Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!

Photo Hunt - Zap

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'zap'. I do believe that this is the most challenging photo hunt - EVER. this is a high accomplishment given that I have played along for the better part of 4 years. I'm not sure if I should think Sandi or curse her with a new PC virus. HMMM

Anyway,this is a photo that I took while visiting Atehns a few years ago. There is some disagreement amongst art historians . . . is it an athelete tossing a javelin or is it Zues tossing a lightning bolt?

Of course it is Zues tossing a lightning bolt (making it perfect for this week's photo hunt). Those javelin tossing art historians clearly know not a thing about zapping gods . . .

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée Picasso, Paris

On May 1, the much anticipated “Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée Picasso, Paris” exhibit began its three-and-a-half-month stint at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Paul and I were lucky to attend a members' preview last Friday.

Considered to be the 'Picasso collection by Picasso', the  works on display represent the actual pieces that Picasso kept for himself and his family over the course of his career. these paintings, sculptures, and photographs represent the works that had such special meaning for Picasso that he refused to sell them or sought them out late in his career to purchase back.

The exhibit is arranged in seven different rooms and takes you through Picasso’s varied career, from the beginning to days before his death. The exhibit includes everything from informal sketchbooks to iconic masterpieces, and Anne Baldassari, chairman and chief curator from the Musée National Picasso, describes the carefully selected collection as “a true chronology of his life.” You get a feel for his love of women through various nudes and portraits of his lovers (Olga Khokhlova, Dora Maar and Françoise Gilot), and the exhibition explores his constant experimentation with styles (blue and pink periods, African art-inspired works, grotesque surrealism and radical cubism). Picasso was famously quoted as saying, “Give me a museum and I’ll fill it,” and he has now filled seven rooms of one.

The last time a full-scale Picasso collection graced the AGO was in 1964, with the groundbreaking Picasso and Man retrospective. As one of the world's highest-attended exhibits for the year, the show marked what current AGO Director and CEO Matthew Teitelbaum calls the museum's "coming of age."

For an artist so ubiquitous, freshness is a nigh-unattainable goal, but this comes close. Musée director and chief curator Anne Baldassari has built a clear-eyed narrative that pushes back against the rigid categories of Picasso’s long career. We were fascinated to see how his art was affected by the relationship he found himeslf in at the time and that he switched from abstract to realism with ease. Many of my preconceived notions about the artist and his creations were tossed out of the window.

Balsassari has been carrying that flag since 2008, when the Musée closed for renovation and the show, with its seven-decades’ worth of the artist’s output, hit the road. It’s been the art-world equivalent of a stadium rock show, reliably drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from Sydney to Moscow to San Francisco, to name a few.

It would be shocking for it to do anything less here. Of a generation of modern artists, Picasso is surely the most bankable, both the reason the Musée sent the show on the road, and why so many institutions competed to host it (the AGO spent three years securing exclusive Canadian rights.)

Picasso made some 50,000 works on his life, surely not all of them good. There’s a temptation even here, in so carefully hand-picked a display, to feel a devolution into shtick. This is our fault, not his. Picasso’s ubiquity, on coffee mugs, calendars, in cartoons and parodies and T-shirts and whatever else, has always threatened to cheapen his legacy, but significantly, it never has. That’s why, when a Picasso show of this magnitude and significance comes to your home town, you go.

We did and I anticipate more than one return visit to truly take in the incredible output of this genius!

Greg Payce at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics

A few weeks ago on a particularly lovely spring day I was walking from the hotel we use for work functions to the office and walked past an advertisement for an interesting exhibit at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics. I've been to the restaurant at the Gardiner but never actually been through the exhibits. I've looked at the lovely new building carefully in passing too since the architects also designed the new building that is being constructed for ETFO.

We decided that a visit to the museum would make a great weekend outing . . .

