First and Last, Nostra Mostra August 14, 2016

Last Pastel of this summer.

Last pastel

 

It was our next to last visit to Market on Friday. 

Fig season is in full bloom and not just for making nude male statues discrete! 

There are also amazing numbers of grains and beans and flours made from many different ingredients. 

cool grains

figs

 It was our last trip to the Adriatico to our new and improved beach. It was still windy and too rough and chilly to think about going swimming. Watching the few kids that were out there I was a little worried about being a witness to tragedy.

On the road to our new beach parking there are the biggest olive trees I have ever seen in Abruzzo. There was a frost in the 1950s that killed olive trees down to Puglia. In Puglia some of the tress are 1000 years old. In Abruzzo they are skinny little things. I do not know what to think about the wrappings around the trees holding the dirt in. When they knew the frost was coming did they transplant them to near the beach? or has the soil eroded so much around the trees that they conserved it with these wrapping. All speculation is welcome. 

It was our first time to see the elusive stone beach dog. Its small size, excellent color matching to the beach and quiet demeanor make it hard to spot.

 Sunbathers protecting their faces.

Nostra Mostra

Saturday it was our first and last art show of the year. We took the paintings at 9:30 in the morning a met our helpers there. Our friends are amazing and so good at figuring out solutions. 

Jim's drawing

are great friend, Pasquale

 We returned at 4pm to open the doors. Our way was blocked by kids bicycle racing. There was no parking in the entire downtown and hardly space to walk to the Salle Padre Pio to unlock the doors. I am not complaining, but it was unexpected. I never saw any information about it on any of the August schedules that are hanging around town. But it was all fine. Everyone was involved in the race so we got to see a lot of them. Kids were dressed like pros. Some were very little. The shortest race was 2 laps and the longest was 15. A few people dropped in after the race and some of our friends came by, but unless you were walking, most of the town was blocked off to traffic.

ritratti

It was so busy downtown that I had to try 3 times to get pizza for dinner before I was successful. For most people I think it was just a snack, but it was my only option. First I had to have ice cream because the bar was not so crowed, but later I had pizza success as well. Suddenly at about 8:15 the down was deserted. Nothing was moving and no one was outside. It was dinner time. 

We also did not know that there was going to be a talk about the three colors of the Italian flag in the same space at the same time as our paintings. In some ways I thought it was nice to combine events, but some people told me they tried to come, but didn’t want to come in while the man was talking. I enjoyed the talk a lot and learned a lot about the evolution of the Italian flag. This man is a great historian of the region and I have been privileged to hear him talk many times. I did his portrait this year. 

This year the mayor gave a speech about us and I also gave a speech, also a surprise, that my great friend Pasquale translated. The mayor said really nice things about us. I thought maybe I was going to cry. At least I am pretty sure he said nice things about us. It is liking being a dog and reacting to the sound of the voice not the words. In this case I am the dog and the mayor is the human. A woman who works for the commune took care of the refreshments. She spoke and said that she was moved to tears when she came in the door and saw our beautiful work. She teared up again as she spoke. I really like it when people have such a profound reaction to my work. I had to fight back tears as well. After the talk, at about 11pm we handed out the portraits, had a champaign toast and food: three types of chips, peanuts, party mix, watermelon, cookies, all sorts of soft drinks and wine. 

When all was said and done a bunch of us went for coffee at the bar. I told Jim he should pay for everyone. He was a little worried, but then coffee or drinks for 12 people was 16E. That is about $17.00. Think what that would have cost you in America!!! And don’t expect us to offer to pay. If you come to Italy we will buy you coffee, but only if it is under one euro. We got home after 1a.m.

This morning after a very late start, but still time for first and second breakfast we took down the show and cleaned up the space. It was so successful and made us feel so welcomed in our town. In my speech I said that I am often asked why we chose Castelvecchio Subequo. People assume we had relatives from hear and are confused when they hear that we had no connection at all. I said that in the beginning we did not have a connection, but now we have family and friends. People clapped! People are also quite distressed that we are leaving. (most people are age are retired) We are too, but still it is good to leave while people are still sad to see you go. 

The first week we were here I took a photo of a poster for the days that the Temple at Castel di Ieri would be open this summer. Today, in our last week, was one of the days. I have never gotten to see the Temple except through the fence. Jim was there once seven years ago, but he thinks they have done a lot more restoration since then. I had always thought that the huge structure I could see through the fence was the temple, but no, it is the building they put up to protect the temple. I wonder if they will eventually restore the temple to its full size? so far just the floors are done, or maybe they had to build such a big covering to get the cranes under. Another mystery from the dawn of time or in this case the 1980s. The temple was built around 300b.c. I do not know which god it was built for, but I can be sure it was not Christ. The artifacts from this site are in the museum we visited in Chieti. Here we got to see a real mosaic floor, not a projected one. 

We visited Bella today and she was so sad to see us go. Here she is peaking down on us through the grape vines.