nycstudio 7
nycstudio 6 ( Akrai Residency)
Halfway through my gift from the Akrai Residency program of a month in Palazzolo Acreide, a lovely old hill town in the Hyblaean mountains of southern Sicily. How lucky can you get… [<www.akrai.org> http://www.facebook.com/akrairesidency]
I have been working away… I share a piano with the other composer/musician in residence (Roman, a genial bear of a man from Siberia with a marked resemblance to Jesus), and said piano resides in a little monastic cell with a skylight as the only window – I go every day for a couple of hours, and I like the discipline of it very much – going to the office… I have written a piece a day there so far, with a time limit of 45 minutes and space limit of one page (I have very small MS writing), watching the little square of sunlight traverse the wall in front of me – who knows if any of it is any good but at least the wheels are getting greased – it’s about time… then I work at home on Vagabond, and play the mandola on my rooftop terrace every evening for an hour before gathering for dinner – nice work if you can get it…
Two days ago we (6 of the 7 resident artists plus our 2 hosts) took the day off and went to the beach (earning it by 2 hot hours in another larger hill town with 50 baroque churches – a bit too much of a good thing, but the back streets were beautiful, and I got a hat for the beach) – an hour’s drive through hairpin bends, down to the southern tip of the island (hello africa – we are actually south of Tunis) to a national park, with a healthy walk through ullastres and wild (dry) thyme to the beautiful beach – very reminiscent of menorca, with reddish earth and limestone rock, even caña at the head of the baranca, only more african somehow – drier for sure… oh so happy to be in the embrace of my beloved blue water again, even if only for a short while… thank you, Claudia and Salvatore, for all of it…
things that grab me: doors, bells, birds, balconies & balustrades….
what can I say about the past 6 weeks?
– lots of visitors, all of them really lovely but I didn’t I actually invite any of them…
not that I wasn’t thrilled to see them, each and every one of them…
– when I finally got a couple of weeks without visitors, sis and I fought pretty much every day…
– then the Pyrenees for 5 days, which was Fantastic but exhausting…
– then more lovely visitors…
-and the final 3rd week sans visitors (now) I’ve been sick as a dog, in bed and currently on antibiotics in an attempt to rid myself of it before I fly to sicily next week…
-but the weather’s been glorious, with plenty of good swimming in spite of the predominantly south wind – tho’ I did finally get stung in the Bathtub on my last swim before succombing to la grippe – I think my body just decided “basta”…
too much fun, but also too much stress…
it’s the the sant lluis fiesta and the announcements of the festivities are floating over loud and clear on the breeze…
the garden is looking pretty great, albeit in the latter stages of summer – we’ve been having a bumper crop of green figs from the tree in the front – even a few black ones from the surviving bits of the big one out back… we splurged on a bunch of big pots for the front garden, of varying shapes and sizes, which we are slowly filling with presents from Rob and Paco (with wonderful help from June and Laurie) – mostly succulents but the odd clipping of potentially beautiful bushes and trees… the vines are a disaster – I didn’t spray them soon enough and I fear this may be the end of them… caña on the gina patio next year? que lastima… and one of the big pines in the front has the blight – looks very nearly dead, only a few green needles on the extremities… if it’s the dreaded beetle then we need to fell it asap before it spreads to the others… another massive bill…
I must just learn to let go and accept what comes down the pike, particularly with regard to my sister, it would make life a lot less stressful… the silver lining of finally giving in and lying in bed on drugs is that I’ve been watching movies and listening to music – including my own, trying to remind myself of who I am and that I am still an artist in my own right… which I will get to work on very soon, hopefully
– Sicily here I come – oh lucky me… count your blessings, girl… time to get back to work…
pirineos august
binistudio 9
