Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Patan, Nepal 2019 May

I am like a monk, sitting in my room, reading Maxine Greene, drinking tea in the dinning area outside of my  very low rooms, feeling like a Hobbit. the ceiling is 5 feet 8 and one half inches. The doorway is even lower. 


Sujan sent a blue clad ninja scooter driver named nitisha to take me around the town, for the first time in Kathmandu or Patan I was given a helmet to wear. Believe me, you want to have a helmet when you are on the back of a motorcylce in Kathmandu. My driver is a graphic design student with good English skills,  she took me to the Nepal Art Center where there was a big exhibition going on of Nepalese artists, ranging from traditional thanka painting to wood carving to folk arts to some abstract painters.


the Nepalese Sabbath, it is Saturday, it is impossible to describe the colors and smells of the street, crowded with vendors selling bananas, vegetables, flowers, and offerings. The soft bells of the Hindu shrines chime, both near and far, as devotees light candles and put brightly covered pigment on the effigies of the gods. Stone lions and angels look on from ancient temples, eroded from time and earthquake, surrounded by bricks and sand and scaffolding, some crumbling, some crumbling and being restored. The women wear bright saris, spots of color as far down the dusty street as I can see.   I stop to sit down to make a drawing and to watch the early morning everyday drama, infinitely changing and diverse. The streets are narrow, mostly packed dirt, sometimes smooth stones.  















Took a cab around 6 am to Swayambunath, sometimes called the monkey temple, to walk up the steps, my first 15 minutes of actual exercise, but the air quality is so bad, including dust and smog that exercise probably does more harm than good, but I did a few drawings, went back to newa chen,
I met with each student, I think there was about 12 of them, at how thoughtful and in some cases, well crafted their work was. Many of them had themes connected to their family, their mothers, their fathers.  Many of them also had good ideas about connecting their work to contemporary practices.  Some of the work was very poignant in what they were trying to do. 



Sunday, May 5, 2019

Catalonian Cobbles




 We walked fast down the stairs, even though I would have liked to do another climb, because we wanted to see the museum, which happily was open to 6:30.  It had an interesting collection, lots of artists from Barcelona,  a nice El Greco, a Spanish landscape artist I liked a lot, a great Rauolt, Egyptian statues, Barcelona sculptors, and other unexpected treasures.



Salgada Familia












Montserrat…it was foggy this morning, but no rain, we did our usual breakfast routine, a few walnuts, a piece of cheese cake from the local farmers, hot chocolate.  We drove the beautiful road, stopping to take pictures along the way, we always stop at the same spot…it is a narrow one lane road, but no one is ever on it.  But it was

Saturday, and the parking lot was packed, with buses and tourists.  We parked, put our packs on, and started the walk to the stairs.  It was a beautiful clear day, I could see it was going to be one of our best days.  We had packed a lunch of avocados, hardboiled eggs, bread and a few apples. We started up the stairs, I had lots of energy was very glad it was not raining. They rang the bells, which echoed off the rocks.  We got to the top of the hike in record time, found the climb we were looking for, but it was still in the shade, and the rock was cold, so we moved over to the next pinnacle, up a steep gully, and found our climb.  Jakob decided to make a sandwich, but dropped the avocado, after it was peeled and it rolled down the hill. But he retrieved it and made a funny sandwich.   It was a beautiful long cobbly climb, run out to the first bolt, but with bolts all the way, the first pitch, sometimes chilly, but in the sun it was about perfect. Very cobbly conglomerate. I had to climb slowly to study the rocks.    I made a belay on a tree and brought Jakob up. We had chosen the more difficult of the two climbs, and continued up the 6a, which can mean a lot of different things at Monserrat, sometimes 10a sometimes much harder. The next pitch was memorably interesting, great climbing all the way to the top.   Every time I needed a hold, a big cobble appeared.   Jakob forgot to bring his shoes, thinking we could rappel, and we ended up doing a long meandering walk back to the trail. Along the way we saw some, wild goats and very interesting flowers, bees and a small beetle.  The mountain is covered in rosemary.  

 On the rainy day, it rained so much I thought things would never drive out.  We changed our plans and drove to Barcelona.

The restaurant that is never open, like most restaurants in the area,  they are more like the idea of a restaurant. Even the tourist office is never open, just to get people used to the idea of how things work here.  Except the monastery, seems to always be open, with farmers selling cheese and honey. 

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Monserrat


Trumansburg, New York



 Little stone house beneath Manserat



The Mountain spires


 The restaurant, every restaurant, seems to be closed when we need food, but a the Neuva Vinya, at the end of the dirt road, they gave us bread for the goat cheese sandwich.  Olive trees and poppies.




Sunday, April 14, 2019

Art Exhibit Provo


 Thomas Moran, Atlanta High Museum

 George Inness Atlanta High Museum









Henry Ossawa Tanner, Atlanta High Museum

 Art Exhibition with James Rees Provo Utah






Collections and Mount Timpanogas