Canadian Greg Payce is recognized internationally for his unique ceramic works combining vase forms with precisely articulated profiles. When properly aligned, illusionary images, most often of human figures, appear in the negative spaces between the vases.

Starting in 2007, the artist began to create large-scale lenticular photographs of major pieces, opening new possibilities for seeing and experiencing the original works. Lenticular photographs incorporate digitally re-mastered images and lenses to create startling three-dimensional illusions. He also began to work with video projected on to moving works, creating mesmerizing sequences that relate decorative motifs found around the globe to contemporary ceramics practice.

In this exhibition, we saw how early works indicated Payce’s growing fascination with image, decoration, history and technology. It was facinating to see the development of this unique art form over a short period of time. Throughout the exhibit one experiences the work in a variety of arrangements, formats and scales.

Our Italian Pottery Arrives From Positano

So after all of the crap with UPS yesterday I was wondering if I'd come home to a nice case of pottery from Italy or if I'd need another rant at UPS.

Happily UPS came through and there was a great big box from Positano. It seemed bigger than was necessary for the two pieces that Paul and I had ordered.

It turns out that our two pieces were in there as well as the two pieces that mom had ordered.

Everything was very well packed.

The first piece was a wall plaque that I had made. While we were at the pottery shop they had a number of fine plaques for the various professions that someone could mount on the wall of their office. I decided I needed a teacher. This was a problem since that had professor but not teacher.

Happily they agreed to make one for me.

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The other piece that we ordered was a large pedestal bowl. I saw one like this high on a shelf of the shop and decided I couldn't life without it. I'm not sure what we're going to do with it but we're very happy with it!

We really liked the colours and detail in the pattern.

Some New Art

A few years ago our friends Palma and Brad  gave us a beautiful ceramic tile that our mutual friend Diana had made.

We loved the colours and the wonderful organic lines and movement in the tile.

As an aside - we were thinking today that when it comes to creativity Diana has an embarrassment of riches - talented potter, painter, interior decorator, writer, wonderful cook . . . frankly it isn't fair. Then there are those of us with a decided dearth of such richness. SIGH

Back to the tale. We loved our tile but thought the poor thing was lonely all by itself. When we made our reservations at Diana's B and B we asked her if she had more tiles since we'd like to buy some more. She said that she would have an assortment ready for us to chose from when we arrived.

Not long after we got settled Diana pulled out 8 or 9 tiles and said 'pick the ones you like and I'll mount and frame them for you.'

This was fun - hanging in the kitchen, talking to the artist about her work, and deciding which pieces 'spoke to you'.

We decided to get three more. We made our selections (with plenty of advice from mom of course), and a few days later Diana presented us with a well-wrapped package. I was shocked at how inexpensive they were.

We've been home for almost a month now and finally we got around to hanging our new tiles.

These are the three new ones:

The four tiles look good together:

I think that we need to redecorate the entire room though - the tiles look too good. :-)

So What did we Bring Back from Italy?

People have been asking me - 'what did you bring back from Italy?'

Believe it or not but today is the first time I've had a minute to sort and go through things.

I've noticed a big difference in our trip 'hauls' over the years. It used to be that there were lots of what one would call souvenirs - trinkets that gather dust. Now our hauls generally consist of food, drink, art, and clothing with the odd bit of souvenir.

This is the haul from our latest trip:

Now let me state from the onset that we shipped 12 bottles of wine + 1 bottle of grappa. We also have two large pieces of pottery that will arrive sometime in January.

The picture is also missing 1 whole pecorini cheese with truffles, a vacuum packed bag full of assorted pecorino cheese, and 5 1.5 lb pieces of parmigiano cheese. The cheese is all resting int eh refrigerator and I was too lazy to bring it up for a photo opportunity.

It's also missing the 6 copper molds I bought from Cesare, the famous brass artisan, in Montepulciano.

