Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Workings & Wanderings

Gjirokastra, Albania

I recently returned from two months away, traveling and participating in my second little three week print residency at the Frans Masereel Centre in Belgium. This time I took my friend Katie Dutton with me, and before going to Belgium we took a small detour through some of the Western Balkans. We had an amazing time trekking from Northern Greece through Albania's Ionian Coast and ancient museum towns and on up to the luxurious Adriatic Coast of Montenegro and Croatia, with a small detour into Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were not a little inspired by the dramatic mountain ranges, citadel topped museum towns, medieval walled towns, Ottoman architecture, and abundant and varied vegetation.

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Katie in Split, Croatia

Berat, Albania

At the residency we were hard at work but had a chance to explore the surrounding countryside on our bicycles with it's intensity of Belgian cuteness: pregnant horses, farmers fields full of baby deer, unrivaled topiary on every property, and ever-dignified architecture. Afterward I spent some more time in some of Belgium's beautiful towns, indulging in some Flemish primitive artwork, and lace and folk museums. Before flying home I spent a few days in Berlin, reassessing my skewed opinion of it from my only brief visit during the great Berlin heat wave of 2000.

Katie and the horse.

Here are a few of the nice and talented people I met during the two months, either at the residency or on the road (not a lot of the artists at the residency had websites unfortunately):

Lena Inken Schaefer
(Berlin)
Ivars Krutainis (From Latvia lives in London)
Rosa Linke (Germany)
Catriona Leahy (Ireland)


Beside the Slow Oak.








1 comment:

Anonymous said...

oh wow Amber! what great places you have been to! I hope you go to many more. great work :)

-Holly