Artnotes: Change Your Point of View

 

Swift  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/gauze  15 x 12"  38 x 30cm  90.00   (the swifts are flying with force, enjoying the plentitude of cold blooded insects) This might be the event that changes the world:  we have had two unmitigated weeks of over-the-top temperatures in Europe.  I feel when I step outside that I can barely breathe. And Europe, beautiful Europe, has a minimum of air conditioned spaces.  It is impossible to install such in our big stone house with plastered walls and French windows.  It is over 80 degrees in the house at night.  Cold blooded animals love this -- we've seen so many insects, snakes and lizards, all moving at high speed.   It is only during the morning that it is possible to do anything, so Saturday we drove into Modena to pick up my new glasses. Mixed Wild Flowers   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas panel 12 x 17  30 x 42cm   290.00 Thursday night a friend from America arrived.  He drove himself and his son to the house in his rental car (bless him) a little late.  I whipped up a seafood pasta and salad, and we stayed up talking until midnight.  At about 2:30, I thought that Berlino had joined me on the bed – no, just a twitchy leg.  Then I heard a big commotion in the window, as something tried to exit through the screen.  I summoned Blair to do something, and he slammed our  window shut, trapping a small animal’s leg in the window jamb, body hanging into the room.  We slammed the bedroom door, and ran off to separate beds:  me downstairs, Blair upstairs, all quiet so not to disturb our guests. Honestly it shouldn’t have been such a surprise – for a week, I’d heard chewing in the fig tree outside my window.  And there was a small hole in the screen, I’d conveniently blocked with the Italian Road Atlas. Eurasian Oriole   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/guaze  15 x 12"   45 x 30cm   90.00  In the little bed downstairs,  my mind started working:  how could I torture an animal so (even if it was a rat), with a broken leg?  How would we ever get it out?  I started composing lengthy Italian explanations – should I call emergency services, the police?  I couldn’t imagine bothering a friend with this – it would be as dangerous and unpleasant for them as it was for us.  Finally, I fell asleep about 4, until Berlino, chipper and totally excited (not only did we have human, but animal guests, this would be the best day ever) came downstairs to be let out.  I felt exhausted and upset.  When Blair got up, he confirmed the poor animal was still trapped in the window frame.   We ran through the early scenarios – the animal rescue service wasn’t responding and the email no good; an Italian friend we contacted never replied.  Finally, Blair remembered the hardware store had live traps – maybe we could urge the front half of this intruder into it, and open the window.  I wasn’t sure I could handle it.   At the hardware store, fortunately open at seven, another customer, Stefano, became interested in Blair’s plight.  Blair bought the trap and Stefano came over to help.  By now, I was close to hysterical:  I imagined the suffering.  I’d be paying this back in six afterlives.  Monday Flowers with Yukie   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  12 x 9.5"  30 x 23 cm  150.00 Blair and Stefano went up to the (very messy) bedroom with the trap (while I held back Berlino, who, by this time was beside himself with thrill), and enacted the scene we anticipated.   Stefano, apparently accustomed to animal rescues and wearing Blair’s leather winter gloves, held the trap as Blair opened the window.  The creature slipped in, the trapdoor shut, and they came downstairs with a Dormouse, a local breed of squirrel, rather agitated, but not the worse for wear.   I got choked up with relief.   We decided to let him free at the edge of the yard, Stefano sure that the little squirrel would never make that same mistake again.  Maybe you should trim that fig tree? Our friends arose an hour or two later, not having heard a peep of the night’s escapade. The new glasses were chosen for their style and noticeability…  It didn’t take much persuading by our friend Gary to recognize one is only invisible if one makes oneself invisible.  I am a strong personality, and the yellow patterned glasses complement that.  He went on to talk about how my white hair was equally an asset.  “Look at Marilyn Monroe – that platinum hair brought attention to her face.”  In my case, my glasses do too. We paid for the coffee. Sometimes it’s important to change your point of view.

HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our paintings at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. Write to me at lfpessemier@gmail.com   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8 PM   NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: The Lost Paragraph

 

The Model (I've been painting a model online with a friend from Alaska -- she paints at 9PM and I paint at 7AM)   9 x 12"  23 x 30cm  Acrylic on Paper   90.00   A couple of weeks ago, I lost a paragraph from Artnotes:  Wild Water.  I found it and liked it and thought I would include it:  On our morning walk with Berlino (7 am) I watch an Italian man tending his grapes.  He is older, sinewy, skin the color of polished wood to match his brimmed straw hat.  Baggy grey green trousers and an oft-washed short sleeve shirt make him look like the “grubby old men” I refer to at the café.  He inspects his vines holding the bud in a surprisingly tender gesture.  It is as if he is one with his plants, his land, his scorching sun.  I have never really experienced that feeling, except sometimes in the water.  I lived most of my life near asphalt, concrete and painfully cut grass (who thought of that anyway?).    At least in wild water (not pools) I am one with something real, touching me all over.  I love that.   The Firefly   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas panel 12 x 9.5  30 x 23cm   390.00 It is so hot here in Italy, Blair and I have taken to sleeping downstairs.  The ground floor of our house is “on grade” and maintains a pretty cool temperature.   It is where the horse(s) lived, but now has terra cotta paving.   On Thursday morning, 4 AM, a firefly passed through, blinking his yellow green beacon.   As if on cue, the nightingale burst into song.  It was a magical endorsement of our new summer digs, and both of us were present.  Berlino has not made the move downstairs, but I think he will.   The Eight Immortals It is, for me, too hot to do much of anything.  I construct cold meals.  Gazpacho, cold duck salad, veal tonnato – and I make potato salad with pickles; celeriac remoulade.  I’m thinking cherry jam, but it’s just too hot out.    I finished my Eight Immortals painting on cheesecloth.  Blair has started on some Chinese Zodiac pictures/sculptures.  We might make a show in July at our gallery.  As far as I can tell, about 200 people looked through our window wall at the “Go Fish” exhibit.  I have the location on Google maps, and it records who got directions.   I am going to push the Eight Immortals Exhibit a little harder, looking for a more frequented gallery…it will be easy to ship worldwide, as the gauze is super light.  Any ideas gladly accepted.   Chinese Monkey  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 13 x 9.5"  33 x 23 cm  390.00 I’ve been seeking cooler venues for Summer Vacation.  Austria (Vienna area) seems possible, but I have an uncommunicative Airbnb host – not a good sign in case of a leak.  I’d really like to go to Poland:  there’s a show of posters at the Warsaw museum and also a Jozef Czapski exhibit.  It’s a 12+ hour drive, however.   Really, any romantic cottage on any swimmable lake seems ideal – the cooler and closer the better.  Oh, yeah, throw in a few fireflies.

HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our paintings at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. Write to me at lfpessemier@gmail.com   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8 PM   NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: Singing Along with Billie Holiday

Terra Cotta Girls Playing Football  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  32 x 21.5"  80 x 54 cm  490.00 This is the visitor season at our house.   It’s not very exciting here, in the Florence-Rome kind of way, but if singing birds and lovely views are your cup of tea,  you’ve come to the right place.  It’s heaven for hikers.   Cherries on a White Dish   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic on Paper 8 x 11"  20 x 28cm  150.00  This last week we went up to the Ginevra Ristorante for a dinner – they have an outstanding deck which juts out over a dramatic vista of mountains and fields.  There is a fabulous Neapolitan pizza chef, and open fire for grilling, and depending on the day, pretty good desserts.  This week, we had a strawberry/whipped cream affair, with the thick buttery cream on the bottom, and fresh strawberries on top (it’s the season).  Our guest is still talking about it on her continued itinerary through Paris.  The next day, we decided to visit the cows who produced that outrageously good cream – they live in Rosola, at the parmigiano factory.   This Parmigiano cheese has been repeatedly named the best in Italy.  The white, Modenese cows, an ancient breed, produce a particularly rich milk.   We pick up some freshly made yogurt with blueberries for breakfast, and a tub of ricotta. Cherries on a Chinese Dish Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  25 x17 "  61 x 43 cm  290.00 We drove on to Verucchia, where there is a pilgrim church and a view out to Montalbano, a small town famous for its nativity scenes, tucked into the hill.  This is Saturday, and there’s a makeshift sort of restaurant in operation with outdoor picnic tables (“no first course, no second course, no dessert” he tells us).  They serve local specialties like Borlenghi (papery crepes), Crescentini (a biscuit bun) and fried Gnocchi – one tops these with preserved meats (prosciutto, coppa, salami) and cheeses and a lardy pork spread.   It is amazing people here still live to be 100 years old.  The owner recognizes us (you’re from Roccamalatina!) and gives us a choice seat, with umbrella. Shoemaker  Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 24 x 20"  60 x 50 cm  590.00 Of course, I forgot to mention the Sassi, the National Park we border.   Here you can find those giant rocks (sassi) one associates with the background of the Mona Lisa.  The restaurant there has been closed and nature has already started to reclaim the property.  It’s not such a shame, really, although watching the sun set from the deck over vodka tonic was always nice.  The trees and foliage this year are ferocious, after a wet spring. In a rare escapade, Blair takes our friends to Guiglia market on Sunday, and they climb to the top of the castle.   From up there, you can sometimes see the Alps.  On the way to the Airport, we stop to see Castelnuovo Ragone.  Blair finds inspiration in the shoe repair man, and one of the many terra cotta bas reliefs around town and paints them this week.  Even though people say, we’re just coming to see YOU, really they plan on us taking them someplace.  This is OK, as long as they understand:  we are feeble, poor as church mice and rarely drive at night.  We have a 15 year old clunker of a car.  Our priority is ART.   We paint daily when guests aren’t here.  We serve  dinner in the backyard, where the birds sing along with Billie Holiday. Two more Immortals

HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our paintings at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. Write to me at lfpessemier@gmail.com   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8 PM   NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: Wild Water

 

Montecorone   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 24 x 16"  60 x 40 cm  490.00  … I was beginning to see how the moment we incline action toward achievement, we drain the activity of joy; how anything we approach transactionally will never yield transcendence. I stopped swimming abruptly, disaffected and worn out. It would take me a quarter century to return to the water… from Waterlog by Roger Deakin And that, as well, was the rub for me, for many years. In Art School, I didn’t want to paint what I was told to paint, what I was expected to paint.  I was young and unguided, wild as water.   It made me change my college major from Art to Art History.  When I removed that pressure I felt free to be creative again. Morning Song     Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas panel   12 x 16"  30  x 40cm  350.00  I think about art school as the “leader” intends to pull the plug on loans and aid  for pursuing advanced degrees in the arts  at American colleges – it is like China in 1948.  Our friend Gengivan  left in that year, when Mao prohibited her further study of the piano.  She eventually opened a Chinese music center in Rambouillet, outside of Paris. Art is so important in our lives, it is a real privilege to be producing it.  Now that I am older, I let myself go with whatever I feel like painting.  Honeysuckle  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  25 x17 "  61 x 43 cm  290.00 We played pool today at the Chinese café.  The Immortals weren’t with me, and I scratched when down to just two balls.  It’s a poor pool table, and the price is a far cry from the 25 cents a game the last time I partook.  We are going to go back.  Pool is one of those physical activities one needs to assimilate after practice. I think competitive sports are one of the things you MUST love to keep on playing and trying.   Like most things, it is those early days that are the greatest.  I remember the Catcher for the Torrington Twisters  telling us as we painted him, “I get to PLAY all summer”.  I learned a lot from that painting foray.  Although art and baseball are quite different, we both shared the passion for our work “ I don’t care who wins or loses, I just love the game.”  Georgetown House  (Seattle)   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas panel 12 x 16"  30  x 40cm  350.00 My father, who was a remarkable runner (shoe manufacturers sent him models to try out) never wanted to compete.  Despite being invited to the Boston Marathon year after year, he declined.  He just loved to run. Dotty Dog   Blair Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas panel 10 x 12"  25 x 30cm  250.00 On our morning walk with Berlino (7 am) I watch an Italian man tending his grapes.  He is older, sinewy, skin the color of polished wood to match his brimmed straw hat.  Baggy grey green trousers and an oft-washed short sleeve shirt make him look like the “grubby old men” I refer to at the café.  He inspects his vines holding the bud in a surprisingly tender gesture.  It is as if he is one with his plants, his land, his scorching sun.  I have never really experienced that feeling, except sometimes in the water.  I lived most of my life near asphalt, concrete and painfully cut grass (who thought of that anyway?).    At least in wild water (not pools) I am one with something real, touching me all over.  I love that.

HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our paintings at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. Write to me at lfpessemier@gmail.com   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8 PM   NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM

Artnotes: Eight Immortals

 

My first Immortal (in progress)     Han Xiang Zi Almost every day, we go to the Chinese café in Roccamalatina for coffee and pastry.  Roberto and Lisa greet us.  We briefly discuss the weather – it was in the high 90s (38c) this week (in May!).  Blair and I tried to swim in the river, but the current, vicious with rapidly melting snow from Monte Cimone, felt like it would carry us away.  At the café, we choose between a cornetto or nut pastry – not exceptional, but adequate.  In any case, there is just something I have always liked about going there.  Maybe it’s the feng shui, or the fact we can sit in the window as long as we like and Berlino (sadly) barks at passing milk trucks.  I slip into some Chinatown fantasy when I arrive.  Lately I have been thinking about the Eight Immortals. Spring on a Black Backgroun     Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic on Paper 17 x 12"  43 x 30cm  230.00  Blair and I associate the Eight Immortals with the Chinatown bank in Seattle.  Ben Woo, the architect Blair first worked for after college, designed that bank and commissioned the Eight Immortals ceramic sculpture (by Chinese artist Fay Chong).  It was the first Asian owned bank in the United States, founded in the 1960s.   Blair and I spent many a date in Chinatown, eating with chopsticks and watching  black-and-white Ninja and Samurai movies at the Kokusai theatre. Local Hare  Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/paper  25 x17 "  61 x 43 cm  290.00 I love the idea of the Eight Immortals, some human, some fantasy, who represent different qualities and aspirations.  They were individual “saints” from the 6th century or so, who were united as the Eight Immortals during the Jin Dynasty (12th century).  They are rather surprising individuals, like Zhang Guo Lao, who is an emblem of the elderly, facing backward on a white mule that can be folded up like a piece of paper and reconstituted with water.  Or there is Lan Cai, the hermaphrodite who can make flowers bloom; or Li Tie Guai, the iron crutch, who lost his body and had to take that of an old broken man, hence the crutch.  Today, I started to paint Han Xiang Zi, who plays a flute to promote growth and calm animals. Peonies Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas 19.5 x 11.5"  50 x 30cm  450.00 The idea is to paint these figures on cheesecloth, so they wave in the breeze. I had to buy a roll of gauze 64 meters long, from China, via Amazon (who could get it to me in just 5 days (instead of 2 months) for an extra 10 euros).    The figures float on the air outside; or swish, when a door opens.  They are physical, not digital – they make no sense online.  They aren’t a cheap AI item.  They are about life size and move like ghosts, or spirits.    The paint holds them together.  I am just starting but I kind of like this idea already.  Stay tuned. Little White Flowers  Laurie Fox  Pessemier  Acrylic/paper 10 x 17"  25 x 43cm  190.00

HOUSEKEEPING:  We make art to order, including portraits by Blair Pessemier.    Follow us on Instagram @lauriepessemier See all of our paintings at https://paintfox.com Most of our work is available as reproductions, custom sized and framed. Write to me at lfpessemier@gmail.com   sign up for Artnotes, our weekly art missive, by contacting me at lfpessemier@gmail.com or https://mailchi.mp/341f508cecf8/artnotes INVITING All Artists to present their Work:   Paint, Literature, Crafts, Food.... Pessemier's Sunday Salon Weekly on Sunday  No Reservation Necessary   How it works: Bring a piece of your ART: that could be visual, like painting or printmaking; or literary, as in poetry or prose; or crafts, like metalwork or knitting; or food, or music.  Something you made, or feel particularly inspired by.  You have about 5 minutes to present, and we'll ooh, ahh, or answer questions you have.  You can also come and see how we work before diving in.  Just show up on Zoom at a minute or two before the hour.    No selling, no networking until after everyone has presented.  No politics, no sales pitches, please. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093708954?pwd=M04zNHB4dFZkREp3bThweUd1YnVDZz09 Meeting ID: 880 9370 8954 Passcode: 886402 Rome 8 PM   NY 2 PM; LosAngeles 11AM