In this haul you'll find a sweater, a fleece (from theday it got REALLY cold in Montalcino), 2 scarves that I bought because I love the way Italians wear scarves everywhere and think this is a fashion trend that needs to move across the ocean, 2 bottles of 20 y/0 balsamic vinegar, 2 bottles of olive oil made by the owner of our agriturismo in Tuscany, 2 calendars, 4 packets of Italian cat for for the 'boys', 2 wallets, 1 purse, and 1 passport holder, 1 sweatshirt to send down to my great niece, about 7 lbs of chocolate including LOTS of the famous gianduja chocolate from Torino, 2 lbs of roasted hazelnuts, the most wonderful fennel tarelli, 2 packages of fruit jellies made with Amalfi lemons and Sicilian oranges, pocket coffe chocolates, 3 ceramic art tiles made by our friend Diana Strinati Baur, a package of dried cranberry beans, a package of dried chick peas, a package of dried pepperocini peppers, 3 packages of spice mixtures for pasta, 3 jars of honey, 1 bottle of limoncello, 1 bottle of limoncello cream, 1 bottle of strawberry cream, 5 bottles of brunello, 1 vino nobile de Montelpulciano (we tried it in a restaurant and LOVEDit), 1 bottle of super tuscan wine made by the owner of the argiturismo in Tuscany, 1 bottle of brachetto, 1 package of wonderful hazlenut bacci cookies, a number of nativity figures made by an artisan in naples, three angles made by the same artisan in naples, and finally 2 large bags of amaretti cookies from Mombaruzzo.

I see lots of wonderful moments ahead with food, drink which always seem to serve as a catalyst for reminiscing about our adventures.

Luca Signorelli, Fra Angelico, and Piero della Francesco

Yesterday was all about art. There were a number of works that mom had studied in her art history courses that were housed in Cortona and Arezzo and she was determined to see them all. After another brilliant breakfast we headed off to Cortona.

Cortona, Italy is one of the oldest hill towns in Tuscany and is featured in Francis Mayes book Under the Tuscan Sun and the Diane Lane movie.  This is what many North Americans picture when they think of Italy - no doubt why Naples is such an enigma to many visitors since it couldn't be more different. Cortona's medieval streets are pleasant to wander and you'll be rewarded with fabulous views of the countryside along the medieval town walls. Cortona has remnants of its pre-Roman Etruscan past, Renaissance artists Luca Signorelli and Fra Angelico, and Baroque artist Pietro di Cortona.

The Museo Diocesano has collectedsome of the most valuable works of religious art coming from the most important churches of Cortona and the surrounding area after World War II. The museum collections open with the Roman sarcophagus a beautiful example of Hellenistic sculpture, which was found in the fields underneath the city walls near the Cathedral. Some extraordinary and rare pieces from the 14th century Church of Santa Margherita are preserved in the second room of the museum, which once was the sacristy of the Church of Gesù : some frescoes attributed to the Lorenzetti family, the painters who frescoed the whole church, and an old painting portraying Santa Margherita with some scenes from her life, dating back to the beginning of the 14th century and related to painter Margarito d’Arezzo.

The former Church of Gesù now houses the main masterpieces of the 14th and 15th centuries: the famous Annunciation and a triptych painted by Fra Angelico, the Triptych by Sassetta, the Cross by Lorenzetti and the Lady of the Assumption gives St. Thomas Her Belt by Bartolomeo della Gatta. The coffered wooden roof was amazing although I bet most people miss it as they admire the art on the walls - proof that one should always look up . . . . Under the altarpiece of the Annunciation there is a marble baptismal font, a work by Ciuccio di Nuccio, which originally was in the Cathedral and was moved here when the church became the Baptistery of the community of Cortona.

Some of Luca Signorelli’s masterpieces painted for the main churches of Cortona, like the Assumption of the Virgin, are preserved in room 4, which is dedicated to this great painter. But no doubt that the most important and famous two works he signed are the Lamentation over the dead Christ and the already mentioned Communion of the Apostles. I must admit that it was almost overwhelming to be surrounded by so many incredible works of art in such a small room.

