Tue, 21 Sep 2004 01:55:09 -0700 (PDT)
hello everyone ,, im in southern poland about 125 km north of the check border,, the town is called wroclaw or pronounced vwatswaf, so learning polish is quite interesting,, . iam staying with my brothers wifes aunt and cousin berta and marta, marta is 22 and is showing me around town along with acting as my translater,, her mom berta is giving me a healthy dose of polish cooking,,,and have tried zurek, krupnik, placki, kanedla, ogukorva , ostapec and of course the famous smalitz , pork fat spread and other things i cant pronounce and would scare away most vegitarians,,, the other day we went to the forest mushroom picking and had potato pankakes with wild mushroom gravy,, ive never chowed so many shrooms in one sitting,, so they are taking good care of me whilst im here,, considering in scandanavia food is a luxury if your poor... well been painting in the old town here called rynek a huge gothic square,, with cathedrals on two sides and a smaller square on one side th! at houses a large flower market,, so been painting down there . untill today its been indian summer and 23 degrees, ,,,
well i had an excellent summer in scandanavia even though im told it was the rainiest in like 76 years,, i got to meet up with my old dublin flat mates sara and dave and thanks to them was housed and shown around stockholm for a couple weeks,,, and upon arriving in kobenhavn and sleeping and being homeless,, the happy accident worked out --if i didnt miss that night train to amsterdam i may have never given denmark a go ,,, but i put my things in a storage locker took my easel , paints and jacket to keep warm at night and headed out on the town,,, well 5 weeks later i had the most intense painting benge of my life, painting between 8 to sometimes 14 hours a day. i started doing night time bar scenes,, and spent alot of time painting in christiania and abandoned military base that was taken over by the homeless in 1971 and were allowed to stay,,, there! they made restaurants bars bakeries, hardware store and created thier own free city they call it,,, well this january its under threat of being shutdown by a new conservative goverment,,, well did dozens of paintings of the life and street scenes there as well as 2 4by3 foot paintings of the 2 most popular hangouts,, woodstock bar and nemoland,, mostly bought by the local hash dealers who take pride in the uniqueness of thier town,,,eventually was kicked out by the tarot reader and meet a retired polish sailor who took me in for the last few weeks in town,he lived in the house for retired sailors and thier widows we met at a party there a week earlier,,and,it gave me time to complete some commissions, including 3 more 2by3 foot paintings of the old port area of town ,they were for a company called lous poulson one of the oldest lamp makers in denmark,,, they wanted some art for the office so if you ever get to 11 nyhavn st,, or christiania you can find my work,,, well! ill probablly head south from here in search of the eternal summer,,, enjoy these last few days of sunbathing exept those of you in oz ,,, as we all drift into this autumn together ,,, and to oliver , dylan and anika welcome ,,,you are a breath of fresh air in this constant hurried society ,, i raise a glass of piwo to all of you , as my thoughts fight the gulf stream and head back over the atlantic,,heres to family and constant discovery,,, na- zdrawie,, uncle obie |
