Orsoni Days 7 & 8

Note to all: NEVER think that you'll be able to lose ANY weight when you're in Italy. Even if you are living like a student. A diet of high carbs and sugar just doesn't do it in the weigh-less world. (Micky will understand this)
Note to self: Do NOT go for a cholesterol test for at least 6 weeks after getting home. (be quiet Vic, if you reading this.)

There's a reason why the 'Eat' part of Elizibeth Gilbert's book 'Eat, Pray, Love.' took part in Italy.

I swear I only entered the baker this evening to buy a little bread for my lunch tomorrow so I don't have to go out. But! Big mistake!

I managed to avoid the unbelievably scrumptious fretelles with cream and zablione (an almost unbearably rich creamy/custardy kind of stuff which I believe is also full of some exotic liquour). But unfortunately I fell over at the small crumbly biscuit looking things whose name I didn''t catch, but were comsumed by me, in their entirety tonight. The entire bag tonight! Along with the two small vegetable pies. I thought I should at least take something with vegetables tonight. Pity about the rich buttery pastry around them. Ah well. At least I do have a bit of bread over for my lunch tomorrow.

Sunday was really just work work work.

We managed to find an excellent radio station on the hi-fi in the studio. So we have non stop rock, ranging from the 60's till present time. Radio Captitol. (please say that with an Italian accent when you read it) Brilliant. Even the adverts sound sexy. And of course I've no idea what they're about which also helps. Hopefully I'll pick up a bit of the language this way. I've already worked out that voo voo voo, must stand for, www when a url is given out. And cinqo cinqo kwacinqo (sp) means hundreds and hundreds and hundreds.
Other than that I'm really all about hello, goodbye and thank you. That's about it.

So we all sit and work for hours on our pieces, with very little talk, but lots of good good music. I'm amazed at how many songs I recognise, and can name the artists. If I'm annoying anyone by blurting out this information everytime a song comes on, well, they're all too polite to mention it. I on the other hand, must come across as something of a savage. Coming from Africa and all. I tend to speak my mind, ask for what I need, and state what I don't need. Nancy, I think, finds me a little 'out there'. She seemed particularly perturbed when I reached out and petted one of the fur coats on the water taxi the other day. In my mind, I can't imagine that someone would wear a coat like that and not expect to be stroked.
It was nice and soft, by the way.

The Maestro visited us this morning.
I must say again, he has the most splendid presence. I love him. His suit. His stature. His stance
He holds himself like an aristocrat. And his voice! He's spoken English to us before, but today as he purveyed our work in the studio, he spoke only Italian.Mirta translated. I found it even more fantastic than when he spoke English.

If all the arts have Celestial Beings that look after them, then the Guardian Angel of Mosaic Art, when it speaks to us mere mortals here on earth, sounds just like our Maestro. Deep, knowledgable, honest, profound, inspiring, astute, uplifting, and Italian.

I watched him carefully as he looked. My mosaic was on the easel and he stood in front of it for about 4 or 5 minutes just looking. I watched his eyes. His gaze first went deeply inside himself, and then he slowly shifted his focus and gazed. Eyes only slightly open, I had no doubt his perceptive field was wider than I could even imagine. It really was extraordinary.

I know he took in everything. Information about what he was looking at that went way beyond just looking.

And then he spoke. He drew my attention to a particular place in my mosaic and spoke about the blue moving downward too heavily. He said to take out just 2 or 3 pieces to break that downward pressure. Unbelievable. As soon as he'd told me, I knew Exactly exactly what he meant. And it's so true. And I didn't see it before. But now it's so obvious.

Brilliant!!
This is why I'm here.

Antonelle's direction is also fantastic. She's able to see into the detail and understand what's not working, and to advise how to change it.

It was a slow day for me today. I had a headache, and though I knew it was a critical day in terms of getting to a certain point with the Horse Head Nebula, I just couldn't do more than go slowly.

After the ladies left at 5.30 I had a second wind, and from then until 11.30 tonight, I got more done than I'd even planned.
I'll hopefully finish off tomorrow, and be able to make some head way on my next piece.

Hold thumbs. Not mine though please. They're tired and full of little cuts. Must rest them.

Goodnight.