Our next stop was Arezzo where mom wanted to see the famous frescoes by Piero della Francesco. The remarkable frescoes, located in the Basilica di San Francesco, were painted between 1452 and 1466. They depict scenes from the Legend of the True Cross on three walls of the Capella Bacci, a chapel behind the high altar.  A 15-year project restored the works to their original brilliance. A distant but free view of the frescoes is to be had from the main body of the church. For a closer look, make reservations at the ticket office in Piazza San Francesco, two doors down from the church.

After feeding our mind and souls we needed to feed our stomachs. There was a lovely cafe on the piazza facing the Basilica which offered interesting salads and cheese plates. Lunch, with wine, was 20 euro.

I think we were all a bit overwhelmed by the art we had seen. There were other things to see and do but we just wanted to head back to the car and return to the villa for a pre-dinner nap.

Rather than go out for dinner we had arranged to eat in - Giuseppe and his assistants had cooked a brilliant meal featuring fresh, high quality, local ingredients.

We started off with a piece of aged pecorino cheese and some red onion jam - an unusual sounding combination but utterly delicious.

Next up was a warming white bean soup - unusual given that it was pureed. Guiseppe had added some nuggets of local sausage wrapped in pancetta to add a contrast of saltiness to the flavourful soup. Lord knows with this bitter cold wind blowing across the Tuscan countryside some soup was needed!

The next course was pasta. We were served a plate of the wonderful local pici which had an unusual zucchini sauce. They had caramelized thinly sliced zucchini and tossed it with the  hot pasta. I never cease to be amazed by what flavours there are in simple, fresh, ingredients that are well prepared.

The main course (yes, main course, this is Italy after all, home of the incredibly, multi-course meal) was sliced steak from a local farm. It was prepared in what must be a renaissance method - grilled to rare (there is NO well-done in Italy - thank God), sliced, and drizzled with honey. A sprinkle of hot pepper flakes and salt and it was ready to do. It was unusual to have honey on steak but absolutely amazing! it was served with baked fennel and radicchio.

Dessert was white chocolate panna cotta with a mixed fruit sauce. It was so good that I neglected to take a photo of it!

Another great day in Tuscany as we fed our souls and our stomachs. Always a happy combination in my books.

Pompeii, and an Afternoon Wandering Churches Back in Naples

We took the train to Pompeii where we were to meet our guide.  Given that it was rush hour the train was packed - no one volunteered to give up their seat for vecchio donna (as Paolo calls her) but it didn't really matter - we were squeezed in so tightly that you didn't even need to hang on. After about 3 stops hundreds of what looked to be university students got off and mom could sit down.

Some of the passengers were interesting. I stood in the main entrance area of the car where there were no smoking signs everywhere. Of course three guys stood there and smoked. They appeared to be those guys who show up in tourists spots selling knock off sun glasses and other crap from China to unsuspecting tourists.  They helped us out though - the train we were on actually switched tracks at the stop before Pompeii Scavi and headed along a different line. One of the smoking-toting-junk-to-sell-to-tourists guys figured we wanted the Scavi and managed, through a combination of pointing to the map and Italian, to show me what to do. Further proof that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover!

Lots of cruise ship groups were arriving at Pompeii. We thought it was crowded but our guide from Contect Travel assured us that it was nothing compared to what she had experienced on Sunday.

While awaiting our tickets we did experience a touch of the tourist rudeness that we hate when an American woman started screaming at the cashier because she wouldn't make change for a 100 euro note (although the sign clearly said that in French, English, and Italian - and two other languages we assume but we couldn't interpret them). Such language! One would have thought she was on crap reality TV show for tweens the way she was carrying on. Then she pulled out a wad of 20 euro notes and paid for her entrance. She stomped off saying she had only an hour to 'see' Pompeii. I bet that was interesting since the site is more than 7 km long. Perhaps she should have just gotten a book.

