Artists ...

Artists are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime....
Every day, artists face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get real jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again.
Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every role, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg.
Why? Because artists are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Artists are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another's heart.
In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.
David Ackert


Somehow ... it was all this and more

Somehow, without intention... without preparing for it all, I have been busy.

Monday, I interviewed the lovely singer/musician/yoga teacher, Luc Acke.  Friday night, I had the pleasure of attending his sneak preview concert, the one where he and Spring Groove performed tracks from the album they're making together ... HOME.

I was interviewed by a student of journalism on Wednesday.

Wandered city streets for the photography workshop on Friday.

All the while, preparing for a massive dinner party/party on Saturday.  Erik Rasmussen was in town and it seemed like a good idea to catch up with him, Paola and Simon, Cloe and Brian, pre-party.  And so we did dinner.

There was this really fast  turn-around, and we were ready as everyone started arriving for the party at 8pm.  It was a good party.  10 nationalities, excellent people, intense conversations, and much laughter too.

My carriage turned back into a pumpkin around midnight and voila, I fell into this horrible cold that's going around.  I've spent the last two days dozing and napping, only venturing out into that 'other world' called Facebook, when the notion of slowing down and stopping has become too much for me.

But this week has to be quieter, even I know that ... although the headache has gone, the cold remains.  I might just chill out a few days more and make sure it goes.  I  play Missy Higgins and listen to the sea in her track, sure it has some kind of medicinal property.  I wash dishes and do laundry quietly and slowly.  It's okay.

Gert meanwhile, has been caught up in preparation for Belgium's local-body elections.  Last night, the country watched as the Flemish Nationalists stormed to victory in Flanders, and so I'm curious. 

Back in New Zealand in 2000/2001/2002 ... what was I studying

The European Union, of course ... via political anthropology classes with the author of this book, Douglas R Holmes.  He was fascinating and we were lucky to have him for more than one paper down there at the bottom of the world.

So you can imagine, perhaps, I'm bemused to find myself in the centre of this nationalist victory here in Flanders.  Other countries in Europe will surely be watching to see how it all plays out as Belgium begins to walk towards their national elections in two years ... with a nationalist government in power in the Flemish half of the country.

I shall observe with interest.  But anyway, meet Luc and Spring, taken during their Friday performance ...

Autumn Garden ...

Gert has begun preparing the garden for winter and I couldn't resist photographing the colour of the decaying rhubarb leaves yesterday.

The red raspberries are almost finished.  The parsnips are almost ready.  He harvested a huge load of silverbeet (Swiss Chard/Bietole) and we froze some.  Then he cut back the Thyme and the Rosemary too.

We had a wet warm Spring and then there was enough rain in the summer for the garden to grow madly well.  This morning I was on the school run and as we left the house at 7.30am, the air was Crisp ... with a capital C.  We're losing the light now ... the door to the garden stays shut while we eat breakfast, and the big metal shutter isn't opened until after 8am.

I'll miss Summer ... well, until I reach New Zealand anyway. 

Going Home ... and Missy Higgins.

I found the music of Missy Higgins today, just after finding an old favourite of mine ... Paul Kelly's song, Midnight Rain, via youtube.  I've been searching for it online for years.

He sang with Missy and, curious, I went wandering through her world and found Everyone's Waiting ...see the clip below.

And I watched it and remembered swimming in New Zealand's oceans.  I remembered how good it felt to walk my dogs on the beaches.  I remembered startling one of my favourite dogs out on Long Beach, in Dunedin, when I ran into the surf with her ... fully clothed, one day when I just needed to swim.

Then I hit replay and listened while I wrote to a friend.  Not seeing the flim clip, I heard the familar roar of the surf, the crackle and slosh of the sea ... and something clicked, in my soul perhaps.

And I cracked open a spare moleskin notebook I had here. 

I wrote New Zealand there on its front page, and started a list.

- find a copy of the movie 'In My Father's Den'.

