Kat Eye Studio

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A Store for Joy

New Year’s Day has got to be one of the most quiet days in any European city. Here is a shopping district in Madrid, midday on the first of January. Wow. Great for my street photography, since I like these empty places, but a bit surreal. The only people we saw wandering around the city on this day were other tourists.

This sign caught my eye – notice it says “Joyeria.” In Italy, many store descriptions end in “-eria.” Gelateria, pizzeria, cartoleria to name a few. I know that “joyeria” in this case means jewelry store (gioielleria in Italian), but I loved the idea of a store for joy. If you’re a little short on joy, having a bad day, you can stop in and get a boost. Maybe find the perfect gift for a friend going through a rough patch. Kind of a fun idea, don’t you think? What would your Joyeria have for sale?

Today I also want to give a quick shout out for the Creative Every Day 2011 Challenge. This is a low pressure, open ended challenge for any type of art and creativity. There are monthly themes, but they are totally optional. I love the idea behind it – it’s not about having some BIG CREATIVE GOAL, it’s about just being creative every day in some way. For me, that could be taking a photo, or writing a blog post, or reviewing old photos. There is a link up every Monday and you will find artists of all kinds participating – writers, photographers, painters, paper crafters, poets, musicians. I have found many interesting blogs and people through participating last year, and am continuing this year. I thought you all might find it interesting too.

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Create to Live

This has become one of my favorites from my most recent trip to Venice. Late at night, in Piazza San Marco, this artist had his paintings set up to sell. In the image, I love how the light just pools around the art, an island in the darkness. The artist is there too, a part of it, slightly visible at the edge.

Isn’t that how art is too? No matter what we create, it may be a representation of some other physical thing, but we are there too. Art is a reflection of us. You cannot separate the creator from the creation, the artist from the art.

And so I am in this image too, as the artist. I am the one who sees these moments. I am the one who looks longingly at these street artists, whispering inside, “I want to do that. I want to create for a living.” Set aside my American-dream culture to say that maybe it doesn’t matter if I have a big collection of stuff, maybe just creating is what life is about. Creating something good, something to be proud of, something that touches others in a positive way. Live to create, create to live.

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Everyday Life with History

We just returned yesterday from our week-long road trip through Croatia and Slovenia. What a crazy trip – we travelled so much – visiting Split, Dubrovnik, Korcula, Plitvic National Park in Croatia and Bled, Postojna and Slocjam in Slovenia. We saw lots of wonderful and amazing places, and arrived home tired from the travel. Lesson learned – don’t travel quite so much in one trip. Downtime is needed.

Today’s image has a different message than that though, this is one of living with history. You see, in Split, Croatia most of the old city was built up inside of Roman emperor Diocletian’s palace. The palace walls were once the city walls and the medieval old city is a wonderful little place where Roman ruins are just part of the life around them. I love this image for what it tells you of this place. Look at the building – grass is sprouting from the roof and the stone is all cracked. You can just glimpse an arch of the Roman palace gate in the background and see the ruined wall beside it. But look closer, there is something in the attic window. Look closer, at the brand new shutters. Someone lives here. Someone lives in this house that looks like it could fall down tomorrow. Someone lives with this history, as part of their every day.

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Blissful Color

Tiny flowers for sale in the market on Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Wrapped up in paper for a Euro a bundle, these bright little buds were too cute, too colorful to resist. I bought a packet, tucked them in the pocket of my suitcase and then forgot about them until yesterday. I thought they would be crushed as I dug them out of the suitcase, but they survived just fine. As bright and colorful and whole as they had been in the market, they are now smiling at me from my bulletin board next to the computer. A colorful little reminder of our time in Barcelona.

It’s funny, in all of our travels we really don’t buy too much. For me, the photographs and experiences are enough. Occasionally a small piece of art, an interesting mug for tea or a small item, like these flowers, call to me as a little something physical to take back from a place.

This month’s theme at Creative Every Day is “bliss” and I was having trouble with the word, until I realized that for me color is bliss. Bright, happy color. Like these little flowers.

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At the Doorstep

As I mentioned last week, when we were in the Cinque Terre I was just drawn to doors with peeling paint. Here is another one from Riomaggiore, I love the green paint, against the grey of the door and the chips of it on the red brick of the doorstep. It must be the light, the texture, or as one person commented on that post, “I would like to chunk them off and mash them in my palm with my thumb.” I realized that I feel the same, there is an interactive nature to these photos, a desire in me to participate in the removal of paint from the surface, to pick off flakes and crumble them to nothingness.

Now, I could not have said any of that at the time I took the photo. All I knew at the time was that I was drawn to these spots, compelled to take a photo or two. After the fact, I see that this desire to take pictures of peeling paint is coming from somewhere other than my rational brain. The theme this month for the Creative Every Day challenge has been intuition, and it’s really caused me to sit back and look at how I use and follow my intuition in different areas of my life. I realize that when I take photos of a subject like this, it’s my intuition talking. I can’t explain it rationally in the moment, but I act on the feeling then and there. And, usually, it results in images that I like, and that have something to show to me later.

Even if the message is just that I have an obsessive urge to crush paint flakes.

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One Year in Italy

What’s in this jar? Gelato spoons. 220 gelato spoons to be exact. Approximately one year of gelato consumption for a family of three, not counting the occasional cone we ate or spoon we accidentally threw away. This is a visual representation of our first year here, but there is so much more that has filled this year than can fit this jar.

One year ago today, I stumbled off the plane bleary eyed with two suitcases and a disoriented cat in tow to begin this adventure. I was a few days ahead of Patrick and Brandon, to get into the apartment and get things a little bit set up for when they arrived, while Patrick was finishing up with the movers and getting our house in Corvallis ready for rental.

I had no idea what I was in for.

In this year, I have learned:

– There is nothing like moving to another country, with a different culture and language, to humble you. You go from being a confident, independent, contributing member of society to a person who literally doesn’t know how to pay the bills or find an item in the grocery store. Everything is different, and you have no frame of reference. No experience to pull from. No language skills to work through new situations. You have to learn to laugh at your ignorance, accept where you are, because otherwise you will have a nervous breakdown.

– To throw out assumptions of “how things are done” because you will encounter, over and over again, that they are done differently here. It opens your eyes to how much we really do assume or take for granted by growing up in one culture. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense to you, you have to accept it and move on because doing it differently doesn’t mean doing it “wrong.” You will never be able to change the culture you are in to fit your own comfort zone.

– There will be things you love and things you hate about living here. You have to try it all and then revel in the things you love while accepting the things you hate. I have discovered I love the Italian pizza, real parmesan cheese freshly grated, visiting new places, creative store window displays, art exhibits, hanging out in the piazza of a city to feel the energy, to name just a few things. I have learned to accept the convoluted, confusing beaurocracy you run into, stores closed on Sundays, the passionate responses you get from Italians that quickly blow over, cigarette smoking everywhere, the non-standardization of electrical outlets and plugs.

– Travel is expansive. Travel changes your horizons. Travel gives you an insight into new places and people. Travel is nothing like living in the place you visit. Nothing.

– Many of the things we fill our lives with are not needed. I’m talking about things and activities and people altogether with this statement. By completely changing your environment, you can start to see the essential pieces of your life that are important and which you can easily live without. For example, we lived for two months without our household goods shipment, buying only the essential things we needed. We have a whole lot more in storage in Corvallis, too. But in those two months, there wasn’t much of all of that “stuff” we couldn’t live without. (Except maybe a wine bottle opener. That was at the top of the list of items we bought right away.)

So many ideas are popping into my head to share that I know I can’t share them all today. It’s like they each need their own little essay, maybe I should write them all down and put it in a book someday with some of my photographs.

I think I can sum up the learning from this first year in Italy with one word: Acceptance. Of who I am, of where I am, of the people around me, of the situations I find myself in, of ideas other than mine, of my own ideas. I can’t think of a better thing for me to learn at this time of my life.

I can only wonder, with a smile on my face, what the next year will bring.

Footnote:
I’ve mentioned previously that I’m participating the the Creative Every Day 2010 challenge through CreativeEveryDay.com. I’ve written a guest blog post that will be posted there today. If you have time, stop by there and read it and answer the questions I’ve posed. I’d love to see your answers!

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