We got in free with our art card. Which means that we have saved 20 euro with the card so far.

Despite having an illustrious history as an Oscan, Samnite and Roman settlement, Pompeii's best-known incarnation is, ironically, that of a buried city. Due to the numerous layers of volcanic mud and ash spewed forth by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D., Pompeii has preserved its Roman-era layout and offers a fascinating and detailed look into the daily life of its people. Since its unearthing in the late 18th century, Pompeii has remained one of the most important archaeological sites in Italy and is unparalleled in its preservation of an ancient city.

Our guide, who heads the education programs at the Capodimonte Museum, was brilliant. She lead us around the site for the next four hours showing us baths, markets, temples, houses, and shops.  What an amazing morning. I took about 100 pictures so do expect a more detailed series of posts on Pompeii in the future. :-)

 
Back in Naples we took a taxi to Piazza Gesu Nouvo where we had a great lunch sitting on the piazza watching the world go by. We stopped in one of the restaurants that Fiorella had pointed out to us on our first day. Lunch was good -pizza, wine, and water. The bill came to 27 euro for the three of us which was great for such good food.

The churches of Gesu Nouvo and Santa Chiara were both closed when we finished lunch but the cloisters of Santa Chiara were not. We used our art card and got a discounted entry. This was such a beautiful spot for contemplation.

It is hardly what you’d expect cloistered nuns to gaze upon during the course of their silent lives. Bold scenes of boar hunting, bowling, dancing, even a Carnival revel come alive in a riot of colours on the tiled panels that decorate the cloister garden of the Santa Chiara Monastery in Naples.

I wonder whether this really was what abbess Ippolita Carmignani had in mind when she commissioned landscape architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro in 1739 to create a cloister garden suited to “the decorum of noble ladies.” But then this is Naples, a place of blazing sunshine, music and joie de vivre, whose vibrancy breaks into even the most reclusive corners.

Vaccaro, who had a reputation for being innovative and was a darling of the Neapolitan aristocracy, chose a strictly geometric design for the garden, but sneaked in the spark and frivolity of 18th century Naples by decorating pillars and benches with hundreds of tin-glazed earthenware tiles, known locally as majolica.

 
By the time we had left the cloisters both of the churches were open so we visited them. Both were stunning in different ways.

Santa Chiara was founded in 1310 by Robert the Wise (a.k.a. Robert of Anjou and Robert of Naples) for his second wife, Queen Sancha, who became a nun here. The basilica and convent were designed in an austere Provencal-Gothic style and completed in 1328.

The ill-fated Joan I of Anjou, granddaughter of Robert the Wise, was crowned queen in Santa Chiara in 1343 and buried here after her murder in 1382.

 
The church interior was given a Baroque makeover in 1742-57, which was sadly destroyed by an Allied bomb in August 1943. Santa Chiara was rebuilt in 1953 in its original style.

Our second church of the day was the Jesuit church Gesu Nouvo. Gesù Nuovo had a variety of itterations before taking its current form . . . originally built as a palace built in 1470 for Roberto Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno (he of the creepy cadaver experiments I wrote about a few days ago). In 1580 the church was sold to the Jesuits who transformed it into a church (1584 - 1601) under architect Giuseppe Valeriano.

 During its long history, the Gesu Nuovo Church was a private home, a Jesuit church, a Franciscan church, then a Jesuit church again. The church boasts a number of important artistic religious treasures, like the Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple (1725) by Francesco Solimena; frescoes of the life of the Virgin by Massimo Stanzione; a bas-relief reproduction of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci by Gennaro Calì and much more.

Like so many churches it tricks you - plain on the exterior but breathtakingly beautiful on the inside!

On the way back to the apartment we stopped for gelato at Gay-Odin - I had pear and ricotta and strawberry with bits of chocolate for me. Sounds like an unusual combination - certainly I've never ordered a combo like that but it was good. Really good.

