was, and the four of us walked around, taking photos.  It isn’t easy to be a dog:  either you are the enemy, a potential suitor, or in rare cases, a playmate.  I feel it is a little like that for people here in Sicily as well.  The boys all bulk up, and are almost cruel to one another; all girls are potential relationships to them (and vice-versa); and once in a while you find someone you can relate to.

We found such a person yesterday, walking around looking for art supplies.  I took Blair and Harika on a forced march (I have no fear here, having grown up in an East coast, USA, Sicilian city – under all the machismo is a soft center), and we found ourselves in a rummy courtyard with large bookcases covered with blue plastic.   They were, in fact, bookcases, and this was a LIBRARY!  There were books of all languages.  We fell in with an Earl Stanley Gardner mystery.   But the proprietor was the thing:  “take a book,” he told us, “and pay me whatever you like”.   That gave me an idea for my own library (I told him about Laurie’s English Language Lending Library).  We got on like a house afire.  He’s open every day but Sunday, sitting out on the sidewalk with thousands of books in at least a dozen back-to-back grand bookcases.

This makes me think about the wonderfulness of a city.  I am considering a hole-in-the-wall apartment in some city, someplace.  Just so I can bump into new things once in awhile.    And then run home to Rocca Malatina to put my pen to paper.