All painted by Laurie Fox PESSEMIER acrylic on newspaper 17 x 24" 43 x 61cm
Easter: the sexy holiday.
Birds, bees, rabbits, eggs et cetera.
It was the pagan fertility feast:
rebirth, resurrection. I really like
this time of year, when people would kiss passionately on benches in Paris, beneath
the chestnuts in blossom. Here in Italy,
we celebrate over food, often served in a restaurant – C and M are going to the
Cantacucco (the singing cuckoo). T says
it is lucky to hear the cuckoo, but not to see it in your yard – that’s bad
luck. Her sister-in-law, who lives in
the Veneto says just the opposite, so I guess it’s where you are when you see
the bird that matters. I wouldn’t
recognize a cuckoo anyway. It is truly
the sign of spring here, to hear the cuckoo’s call. Luigi makes the sound of the Cuckoo in the café
this morning when he hears us talking about it:
it’s just like the clock.
Growing up, we’d color Easter eggs on Holy Saturday and my
mother would bless the house with holy water from the church on Sunday. I smile just thinking of all this. This year, we have a passel of friends
arriving for Easter dinner, and there will be two main dishes, countless
contorni (side dishes), and three desserts.
Sunshine is predicted and I am hoping for a badminton volley before
coffee.
I have been painting Sue’s goats (two babies just born), and
Ludovico’s chickens; Blair’s been
working on a double portrait of Malian friends.
What is better than love? Nothing. Not money, not fame, not power. We all long for love and food and feeling
safe.
I admire the young people in the United States changing the
gun laws. They will do it; young people
are not yet compromised by the motivation of money. That is why they can make a difference. It
was my generation of young people who stopped the Vietnam War and the
Draft. If we hadn’t pulled the wool over
our own eyes telling ourselves we need to have three cars and a big house, we
might have done even more good. Instead
we took the money and compromised our values.
It is youth, that new growth which will save us.
A friend, S, rescued a dog yesterday that had been left
homeless at the vet for over a month; we just gave it a bath in our upstairs
tub (our friend only has a shower). After much scrubbing dog and tub are sparkling. It rained
last night, and my flowers are looking chipper. We got the camellia out of the
cantina. There are buds on the almond trees and the
cherry blossoms are ready to open. Ah,
renaissance. Here’s to a fertile imagination.
