| Covered Market, San Sebastian,
'94
Sponsored by Ken Gerak of Del Mar, California
From the Southern Europe series.
Valerie went with me on this trip, the first of her 21 worldwide trips she
would eventually accompany me on. And it was because of days like this
one, where we woke to the sound of a cold, windy winter downpour day
outside, that she would eventually come to call our travels 'boot camp',
and quit accompanying me altogether!
We were still drying out from the same conditions from the day before, and
when she awoke she asked "do we really have to go out in that today?" "Of
course", I'd reply as the wind howled and the freezing air would somehow
find it's way into our room and almost under the blankets, "I used to go
out in weather like this when I made art for you when YOU were a sponsor".
And that I did, she sponsored six trips before we married.
And I don't blame her, that's what it is, a kind of boot camp, but I love
it. Rain or shine, all day long, from the time I get up, to the time I go
to bed, my eye get to search for that perfect scene, where I'll try and
make a great composition, with strong light, line and forms perfectly
balanced, in places that I'd never seen before.
I can think of two other times in the future where the cold wind got to us
even worse, or there be no heating and be below freezing- miserable
conditions to try and sleep. One in high Atlas mountains of Morocco, where
the wind howled in through the large gaps around the window frame, which
stuffing the towels in did not seem to stop, forcing me to go and complain
until they gave us a space heater to balance out the temperature! And one
in the north of Italy, in the Dolomites (later on this trip actually),
where we left a bare bulb in the ceiling on to try and squeeze out a bit
of heat, as it was not 'high season' for skiing yet and the heating had
not been turned on. The found out the proprietor had left the hotel and no
one was around to give us extra blankets, so we put extra clothes on to
help too. Oh well. Reminded us of the hotel conditions in 'The Shining'.
Part of the problem stems from me going late fall/early winter, or late
winter, early spring, for the better light and lower prices, as they drop
to 'affordable' for semi-starving artists then. Thus the weather is not
perfect for 'tourists', which we are not- we are worker bees.
This one I found right off the bat that morning; we had just left our
hotel room and were enjoying our daily cappuccino and chocolate croissant
breakfast, yum. We'd just sat down, after finding a dry bench under the
leaky tarp at a 'covered market' where the rain would not drip on you,
when I spied this scene and captured it. TUL.
MS
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