Calling All Creatives

On last Thursday morning, I had the pleasure, and I do mean "pleasure" of sharing time and space with a young woman who I met here for the first time in 2018 during the International collective exhibition of Literary, Visual and Performing Arts, an exhibition that she puts together several times a year at the Palazzo Dei Priori in the Piazza del Comune. The exhibition showcases the work done by people from all over the globe who come to her residences in pursuit of the atmosphere  for their creative work.

Not only did I want to find out more about the residency programs for myself and for sharing with other Creatives, but I wanted to know more about Marina Merli, the hows and whys of her venture. A nicer and more refined young woman, you will never meet.

Over coffee, she explained that she and her parents are native Assisiani. She's an only child and is happily sharing her life with her retired parents now. Her education, at the University of Perugia, was in Economics with a focus on tourism. From that, she built her dream. Tourism in a very niche market. Her first venue, in 2008,was in the part of Assisi that is away from the old center, up in Mount Subasio Regional Park. There, she created a "community" known as "Arte Studio Ginestrelle", catering to groups of artists and writers. In 2012  It became difficult for the family to continue operating such a large property so she scaled it down and now runs a small private Writing and Arts Residence.  The first of the two, built in the early XIV century, t is located on the first floor of a building that is adjacent to the Church of Santa Maria delle Rose, in the most ancient part of Assisi, a few steps away from the Cathedral of Assisi, San Rufino. One can only imagine the bliss that comes from sitting down to write here, where once a Roman Temple (I century B.C.) stood. Can it be more ideal? The whole apartment is "empty" of objects. Walls are bare. Minimal furnishings, all made by Italian craftsmen, create an atmosphere that allows creatives to focus and slowly immerse into what Marina refers to as "the authentic spirit of this ancient site". 

After showing me the residence at Santa Maria della Rosa (which, by the way, is the location of the now defunct church of the same name that houses the beautiful collection of wooden Madonnas for which it has become famous, we went on to her second residence on the Via San Rufino. This one, located off the main (narrow) street, is accessed through a set of door off of a flower-lined ascending pathway. It could not be more fitting a place for artists with the shop "A.Gallo Colors" located just downstairs. "A.Gallo" is the little flagship store that sells watercolor paints that are mulled by hand, in Assisi, using a traditional recipe of raw pigments, gum arabic from the acacia senegal tree, local honey from Umbria and essential oil. The result is a highly pigmented and exceptional range of colors. Needless to say, I am the proud owner of a few already. 

When it was time to part, we promised each other that we would keep in touch and of course, I asked for more details on applying for a residency and......is there a "Friends and Family" place on the list. You know that book I might just write someday?????

Time and the Muse

 It's been a long time. A uniquely long time. I have been waiting for my Muse to show up for, well, over a year now. I have a feeling that she isn't going to. Let's just assume that she, like thousands and thousands, became a victim to Covid and either she died or she just ran out of the energy needed to get me moving, to restore my creative spirit and allow me to speak again.

Is she here now? I am figuring that she is still a "she".  If I may be so bold. I'm not going there. I just know she's a total she and will always be. But, I am not going there, remember?

We are now well into 2021. That seems more than remarkable to me and to the majority of people with whom I share my confusion. To some of us, it's scary to note that we're still thinking that it's 2019. We want to think it's 2019.  If we're over age 65, this kind of thinking is important to us. We lost a year. We can't really afford to lose time. The reality is that we don't have that much time ahead of us.

It's hard to write about anything beyond what has been the highlight of our existence since very early in 2020. For most of us, we rarely ventured beyond our front doors. We spent our days inside of a womb. The perimeters of our world shortened. We patiently waited for the back to work whistle, the signal that would tell it is was safe to come back out. Within our wombs, we created new ways to exist. New ways to communicate with others in their wombs. New things to cook, sew, knit, read, bake, grow, hear, smell, fix and view. It was new and somewhat exciting. For a while. And then, it became old, boring and very bad for us. We lost the joy of cooking. We became tired of the new paradigm. Our daily walks became boring and the routines that we had developed for what we thought would be a short haul, became drudgery as we realized that this was a longer haul than we had signed up for in the first place. There was nothing new or exciting out there to grab. 

I still find it hard to come up with new topics of conversation, in person, never mind in writing. My creative juices have not been flowing and I often wonder if I am the only one who is feeling that way. Am I alone in this void? And then I remind myself that to survive is to be creative. Pat myself on the back. So far, I have survived quite nicely. I have learned some new art-forms. The art of placing my needs in front of my wants. The art of dodging viral enemies and staying well. The art of appreciating my home, the time spent with my husband. The art of making a living space more livable. The art of accepting things the way they are and must be and accepting the me as I am and will be for however long that may be.

So, welcome back, dear Muse. Let's work together again, accepting each other for as long as that may be. We don't have time to lose and we're not going to waste too much more. 

Re-Connection

"Is it our age?"  She wrote.

Last week, I popped a quick note off to my friend Janet.  I don't use the word "friend" loosely here. Janet and I have shared the gift since our days as Brownie scouts.  Our gift has spread itself out over the span of almost seventy years.  We, and our friends Lori and Kel, have proven that one does not have to see one's friends regularly to know of their existence.  When we do get together, we know that we have been blessed many times over.  Following the exchange of emails, we decided to actually have a phone conversation.  Remember those? And so, the following morning, we did just that and we caught up on life since our last conversation.

During our phone call, we talked about re-connections that each of us has made recently.  Other friends with whom we are once again in contact after long gaps and various activities we have done, alone or with others, highlighting those done with the newly-reconnected.  We also spent a lot of time discussing books we have read, something that we hadn't done in forever.

The book discussion in itself reminded us of our bond.  We discovered that our reading choices were similar and our interests identical.  I don't know why this struck me as a revelation.  After all, aren't similar interests part of the fabric that glues friendships?  In our case, it was glorious to find the affirmation, to then follow up with sharing lists of suggestions for future reading and future discussions.

Yesterday, a group of newer "old" friends gathered.  This group of twelve first met six years ago. Our bonding material was "creativity".  Every month, we got together and presented our interpretation of a simple word.  Our first word was "sunset".  Unfortunately, due to time and other commitments, we stopped meeting and a few years passed since our first. So, it was time to re-connect and like magic,
most of the members were able to attend and over lunch we revelled in just being together and finding out what each has been doing in her life.  Naturally, we had many laughs and naturally, the consensus was that another get-together was needed some time soon.

Is it our age?  More than likely. I think of life as a gift.  One that surely keeps on giving. Maybe life is a fire, one that constantly needs fuel to stay alive.  We keep connecting and, fortunately, reconnecting as we are presented with the gift over and over again.  We watch the sparks spring out of the fire and catch them, one by one.  The kindle, long having been burned, we throw larger logs into that fire and we sure as hell can't let it die.

If you haven't re-connected with someone, it's not too late.  Don't let your fire burn out and don't forget to say thank you to your Higher Power today.

THE BEAUTIFUL WOMEN OF THE CREATIVE CHATTERS GROUP