"The Tourist has returned!" [But I don't want to be a tourist!]

And so was the warm welcome (in quotes) from Pietro as I was back to the studio after a side-trip to Faenza (Region of Emilia-Romagna), ceramics capital of the world. Even if [you think!] you have no interest in ceramics whatsoever, and it takes two trains and over three and a half hours to get there from here, a visit is highly recommended, for Faenza è una città bella! Friendly people, good food, easy navigation, and best of all - hardly any tourists, at least this time of year! It was a bit jarring to be travelling again, going through Santa Maria Novella train station in Florence on the way there and back: "Who are all you people?!?" All of this made me really reflect on a discussion we had last week with Isabella, a ceramics teacher from Insituto Lorenzo di Medici, at La Meridiana with a group of students for the day. It was my good fortune to join them for lunch (prepared by the lovely Alessia, the office assistant), and we were talking about travel and Florence and how, once one has spent any time there, one can really want to call it "my Florence". Isabella observed (paraphrasing!): "You are not a tourist. Tourists come and go and try to see everything in a day but see nothing, because they're too busy taking photos, and trying to see everything. You are a traveller. A traveller takes time to experience the culture, to live in the culture." Yes, even though I have travelled little, I am a traveller. This had already come more clearly to light from the forward in the book, "Betty Woodman. Teatros. Théâtres. Theatres." (2005), which observes that "Any traveler in principle warrants a safe harbour." in discussing that potter's time split between homes in New York and Tuscany: "Two very special places...which evidently feed her creative force." I am blessed to have Ontario and Tuscany, the latter if only fleetingly but more than ever, always with me, travelling.

Elvis ha lasciato l'edificio...

Here is some of the work so far, now waiting for biscuit firing (digging the English terms used here!) Nothing out of the ordinary, save for it is quite different from my work at home. Not sure if it shows in the photo, but the one with the cup on its side in the middle shows how they have been super burnished with a metal rib to be shiny and smooth as marble. The prospect of finally decorating with the metallic salts is a bit daunting. And so, whilst having afternoon tea proffered by a well-known English potter working here for a few weeks, the other [recreational] potter in residence commented how unusual and rewarding it is to just spend the day, after day, working in clay. I wholeheartedly concurred, much - I think - to the surprise and/or delight of our founder, Pietro. "Yes, it's so great to really focus on what I'm doing, not putting pressure on myself. Instead, I work to really keep with my work/study plan, but as I work, new ideas are coming out of that. It's really great." Pietro nods in agreement, then goes to read a wall post about which I had forgotten. He says that he is the author - he is certainly the author of its location on the wall (!): "When you start working, everybody is in your studio - the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all your own ideas. But as you continue, they start leaving one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you're lucky, even you leave!" Like Elvis so famously did, I think I have left the building.

Lessons Learned

Lesson one of this pottery adventure (you know how I loathe the word "journey"), is that one who wears glasses would do well to carry one of those emergency eyeglass repair kits. Yes, not even completed week one, and a nose pad popped off yesterday. Fortunately, there was an un officio ottico open in the nearby town of Castelfiorentino, and presto! good as new, and no charge! It was market day in the town - I can hear Diane Lane's voice narrating about the scene in Cortona early in the film, "Under the Tuscan Sun". (Lesson two is that November really is a rainy month, and there have been devastating effects in parts of Tuscany.) And what a great market: vendor stalls of frutta e verdura, formaggio, arrosti, pesce, various household items, clothes & accessories (of various quality, though some quite good - didn't need to twist my arm!), and best of all, it was spread over and around a couple of piazzas entirely una zona pedonale. It was my good fortune to make this trip to the market with the lovely Giuliana Rodolfi, who was an integral part of the origin of La Meridiana (with founder & life-time director, Pietro Maddalena), and whom I just met this week. She offered to take me and another potter in residency on this outing from "the monastery" as they call it (?!), for it is considerably quieter than during the hectic days of rotating one and two-week workshops that run most of the year. But back to Castelfiorentino! First stop was at a bar for colazione or breakfast, consisting of the freshest croissant con crema known to this person, and a cappuccino. Lessons three, four and five: (3) We need "bars" like this in Canada! There is something quite special in partaking of a such a commonplace activity. "Going for coffee" just doesn't cut it. (4) Three croissants and three cappuccino's cost a grand total of 6 euro. SIX EURO! It costs almost the CDN $ equivalent of that for only one such breakfast back home. (5.1) I already learned these lessons, but they're worth the second, intense look; and (5.2) Sometimes, the most productive thing is to simply enjoy a croissant and cappuccino while taking in the atmosphere, and feeling just for that little while, that you are part of a community, one that can seem so foreign yet so alluringly familiar. (5.3) Be in the moment. Yes, it is so cliche, but that's because it's true, and thus, no photos of market day. Instead, a Tuscan terrazzo. Last lesson for today is to emphasize simply enjoy, whether those words be used separately or together. Live simply, enjoy fully. A dopo! (Later!)

Expect the Possible

It has been an amazing start to Fall, given that it has finally felt like Summer for six - count 'em - six days in a row! And what better what to cap off the week than with a weekend of Culture Days/Carnegie Days/simply good days. As the countdown begins in earnest to my residency at La Meridiana (seeing as I've only been counting since I got the go-ahead back in January...), I'm finally reading Bernard Leach's "A Potter's Book". To wit: 'A pot thrown on a good wheel with responsive clay...is impressed and expressed...and coaxed though a series of rhythmic movements, which like those of a dance are all related and interdependent.' What a great quote to sum up a weekend of productivity at the pottery studio, interspersed with yet another wonderful program by Simcoe Contemporary Dancers at the maclarentARTcentre. How fortuitous to have two passions once again compliment each other, spending time with friends and peers alike. I never had delusions (okay, not entirely...) of a career as a professional dance artist, nor as a professional ceramic artist, but to be able to live the former vicariously while embarking on the latter potentially, is something not to be taken lightly yet taken so gratefully. Once one realises that there is nothing greater than to expect the possible, the possibilities are infinite.

New Season, New Work.

Here it is, middle of March, finally...already?! And three weeks till we open a Spring show & sale of work by a pottery studio mate, Mary Hastings, and myself. Lots of work to do, which includes making time to keep this blog going! Funny (or not) though, how since typing is communicating one's thoughts rather than talking, it seems to be equally aggravating to a sore throat. So, for today, just a couple images of new porcelain pots fresh out of the kiln last week.

Medieval wall in Certaldo Alto, July 2013 - a welcome change of scenery from Ontario in February!

Alright, alright, alright...!

Somehow, reciting the American actor Matthew McConaughey's tag-line seems quite fitting in summing up the day, the week, the year so far, because it's been quite all right!  Granted, I have to qualify that with the sad news that others shared with me today of recent, unexpected loss of loved ones, and my thoughts are with them.  Hopefully, with time, their tears of sorry will be wiped away with memories of joy.

On the up-side, today was also a day of encouragement and excitement.  In conversation with a co-worker whom I'm fortunate to call a friend, we were talking about our various artistic interests and how one goes about the pursuit.  Sometimes, opportunities are made to us, but equally - if not more so - we have to make those opportunities for us.  And when opportunity knocks, answer the door!

As I saw someone post on Facebook the other day, "Don't look back, you're not going that way.".  Thus, 2014 has really begun.  It's going to be quite a trip in every sense. I look forward to and thank you for sharing the ride.