White house/blue windows Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 20 x 14" 50 x 35cm
in the Souk Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 11 x 7" 27 x 18cm
Woman and Child Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 8 x 7" 20 x 18cm
Woman holding bread Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 8x 5" 20 x 14cm
Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 6 x 5" 17 x 14cm
Spain in the distance Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 7 x 12" 18 x 30 cm
Medina Wall Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 9.5 x 12" 24 x 30cm
Rock the Kasbah Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 9.5 x 12" 24 x 30cm
Grand Socco Gate Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 12 x 9.5" 30x 24cm
The city of Tangier Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 9.5 x 12" 24 x 30cm
Hotel Continental Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 9.5 x 12" 24 x 30cm
From the rooftop Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 11 x 16" 27 x 41cm
Musee de la Kasbah Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 14x 20 35 x 50cm
Rooftops Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 11 x 16 27 x 41cm
Dar Zero Blair Pessemier Arylic/linen 14 x 20" 35 x 50 cm
Stairs near the House Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 12 x 9.5" 24 x 30 cm
To School Laurie Fox Pessemier Acrylic/linen 15 x 18" 38 x 46cm
Hippie Street Blair Pessemier Acrylic/linen 9.5 x 12" 24 x 30 cm
Artnotes: Apart
The best trips are
not always the easiest ones.
Blair and I have
always wanted to go to Tangier, Morocco, so when we had a dog sitter arriving,
we decided to pack our bags for north Africa.
Artists like Delacroix and Matisse spent significant time in Tangier, although
the place is most associated with writers like Paul and Jane Bowles, Jack Keroac. Ibn Battuta, a traveler (44 countries) and
chronicler (hero of mine) was born in Tangier.
Christopher Columbus came here from Cadiz. Samuel Pepys, writer of the
famous diary, lived here in the
1680s. Mark Twain came to Tangier. John Smith, of Jamestown fame, named the
island he landed on in America, Tangier, after the place close to his
heart. Daniel Defoe, of Robinson Crusoe
fame, loved Tangier. The list goes on
to today.
Tangier was not
always part of regular Morocco. It was
an "international zone", subject to separate rules until 1956. Normal Moroccans even needed a passport to
enter then. It was this international
zone that attracted the writers, artists and musicians, including the Beatles
and Rolling Stones. It was near our
rental house the Clash "Rocked the Kasbah".
Blair and I felt a
little afraid here -- in a big sense, as a result of the media reporting about
"ISIS" . If I allow that fear of terrorism stop me, I am letting the
bad guys win. But, in a daily sense
there was not a soul we felt we could trust on the street here. We lost only about $55.00 in sundry accidents
of payment, and swindling -- unfortunately at the hands of a person we thought
trustworthy. I felt exploited, but not
hated, and we laughed out loud about our follies.
It was as though we
were on a different planet -- people were dressed like out of a Delacroix
painting two centuries ago. Crafts were
executed in the same way. Internet
coverage and cell phones scarce as a full set of teeth. Even more different was the approach to
life -- no sense of "we're all in this together". Which brings me to why creative people might
have liked this place so much: it is
easier to paint, to write, to make art with an "apartness" (Paul
Bowles' term) one cannot find in the United States, or a western European
country.
We stayed right a
the edge of the old Medina and the Socco (souk). No cars, chickens in the streets, stray cats
everywhere. Children played noisily
outside anytime they were not in school (every family had at least 6). Men visit and smoke outside our window half
the night. The meuzzin rang out every few hours, which I
found quite disturbing to concentration, but that's the idea, after all.
Did we have a good
time? Yes -- we painted, we thought, we wrote, we adapted
to startling conditions. We felt older
than when we took off for Tunisia -- physically slower, mentally more wise,
more philosophical. We painted very
early in the morning before others were awake, or from the roof of the house we
rented: seeing, observing a lifestyle so different from our own.
