The Streets of Paris..

Walking the streets of Paris if you think of  Charlie Hebdo or the Cafe shootings or train bombings,  your brain will get you feeling a bit uneasy. 

   

The unreality is: we look at the news on a small screen filled with tight images over and over and those images seem larger than life.  The reality is there are over 2.5 million people living in Paris proper and you just don't think about it until you see a Jesuie Charlie sticker or grafitti spray in one of a million places.  

Walking in Paris is much like any other European city until you turn a corner and run into something historic. The writer of Les Miserables Victor Hugo's home is around one of those corners and  if you've never seen Owen Wilson in "Midnight in Paris", it is a fantastic visual of every persons fantasy of Paris.  You do walk the streets at night on cobblestone. You're voice echos and you look into the windows of every cafe' and think you might see someone famous or from the past.

(Now I love taking photos when I travel. No longer with real cameras but only an I-phone but none the less I work pretty hard to find interesting shots and angles and form. I hope you enjoy some of the views.) If you only had four senses and sight was missing, you could walk and smell and probably figure out that you were in Paris. The amount of perfume shops, and crepe' shops and the sounds of street musicians and African street vendors every 50ft and a beggar from supposedly Syria on their knees with a cup every corner speaking bad french would let you know.  

There is this mashed potato cheese thing sold on the streets.

Oh, it's amazingly good. this guy just continually mixes it up and puts it in
"to go" containers and sells them all day long as you see people standing or sitting on a corner eating this no calorie snack. I mean this kind of reminds me of Americans stopping and buying a bag of  chips to snack on while walking but the French buy fresh, hot mashed potatoes mixed with a smooth fresh gruyere cheese.

Ok, perhaps French snobbery works in this case :)  I'm all in with swapping chips for this...

 Form this little cafe' where stopped for lunch on the Champs Elysees (in the background).  The paris marathon was going on and we viewed the runners from multiple locations that day as well as people the next day wearing large medallions around their necks with great pride. Us, we had walked at least 10 miles and i had no pity for the runners since our legs, hips and feet were in full out burn mode. Nothing a tureen of Foi Grais and a premier Cru Chablis couldn't fix in an hour. 

Now Foi Grais.. I know it's a nasty fight going on with the PETA folks.  

Me, I'm very concerned for these ducks. I think they need reparations and better health benefits.  Really?  Infact i'm feeling so bad, I'm going to crack a can tonight and make it the 1st course in my dinner plans for our house guests.  If you've never had seared Foi Grais  with a port or Sauterne' or ceviche'd (omg) , or even cold from a tureen with toast points, you must experience this if you love food.  I'm not kidding here.  It is truly the best fat in the world to taste with mild liver overtones. You can't explain it, you have to taste it and it needs to be cooked properly.  And no, I can't have you all over for dinner. :)

Now from tureen it looks much like liver pate' and yes, that i guess is really what it is except any brownsweigert from the yellow plastic tube i ever ate growing up,  tasted like roadkill compared to this..

I can't go down this food road right now or i'll have to stop writing and go eat. Wait, my bride just brought me yogurt with blueberrys, peanutbutter toast, espresso and 9 pills... so i continue...

One of my favorite things about Italy is that they only cook what is local.  If you are on the coast it's all seafood. If you are inland it's vegetables, beef, pork, lamb and chickens with no fresh fish on menus.. I kinda love that thought in a world of "Supermarkets with Everything for the rich and famous, or middle class with a desire to eat like the wealthy".  In Paris, there are outdoor markets selling fresh fish and shellfish.  This stand I walked by 5 six times in a week on the way to dinner or a train. I never was able to stop and eat there and Ohhhh, i wanted to. I' mean click on this picture (it will enlarge).  Now look to the left. Fresh Scallops in the shell. I mean, I've wanted to eat fresh scallops from the shell raw my whole life.  I thought this might be the first time, but no. arggg the museums were waiting for this newbie.

