New sculpture and Palermo

Here are some photos of the sculpture that Louise commisioned us to make at her house in Tuscany. We made a frame out of beautiful chestnut wood and then attached pieces of olive wood together to make four tree shapes. Their branches reach inwards to form a shading roof. Louise plans on planting kiwis, grapes, or some other leafy vine to grow over the structure.

The night that we finished we had a big dinner at Louise's with lots of friends. We brought them all out to see the sculpture by candlelight and took a few photos.

The next day we left for Sicilia! After an all-night 15 hour train ride we finally reached Palermo! (At dawn our whole train went on a ferry to cross the sea to Sicilia.) We had no idea where we would sleep but luck came our way. We met a great Swedish couple (shown above with Lea) who gave us some advice and a map. Then Couchsurfing pulled through and connected us with the wonderful Giuseppe and Geraldine. We've been staying in Giuseppe's small apartment in the center of Palermo. He took us out for delicious pizza and brought us to a cool bar venue where three musicians were playing jazz.

Today we wandered through Palermo. Above is the Cathedral (part of it, rather. It's tremendous!) We walked all over town, much of which was closed to traffic for Xmas shopping. Lots of street performers and markets. Note the palm trees and glorious weather.

Oh, we also saw this car. We parked next to it last night. I think it was firebombed. We are in Palermo after all! But don't worry, we don't have any money so I don't think anyone will mess with us!

Tomorrow we go to a WWOOF farm nearby, on the way to Lea's ancestral stomping grounds. I'll keep you all in the loop. Lots of love,

C

Grapes, Olives, and Kittens, oh my!

Here's the happy family, Alessia with Ajo (the kitten/tiger), Lea, Me, Nicoletta, Fabio, and Dino.

It's harvest time in Tuscany! Lea showed up about a month ago and we made our trek back to Dino's just in time for the vendemia: the grape harvest and pressing. Like berry picking, grape harvesting mostly means putting grapes in a basket when you can no longer fit any in your mouth.Almost right after that we got to work on the olive harvest, and have been picking ever since! We often pick until sunset, as you can see below.

Here's Ajo, our little tiger. He provides endless entertainment around the farm, as well as insightful critiques of my drawings. He's also a great climber and percher.

Fall is quickly turning into winter, with chilly nights, shorter days, and lots of rain! Luckily we still get incredible sunsets. That's Dino's, seen from the olive groves above the house.


Today Lea and I transfer to Louise's to build a goat shed, make a sculpture, and pick MORE olives. Then its off to Sicily and then... home sweet home! See you all for Christmas!

Love, chris

New drawings and poetry

Well, here's what I've been up to during my last few weeks of travel.  I've made a bunch of drawings and written some poetry in English and Italian or some mixture of the two.  Its wonderful to play with the different languages because certain phrases and words cannot be fully translated.  They lose their meaning.  My Italian is still far from perfect, but in a way this helps.  I am not tied to grammar and traditional phrases.  I try to use the words (whether English or Italian) like pieces to collage with.  I think of these poems as drawings with words. 

Our Dusty Lives

  

Le stelle fanno il loro viaggio

Syria

Cervo

Viola

Breakfast with the Holy Family

Viola dormendo

Taro

Leaf Shadows

Train Bird

America

Paperlight

Le anche degli alberi

Itaca

Seeds Need Soil

Mural and Reggae!

Here's one of many photos of the big ole wall that I painted here in Piemonte. More photos to come.

In other news I went near Udine (northeastern most part of Italy) to see Europe's largest reggae festival, Rototom Sunsplash. It was a blast. I met lots of people, saw some incredible music, learned how to cook some dishes from Cameroon, attended discussions and workshops, and slept very little (in my hammock under the stars. The festival was held in a national park in a small mountain valley surrounded by forest with a wide, fast, clear river running through it. The river was always packed with festival goers, beer, and smiles. The concerts at night were great, flags and sparklers and dancing everywhere!

Right now I'm back at the farm in Piemonte, plotting my next move. Soon enough I will head back to Tuscany to meet the family! Looking forward to seeing you guys!

cheers and ciao!

WWOOFer Wagon

The WWOOFer Wagon is finished at Louise's house! Its a bit cozy, some might say small, but I find it suits my needs perfectly. Note the breakfast porch. Kudos to Jamie and Armwrecker for their initial help and enthusiasm. You guys will have to come back someday to sleep in it.

The white shutters just below the roof can slide out when the weather permits (i.e. all spring and summer). I want to get some aquatic plants growing in that glass jug next to the porch. The roof is thatched cane over plastic with a wood and PVC ridge.

Interior view at night. The drawing is of my friend Andrea, another American WWOOFer from Dino's last fall. Please note the golden ceiling. That is mosquito netting laying on my sleeping bag in the foreground and above Andrea's double-head is a shelf for my clothes.

