Happy Halloween

Today Cleopatra helped me at the check out desk and banana man was taking out the trash at Starbucks. People close to me were wearing furry hats with ears.

Scary stuff.

S1

A message from John about peace (s1)

kids cut

S1

balloon man

Every time i look at the beautiful Prague view scape i see this balloon man floating in the sky as if he is a permanent kite .
No matter where i am in Prague in the centre i can see him floating. Its quite strange. I wonder if he ever comes down to earth or if he just stays there all the time. This picture is taken from a secret garden in the old town where there are real peacocks walking around. A little girl of about three was on her tricycle and when she saw the peacock which was bigger than her, crosssing her path she started peddling very slowly and then as she said the word ' peacock ' ( 'paf' in czech ) she slowly fell over onto her side on some soft grass and her daddy was ther to put her straight on her path again. I understand that a peacock can have such an effect.
All my love and lots of peacock luck
S3

A suny sunday autumn afternoon

have a lovely week
peace S3

The wig man

This was his home.

I drive past the bus stop on Laguna @ Hayes every day on my way to Rosie’s school, and for months he would be sitting there, relaxing on the corner bench, his arm resting on his thigh with a thinly rolled cigarette between his fingers, his black slits for eyes watching the cars go by. A shopping trolley would be standing close, parked under a tree, filled to the brim with plastic bags and colorful fabrics, a plastic flower garland draped around the side. Sometimes he made a provisionary table in the corner of the bus shelter, making the people waiting for the bus look uncomfortable, as if they were invading his space, Sometimes he would be hunched over his trolley, headless, as he rummaged deep into his grey rubbish bags.

He first caught my eye because he was sitting on the bench wearing a big red curly clown’s wig, with not a twitch of emotion in his face. Other times he wore a slightly less obvious Afro wig in black. Sometimes he would just be wearing what I think was his own, a head of limp plaits, finished with a few colored beads, framing his shriveled brown face. I would look and see the red and black wigs stuffed underneath his trolley, parked under the tree as usual.

I wondered if he would break into a big smile if spoken to. I had plans to stop and ask to take his portrait, hoping my then hairless head and purple turban would prove to be a common talking point. I planned to ask about his wigs, hoping it was a form of artistic self-expression. More likely however, I think it was a good way of keeping his head warm.

I never stopped of course, and now it's too late. Since the start of the new school year, and my daily commute down Laguna has resumed, I haven’t seen him once. I still look out for him every day, hoping the wig man will return. Or at least that he has found a better spot.


S1

Surréalisme-sur-mer

xx *S2*

blobs of light - as usual

Dear sisters
Yes, it has been too long. I am translating and singing and painting, doing all the right things, I believe, and walking in my dinky new space cadet MBT shoes which make me walk like a true homo erectus, with a straight back and a bounce in my step. It doesn't matter that they look like moonboots in shoeform.


an image unrelated to this post but as we are visual people I thought you might like some visual distraction. It is a raspberry that I ate this summer, it was very sweet. I photographed it for its remarkable colour. My painting tutor in Bath told me the secret of how to mix it on my 21st birthday so now I always remember it as my birthday colour.

I have been climbing in trees and looking into pools. I didn't fall in like Narcissus did - and besides, what I saw there through my reflection was far more interesting than the flat rippling shadowy blob that was supposed to be a picture of my face: all kinds of plants and then little red hairy things and other creatures floating in the water like there is a whole three-dimensional universe down there that we haven't yet explored. It was sunny and comfortable on the grass, so much so that I almost fell asleep.

The birds sang all around, sounding from different heights like a gracious soundscape and then I lay on my back on a bench with sharp yellow light reflecting in yellow hesitant patches off the pool onto the bark of the trees making them seem to wobble and there was the sky shining through the leaves above. Pretty. Possibly one of the most beautiful things in the whole world and it is just ten minutes away from my palace.

I shall write more and more structuredly when my projects are properly taking form, much to get initiated right now, you shall hear from me in a few weeks.
big kisses!!!!!
S2

sitting inside a Hopper painting whilst moths are in my cupboard

Two days ago i was in Vienna on a school trip for the first time.




And the day before that we were in south Moravia ( thats the east of Czech Republic ) about one and a half hours by train from Vienna , visiting a monastery and hospice for whom we will each be making a painting. It was a bit akward meeting the patients but then again it felt very normal and part of life. It was a bit sad and we werent really prepared, all of us were sitting in the corridor with a crumpled expression on our faces or running to the nearest door to get a gulp of fresh air. We have all decided to make landscapes and put them on the ceiling for the people in the comas. Even though we did ask one man what sort of painting he would like to look at and he said a painting of a naked woman. And one lady wanted to have a landscape of south Moravia with a nice frame. We will see how the ideas develope.
In any case it was a good and positive experience going there.



That's me inside a Hopper painting by the way , which is the reason why i have been absent from blogland for so long.
In Vienna we were looking at Van Gogh drawings and paintings. His drawings are absolutely beautiful ,landscapes drawn in brown ink with pencil and reed pens he made himself. My schoolmates and i were all looking at them very intensly that we somehow felt we were inside of them, travelling. It was very nice indeed. Then we went to the Edward Hopper exhibition and there were only five of his paintings there and all the rest was contemporary artists work inspired by his work. The painting i was swallowed by was an installation by Jeff Wall and we had a lot of fun posing infront of the camera.
Im now back in Prague sttling back into my little nest trying to sort out all my stuff and get rid of the moths that took a liking to my cupboard this summer. They have been very rude and eaten little holes into my nice teeshirts.
But to keep smiling and singing i hereby send you a little song that i would like to sing at my next puppetshow at christmas.
And maybe we could sing it together as a carol on christmas day. Please learn the text by heart for it to be more convincing.
Thankyou and hugs
S3

Busy

Dear sisters,

I'm sorry girls. I was forced to suspend my blogging activities to watch the financial meltdown. Besides, Barack has been sending me e-mails everyday asking for my support and in between I have been filling out my points in the Weight Watchers daily point tracker.

With only 25 days to the US election things are heating up and getting nasty. And as a legal, but non permanent resident, I can do nothing but watch and keep my fingers crossed. And that I do. After more or less 30 months in this country, I thought I was slowly starting to get my head around it. Until McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate and half the country cheered.

In theory, great that a woman is ' a heartbeat' away from the highest elected office in the world, I just would have hoped it would not be someone who may believe that the planet is four thousand years old and global warming is mostly a natural cyclical thing. Or someone who winks at me. Or even someone who could answer questions by a reporter in a coherent manner, would be a nice thought, at least showing she has thought about the arguments.

This is the Saturday night live version for you across the ocean, who may not have seen it.

When I am not watching politics, my weight, or staring at an empty page, I am photographing windscreens for my latest series called "windscreens':






or listening to Elvis:




What is your excuse? Moths in the cupboard?


With love,


S1