Category: Art

Second Spanish School – A Month in Antigua, Guatemala

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Personal Life

Six of us to share one bathroom and two of them were teenage girls.  Murray and I looked at each other and wondered how this was going to work out.  It certainly was a lot different than the experience we’d had with our host family in Costa Rica just a few days before, where we had our own private bath.  OK, we thought, let’s give it a try.  However, after a very sparse dinner and hardly a breakfast the next morning, when Murray was asked by his Spanish school about our host family, he had no hesitation in asking if we could be switched, as he didn’t think it would work out.  By the end of the morning class session, during which time I was enjoying painting in the school garden, the school administrator had arranged new housing for us.   Soon we were settling into a totally different situation with our lovely hostess, Lucretia, who had several bedrooms that opened to a beautiful atrium.  There was already another student there and while we didn’t have a private bathroom in our room there was one nearby which no one else was sharing at the time.  Dinner that evening was very lovely.  This was an excellent situation and we were so glad we had said something after just the first night in the other situation.

On one side of the atrium was a very large bird cage and quite a collection of tropical birds, and nearby was another large cage with several rabbits.  Occasionally I would stay at the house and just paint in the atrium.  I loved painting the birds and rabbits.

Pastel painting of Lucretia’s birds
Pastel painting of the three rabbits in the atrium with their lovely little blankets.

Antigua was a very different environment than the experience in Costa Rica had been.  While Antigua wasn’t very large it had a city feeling and we enjoyed walking in the streets and eating lunch out in the restaurants.  A large volcano was behind this colonial city and I love this picture Murray caught of a famous landmark with the volcano behind.

Photo by Murray Tucker

We were there during the month of Easter and learned a lot about how the holiday was celebrated.  Antigua is actually known for the beautiful floral carpets that adorn the street prior to Easter, and while I know Murray took pictures of them I haven’t been able to find them.  This article gives some pictures and explains how they are made! https://www.viaventure.com/easter-antigua-alfombra-carpet/

Among other highlights of our time in Guatemala was visiting one of our daughter’s friends, who was stationed there in the Peace Corps.  We visited her village and learned about the projects she was doing with the local community.

After Murray was finished with school we journeyed to Lake Atitlan and spent five relaxing days at a resort.  Sometimes we just hung out by the lake’s edge to watch local residents with their fishing boats or toured some of the towns surrounding the lake.  The best way to get around was by boat and one highlight was visiting the “hippie” town of San Marcos since many expats from the 60’s lived there.  There were a lot of yoga and meditation classes offered, although we didn’t take any.  Shopping in another village filled with local crafts was a lot of fun and we bought a large bed covering made up of woven ponchos sewn together.

Our first winter adventure of 2005, spending over two months in two Central America countries, was great fun and motivated us to begin planning for the next year.  Altogether we spent four winters in different places. Murray attended Spanish school for some of the time and I loved working in pastels.  Today quite a few of those paintings are on the walls in my home in Costa Rica.

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Casa Uno – Labyrinth Number 26 – Camino del Artista (Part 2)

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Arts in Education, Costa Rica, Personal Life

Knowing I wanted a labyrinth in my garden, I Googled “Costa Rica Labyrinths” to see if I might get some help in creating one at my home in Atenas, Costa Rica.  I was surprised when the search generated a lot of information.   The very first link was totally fascinating.  “Costa Rica is home to the World’s Largest Labyrinth.” It’s called La Senda and it is located about a four- to five-hour drive from where I live. There is a website all about it and several articles online about how it was created.  (https://lasendacostarica.com/en/). If you are interested in knowing more about it, please check out the website, and do a Google search for additional articles.  Among the names associated with this labyrinth is Ronald Esquivel, who was contacted to design the labyrinth related to two energy vortexes.  Ronald is a Costa Rican architect who specializes in sacred geometry and labyrinth design.