And just down the hill from my breakfast porch is my own personal bath house. Bath roof. Bath tub. My dear friend Tom Dawson came and visited from Paris and constructed a great waterfall that feeds the bathtub. He also helped me lay the stone steps which you can see in the background. I hope that vines will take to the cane pergola. Next project upon returning to Louise's: solar hot water heater to turn this bathtub into a HOTtub!

Meanwhile I'm here in Piemonte waiting for paint to arrive so I can start painting this mural...

ciao for now

Piemonte... BHAAAA

The regal Fabrosane sheep of La Fattoria L'Aurora. Their BHAA is absurd and sounds like Jamie trying to imitate a sheep. I keep expecting to see him jump out of the bushes when I hear it.

One day we traded rams with another farm to minimize incest. This guy weighed a ton. Probably less, actually. Either way it took four of us to lift him into the truck. We covered him with a tarp so rubberneckers and carabinieri wouldn't see what we were up to. Matteo (the patron and boss) is securing he tarp while his wife Caterina tries not to step on the ram's head. An Austrian WWOOFer (Verena? I never did learn her name...) holds Raia, the 3 year old (actual) boss of house and farm.

Here in Piemonte our most important (and coincidentally, most fun) job is to entertain the child. In this photo Armwrecker is demonstrating the proper way to charge a photographer.

One day we had to move some horses across the valley to their open pasture. Caterina led the adult horse while Raphael (a WWOOFer from Quebec) and I had to 'encourage' the three foals to follow. This photo pretty well sums up our lack of experience in this matter.

As if wrestling and chasing horses down one hill, across a river and up into another town wasn't enough, Raphael and I decided to take our backpacks up into the mountains and see what we could see. It was pretty foggy but we still had some incredible views of the Alps in the distance. We slept in a smoky refuge at 1700 m altitude, ate horse sausages and vegetables (we left our pan at the farm) and enjoyed the only two days of decent weather that we have had in weeks.

There's Raphael surveying the next trek: over those mountains to Genova and the ocean! (When it gets warmer.)

They start them young in Piemonte. Here is Raia learning to interact with horses. The foal is meanwhile learning how to interact with toddlers. Both did a great job and are congratulating eachother with a kiss.

Probably my favorite picture ever of Armwrecker: helping Raia stretch her back while Till, the German former Elf (of the same Elves with whom we stayed in Tuscany) surveys the land. Till is a great guy who lives in a teepee near or in the horse stable. Caterina and Matteo feed him and give him cigarrettes. In exchange he looks after the horses. He's got a pretty good thing going for someone who can't use a telephone and has no teeth.


...some drawings that I've done here. The bug was a commision and hopefully I will sell the other one soon. I am also making plans for a large mural to go outside the house. One of the largest paint distributors in Europe (Sikkens) has agreed to provide paint for free. In exchange they will use the mural as advertising when it is finished. Hopefully this will turn out to be a good career move. So there you go, uncles, I am on my way to a real job! (Never.)

alla prossima, ciao!

One of Armwrecker's (Anneke, for those not in the know) videossss

Videos took a while to load but Anneke really wanted to share this one with the world.

Drawing for a band

I sketched a group of musicians that came to play at Dino's. They loved the drawings and my paintings that are on permanent display in Dino's little concert hall and have asked me to draw an album cover or flyers for them. Here are the drawings I did on their Myspace page.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=416728168&albumID=683187&imageID=12798102

ciao ciao

Finally some photos!!!

Dino, king of meats. During our goat sausage and salami making day.

This is a quick photo to prove that I am still making work. I think this woodcarving will be a part of the WWOOFer Wagon (see below) when it is finished.

Here's a photo from Carnevale in Foiano. This was one of four huge floats complete with chicken entourage.

Jamie. And a cemetary. This somehow completely explains our Calabrian experience. Also the next one. Below are Jamie and Armwrecker jammin' with Avramo, our favorite gypsy godfather.

We spent our nights at the Elfi village reading by candlelight when we couldn't handle the insane children any more. We still had an insane Jamie however. (bottom left)

Here's some American gremlin working on the WWOOFer Wagon at Louise's. Roof is finished and soon I will return to put up the walls, windows, door and porch. Then I will live in it.

One day Louise and I went looking for a bike. She spotted this one in the iron scrapyard and I cleaned it up. It works great except that it is only a single speed and the brakes are of questionable quality.

Here's Armwrecker playing with the polar bear dogs at our newfound farm/home in Piemonte. Here they breed old speciess of sheep and horses and in the summer hold workshops for children. They have asked us to paint a mural on the wall in this photo. More on that to come.

Here is my friend Roberto performing in a nearby theater. Yes, that is whipped cream.

The sculpture is finished! It also has another face on the back. The head and hands were carved from seasoned olive wood and the rest is patched together from rotted olive trees and salvaged metal. His name is Culsans (an Etruscan guardian deity) and he is watching the sunset over Lousie's house.

night