Sunday, May 30, 2010

Basque in the Knowledge

MedCityJournal

My grand-daughter has been researching our family roots. Nearly every day we talk about the towns and villages in Italy and France where my grandparents' lives began.

My Dad's family came to the states from Palermo, Sicily. After talking and thinking about life there for hours, I noticed images like the one above appearing in my Art Journal as I sat on the sofa doodling.
I was thinking of the Sicilian architecture as it seemed to teeter on the edge of the Mediterranean.

Although I lived in Germany back in the early 1970s and traveled to Italy, I was never fortunate enough to make it to Sicily - but in my mind the doodle I drew feels 'familiar'.

Forty years ago on my parents 31st wedding anniversary I set out to find a painting as a gift for them. The year was 1969 and my favorite art store was Aaron Brothers. I walked in and within five minutes I was drawn to the painting below. I had to buy it. There was never a thought of looking further...it just felt 'familiar'....

Basquecountry

...Flash forward to 2010...I now know something I did not know then back in '69.
My maternal grandmother was born in a small Basque, sheepherding village in France, on the border of Spain, called Urepel.

My grand-daughter found this photograph of Urepel on Flickr...

Do you see why it felt so 'familiar' to me?

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Background Check

Checking in with more backgrounds in my visual journal...

EvryThingMatters-01

EvryTown-02

Evrytown-03

Evrytown-04

EvryDetail-05

evrything-07

evry-08

evry-09