People who know my quirks (if you're reading this, you're one of them) can easily answer these two questions: -- (1) If I see an unknown seedling shooting up unexpectedly in a garden bed, will I let it grow and cheer it on? (2) If my curiosity is piqued by anything at all, will I spend way too long in on-line research – and if it's a geographic place, will I hop on the Google Streetview bike and drive as far as the road will take me? That's three questions, really, and the answer is "Yes" to all of them.
So it's not surprising that the volunteer squash shown above is rampaging among my marigolds. And it's not surprising that my artist friend Y's relocation late last year to Budapest has opened up whole new vistas where I can squander – oh, I mean COMMIT -- many hours in research.
Before Y's move, my associations with Hungary had been – oh, let's see -- Hungarian goulash; Gypsy violinists; little-remembered history of this region going back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire; and the 1956 Uprising. Ah, but there is so much more – as I've seen through her eyes in her wonderful photographs and as she's shared in accounts from her own rich and cultured European perspective.
Should we start with magic castles? (the next two photos are from tourist websites)
And then there are so many ordinary/extraordinary Streetviews where gorgeously detailed old buildings (many in bad shape, she tells me) rub elbows with modern glass and steel. It's easy to see why Budapest is sometimes acclaimed as "the Paris of Central Europe."
Y has a long personal history as a worldwide trekker, but even she has been slowed by first, the pandemic, and now the intense summer heat. I don't think she has yet ventured to the other side of the river (the Danube! – can you imagine living nearby?!). When she does, there's a surprise waiting for her. And nobody knows his name….!!!
I found him in my early internet meanderings – I think because I'd confused "her" castle near her home with the fairytale castle in the photo above. He is literally "Anonymus" – the unnamed scribe and notary of a late 12th-early 13th century Hungarian king. For more about this 1903 sculpture – and the modern-day ritual involving the pen in the scribe's hand – read here
You can tell that I'm smitten – and I was so excited that I would be able to introduce him to Y. Are you ready? I rubbed my own drawing tools for good luck.
I did a number of small studies, refining placement and colours.
I'd had the feeling that it would be very tricky to scale up the two figures – to go from small sketches to an 18x24" canvas – so I resorted to a technique I like to think I invented – paper cutouts as guidelines.
Here we go – the first layout on canvas, and the first colour applications.
I began to feel that the trickiest thing of all was the hood – and so, for temporary guidance, I firmed it up with dark outlines…….which made this figure look really weird.
Their actual encounter is – and someday will be, I hope – less weird. In my imagined version, Y is sizing up whether or not she'll take a photo – although her art photography tends away from the touristy to her unique sightings of patterns in and on natural objects, or almost unbelievable colour\texture pairings on weathered buildings… the kinds of things that can't be categorized.
Here they are, at first encounter – "Strangers in a Strange Land" (copyright 2021)
There might even be background music – as in this on-the-spot video, with street performer and a view of the castle, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85UMEFAK9Q0
Strange instrument, you say? I can barely believe that I tracked it down on the internet -- it's called a "Hang" and is said to have been invented in Switzerland. Y can check me out on that one, too. But wait: It just might be a Gubal?
Meanwhile, closer to home, there are other astonishments – last week's front lawn art exhibit by a favourite local artist Matteo, whose name is known and who crafted the posters with his own magic pen (very lightly because he had pre-exhibit butterflies).
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