Sacred Waters

more stories

The top image documents the view of the gite we lived in while working in Auvillar.Our bedrooms were on the second floor and opened onto a second floor porch covered with ripe grapes and the fine dust of history.

The image below shows a pre-reconstructed gite down the path from Moulin a Nef. The 21st C in Auvillar: Entropy and technology co-existing as evidenced by the satellite dish attached to the side of this ancient structure.

Every picture tells a story.

Please feel free to write your own until I have time to write about the comings and the goings of the past month. It isn't easy hooking up to the net from this end of the world.

Albi

Toulous Lautrec was from Albi - so was George Pompidou. Its easy to see their source of inspiration. I found my way to my hotel from the train station. It's located at the good of the Pont Neuf here in Albi. I have a beautiful view from my window- very photogenic- it was hard
to leave but I really wanted to check out Albi while the light was good. I roamed the streets looking for the Lautrec Museum and entrance times for the cathedrals, restaurants, a boulangerie, shopping for Harry, etc. The problem is that EVERTHING IN THIS PLACE IS CLOSED with the exception of a few restaurants. The difference between Albi and Lourdes is unbelievable. Lourdes was crackling with activity. Albi is asleep in comparison!

After heading back to the hotel I wound up watching Law and Order in French. It was very depressing... since I couldn't understand more than every 5th word! How could that be? I poured some wine and my mobile rang. It was Harry calling to tell me that someone tried to break into our studio on Hull St. What a drag. My sweet husband will have to go there tomorrow to check it out. I feel so bad about this but there is nothing I can do about it.
Now I really need a drink.

Holy Waters

Lourdes embraces the sacred and the profane with the rolling foothills of the Pyranees on either side of its sacred waters. Bernadette's grotto is located in the middle of this complex village. It is open 24 hours. I was on the edge of weariness when I arrived in Lourdes last night - it was after 11pm when I arrived at the hotel.

I decided to find a pay phone to call Harry and then walk to the grotto to see it by candlelight since this is the only evening I am in Lourdes. Tomorrow it will likely be overrun by pilgrims.
I'm glad I pushed myself since it was a completely different experience aesthetically and spiritually. After taking it all in - the landscape, the kitch, the crowds, the shrines - the thing loved most is the conclusion that Lourdes is holier than the Vatican in my mind for two very primary reasons. Its holy waters are free for all, pure and drinkable... and so are the toilets! This is not true in Rome. They get you at both ends...there were no water fountains when I was there and there was an attendant in every WC I came across. All in all, I felt it was a racket. Not so in Lourdes. I am a woman of simple needs!

and all tracks leads to Lourdes!

After four hours spent investigating the wheres and the whens of the rail system with Eric Bergman acting as travel consultant and ISP I ran to my atelier and grabbed my bag and wound up on the train to Lourdes. I'll be traveling to Albi from here tomorrow afternoon. Tonite I'll visit the grotto and get a sense of this amazing place... its part vatican, part vegas and a lot of New Orleans. Its the Spanish influence. I am hearing as much Spanish as French on the streets and not a word of English in any dialect.

at the crossroads

Aha!!!!!
I dumped out every bag in my atelier this morning about 5am. I couldn't sleep I was so worried about my passport so I just got up and looked and there it was - black against black against black. I keep it in a black samsonite passport wallet. Now... I have my camera's battery charger and my passport.... who knows where this day will take me? I went for a long walk this morning all over Auvillar. I am meeting the Saarnin's at 9am to let them know I have my passport and to inquire about some of the regions sites and best modes of transportation. I am blessed to have met someone here who has spent some time researching the region and have looked at from the perspective of a visual artist/designer with an interest in history. Somehow it makes a difference... especially when one has limited time and resources!

Art in Auvillar and other distractions

This afternoon I realized I haven't seen my passport since Derek and I went to Toulouse on Wednesday. Not good... particularly since I am trying to get out of town and see some of the region before this gig comes to an end.

I tore though my atelier and bedroom. No luck.
Sometimes a change of locale can rattle the chains of that get in the way of my functioning memory so I left for France's vernissage up in the village at the A7 galleri. Her wooden sculptures were my favorite work in this collective exhibition of three floors and numerous styles and combinations of media and motif. The galleri was an amazing facility all in all and I could see great potiential there. It is in the middle of the village and appears to have had some sort of educational purpose at one point. As I was leaving to check out the other galleries near les halles the gallerist Olivier invited me to have dinner with the artists afterwards which was very nice.