So, of course, my next Google search was “Ronald Esquivel” and again I was rewarded with lots of information both about him and about the different labyrinths that he has designed.  Instead of the usual circular ones that I was familiar with, his designs were totally different, and each one unique. He has built labyrinths for public parks, universities, a prison, a children’s hospital, a yoga center and private homes.  There was also a lot of information on YouTube where his channel has over 69 videos, many of them examples of the different labyrinths he has created.  I was totally fascinated.  He was a keynote speaker at the 2009 Labyrinth Society Gathering in Portland, Oregon as well as a speaker for the Society again in 2020 when he was interviewed in a program called “Creating Balance in Unbalanced Times.”  I listened to the interview and read his kindle book Labyrinth Design and The Energy of its Geometry.  When I found an email address for him online, I decided to send him an email and see if he helped private homeowners like myself create labyrinths for their gardens.

I was delighted when I got a response the next day, and a few emails followed.  We set up a time for him to come and visit the garden and to make some suggestions.  After reading his book, and in particular an article that he and Jan Hurwitch wrote in 2013, I knew that he creates different designs unique to the environment he is working in. For example, at the time of this article he had created 14 labyrinths including a Wisdom Labyrinth, a Growth Labyrinth, and a 4 Element Series. For more information I suggest reading the article. http://gaiacr.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Labyrinths-of-Costa-Rica.pdf

In my mind I was beginning to think about a labyrinth here as part of the Artist Retreats I was thinking of offering on my property in Costa Rica!  When Ronald arrived, I felt an immediate connection to him as we walked the garden.  He asked questions and I shared how I envisioned using the labyrinth for both myself and for guests at the Artist Retreats.  Soon we were talking about the creative process and how the labyrinth might represent different stages of the creative journey.  I also talked about how important the diagonal line was to me as a choreographer and in my paintings!   Over the next few weeks, we continued emailing and discussing the different stages of creating something, whether it is a dance, a painting or a musical composition.

Another visit followed, during which Ronald took careful measurements of the garden, and I finalized my decision that he would design the labyrinth and we would use his team to chalk it and create it! We also determined that the borders of the path would be red brick, and when the work would begin.

The next step involved Ronald submitting the design for my approval and asking if I wanted any changes.  I loved it and we had fun following the design and envisioning how it would be on the property.

Design of the Labyrinth: “Camino del Artista” by Ronald Esquivel

Ronald also showed me where each of the physical places of the creative journey we had agreed on would be located.

The stages we had determined were:

  1. First you must show up!!  – that’s the beginning point, from which the two diagonal lines go out, and where you walk to enter the labyrinth.
  2. Then one tends to go inward to see what it is one wants to create. That’s a place in a corner which is very private and somewhat hidden.
  3. Next step is gathering all the tools and research one needs to make the vision happen. That is represented by the curves and twists in the labyrinth as one moves from one side of the garden to the other.
  4. There is a point where one looks outward… and begins to share, and this is represented by a corner where one can view the mountains in the distance.
  5. And of course, there is the center which the path reaches. I view that as the first draft!
  6. The return journey is all the editing that one does to complete a project.

Ronald’s friend and co-author of the 2013 article, Jan Hurwitch,  joined him as we reviewed the draft and she brought with her 5 crystals that would be buried on the path, representing different relevant emotions.  They are:

  1. A black Onyx to repel negativity
  2. Aquamarine for courage
  3. An Orange Agate to reduce stress
  4. Crystal Quartz for healing and spirituality
  5. Rose Quartz for love and compassion, particularly starting with oneself.

The crystals will be buried once the labyrinth is completed, at the inaugural ceremony.

Coming next will be Part 3 – Building the Labyrinth!!

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Beyond Van Gogh: How It Was Created

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

About a month ago I saw a sponsored post on Facebook that Beyond Van Gogh would be here in Costa Rica, and I immediately made plans to attend. I was delighted for several reasons.  First of all, since moving to Costa Rica at the beginning of 2020  I had not been to a cultural event here, in large part due to COVID.  Now things were opening up.  I also have always been a fan of Van Gogh and the period in which he painted. And third,  I had seen some favorable posts of friends of mine in the US who had gone to the exhibit.  Here it was in Costa Rica, and I definitely wanted to go.  It was scheduled to be held in a large convention center that was about 45 minutes away so it was definitely doable.  Tickets were already selling and some weekend dates were already sold out.  I made arrangements to go during a weekday with two friends.

Tickets were spaced 15 minutes apart and we got there a little early and had fun taking some pictures outside.

