Dear Art Lover,
Today is an anniversary of sorts for
me. It was one year ago today that a
friend of mine introduced me to the man who would become my landlord. He then showed my friends and me the house
that would become my home and studio in the hills of Tuscany.
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| 2015 April 29 - future art studio - Tuscany, Italy |
You may see here that my main studio was
not a finished space. There were many
problems with the house when I saw her one year ago. It was mostly empty and the upstairs (which
had never been used) had only new bare walls from an extension that my landlord
did after he inherited half of his grandfather’s home. [The other half was given to his aunt and
uncle, who . . . naturally . . . live next door to me now.] The woman who lived here before me made a
complete disaster of the home, leaving animals locked inside while she moved
out to a new love, I understand. The
kitchen had been completely gutted when I saw the home. Parts of the house reeked of cat urine. I was not so sure that would be salvageable.
He had not been ready to show the house,
but because I was looking and we had mutual friends, I saw this house along
with many others around Italy. But I had
not made any decisions. He told me that
by my return in October, the house would be ready for me to see it again. I then went to the USA for four months last
summer. I looked around the States, as well, in every place that I visited, desperate
to find a place to call home and stop the loss of time from constantly having
to move.
While I was still in the US last September,
I was told that I needed to get my stuff out of storage in Italy immediately. I
was desperate to find a home and not have to move my things twice. I wanted to
see if this place had improved. Over the
summer, the long searching had tired me and I decided that I would take one of
the two homes that I saw in this village.
I had decided that this one would be the best for me as far as access
[for stone carving] and my friends being neighbors. However, my landlord had had a terrible
summer caretaking for his wife until she passed, just about two weeks before I
returned to Italy. My friend was afraid
to even ask him about showing the house.
And, naturally, not much in the house had changed in those four months.
In the end, this dear man not only let me
sign the contract, but he gave me a place to store my things across the
mountain while he continued working on the house. He found me a driver with a van that I hired
to move everything. For two months, I
stayed living out of a suitcase in temporary quarters in Firenze. I was waiting for a student who later cancelled
the trip to Tuscany due to a serious injury. On December 3rd, I moved
into the house next door until my house was livable. This was wonderful. I was amongst the trees and each day, I got
to see what the workers were doing and even helped my landlord with various
tasks and decisions. It was a fun way to
get to know someone and I began to be happy again.
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| 2015 October 12 - for the love of Nature - view of studio |
I could see that he was getting tired and
I felt that the approaching holidays were depressing him. He just said that it was best that he keep
busy. So, we did. I moved in after my Christmas guest returned
to her home in Firenze. So, here is an
image of my main studio room on 29 December 2015. My neighbors and my landlord gradually helped
me to move my things from across the hill, even before I moved to the real
house. Each day, my future brightened
and my heart soared.
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| 2015 December 29 - moving into new studio - Tuscany |
Just before Valentine’s Day, I had my
first official and overnight house guest, a dear friend from Serbia. It was cold and rainy most of the visit, but
hey, I have a fireplace now, and so we snuggled up in front of a roaring fire,
playing music videos on my laptop, dancing, singing along, drinking wine and
together making quite a good meal. And the chocolate… with rum inside!
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| 2016 February 12 - Enjoying a fire with a friend - new home! |
However, I still had no heating upstairs
and told my landlord that I thought it might be more economical to buy a stove
in the springtime. I was fine living on the bottom floor this first
winter. Italy often teaches foreigners a
new sort of patience, but also, what sort of person would ask a grieving and
hard-working man to add to the list of all he had done for me to also climb up
high to cut a hole in a ceiling or a wall and all that? In the middle of winter? It could wait. It has waited.
However, the temperatures are
warming. I have not used my upstairs
studio room much yet since I am working on a mural and a sculpture commission now,
had been to Firenze to teach that healed-up student for a month, and am still recuperating
from two [same] knee injuries already this year (stupidity and a lack of grace
are not good bedfellows). And my sweet
landlord and I still have a few things we want to do for the studio [going
vertical!]. I hope my long-winded story
did not bore you, but seriously, every single day I feel grateful.
And a nice “Pay It Forward” thing is that
I get to spend my house anniversary today helping my foreign neighbors apply
for their residency. What a process life is!
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| 2015 April 28 - Art Studio with pond diagram on floor - sculpture commission |
Peace,
Kelly
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| 2015 April 28 - WIPs [works-in-progress] on the easels in new studio |
