DON'T EAT THE PICTURES: je ne parle pas...

STEP ONE: graduate

STEP TWO: france

itinerary:
June-July2: Auvillar, France
July2-6: Paris
July6-13: Amsterdam

After rushing off after graduation I'm finally settled enough to being reflecting on what is quickly becoming an incredible adventure. Let me say first, that if you're reading this - I miss you. Yup, you. It's finally sunk in that everything I've been surrounded by for the last 2...or more...years, is an ocean away. It's probably going to be that way for a while. For now, this is the best way I can think of to keep you all in the loop. Ok, sap aside...This place is really amazing. Auvillar is a tiny town in the Midi-Pyrenees region of France (southwest). The only thing un-Beauty-and-the-Beast-like about it is that it overlooks two enormous nuclear cooling towers. It's ok, we have iodine pills...

I'm staying with Erik as he works as a teaching fellow with YSS@ISSA - an amazing opportunity for him (!) I, however, will be starting my fellowship research. My proposal, in short, is to follow a corresponding timeline between the history of pigments and it's relationship to the depiction of light in European painting.

The people here are really lovely. The woman who owns the hotel in town, Madame Valerie, has put me in contact with the owners of le Bleu-de-Lectoure (see below). She has also introduced me to an ink-maker, Bruno, who's holding a seminar this Saturday on how to make ink from plants, followed by a guest lecture from a research assistant at the Bleu-de-Lectoure! WHOA!

Today I'm driving up to Montauban to visit the Ingres Museum. Then Friday I meet with Bruno about the details of the seminar, which will take place in Cahors on Saturday. My big trip begins on Sunday June6(-10) when I'll be driving 5 1/2 hours across le sud de France to Russillon, a small town in the center of the Luberon Valley. I'll be staying at a gite attatched to a potery studio and using the facilities at the nearby:
www.okhra.com
Okhra is a fully operational Ochre mine. They have the ability to manipulate pigments on site, offer tours of the mine, and are letting me have access to their pigment library! I've made a book to work in while I'm there with nice Arches paper so I'm hoping to leave with some art-treats!
The following Sunday, the 12th, I'll be driving to:
www.bleu-de-lectoure.com
The last remaining place to manufacture woad blue, from flowers.

So far, any time I try to speak French I'm met with an exhausted look and something to the effect of: "In English, mademoiselle." At least our friend in the backyard looks too tired to be offended that I've affectionately name him "Homard," which means lobster.