Outside Beyond Van Gogh. Photo taken by my friend.

Soon it was time for us to enter, and I loved the experience from the moment we officially entered.  Slowly we walked through a path filled with quotes exchanged between Van Gogh and his brother Theo, giving us information about Van Gogh’s life.  We zigzagged along the quotes separated by empty picture frames and it definitely was setting a mood.

Photo I took of one of the panels. I love that the quotes were in both Spanish and English, as it gives me a good opportunity to practice my Spanish.  I took lots of pictures so I would have lots of quotes to practice.

I knew some things about Van Gogh’s life from reading Irving Stone’s book Lust for Life, published in 1934 and based on the letters between the two brothers.  And I also was aware of how many people have been fascinated with Van Gogh’s life. The movie Lust for Life starring Kirk Douglas, based on Stone’s book, was released in 1957.  It won Douglas a Golden Globe for Best Actor as well as an Oscar nomination for his role as Van Gogh.  Anthony Quinn, who played his friend Paul Gauguin, received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.  That is not the only movie about Van Gogh.  In a blog posted by Molli in Discover Walks Blog, she shares four other worthwhile films about Van Gogh: Vincent and Theo (1990); The Eyes of Vincent (2005) about his time in a mental asylum; Loving Vincent (2017), an Oscar nominated film which features a lot of animation and raised the idea that his death was an accident and not suicide;  and At Eternity’s Gate (2018) which looks at the final years of his life. Here’s the link where you can learn more and see some trailers of the films.

https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/paris/the-5-best-movies-about-vincent-van-gogh/

Clearly Vincent Van Gogh’s life and work have fascinated and served as inspiration for many other people in their artistic expression, including the creators of Beyond Van Gogh.

Now back to our experience at the exhibit. Following the space filled with quotes, we wandered into a dark space with a bit of animation and two black boxes which turned out to be the entrance into the main room.  It was a bit disorienting until we realized the black boxes were actually the entrance.  We must have stood there for several minutes with quite a few other people until someone walked through the boxes and then of course we all followed and were treated to a very spacious room filled with animation on the walls, floors and panels that were placed in central areas.  Animation inspired by Starry Night paintings filled the space and then shifted into a number of Van Gogh’s self-portraits.  For the next 35 minutes we were dazzled with over 300 hundred of his paintings appropriately grouped.  As a choreographer I was fascinated by the movement and energy that was created, as well as the unique way one set of images transitioned into another. Sometimes the walls faded and new images appeared… other times it was like a large wave swept through the room.

Some people sat on the floor, others stood in place or wandered around, and some of us were able to sit on the few benches or beanbag-like chairs.  I was pleased to see how many young people attended.  Lots of Ticos in their twenties, thirties and forties.  We found two beanbag chairs to sit on and our third person sat on the floor.  We stayed there totally fascinated and in wonderment at the way Van Gogh’s images were being presented until the program began to repeat. Then as we stood and began walking we realized that the experience was a bit different in each place and so we stayed for nearly the full next set moving about the large room!

Photo I took shortly after entering the large room.

It was indeed an immersion into a world creatively inspired by Van Gogh’s painting and as the title suggested,beyond just the images. It was very different than going to an exhibition of his actual paintings in a museum, which itself is an outstanding experience.  For me it was a different kind of creative adventure inspired by his work — animation (inspired by an artist) with its unique timing, spacing and invitation to step into a new dimension. I knew that as soon as I got home I wanted to learn about the people who created it!

A quick Google search led me to all the information I wanted to know.  Beyond Van Gogh was created by Mathieu St-Arnaud and his team at the Normal Studio.  St-Arnaud and a partner founded Normal Studio in 2009, and a trip to the website provided lots more information. The home page describes their mission to “transform urban spaces into full-on immersive experiences…. 360 projection and architectural mapping, we spark wonder into people’s everyday lives.”  They are a multi-disciplinary team of 30 professionals combining creativity and tech.