My favorite aspect of the evening was a young performance group that commandeered les halles with lights and props. Their performance was magical and held my attention even though I could understand little of the dialogue. Derek and I left afterwards and as we walked down the steep hill to le port I confessed I was really rattled over the loss of my passport.
After we made it back down the hill I decided to look one more time in my atelier before hitting the hay. As I looked my mobile rang and it was the Saarinens! They were finally free for the evening and wondered if it was too late to come by the studio for a look at my work! It proved to be a wonderful, beneficial distraction since they told me there was an American consulate in Toulouse (news to me!) and that is where I should go to report and get another passport if it didn't turn up. We talked about their time in Auvillar and they asked some interesting questions about the new work I am doing.

My passport is still M.I.A. but at least I feel calmer about it and hope that if I sleep on the thing will turn up tomorrow.

Yesterday (Jeudi 1708 Aout 2007) at 21 heures we attended an exceptional Recital de Piano at Eglise Saint-Pierre. Katia Bronska performed selections from Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Chopin under the sacred rafters of this intimate cathedral on the Pyrenees. Her technical excellence was evident in her ability to convey rich and electrifying emotion in this sublime setting. My favorite selections of the evening were two Chopin Nocturnes.



Top and Middle: Performance Group in Auvillar doing their song and dance at Les Halles.

Bottom: France Alvin at the Collective Exhibition at A7 Gallery in Auvillar.

Toulouse

Derek was sharp enough to inquire about bumming a ride into Toulouse early this morning. Debra flew back to NYC and we landed at the airport with her. Getting a shuttle into Toulouse was easy enough (only 4 Euros each!) and it took us directly to the Gare so we were able to purchace tickets for a 5pm return. (13 E each)

We walked from the Gare into the city center and found a large FNAC where Derek would have a large selection of books and music to browse from and I could look for a battery recharger for my camera. Lets just say Derek had much more luck than I. Even if I had found one it would have been set up for 240 V and that wouldn't be good for the long run.

Toulouse reminds me a great deal of Richmond. It is an industrial/research city with several universities, a rich history, a river and a canal that still play a role in its functioning. The museums and cathedrals were lovely and inspiring but I am sure it must be a tough place to make a living as an artist. (If anyone knows a place where it is easier to make a living as an artist please email me!) I could definitly spend more time in Toulouse though I think I know the train station like the back of my hand. It is the Atlanta of the SNCF rail system in SW France.

I left Derek at the FNAC and just wandered through Toulouse's gardens and the old city and enjoyed my own company for awhile. I loved the Jardin Royale and wish I had more time to explore the elipse further down the canal. We were lucky the weather held. It would have been a much different excursion with more heat or rain.

One of my goals on this journey was to look into travel possibilities at the Toulouse train and bus transportation centers. This always proves to take longer than I have time for but I did learn that a trip to Lourdes is about 60 E RT and a night bus to Madrid is 99E RT. I could do either but if I leave the region it makes more sense for me to do a circle and see several things than a few RTs... the time to get in and out of Valence D'Agen plus the expense of getting from Valence D'Agen to Toulouse . Its just sheer luck that we could make it in today with only a one way expense. Normally it would cost 70E just to ride the van one way. Thats a bit hefty and twice as much as it is going to cost me to fly from Toulouse to Paris at the end of this residency. The train is cheaper but if there is any luggage its a bit of a walk (45 to an hour) from Auvillar to Valence D'Agen.

Still no plan of action. Tonite I'll sleep on it if I can recover from using the public W.C. in Valence D'Agen. It was a shocking experience and I thought I'd seen it all. Derek warned me. Now I know.

update from Auvillar

I have missed blogging but my work has taken me to a remote part of the world where internet is not very accessible and when it is it is costly. I’ve included a few photos below to give you an idea of what this ancient part of France looks like. The buildings I am living and working in are 17thC. I would post more photos but I have been waiting for a fex ex package for more than a week that was shipped next day from the states. I don't think this has anything to do with the new security measures since it was shipped days and days before the Brits made their coup. PLEASE send me any stories of FED EX successes or disappointments. I am ampted to write them a letter that will curl their CEO’s toes. On top of that I don’t trust them anymore and that’s a problem since everyone here is very anxious about getting their data home. I’ve seen what can happen to a laptop that is checked with regular luggage and it isn’t pretty. One option could be FEDEX but I don’t trust them anymore. Has anyone traveled with technology during the past several days? Good stories? Bad? Please share. Its of great concern to the three writers and myself who all flew here before the caca hit the fan in London over the weekend.

Sorry there is little art to read about in this post. I hope my photos tell a story that my paintings will tell even better by the end of August.

Art Victimized Once Again

Is this the next step? In early times they'd just chop off the heads of those with power as documented in the painting of Marie Antoinette's head rolling into a basket in a museum in the Marais.

Now it seems the disgrace of disfigurement is more in vogue. It disturbs me. I enjoy watching the grafitti artists perform on the temporary walls of the Palais de Tokyo but when they piss on the art it makes all of their work illegitimate for me.