The Great Dane.

In the context of the drawing class I’m taking, I recently came across a French-language monograph on the Danish 19th/20thcentury painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. I LOVE this guy’s work. LOVE. IT. After commiserating with one of the class instructors about the difficulty – and, more to the point, the expense – in obtaining a good book on Hammershøi’s work, the same instructor later directed my attention to information on the upcoming Hammershøi exhibit at the Royal Academy in London this summer. Oh my, how I would love to see that. Barring that, I will settle for the exhibition catalogue. Ahh.

In honor of Vilhelm’s awesomeness, I have for your viewing pleasure/amusement a little painting I did as a tribute; it's a painting of French artist Juliette Lemontey, with whom I exhibited in Grenoble last May:

à l’envers

oil on linen

10"x8"

2008

Diane Feissel

Pubs.

I continue to enjoy the saucy graffiti on the advertisements in the Paris Métro, as referenced in this post. Most of the (legible) graffiti tends to contain some sort of anti-consumerism/anti-establishment message in some fashion or another, see Exhibit A, below:This commentary, splattered over a poster announcing the opening of a new branch of the Home Depot-like “Castorama” at la Défense, roughly translates in a sarcastic tone to “Great! Another place to buy crap (consume stuff).”

This next poster, though, seemed a bit less creative in voicing his opposition to the world of commerce:

Translation: “Stop advertisements.”

It is necessary to know that...

I felt it of great importance to inform you, Dear Reader, that the '80s sitcom "Saved by the Bell" is in current rotation on French TV, dubbed for one's French listening pleasure, and it is called: "Sauvés par le Gong". Of course.

In other news, the neighborhood in which my drawing class will be held is great - and unexpectedly quite lively for a Sunday in Paris. Most businesses were open even at 2pm, though when I left the studio after 5pm, it was slightly less lively. Places such as this one had already closed:

Velib', Diane lib'.

It occurred to me at some point late in the day that I hadn't noticed a greater quantity of bicycles around, even though they've implemented that Velib' (free bike) system throughout the city... not five minutes later, of course, I nearly stumbled over a whole fleet of them right near St. Michel, et voilà:
Hopefully people actually use them...

Most of the day I did some errands and ambled about. After doing some errands at BHV Homme (sock shopping! for a certain homme back at home) I exited the store and immediately was dripped on from above by some unidentified liquid... yuck. To my relief, I realized it was just water from this weird garden-on-the-wall fixture they've rigged up on the front wall of the building housing BHV Homme, look:

Truly bizarre but decidedly cool. Even when it leaks onto your head.

In the evening I was going to go see a movie, but Saturday night = long lines. I get impatient, so I opted to do some more walking and enjoying of a lovely Paris evening. Here's a shot I took of ole Notre Dame before indulging in some Berthillon:

Et maintenant, au lit...

Reconnected.

Okay. I have managed to resolve the connectivity issues I was having at my rental apartment. Huzzah! Really, I’ve never met a technological problem I couldn’t solve by turning stuff off and then back on again. And then sleeping for 10 hours. I’m a mechanical wizard, really.

Did some errands after my arrival yesterday, which involved trekking around by Métro. I love the ongoing commentary by way of the graffiti on the ads in the subway stations. For example:

Ah, France. It’s good to be back.

Technical difficulties: please stand by.

Ok. I’m having trouble with the wifi connection at my apartment, so I will have to make these updates from a remote location temporarily.

In the meantime, here’s a message for you from the Dublin airport:

I was relieved, SO relieved, to know that I wouldn’t be dragging around any Irish cooties on the soles of my shoes. It must be said that the Paris-Beauvais airport offered no such promises, however… so for all I know, by now I could be infected with all manner of French germ.

I’m ok with this though.

Infected but still unconnected,

-d.

Jumping ahead for a second...

Okay, so I'm heading out for Paris tomorrow... but I'm still thinking about the home front. In particular, I'm thinking about this summer/fall and the places we want to check out here in North Carolina when I return - little weekend trips, etc. I'm making a list, here are the first:

1. Shackleford Banks, to see the wild horses. A co-worker told me about this place, and I thought: how cool is that? Wild horses. Definitely on the list.


2. Charlotte. I'm curious about this here city. I hear varying reports, I'd like to check it out for myself. Especially some galleries, including this one. And others.


3. Asheville. For obvious reasons: beauty, nature, culture, Blue Ridge Mountains, cool downtown. Oh yeah, and to see the Biltmore.


4. Pilot Mountain, NW of Winston-Salem, NC. I haven't been there since Easter 1989 (yikes!), so it's time to go back.


5. The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. The animals!

This is, if course, an incomplete list. More to add for sure...