They describe their aim in creating Beyond Van Gogh:

Expanding Vincent’s universe to a sharable and lively 360 projection environment requires a different way of thinking, like Vincent himself.  While certain paintings are presented in all their simplicity, others have been enhanced, expanded, enlarged and juxtaposed in order to fill the space with life, texture and colour. (https://normal.studio/en/)

Other projects include: another artist-inspired project – Beyond Monet; a corporate creation for a Toyota Dealer Meeting; the set for La Traviata for the Icelandic Opera; and a stage production of Diary of Anne Frank created by Lorraine Pintal for a theatre in Montreal.

Of course it is still very meaningful for me to have the “classic” experience of seeing the original paintings in the museum setting, but I also adore and am inspired by the blending of the classical with the latest technology.   Thank you, Normal Studio, for creating a wonderful experience, and I joyfully celebrate being able to see it here in Costa Rica with two delightful friends!!

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An Experiment: Writing Haiku with Accompanying Watercolor

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

I have always been fascinated with the short poetic form of Haiku and how much meaning can be put into just 17 syllables.  During the pandemic I took a weekend Haiku workshop at Upaya  Zen Center via Zoom.  I had fun exploring the form and enjoyed reading Natalie Goldberg’s Three Simple Lines. However, it wasn’t until we began the Atenas Writers’ Group in Costa Rica that I was motivated to write Haiku on a regular basis.   At the same time, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review was offering a six-week online Haiku course, “Learn to Write Haiku: Mastering the Ancient Art of Serious Play,” taught by Clark Strand.  I quickly signed up.  Most sessions were prerecorded but a few were live sessions where we could ask questions.  Clark encouraged us to have a daily practice and to write lots each day!  What a great opportunity to learn from Clark, as he is totally dedicated to Haiku, with a big commitment to write Haiku himself, translate classical and contemporary Japanese Haiku and to encourage others to write Haiku.  Here is the bio that Tricycle has online:

Clark Strand is a former senior editor at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. His books include Seeds From a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey and The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, which was co-authored with his wife, Perdita Finn. He teaches the popular group “Weekly Haiku Challenges with Clark Strand” on Facebook and leads Tricycle’s monthly haiku challenge, as well as the Tricycle Haiku Challenge Facebook group.  (From Tricyle.org ‘s website)

The medium of watercolor has always both challenged and fascinated me so I decided I would choose the best Haikus that I wrote each week and do small watercolor paintings including the text in the painting.  Since mid-August I have completed 35 painted Haiku ranging in size from 6” x 8” to 9” x 12”.

I also made the decision that the Haiku had to be inspired by what I saw in my own backyard.  Living in Costa Rica, that’s not a problem.  My husband used to say that we were living in our own National Park.  In Clark’s course we were not only to follow the form of 3 lines with 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second and 5 in the last, but also to include a seasonal word.  I decided to follow the traditional style as much as I could, including a seasonal word as it related to Costa Rica.  I also thoroughly enjoyed the different samples of classical Haiku that we were exposed to.

It has been great fun to do this practice, and I have been quite consistent until recently, when I started writing prose to share with the Writers’ Group.  I look forward to getting back to my Haiku/watercolor practice on a regular basis.  Meanwhile, here are eight favorites. To see more, visit my Facebook page – JoAnne Tucker Art – where you can see all 35.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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My Kitchen Goddess Painting – An Ekphrastic Challenge

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Personal Life, Poetry

Nine months ago, I had never heard of the word “Ekphrastic.” In an Introduction to Poetry class that I took last fall, I learned that the word means “description” in Greek.  According to The Poetry Foundation:

An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning. A notable example is Ode on a Grecian Urn, in which the poet John Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion.  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ekphrasis

We were assigned to write an ekphrastic poem, and I had fun writing mine inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s Abstract White Rose, 1927. Here’s a link where you can see the painting: https://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/abstraction-white-rose.jsp 

A Single White Rose

Petals curling and blending

Into each other.  Unclear

Where one begins

 And the other ends.

Grays become white

And white becomes grays

With a touch of yellow

Or maybe lavender or blue.

Circling into the center

And then back out again.

Like breathing in and

Catching one’s breath

And breathing out again.

Curving, circling, catching,

Breathing, weeping, centering,

A single white rose

Awakens a sadness

Deep within.