- swim in the sea

- stand and walk in the surf, (photograph that to bring back to Europe when I leave).

And finally, so long after booking the tickets, I let my mind sift through the possibilities ... sunrises with coffee, outside, someplace beautiful.

Seeing my nieces, the Georgia and Katie creatures, who were 8 years younger when I left and now, well ... they're both teenagers. 

And my much-loved favourite sister, Sandra, and my dad ... and one of my brothers, Steve, will be over from Australia.

There might be sunsets and wine, and long conversations ... with friends, like Dave and Jude, Christine and Peter, Fiona and Barry and others ...  but I talk of them here.

Anyway, I'll be letting this song of Missy's take me home in the meanwhile ... and maybe I'll play up loud as we wander New Zealand ... letting Home sink back into my bones and fill me again.

Fans of Flanders ... an interview with 3 New Zealanders in Belgium

Last week was an action-packed rather stress-filled week.

I did a lot, learned a lot, worried a lot.

Monday 24 September and there was a lovely film crew here at the house.  They titled the interview

Life's a Beach!

We had so much fun but I think that comes through.

We were so delighted by Lies editing too.  I imagine many will get a sense of what else might have been said during the hours of filming and conversation that went into this piece.

Thursday there was a corporate photography shoot that became huge.

Then yesterday ... Wednesday 3rd October, there was the launch of CameraJourneys.net.

In-between, a million other things too. 

There was the launch of Benny van Loon's Retro Food project. 

On Sunday, Gert's parents came over for a pavlova and coffee and conversation about Istanbul.  His mum is wandering there now ...

My Nespresso machine was finally sent off for repairs today.  The house is clean. The last of the rhubarb was picked and the plants have been 'tucked up' ready for winter.

The temperature dropped to 10 celsius in the rain today.  I froze.  Quite unprepared for it all.

Maybe that's all ... it's been a mad-busy couple of weeks though, mad-busy.

About a dog I loved ...

I left her behind when I left New Zealand 10 years ago.

She had a really good home, the 'mum' of her doggy mum.

Diana thought she might survive until I returned in December but Ellie-dog died last night ...

The Story of Being Interviewed for TV ...

This wasn't the first time, I've been interviewed for television before ...

I'm not sure if you read through the various blog pages I have on this website but I wrote the story of my recent interview experience over on my Antwerp blog page so ... just in case you missed it, it's there and not here, where I had originally intended to tell the story.

Travel Ephiphany, Frances Mayes

One of those flash ephiphanies of travel, the realisation that worlds you'd love vibrantly exist outside your ignorance of them.  The vitality of many lives you know nothing about.  The breeze lifting a blue curtain in a doorway billows just the same whether you are lucky enough to observe it or not. 

Travel gives such jolts.

Frances Mayes, from A Year in the World.

Dorianne Laux, Antilamentation

Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don’t bother remembering any of it.
Let’s stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.

Dorianne Laux, an extract from her poem, Antilamentation .

It has been a truly insane week ... involving 5 intense hours with a camera crew filming me, a corporate photo-shoot and life.

Blog post to follow soon.


A new portrait series ...

Yesterday I spent some hours over at the Radiant Light Yoga Studio here in Antwerp.  These last few weeks have seen me working on a new project that involves creating a series of yoga portraits.  It's probably clear in the portrait below but I am absolutely loving this attempt of capturing the truly lovely yoga folk I find there.

Today was the day when I could no longer resist dipping my toes in the 'water' of this discipline that was causing me to relax even while I was photographing the classes.  Today I attended my first yoga class. 

My body has suffered quite some damage over the years and I was slightly concerned about how it would go, this desire to make the stiff and unbendy bits of me supple again.

I loved it and I can barely wait to return although the next few days are busy and I'll have to be patient ... so patient.

Huge thanks go to Yogalates Instructor, Lama (pictured below), for being so patient with me as she worked her way through a series of moves from her yoga practice and for permission to post her image here.

