Window shopping in Venice can be a feast for all the senses.
Shopping in Venice
My daughter would like your help…..
My daughter, Danielle, and her husband Sam are film makers. To be specific, Sam is a writer, and Dany (I have always spelled it that way) is an editor. They have a new project for a short film they would love to get off the ground. The film is called Scratch.
Film making is a very expensive process, but the rewards for making a successful short film are many. However those rewards are not financial. It is very rarely that the costs of the enterprise are covered by the returns.
They are hoping to use crowd funding to cover some of the costs. They are offering some cool things if you are able to participate. Please have a look at this:
And lots more information, including details of the people involved in the project, the funding target, and information about how you can help can be found here.
Here is the link to the Facebook page for Scratch.
Acqua Alta
Leanne Thompson 2008
Leanne Thompson is a friend who completed a residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice in 2008. She is a painter and printmaker who also works in encaustic and with sculpture and installation. Her artworks, inspired by her time in Venice, will be presented at an exhibition entitled Acqua Alta opening at Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, on the 30th May.
Prague Sculpture
Czechs seem to have a great sense of humour, if their public art is anything to go by. These first sculptures are by David Cerny, who gives his work an irreverent twist.
It is located in an arcade (incidentally, the arcade was designed by Vaclav Havel’s grandfather in an Art Nouveau style). The arcade opens off Wenceslas square, where you can see a more conventional statue of King Wenceslas mounted on his horse.
Here is Cerny’s Barcode Baby, off the Campa. The baby’s face is replaced by a barcode.
Here are some other sculptures from Prague. I would love to be able to attribute them, but I don’t know who made them. If you do, please let me know.
And so to Prague…
I’m home now, but I couldn’t leave Europe without visiting my son and his wife, in the Czech Republic. They live in Prague, the beautiful and ancient capital city.
It’s all go in Prague at this time of year.
1.The evening of the 30th April is a time for burning witches. The children dress up as witches, and there are piles of logs on the Campa ready for the festivities.
2. May 1st is International Workers Day. Members of the Czech Communist Party marched through the city.
3. It’s the first official day of summer. In villages around Prague, the women decorate a tree with ribbons, and the tree is hoisted high. The men of the village are required to guard the decorated tree all night. This gives them a reason to light a fire, sit around and drink with the other men, and stay out all night. The next day is spent recovering.
4. It’s official kiss a girl under a flowering tree day. Since the Czech landscape is dotted with trees in blossom, you can be pretty disappointed if you don’t score a kiss.
5. On the first day of the month, Prague city tests its siren. For five minutes. Loudly. Nobody seems to know what exactly it is warning against. But Prague residents are prepared, and they know what to do if one day it sounds a real alarm. Seriously.
I just missed the day when you pretend to shoot someone who is dressed up as a bear, and dance with whoever asks you. I don’t know what it is called.
In late Spring and early Summer, Prague parks and the Czech countryside are a carpet of flowers. Trees are in blossom – apple and cherry, mainly – and the air is heavy with their perfume. In some places, the dandelion heads produce a gentle snow of seed fibres, which blows around your ankles and drifts across the road in front of your car. Later in Summer, Czechs can travel into the country and pick cherries or apples from the trees growing by the roadside. There are wild strawberries, and blueberries for the gathering. Coming from a land which has no real seasons, I found it enchanting.
Leaving Venice
I suspect that leaving Venice is always difficult. Difficult because you need to haul your luggage, and you may have a lot if you’ve hit those fabulous shops, down stairs, up and down bridges, along narrow crowded streets, onto the vaporetto, and either out to the airport or across to Ferrovia to catch the train. Difficult because you regret having to leave. Just one more week…..or a few more days…..might reveal some magical secret, some idea, some image that you have been searching for. Difficult because you were just on the verge of feeling you ‘know’ something about the city. Difficult because you feel you’ve just begun with Venice.
Angela, Nicki and I left Venice on the same day, but by different routes. We took Angela down to the Alilaguna boat to the airport, where she was catching a plane to Manchester in England.
Nicki and I muscled our way with four bags and a large tube of prints over to Ferrovia to catch the overnight train to Vienna, and then to travel by car to Prague.
Signing the Prints
We went to the studio for the last time to sign the prints, collect our materials and package up the work to take home with us. We also had to decide which work to leave with GianFranco.
On the way to Murano, we called in at Cimitero to visit the graves of Nijinsky and Stravinsky. The citizens of Venice can be buried here for a maximum of ten years only, unless they happen to be famous. After that, the graves are relocated to somewhere on the mainland, where it is less crowded. The cemetery has its own island, half way between Murano and Fondamenta Nove. The dark shapes of the many cypresses which dot this island pierce the skyline.
The great signing ceremony.
We made two related large format prints in small editions of three. We will make a book together of our Venice experience, and one of each edition will be cut up and incorporated in the book, together with photographs and other materials we gathered while we were there.
Angela in Venice
Angela has only cried twice since she arrived in Venice: once over lunch, and once over breakfast, neither of which I cooked. I don’t think it was anything to do with disappointment over the quality of the meal. I think it was an excess of emotion, perhaps related to the beauty of Venice, and the effects of jetlag and Prosecco. Yes, at breakfast.
She has shot lots of photographs, but as yet her efforts at shopping have been, to be frank, a bit underwhelming. Mainly food, alcohol, and gifts for her children.
Nicki and I had an encounter with the Italian John Cleese, who runs the only cafe on Isola de San Giorgio Maggiore. We decided to call him Basilico. He could barely contain his rage at the stupidity of his clientele. Enquiries as to the nature of the Primo Piatti on the menu were greeted with incredulity. There was toast on the menu. Nicki asked what this was, meaning what came with the toast. ‘Square pieces of sliced grilled bread,’ he said.
We had gone to the island to ascend the campanile, which has a wonderful view of the whole of Venice. You can see how small it actually is. We recommend that you go after midday. The bell tolls the hour, and if you are not prepared, you may find your ears ring with the sound of the bells for days afterwards – best to have only one or two, not eleven or twelve.
This afternoon, we went to Ca’ Rezzonico, a beautiful museum of seventeenth century Venice. the walls are covered with damask and velvet in beautiful patterns and colors. Many of the ceilings were painted by Tiepolo. There was an extensive gallery of paintings by early Venetian artists, furniture, mirrors and curtains. Together these things gave a real sense of how life might have been for the rich and powerful in Venice.
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A view from the campanile.
Reinforcements arrived
Angela Noble from Bega arrived to stay with us, which makes five women in the house. She bought us a whole kilo of Aussie Uncle Toby’s Oats, some home made candied cumquat and Cointreau and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I think she must have an innate understanding that living in Venice and walking everywhere, the body needs constant refuelling to maintain stasis.
Together, the five of us have pledged to support the ailing Italian economy as best we can. We have been pretty tireless in our efforts so far, though some of us have worked harder than others.
Angela hasn’t even begun, but then she’s barely just arrived.
I found a small children’s press, Editions Du Dromedaire,
which has just published a two year calendar containing hand printed linocuts of camels.
Today was a top day for reflections……
Studio shots: the prints we made.
Here are some detailed shots of the print we have been working on.
And here is what we get when we put it all together.
BOX OF BIRDS 