Through The Looking Glass...

Self-portrait... Needing a break from thinking about what to paint next I pulled out a used 9 x 11 canvas board and did this self-portrait, using my fingers I applied the paint to build the structure of my face and capturing the light coming in the room from the right. In less than 2 hours I had this study in black/white, while using a little dioxazine purple and cobalt blue in the background... I think I am done with this as it was just a study, but if I think I want to refine it a "swiya" more than I will go into it in next day or so.
Working directly into the space without any prep drawings to work from is what thrills me the most... I can not control my passion enough to render a tight drawing and then transfer that to the canvas and move from there... There are time I do exactly that but during that process as I am getting ready to approach the canvas I am on edge... eager to move into the paint, applying, removing and pushing it around the rectangle in order to create order... from nothing.

In The "Bled"...

Here is the finished painting of the woman working the wool into yarn... It was a good exercise but I ran into some problems with keeping colors in the face area from getting "muddy". The lack of small brushes has made me improvise in the tight areas... but at last I will be receiving some small brushes from home and this should allow me to work those areas with a wee bit more control. I have have four more canvas for oil left to complete... which means I will fall back to watercolor. The beauty of oils for me is that I can attack the rectangle with passion and total freedom... using whatever method to apply the color that strikes me at the moment. Watercolor for me is a more controlled medium... I am lacking the discipline right now... so I need to find it again.

ET... Go Home.

ET (Early Termination)... This week I headed into Rabat to drop off a few books, but my main reason on going there was to say goodbye to my friend Adrienne, who decided to call it a career in the Peace Corps and head back to the States. Adrienne and I came into the Peace Corps together, sat next to each other for most of our CBT and traveled to Dublin back in March for St. Patrick's Day. She is one of my closest friends here and I will miss her.
Morocco can be a hard life for female volunteers, this is a muslim culture and the status of women is so different than what we have back home, but more important there is the constant harassment of women here by the men. I do not understand why this country tolerates this shameful behavior but somehow it does and in fact it is the norm. It doesnt seem to make a difference if the woman is a Moroccan or foreigner, they will get verbally and phsyically harassed... but for foreigners it seems to be never ending.
As a foreigner and a man, I do not know how my female friends put up with such bullshit day in and day out. I would have left within the first 90 days... and the Peace Corps from my point of view does very little to address these issues besides having "gatherings" on harassment... there is very little support coming from Peace Corps staff... shameful as that may sound.
So I lose another friend over here... but I have made a friend for life... God Speed and I know you are happy for the first time in months.

See you when I return.

Alone at work...

This is a work in progress... I started this painting the other day and it is coming together quickly. The subject is making "yarn" from wool... It is a tedious process and for the most part still done by hand in all areas of Morocco. She will sit there working the wool into strings of yarn in the blazing sun dress in heavy clothing. The wool will be used to create the "berber" rugs that this area is famous for.
This was one of the few painting that I actually did a "comp" drawing for mainly because there is a lot going on with her and I wanted to get it right before I put color to canvas. Because I am working in a small(ish) format and I am lacking small brushes, I create these "points" to apply the color into small area such as the faces... my latest material for this tool is the cardboard from Reese's Cups that my Mom sent me... I received Bzzzf candy last week. So I eat a Reeses Cup, and take the small square and fold it until it is ridgid and dab the paint to the canvas... the upside is i am eating lots of candy... the down side is that I am eating lots of candy!!
When I have completed this piece I will post the finished artwork.
Salam-

Purple haze...

This woman walks by the cafe outside my place everyday, she is usually dress from head to toe in either black or blue and she was blessed with cheek bones that a younger woman would kill to have. Heavyset and always walking with a purpose greeting a few friends, she goes by empty handed and returns less than an hour later with the days food in each hand. There is nothing unusally about this woman... her look and demeanor I see a 1000 times each day, she just happens pass by me a few times a week.

The painting is a study in oils and 9x11 inches, composed in purple and deep blues with her complexsion renderes in earth tones umbers, ochre and varying cadiums which I hope makes her face pop off the canvas.

Chefchaouan

Is the "Blue City" about 4 hours and a 7oDhs bus ride from Fes. The trip there is rather unspectacular but the city itself is unique and very chill. As you come into the city that sits on the side of a mountain and sprawls down into the valley it looks like any other Moroccan town and at first I was unimpressed and wondering why I had just taken a 4 hour bus ride to see it. But as you enter the medina and get your first of many offers to but kif "... good stuff man, the best man... you want" the boy asks... you begin to see the reason it is on the tourtist destination.

Finding the riad and dropping my bag off, I head out to explore, and as the sun hits the building splashed in varying shades of blue and begin to she the beauty of the city... the intense white trimmed in brillant blues grabs you at every level. As I walked around I noticed the number of tourist here more than any place I have visited outside of Kesh... the sweet aroma of the harsh is everywhere.

About a 45 minute grand taxi ride takes you out to hike to God's Bridge a nature arch 100's of feet above the river that cuts through the mountains down to the valley. The hike is a well cut trail and the sights are lovely. On the way back the river pools in spots to create swimming holes... I climb down and dangle my legs in the cool water. The taxi is waiting (cost a little more to have him wait a few hours) and back to the riad I go. I spend another day taking pictures and roaming the city and then onto the Bus back to Fes and a "knuckle" back to Sefrou... exhausted but so glad I saw this city.