Happiness is ...

I suspect happy is a feeling that sneaks up on you just as you notice it's missing ... sometimes anyway.

It's been a rough ride of late, with much to be learnt, but good things keep happening.

And I've been invited into the world of Fans of Flanders.  Lots of nice things happening there ... although let's see if I'm still saying that after the interview is filmed.  But seriously, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also writing a weekly blogpost over on their website.

The trip home is coming closely ... slowly.

I've been offered a couple of very interesting photography projects too.

My life is a little bit up and down and all over the place but that's normal, isn't it?

So yes, happiness is all kinds of everything perhaps.

Beach Huts ...

The beach huts, they intrigue, horrify, and amuse me ...

For me, a child of New Zealand, the beach is about Nature, with a capital N.  It's not about about shelter and masses of 'stuff'.  It's not about windbreaks, umbrellas, or cafes. 

But there I was, down on the beach in Holland today, delighted by the light and the colour, horrified by the 'civilised' nature of the beach ... but. at the same time, enjoying a glass of red wine or two at those cafes located every few hundred metres along the sand.

There was live music too ...

The Bird, Zeeland

You can’t give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree.
Then a taller tree. Then the sky.
That’s how you’ll end up … If you let yourself love a wild thing.
You’ll end up looking at the sky.
Truman Capote.

We were over in Holland today, in Zeeland, on a couple of their emptier beaches.

I love photographing birds in flight.  And so I did.

Interview by Di Mackey, Film by Hanna Kuikka - Wendy Leach, Artist

Hanna and I explored the possibility of merging our interest in people with my passion for interviews and photography and her talent for film back in July.

New Zealand artist, Wendy Leach kindly agreed to be the subject of our first combined effort and while you don't hear or see me, that's me doing the interview.

Following is the 7 minute interview we created.

Interview with artist Wendy Leach from Wendy Leach on Vimeo.

And the full 16 minute interview can be viewed below ...

Full interview with artist Wendy Leach from Wendy Leach on Vimeo.

 

 

More That Makes Me Happy...

Kathleen put out the challenge and here I am, still blogging those things that make me happy ...

This is our dining room/lounge area - taken a few moments ago.  There's a lot of happy here.

I love the colours Gert painted it, partially inspired by Monet's kitchen in France.  We loved the yellow there.  Then you can see Amedeo's painting resting between my two photographs taken in Istanbul.  I adore that painting because it was gift from Amedeo, because he's hugely talented and because he painted me a photography shop there in the city of Genova.

Most of the furniture you see in the photograph is secondhand.  Gert and I are divorce orphans.  Our divorces pretty much took everything we had accrued over our 12 and 14 years of marriage and voila, later, when we met each other, we had to begin again.   

Children, stay married, or get pre-nups because divorce can be a vicious beast if you end up on the wrong side.

Anyway, I love the oak table pictured, found for 70 euro at our favourite secondhand shop here in the city.  I introduced Gert to secondhand treasures and he quickly succumbed to its curious charm.  The chairs were 65 euro for the lot and the red couch in the background ... it was something very reasonable that I fell for too, writes this woman who is easily made happy with treasure found secondhand.

Oh! And, there on the big wooden cabinet, are flowers by Dieter.  We really like Dieter because he's a lovely man and makes the best flowers arrangements.  I changed this one a little because I was rushing but, truly, his arrangements are beautiful artworks.

 

Something else that makes me happy ...

Whenever I leave Genova, I go through a withdrawal as I leave the source of some truly superb coffee, found at Caffè degli Specchi.

I know there's a shift to make ... from the sublime back to the-best-I-can-find-here.

This was my answer to the spotty quality of coffee found outside of Genova.  A small machine, the most I could afford and yes, it makes me happy.

The small cup is just the perfect size.  An exquisite gift from the mother of my first husband, given to me when she came over and spent a couple of weeks with us last summer.  Thank you, Valda :-)