A second poetry course followed, led by Pam Wax, and later I showed her this poem and appreciated her feedback, which helped me to edit the poem to the version I just shared.  Pam also talked about ekphrastic poetry and told us about Rattle, an online website with the mission of promoting the practice of poetry.  Each month Rattle has an Ekphrastic Challenge where they share a piece of artwork and invite poets to submit poems inspired by the visual image. The artist whose artwork is featured gets to select a favorite poem, as does the editor, Timothy Green. I was fascinated and enjoyed exploring the website, seeing different artwork and the winning responses.  As I continued exploring, I came across a request for artists to submit artwork for the Ekphrastic Challenge.  Twelve pieces would be selected for the coming year.

Soon I was browsing through digital images of my artwork and came up with five pieces I thought might inspire poems.  What a delight to get an email a few weeks later that The Kitchen Goddess had been selected for the February challenge.

In mid-March I received an email from Tim with an attachment that had 25 poems for me to select from.  While 455 poems had been submitted, Tim had chosen just 25 for me to read.  I read and reread the twenty-five submissions, and clearly one kept standing out to me. Before making my final decision, I went back and read them all again to see if I would change my mind.  Here is what I wrote about my experience and the poem I selected, The Rebirth of Venus by Luisa Giulianetti:

I was delighted and surprised at the range of emotions and different journeys that were expressed in the poems which I reviewed. The pastel painting was part of a show calling for work on the theme of the kitchen goddess. I approached the painting from a whimsical point of view placing a dancer in a frying pan. The poem that I have selected captures the playfulness of the painting. It is called The Rebirth of Venus and the opening lines refer back to the painting Birth of Venus by Botticelli. I have fond memories of seeing that painting when I visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. I laughed with delight with the phrase ‘found new digs.’ While the Botticelli painting was not on my mind when I created my kitchen goddess, the reference shows how two paintings inspired the poem, and I love that. In the poem, the poet has the dancing goddess opening a scallop and of course the original Venus is standing in a scallop shell. In addition, the poet also captured so well the feeling of the dancer in the kitchen ‘reigning supreme.’

It was first published as the poem of the day on March 23, 20023.  Here’s the link to see Giulietti’s poem: https://www.rattle.com/the-rebirth-of-venus-by-luisa-giulianetti/

Mostly Dance’s editor, Kezia Gleckman Hayman, was with me when I saw the painting Birth of Venus.  We had spent time in Italy setting some of Avodah Dance Ensemble’s repertory on local dancers for a Jewish Film Festival. When our work was done we had a few fun-filled days sightseeing in Florence.  Kezia reminded me that we were so fascinated with the painting that we went back to view it a second time.  Here’s a link to see the Birth of Venus: https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/birth-of-venus

I was curious which poem the editor would choose, and I had to wait almost a week until it was published also as a poem of the day on March 30, 2023. He chose Joy by Melissa Madenski.

Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “The best ekphrastic poems expand on their source image, pushing the experience in a new direction. Joy does that by finding all-too real grounding for the rich symbolism of JoAnne Tucker’s painting. Rather than describe the woman dancing in the frying pan, the poem describes the emotion she represents—and through the otherwise unrelated metaphor of the train. As a result, the poem enriches the painting while the painting enriches the poem, as if the two pieces of art were bound in their own dance together, exploring the complex transition from the darkness of grief back to the brightness of joy.”

Here is the link for Joy by Melissa Madenski: https://www.rattle.com/joy-by-melissa-madenski/

I was fascinated by his selection and that he focused on the emotion my Kitchen Goddess represented.

I encourage Mostly Dance readers to follow the link to the poems and not only to read them but to hear the poet read them.  It adds another dimension.  I am most grateful to Timothy Green for selecting The Kitchen Goddess for the February Ekphrastic Challenge, as it was fun, and an excellent learning experience.  I look forward to following the Ekphrastic Challenges each month and reading the selected poems.  I might even get brave enough to write a poem and submit it.

You can also go to the Ekphrastic Challenge page, scroll down and there is a link to both poems. https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/

Here’s the pastel painting The Kitchen Goddess painted around 2008 and accepted into a show in Denver

The Kitchen Goddess, pastel painting by JoAnne Tucker around 2008.

