I arrived first in Paris in early April of 2008. I will never forgot the wave that washed over me while travelling from the airport on the metro. It was a grey day and graffiti lined the train track. I had my head set on and the lyrics sang out "I have been waiting, I have been waiting for this moment all my life".
Farrera is just on the over the French boarder in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountain range. The village has 25 residents, no store, restaurant, or café and public transport only arrives once a week. To get to Farrera, I first took a five hour bus ride from Barcelona that stopped in a town called Llavorsi at the base of the mountain. I was given instruction to find a small bar and call a taxi to take me up to the art centre. A half hour later a woman and her young daughter rolled up to the bar and in a giant black SUV and asked if I was Lisa, I nodded. Then the pair proceeded to grab my bags and began ascending up the long winding road. I saw a tiny sign that simply said Farrera. The village it's self is pretty and quaint. All the houses are made of stone and it is forbidden to construct with new materials; it was like I had entered an place where time had stopped.
The landscape surrounding Farrera is very simular to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, covered with evergreens and mountain peaks. I found my time in the studio observing the landscape, to be very inspiring. Although the series of work that came from my time on the mountain, is not literal a depiction of the Spanish Pyrenees the colors, lines, and forms of the pieces were informed by this region. Before my stay at the art centre, I often used the personal symbol of a falling leaf in my paintings, after my stay I also have began regularly utilizing falling cherry blossoms in my pieces, as a symbol of inner serenity and peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment