The Good Rainy Day Blues
It has been a while since I have entered the website and the blog. I think I feel like I don’t have much to say. I have been busy, creatively and with family, however seems like the Spring never really happened and the Summer has been mostly disappointing too this year. Since returning from New Zealand in early January, I found myself a new studio, that only lasted 4 months and met some lovely creatives, so not a total loss. As I sit here in my tiny little in-home studio space (the grateful studio), on this quiet, rainy Saturday, I contemplate how lucky I am.
Looking back 3 months ago, my husband ran the Boston Marathon, we headed to the USA mid April for relatively short visit. We stayed with my parents and also visited friends and my other mother. It is never a real vacation to travel you know. Busy, busy, busy.
My parents have a mini dachshund named Wally. My dad drives out most mornings to these lovely parks so Wally gets an adventure and often meets with other locals and becomes a morning gossip fest. Good fun. One of these walks, I could see the Boston skyline off in the distance and had to pinch myself. Where do I live? Where do I belong? I definitely have one foot in two different countries and causes me lots of heartache.
My other mother lives over the river and through the woods. Literally. It is a beautiful landscaped property in New Hampshire. It could be classified as a zoo, maybe more than a farm. It has mini cows, highland cows, chickens, horses, a donkey, pygmy goats, dogs, and a parrot named Spike and Spike bites. There is no shortage of entertainment when you visit my other mother.
After returning from our USA trip, my husband had a business trip to Paris in May. He wanted me to tag along even though I had no desire to go. I really didn’t care to see the Eiffel Tower. I have seen the beauty of the Algarve coast of Portugal, Naples, Rome, Slovenia, Croatia….I could go on and I am NOT trying to brag. We discussed that since I have seen so much that I really should go, for my husband has been a few times. I went.
Living in Sweden makes Europe travel so achievable. It is a perk. Flying to Paris is a non stop, 2.5 hours. Arriving in mid May was perfect. Not too hot, however standing in a Museum line for upwards of an hour can be argued otherwise. Overall a super time of year to travel. First stop was the Louvre and I am glad we got that out of the way. The crowds of people was jaw dropping. Who knew so many people were into art. Really. I am being snarky, but maybe my frustration is still lingering even months after returning. It was hard to get close to some paintings and if you did for a second too long you got bumped or heard throat clearing. What would really get to me is the people that took their photo standing next to the art. And the consequential line that would then build up of everyone else wanting their exclusive picture with the sculpture or the painting. Like they were the artist that made it. Really. It started really irritating me obviously.
We did a lot of walking, exploring. So many shops, districts and architectural delights. While Greg worked, I visited the D’Orsay Museum(which I highly recommend!!), and the Centre de Pompidou, the modern museum. Sadly it was closed, but had four exhibits and I went to the Suzanne Valadron Exhibit. She was never formally educated in art. Being a model for artists like Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec she observed and learned. Part of this exhibition was a painting by Georgette Agutte, the Japanese nude, and I was in love with this painting. I took so many pictures of works and this is only a tiny tiny fraction.
Overall I was really, really glad I went to Paris. The streets were clean, the train system was amazing. I am still talking about it today. No one ran to the train because there was always another one just minutes later. Stockholm has a lovely, mostly reliable system but you do spend time waiting. It is lovely to sit at a cafe but expect to linger. They are not rushing you out after dinner either. Those of us tourists on a limited time budget wish we could linger. That got annoying waiting for the check.
Paris is just filled with ART. It oozes from everything. Even though the crowds can completely exhaust you by the end of the day I will go back someday. There is so much left to see.