The church at the corner of Mezzacannone and Benedetto Croce (Sant'Angelo a Nilo) was open for the first time since we had arrived in the city. Even though our feet were tired by this point we had to stop in. The church takes its name from the Nile River, whichwas venerated here by the Egyptian merchants who lived in this area in Roman times. It was begun in 1385 as a chapel, dedicated to Sts. Angel and Mark, by will of cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci, whose family had a palace nearby. The current appearance dates from a 1709 rebuilding, under the direction of Arcangelo Guglielmelli. Remains of the original Catalan-Gothic structure include the main portal, with an architrave featuring angels, and a fresco in the lunettewith The Virgin Mary and Saints Michael and Baculus with Cardinal Brancaccio (15th century). A sculpture of St. Michael from another portal has been moved in the interior.

We were impressed with the Cardinal's tomb, created by none other than Donatello.

 
Back at the apartment mom declared that she was done for the day (who knew the day ended at 6 ?) which meant my hopes for wine on the piazza followed by a leisurely dinner were dashed. SIGH

Day five in Italy and I've had NO pasta yet. I must fix that today.

Wandering Around Palm Desert

After all of yesterday's hiking we ended up sleeping for more than 10 hours . . . you have to love the desert air!

Today we needed a quiet day. Palma suggested that we spend the day wandering about Palm Desert with our own tour guide. It turns out that we had the perfect guide - Palma.

One of the things I really enjoy about the city is all of the art that they have installed throughout the city. We wandered about looking at the various installations.

 
 
 
 

It was a perfect way to recover from yesterday's strain.

Queen Califia's Magic Circle

Yesterday was the final event of the San Diego get together - the goodbye brunch at the Island Palms hotel. It was a final opportunity to chat with folks who had traveled from Canada, England, Italy, and from all corners of the US.

After we said out goodbyes the plan was for Paul and I to head up to Palm Desert to stay with Palma and Brad for a few days. En route we'd be heading through Escondido - most well known as the location of the Wild Animal Park - an offshoot of the San Diego Zoo. Over the weekend though we discovered that it was also home to a famous sculpture - Queen Califa's Magic Circle.

A few of the slowtravel gang had visited and raved about the beautiful installation. Marta gave us DETAILED directions (which were perfect - thanks Marta) so we were able to easily pop off the highway and visit the sculpture.

Queen Califia's Magical Circle, the last major international work by French artist Niki de Saint Phalle, is located in Kit Carson Park. De Saint Phalle, a colleague of Salvador Dali and Jasper Johns, is best known for her Stravinsky Fountain, located in Paris, France. The artist chose Escondido as the site for her final work because it reminded her of Italy.

Inspired by the story of California's namesake, Queen Califia of the Amazon, French sculptor Nikki de Saint Phalle created a garden tribute to her majesty. Featured in the huge walk-in Queen Califia's Magic Circle are nine large-scale sculptures, mirrors and colored tiles galore. It was cool to see children, young AND old, interact with the sculpture.

It is one of the four large-scale sculptural environments designed and built by the artist and her studio collaborators, and the only one located in the United States. The garden is a joint effort by Saint Phalle, who financed the sculpture project, and the city of Escondido, which acquired the land and is responsible for landscaping, maintenance and operation.

She conceived the garden as a gigantic circle (120 feet in diameter) with an 11-foot statue of Queen Califia in the center. Clad in gold armor astride a monumental, 13-foot eagle, she carries another regal bird on her uplifted hand. Surrounding her are her courtiers, eight totems representing animals and elements of the land over which she reigns.

Entrance to the magical circle is through a maze of black, white and mirror tiles on the walls and floor. Inside, the scale and breadth of Saint Phalle’s vision is impressive. The floor of the circle is tiled in white ceramic circles of varying diameters.

The fiberglass totems, varying in height from 11 to 21 feet, stand at floor level and can be examined close-up. They are surreal but easily recognizable shapes mounted on columns bearing other animals and birds.