Lemons in Black Beret Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 12" 30 x 30cm
Lavender Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 10 30 x 25cm
Trees in Flower Marano Blair Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 12 x 20" 30 x 50cm
Forget-me-nots Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 8 x 20 20 x 50cm
By the Panaro River in March Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 10 x 20" 25 x 50cm
In Blossom Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/canvas 10 x 20" 25 x 50cm
I am sitting in my sunny yard at 3:16 in the afternoon,
listening to the children in the grammar school sing songs, accompanied by a
piano and castanets. Life doesn’t get
much better. My trees are
growing. The grass is cut.
We bought a push lawn mower which is a constant source of
entertainment to the Italians in the neighborhood. As the fellow at the store says, only
Americans and Germans buy these.
I sit here working on this travel book – too many words, no
structure. Oh well. I am going to the beach next week with
Harika to finish it. Blair is going to
the US to pack up an art show for North Carolina. We are holing up in a studio in Rimini.
Do those kids know how romantic they are? How magical?
Probably not. Kids are just
naturally that way. Always busy, mostly
fun, and ever so non-self-conscious. That’s it, isn’t it? It’s when we start trying to make an
impression, to behave, to act civilized we get in trouble. Without too much civilizing, we can be
spontaneous and happy. Like my dog,
Harika. I am sorry she has no frontal
lobe, and no opposable thumb, but maybe in the case of the frontal lobe she is
better off.
It’s taken on the sense of a carnival up there at the
school. There seems to be a xylophone,
and a drum, too. Clapping; in
rhythm. The birds are singing. I heard the cuckoo, a certain sign of spring,
this week.
I’ll go take a look
with Harika in a few minutes. I want to
be one of them, but not the teacher.
Like parents, those authority figures can be the dream killers. Italy
is not as bad as some places we’ve lived, or maybe Italian kids are inherently
immune.
Like art – ask any kid if they can paint, and they say
“yes!” Even as a professional painting
grownup, I doubt myself.
It’s taken me years to eliminate the tendency to make all
trees brown. If I were a tree, would I
want to be brown? I mean, is brown
anyone’s favorite color? OK, there are
some acceptable browns: curry, maybe, or
amber. In any case, if I were a tree I’d
want to be red. Green leaves are
fine. But they can lean toward turquoise
or purple.