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A Visit to a Costa Rican Art Museum Triggers a Fascination with Mascaradas

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Costa Rica, Personal Life

On February 17th Art House Atenas owners Anna Matteucci and Felipe Keta lead a small group of Expats to San Jose to visit two museums: The Jade Museum and the Museo de Arte Costarricense (MAC).  It was a delightful, interesting day.  My favorite exhibit was called Valle Oscuro (dark valley) by painter Adrian Arguedas Ruano at the MAC .

As one enters the museum, Arguedas’s bold colorful paintings greet you.  A few of his sculptures catch your immediate attention too.  The works fill a large gallery room and three smaller adjoining rooms, mostly picturing masked community members along with unmasked figures.  While some young children are painted wearing small masks of animals, others are wearing distorted, grotesque, large masks, and still others are depicted wearing large heads mounted on torsos making them look larger than life.

Felipe Keta talking about the artist in front of one of Arguedas’s paintings!
One of my favorite Arguedas paintings. I love the grandma in the center being surrounded by community participants, which captures the intergenerational life that is very important in Costa Rica.

All the paintings of Valle Oscuro were done between 2020 and 2022.  On the artist’s website I learned about his fascination with masks:

Arguedas is a native of Barva de Heredia, a small town known for keeping the traditions of making popular mask parades. In his childhood, he found artistic inspiration through the figure of his great-uncle, named Carlos Salas, who worked sculpting the clay to prepare the base that would later serve as a mold to create the original traditional masks, made with paper.  Salas had a powerful influence on the artist inspiration and artwork. https://www.adrianarguedas.com/bio.html

Doing more research, I learned that the mask tradition dates to pre-Hispanic time, when the aboriginal people made and used masks for various purposes. They were first used at funerals in two different ways: first, they were used by whoever led the mortuary procession so they appeared to have a higher power to lead the deceased to the other world, and second, they were given to the deceased to identify his role in the tribe.   Shamans and chiefs also made special use of the masks as part of their rituals.  These special masks are known as Mascaradas.

Today, in Costa Rica they are still part of community celebrations, and much to my delight I had an event in our town of Atenas where mascaradas were a highlight.

A friend on Facebook posted about a fundraising event on the full moon for a local church that included  food, music, dance and mascaradas. The evening was called “Lunada Bailable,” and I loved the poster.

 

I went with some cousins who were visiting from Pittsburgh, and we had a wonderful evening.  Music piped through a large sound system contributed to the festive quality of the event.  I was surprised to hear a Spanish version of “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. When it got dark and the moon was shining bright, six local dancers began the formal entertainment. While not professional, they put all their energy into their routines.  They waved their skirts and used scarfs as props.  It was fun to watch one youngster, about age 4, who pretended she had on a long skirt and delighted in following their movement.

This was my favorite dancer to watch. She always had a smile on her face, dancing with lots of enthusiasm.

The closing event was the Mascaradas, with children from ages toddler to maybe 5 or 6 years old, wearing masks and dancing, joined by older boys and teenagers with full body masks!  The older kids liked to come over to the tables of the audience that surrounded the performing space, and pretend to scare us.

It was a special evening for my cousins and me to be a part of this community event.  I think we were the only ExPats attending.

Three photos showing the Mascaradas in action.

 

 

All photos in this blog are by JoAnne!

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An Artist’s Week in Paris

JoAnne Tucker / / Art, Personal Life

My daughter Julie introduced me to Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way.   I think she took a course from Cameron at The Open Center in NYC around 1992 when the book first came out.  I’ve been a fan of The Artist’s Way and Cameron’s recommended steps since then.  While I love living in Costa Rica, sometimes I miss the regular, ongoing stimulation that I experienced when I lived in New York City and in Santa Fe, NM.  About two months ago, as I was waiting for a passenger to arrive at the San Jose, Costa Rica airport, I was looking at where different flights originated and saw that there was a direct flight from Paris. I had never been to Paris. Later that evening I began researching and thinking of how to make the trip possible.

