I can no longer add photos to this site and so I my future posts with photos will post on my art website where I have 20 gigs to work with. I will be forwarding your sign up over there and the one here will remain as well. If that arrangement is not to your liking just let me know.
There you will find photos, and this blog which will be written here but will appear on the website as well so you see both in one place. There is a comment section, which can also post to facebook. My web provider does not have a link to google plus.
Our first 6 weeks in Rome were a busy time. We had a visitor from Valencia, Enid, who is an American actually. She was here for a week. Then came a couple from the US. He and go back a long ways. And then came Cal. He was married to Peg back in the 70’s and we’ve been keeping up at least since Peg and I married in 1983. I was not until late October that I was able to devote much time to art.
I have recently moved my website to one independent of the gallery representing me, Xanadu (https://www.xanadugallery.com/home.php) This allows me much greater freedom to post my work.
Thanks in good measure to our fund raising efforts, our nephew’s Peace Corps Project has been fully funded. To those of you who donated time or money, many many thanks!
Here are a few photos of our place in Rome. The Pigneto neighborhood is a bit edgy. There are quite a few buildings needing total renovation and quite a few have been redone. The new metro line is coming to the area but still the city neglects it a bit so the streets are not being swept and there are not enough trash bins. There seems to be a mix of the very poor and the upwardly mobile (well, maybe not mobile). There is a short walk to three tram lines and several buses. To get anywhere seems to take an hour unless you are just going to Termini, the central rail station. But from there you can get most anywhere.
The house is on two levels. On the upper level is a large deck, the kitchen, bath and bedroom with the queen size bed. On the lower level is a large living room (where I paint and Peg works), a bathroom and a smaller bedroom.
There are steps everywhere. Two steps to go on the deck, two to go to the master bedroom. Downstairs you step up to go into the bathroom and down again to the sink area and down again to the toilet. To the bedroom downstairs you go down a step. There are light switches galore, confusing but there is plenty of good lighting.
The kitchen features a 5 burner stove (2 of which are not working), and a decent sized refrigerator. There is a dining table there, one on the deck and a third on the lower level. The entrance leads to a patio with a wide door as well as sliding glass doors.
It’s a super place with some strange features in an iffy area. Overall one of the best places we’ve lived in, although the internet has been a bit iffy.
As you may recall we visited Zambia and while there we visited our nephew Travis who is a Peace Corps Volunteer. One of the things they are working on is a dam and they need $3500 for concrete and things. If you have a spare $5-10 or $100, please chip in.
In addition I will donate 50% of the proceeds from the sale of paintings from my Zambia series, all of which so far have come from this village. Go to garyjkirkpatrick.com.
Project description:
“The goal of the Community Dam Project is to complete a 60 meter earthen dam by the beginning of the next rainy season. The community provides the labor necessary, working twice a week. They have already completed 20 meters and are now digging the foundation for the spillway.
The objective is to raise the water lever in order to increase the area of land able to be irrigated. After the dam is completed a total area of more than 30,000 square meters will be available for fish ponds and/or year round irrigation for agriculture. This would allow for the potential of a massive integrated agriculture and agriculture system interconnecting animal husbandry, aquaculture, and agriculture.”
A few of these are still available. Please contact me for information.
Ian Carrying Luggage
From our safari to Zambia, June 2014.
These paintings are mostly from my journal, which I did while we were there. Some of the very small ones I later did on larger paper, also in water color.
We traveled by train for 1500 kilometers from Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania to Zambia, and spent several days in a small village where our nephew works as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was an uplifting experience.
It started with an hour long walk in the dark (see the painting “Heart of Lightness”). As we approached the village we heard shouts of joy, hugs and kisses soon following. Then they sang for an hour, choral harmony in which the whole village joined. We were perfect strangers yet they welcomed us as if we were long lost relatives. We lived in a small hut and watched the people work on the dam, harvest cassava and do other chores. What loads the women can carry on their heads! We ate with them, partied with them. They are sweet and innocent, these people of Lunda land.
I hope you will enjoy my portrayal of the experience, the colors, the scenes, the sense of innocence.
Heart of Lightness We walked on the path towards the village under the glow of the yellow moon. After almost an hour we saw the glow of campfires on the hill. Soon we were welcomed with shrieks and smothered with hugs and kisses on the cheeks.
Heart of Lightness 2- we arrive to an amazing, loving reception complete with chorus! $250
The Chorus After we arrived they sang in harmony for an hour. Children in the front row would sometimes bang the rhythm on the ground. The second row was for the teens, and the adults were in the last.
The Chorus, Zambia SOLD
They sang beautifully.
Women Dance At night the young women danced around a campfire, for which they used a brazier. The wood fire cast an orange glow. My original was just 2″x 4″. The rhythms were mesmerizing. Even some of the older women (by older I mean over 25, as the life span here is just 45) joined in. I wanted to also.
Women Dance in Zambian Village, our Peace Corps visit, A3, 11.5 x 16.5″ (sold)
Women Collect Sand The Peace Corps project is a small dam for filling fish ponds. They need the protein and the income. They do not have much of either. They have goats but they do not eat them, they are for dowries, and they are lactose intolerant so nary a piece of cheese in the country. In this painting they collect sand for the dam.
Woman Collect Sand A4 sold
Walking the Bush We explored the area around the village. Here are friends walk through the bush.
What I experienced gave me a new perspective, different colors, the elongated limbs, the redness of the soil.
On August 29th we took the tram to the top near Opicina. The tram dates from circa 1900 and just resumed service a week or so ago . We walked along in the area referred to as the Carst on the path towards Sistiana, about 12 kilometers. We went about half way. Sistiana is a coastal town north of Trieste. It was a gorgeous day, as you can see from the photos. There were other hikers, joggers and you will see some people climbing the sheer cliff that rises from the path.
