Artnotes: In Front of the Fan

 

Flip Flops   Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/wood   5 x 14"  13 x 35cm  175.00 purchase

“Afa” is the word for ‘muggy” here in Italy.   I think “awful”; and it is.   Even though it is only in the high-80s here in Roccamalatina, if feels much hotter.   It is so damp, I can’t sweat, and I feel pudgy and ornery.   We had coffee this morning with one of Berlino’s friends, Axel, a Lagotto Romagnolo, whose owner was bemoaning how irritable the dog has become.  Berlino, in solidarity, assumed Axel’s crabby demeanor and insisted on returning to the car. We coffee-ed on.   Axel ate the dog treats, which  lifted his spirits, anyway.

Portrait of Gian F  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  20 x 20"  50 x 50cm  NFS     COMMISSION YOUR OWN PORTRAIT

We’re all leaving for vacation next week, when it’s predicted to reach 95 fahrenheit degrees (35 C) here in the hills.   We are going to spend a night in the Alps (St Gervais les Bains), then to see my painting friend Y, in Tours, France, and afterward for four days in Concarneau, Brittany.   The temperatures drop all along that route, and hopefully we’ll be on the cool side of 80 all the way.   On the return trip we will spend time with a friend just outside of Paris.   Unless someone gifts us some Olympic tickets, we’ll slowly wind our way back to Roccamalatina for the end of the month and maybe a few days with friends learning Russian in Piacenza.

Floating Flowers  Laurie Fox Pessemier    Acrylic/canvas panel  12 x 12"  30 x 30 cm  375.00  purchase

My reading is increasing, an activity I can perform in front of the fan.   I have a new app, Everand, which allows me to read almost any book online, just for my subscription fee.  I am reading the letters of E.B.White, who writes cooling correspondence about his life, mostly in Maine.   I am also reading Weiwei-isms* by Ai WeiWei, and just finished Rebecca West’s Harriet Hume, in real book form.  What I would give to be able to read all books in paper format.   There is something about darting back and forth to help me recall who’s who, and when something took place.  I can’t do that easily online, but probably younger people can.  I couldn’t afford all the “analog” books I want to read, in any case. My next undertaking will be the letters of the poet Ted Hughes.   He wrote tons of letters.   Can you imagine there will ever be a book called “the emails of” ?   I can’t.  But I suppose that is what Substack will be for.   *If Shakespeare were alive today, he might be writing on Twitter (2010)

Flora   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/wood wine box  14 x  5 " 35 x13 cm  150.00

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