Now that I have returned from a wonderful week in Paris, I realize that the gift I gave myself was Julia Cameron’s recommended “Artist Date,” in an extended version.  In case you are not familiar:

Hailed by the New York Times as “The Queen of Change,” Julia Cameron is credited with starting a movement in 1992 that has brought creativity into the mainstream conversation—in the arts, in business and in everyday life. She is the best-selling author of more than forty books, fiction and nonfiction; a poet, songwriter, filmmaker and playwright. Commonly referred to as “The Godmother” or “High Priestess” of creativity, her tools are based in practice, not theory and she considers herself “the floor sample of her own toolkit.” The Artist’s Way has been translated into forty languages and sold over five million copies to date.  https://www.opencenter.org/julia-cameron/

In The Artist’s Way, the two main practices are (1) Morning Pages, daily three pages of free-form writing, and (2) Artist Dates, weekly fun and inspirational solo outings.  In Julia Cameron’s own words, “The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you.” https://juliacameronlive.com/tag/artist-date/

For me, the key element is that the Artist Date is “a dedicated block to nurture your inner artist.”  A quick google of the phrase “artist dates” comes up with lots of suggestions.  Here’s a page that lists  101 artist date ideas.

When I returned from Paris I realized how stimulated and inspired my creative voice was.  Now it will be important for me to continue to give myself Artist Dates on a regular basis.  Of course, they will be simpler, local, and much less expensive.  The elements remain the same.

It is something you do alone. That is the underlying factor of why the Paris trip was indeed an Artist Date.  From the beginning I knew it was something I wanted to do alone.  I have loved trips I took in the past with my husband Murray. They were extremely memorable and lots of fun.  Since Murray passed in October of 2020, I had not thought of doing a trip on my own until this spring when I knew it was time.  I asked lots of questions particularly of my daughters and grandchildren who had been to Paris.  They were super helpful and encouraging. I researched and found the key places that were extremely important to me and figured out the best way to visit them.  Paris has tons to offer but six things stood out as essential for me:

             A visit to Monet’s Garden

             Drawing at the Louvre Museum

            A dance event

            A boat ride on the Seine

            A stay in a neighborhood where I could enjoy walking the streets

            Meals at some plant-based restaurants

I knew that taking a tour where I had to keep up with a group would not work for me.  I am a slow walker, only recently getting used to walking two miles a day, and I did not want to be rushed at all.

For Monet’s Garden I found lots of options and settled for one that provided: transportation from Paris to the Garden and back; admission paid for the garden and the impressionist museum in Giverny; a self-guiding app for your phone; and a full day’s visit. The day exceeded my expectations.  The garden was wonderful, and even though it was crowded, people respected each other by not blocking each other’s pictures.  The gardens are beautifully cared for and it doesn’t take much imagination to see Claude Monet painting in different places.  While the famous water lilies were not yet in bloom, there were plenty of other flowers, and what struck me most was the huge variety and blend of wildflowers and cultivated flowers.  The irises were spectacular.

I’m grateful to a stranger who offered to take my picture
when she saw I was there alone.

The website for the Louvre provides a place to buy tickets in advance and gives information for artists/art students on their policy of drawing while visiting.  They are specific about the maximum size of a sketch pad, only allow work to be done in pencil, and provide lightweight portable stools upon request.  I decided to go on a Friday because the museum stays open late until 9:45 P.M. I bought a 9:30 A.M. ticket.  It is important to buy a ticket in advance.  The line was several hours long for those who did not.  By 10 A.M. I had my stool and had found my way into one of numerous sculpture rooms.  I found a corner out of the way and got busy sketching. Occasionally someone would pass by or stop to look, and usually we just exchanged smiles. Sometimes I was aware that people took pictures of me sketching.  I didn’t care; I just stayed focused on drawing.  Twice during the day people asked if they could take my picture, and then I asked if they could use my phone and take a picture of me sketching.  In both cases they happily agreed.  In all I did 4 different drawings, taking breaks for food when I was hungry.  Each drawing took about 2 hours.  I saw several other artists drawing, and we smiled and nodded at each other.

Happily drawing at the Louvre
My sketch of a marble statue dated 1710-1714 and titled “A Companion of Diana”

The boat ride, walking around my neighborhood, and finding some great vegan restaurants were all positive experiences but not as extraordinary as my day at the Louvre and Giverny.  Both of those days were target Artist Dates.  Now, back in Costa Rica, I am figuring out Artist Dates to do here.

Dear readers… stay tuned!  The dance event was amazing, and I will be writing about it in the next two blogs.

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