Artnotes: This World Turns

 

Marco Polo    Laurie Pessemier  Acrylic/vintage atlas paper  6.5 x 11”  17 x 28.5cm  75.00

It was Marco Polo’s birthday this week.  He would have been 772 – amazing, no?  It actually doesn’t seem that long ago to me.   He brought “Asia” to the Europeans.  He spent time with the Kubla Khan, and traveled the Silk Road (a dream trip for me).  AND he documented it all – introducing culture, travel, commerce in exotic goods to Europe.   He is one of my heroes.

Traveling over the Mountain (Cezanne view)  Blair Pessemier Acryllc/Canvas  4 x 20”  35 x 50cm   490.00

I painted a silly little sketch or two of Marco Polo.  One of the sketches (with his entourage) I copied from a Catalan Atlas made by the Jewish cartographer, Abraham Cresques and was given as a gift to the king of France. The Catalan Atlas shows the world known to a fourteenth-century European: although focused primarily on the Mediterranean sea, it covers the Canary Isles in the Atlantic and parts of the west coast of Africa, Scandinavia, and Asia. This is the first map to record information on Central Asia brought back to Europe by Marco Polo and his brothers (1260-69, 1271-95).   I would love to own the book, but a used 1977 facsimile is selling for 2,200 euros.

Marco Polo from Catalan Atlas  Laurie Pessemier Acrylic/vintage atlas paper  6.5 x 11”  17 x 28.5cm  75.00

Marco Polo was born in Venice, and when you go to Venice today, you can see how the East met the West in Architecture and Design.  I am lucky to only live 125 miles from there.   Visiting friends are often skeptical about going to Venice, worried about crowds. We’ve had to cajole visitors into going, but it is the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen -- and everyone we’ve brought there has loved it.   We don’t just hang around San Marco, but sometimes it’s nice to have lunch on that square and listen to the orchestras.  Sometimes we eat in Murano, spaghetti made with those tiny clams harvested near Venice.    There is so much to see there, and there are so many people to watch, from a million (well, a lot of) countries and cultures.  It is truly the thing I miss about America:  the diversity.  And America’s diversity is best because it involves people of all financial backgrounds.  You have to have a little money to go to Venice.

Cyclamen in a shoe Laurie Pessemier  Acryllic on printed paper 11  x 8”  25 x 20cm   75.00 each

The curtain has fallen on summer, thlump! – really, there’s very little transition time.  One day it was sweltering (over 90), and the next day rainy and then perpetually cool.   We are planning to spend much of the winter in Stimigliano this year, saving on heating costs.  Our apartment there is much smaller, and the outdoor temperature a bit warmer.   The bridge leading into our little hill town has failed and now there is talk of making the Stimigliano borgo pedestrian” only.  There is charm to a pedestrian town, but also the reality of carrying six 1.5 litre water bottles (20 pounds) a quarter mile.  We are considering buying a little Chinese electric car to haul our packages home.  I laughed when an American friend admonished me and Italy for trading with China at the time of Covid.  “China and Italy” I told him, “have had relations for nearly 800 years.”   It is amazing how this world turns.

Quince    Blair Pessemier Acryllc/Canvas  9 x 13”  22 x 33cm   290.00

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