A Coloring Book of Northern Spain

You may have noticed that I haven't posted recently. It is mostly because I am spending an inordinate amount of time making art. I suppose this is good, because what I mostly blog about is my creative life. On the other hand, I am finding that "making art" can become addictive to the point of not knowing why you are drawing/painting/sewing and risks becoming an itch you must scratch each day, maybe a little devoid of meaning or seriousness of intent. It's kind of like shopping when you already have a closet full of clothes. Do you really need one more of these? Will one more "creative" activity really fulfill me or be, in effect, creative in a way that helps me grow my vision or expand my talent? So I decided I should take a day off, think of something else, and continue my tour of Spain for you.

Over at Jude Hill's place, Spirit Cloth, we students are just getting settled in for her current extended session of new ways to look at creativity, design, and life, called the "What If? Diaries." We are starting our thought process with the concept of designing with all white, and the suggestion was to convert some favorite photographic images to shades of white to ponder how they may influence our first design. Part of the exercise is to consider not just the "What if I do this?" but also "What will happen if I don't do this?" As Jude's bons mots will often do, this got me thinking. What if I don't just talk about the Spain trip like a tourist, but make something of my favorite images from this segment of the journey? Will you miss the touristy photos? Will you wish I had talked about my actual itinerary. Will you be lost or stop reading. I doubt it would matter. Actually I don't really know who "you" are or what you think of my writing. Do "you" read my every episode? Wait patiently for the follow ups? Since few people ever really comment, the guiding hand here is usually what I think a person might want to know about this stuff if we were acquainted. But even more primary: what do I feel like saying about it. What do I want to share? In reality, I'm doing this for me. It's sort of my own diary, for purposes of organizing and saving the journey. I guess it's mine to decide.

Maybe if I try to please less, I will think more creatively. Trying to move away from a lifetime of crafty to something more inspired by life. I decided that an alternate means of sharing the emotions of these images would be to manipulate them just a little, to add some color or take some away. Add some light or focus on part of the image. Distort the obvious in it. I didn't do anything severe or tricky, no special filters, no layers removed or added. Simply move the sliders of the basic adjustments away from making the image as the eye had seen them to how the heart did.

So this is segment four of my trip to Spain and Portugal, from Bilbao to Fuente De, two days of drama with art and animals, along the North coast, and into the Picos de Europa.

Arachnophobes need not draw near. One only notices the bridge as a sort of spider in this cropped image. Momma, towering over baby, towering over the people below. 

Heart stopping beautiful. I almost didn't need to go inside: The Guggenheim.

Titanium, a great clean palette to paint on.

I had wanted to see this for years. How did I ever get here?

I don't usually do pretty, but...

Poetry in motion, literally.

Inside, it's like a spacecraft waiting to lift off.

Richard Serra, "The Matter of Time", an exquisite journey though walls of metal into emotion. An experience that cried out to be captured.

I did my best.

Narrow openings...

...endless paths.

Think about standing inside. How would you feel?

The entire museum, a sculpture.

And then, outside again, decompressing under the puppy's gaze.

Thinking: I'm in Spain, but what does that mean? It's a beautiful, modern country, so different than I realized. We Americans can be so out of touch.

In the medieval town of Santillana del Mar, lunch at Parador Gil Bas. Making warm memories. 

Coloring book scenes of farm country on the edge of town.

Otherworldly and yet right there.

A special treat, the town of Riano in the rain, oozing history, emoting feelings of timeless connections. A sunny day would have erased all this.

A hot, dry summer diminished the river, but added to the charm of watching a  painter working magic along the river walk.

Two more artists in the gazebo, capturing the muted colors of town in glorious rainbows.

I have lost my fear of showing myself, my emotion. I like to make self-portraits these days.

Fuente De, a place, literally, at the end of the road. The view from the room: horses, mist, a path up the mountain.

The brave among us found joy in watching the cable car's approach, knowing we were going for more than a ride up the mountain.

Dizzying heights, the hotel just a speck below.

You have to be brave; you have to experience this joy.

Absolute surprise! A view and a herd of goats and a hand washing!

They completed the view.

It was their place.

I got to rejoice for a little while in the beauty of the mountains...

in being with beautiful creatures...

...and sharing it all with the one person who really understands how much this all means to me.

We Can Dream, Can't We?

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Almost the end of the calendar year and time to make resolutions. I have finally wiped from my slate the one so many people make about body size. I took it on as the project of the year in 2012, and I am ready to move on. I have been dealing with the reality of aging this year, for myself only in minor changes and discomforts, but around me so many others in serious and final ways. It has come to me that what is most important to change in myself is the way I think about what I am doing with the precious time left. And so, the overriding resolution of 2013 will be to let go the need to please, the need to prove myself. Be pleasing, that's fine; improve myself, of course. But stop caring about measuring up. Just do and enjoy. Be there for others when I can, share and listen, but most of all be kind to myself. It won't be easy. It's an old habit, but I intend to break it down.

In the spirit of getting on with it, I have decided to give you more photos and less talk this installment. So on an "almost wordless" Sunday (as I note many bloggers like to label their quiet days) here is the third installment of my Spanish odyssey. It takes place on the Atlantic coast (with a brief visit to Pamplona), at the resort town of San Sebastian (also know as Donostia), in Basque country. A Spanish place, yet, with its own language, style and traditions. We spent two days in the luxuriantly appointed hotel to the stars, Maria Cristina, and just wandered the town, felt the heat of summer, touched upon the ancient history and culture, but only just enough, and basically enjoyed our time as we would on a "relax-cation" instead of a tour.

First a sneak peek at where we enjoyed the elegant life.

Dream accomodations

Just a corner of the massive twinkly bath

Urumea River leads to the Atlantic

Am I Really Here?

Our lovely new friends

Still life with red wine

Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice (would fit in this one)

But first, along the way from the Pyrenees, we stop for a "tourist" lunch and a tour of old town Pamplona/Iruna.

A beautiful town under the most blue of skies

Tapas and beer outside

Golden inside Cafe Iruna

Playing tourist with "Papa"

Street art 

At the gates of the bullring

Tradition in Pamplona/Iruna

On our full day in San Sebastian we tour the old town on foot.

Following the "Whisper", then off to see a town full of  color, activity, fun and surprises

We chance upon a race

The inner harbor

Tournament in the park

Glorious Gazebo

I'll take the tall one

Traditional Basque entertainment on a Saturday morning in the government plaza. The treat of many civil and church weddings to behold.

Evidence of a violent coup

Click clack, splish splash

Touring the streets of endless tapas (pintxos) restaurants

This interesting historic architectural style is echoed in the building of the new arts center across the river from the hotel

Those fake bullet marks are a modern remembrance of the revolution

We walked far and wide but we didn't climb

The water was captivating

I played my star turn

David posed too

Like a jar full of jelly beans

A town so full of life and motion

...and real life

...and modest beauty

Part of the ancient town wall 

Finally getting up the nerve to order pinxos and beer. Pretty yum.

So pretty, so fresh, so endless

Modern design in an ancient town

Setting up for an all night party (right across the river from our hotel!)

Must have had a reason, right?

The same Atlantic I grew up on, but from the opposite shore.

Elevator elegance

Coffee hour in the most elegant bar I've ever had the
pleasure to spend an hour. (Note the same crest on the coffee cup.)

Dinner for two at eight in a "booked" restaurant.
 (Booked for ten o'clock, that is!)

End of a magical visit. We'll be back if we can.