I guess If I ever get to London, I'll go to Herod's and buy "one" fresh scallop in the shell and eat it there.. yup that is a bucket lister for a foodie :)

 If you walk the Champs Elysees (a long walk), there are gardens and park like grass walking areas on the sides. Here you can stop and sit and have a bottle of wine and baguette and cheese with fruit as many do on their blankets. Yes this is very "Paris" and leads to the romantic feeling you get there. It was cold and raining much of our week but there were signs of spring and a few things blooming a few of the days we were out marathon walking.

   From the river you can cruise and see Paris in a wholly different way. An hour cruise will get you from the Eiffel Tower down past Notre Dame and back along the other side or the islands and back.  The bridge work is incredible like it is in Venice. There are still Wooden bridges in play along with some of the most ornate Eiffel style iron works I've ever seen.

There is a whole new side of Paris like the new Vegas, but I have no desire to go there.

Here where the Tour d' France ends, you are reminded you are only one place...

From outside the walk along a pool and museum.

Under the Champs Elysees looking back to old town.

Last blog will be dedicated to some of the art and buildings.. They are truly "Paris". From The King's palaces ,NotreDame and the Opera House to the 3 main museums, I'll post a host of some of my favorite picks with less talk and alot more photos... :)  

Till next time,  consider my servant Job... 

Ok, can't help myself, here's a bit of the music under the city as you rush from train to train. :)

  

What Art Is Holy... (Good Fruit / Bad Fruit)

Have I said how thankful I am for the Internet in spite of people using it for ill gain, or falling/jumping into painful addictions online.
Well, I tripped over a Russian born artist yesterday and landed on my knees with a prayer of thanksgiving. Why are we attracted to some things and not others. I'll pass on 1,000 videos of race cars and deer stands or sports bloopers but watch 10 of an artist or musician.

  Growing up, I'd visit galleries and wonder how certain looks and styles were painted. My father was an artist, but having to work on commercial art to make a living, I never was blessed to watch him create art in multiple mediums. After his death we found multiple hidden art cases destroyed with black mold that contained art from his youth he'd painted but didn't want to display to himself or us for only reasons I could guess. "it was to painful to see his passions never realized".  Here's one of my fathers pastels that was saved from circa 1950. I cut black mold off of the corner but the face was salvageable. Did your parents have passions never realized?  Do you ? 

Like many of you who loved art growing up, when cartoons were over and black and white movie hours began,  I turned to PBS on Saturday mornings to see... art?   Now unlike cooking by Julia; which taught me early that drinking wine, or brandy, Grand M. or Pernot, or or..  while cooking is not only acceptable but comical albeit dangerous for amatures. Well in art, on our 5 channels of TV,   there were just a few paint by numbers wacko painters doing velvet elvis style art with drone voices and a pallet knife. Flailing a million palate knife pine trees with a white fan brush to follow for light or the blot blot circle brushes whirling out bad Monet-ish textures.

Now my wife and I have had the privilege over the decades to spend many days walking through European galleries. I'm sure close to 10,000 paintings easily. With that said, I still have a few etched in my head to this day.  99.9 percent I could go view again and say "oh yes, I remember  that.  But without seeing it again... no memory.  Ah yes, arn't the sorting of memories what make life marvelous or misery..

There was the basement of a Catholic Church in a small town in Europe. 5 floors down in a dark and musty room with a single light bulb swinging was this painting of "the good samaritan". No cameras were allowed in this church and I can only imagine in 400years how few people have ever seen this painting. It was painted on a wall and was perhaps 7ft wide..

 I felt led: (a spiritual justification to disobey rules)  to hold my Nikon against a wooden pole on time exposure to get this photo in this dark room when the few people coming through had left the room. I've spent hours studying this painting over the years.  It's a treasure.  The 1800's U.S. western style sky with the donkey. The wealthy (righteous man) walking by without helping. Sidebar: I'm at a loss how taking photos of art to expose it to the world is bad? But that's another issue.  And so I'm back to Vladimir Volegov (who I do not know personally) and how I see his art today as so very God inspired regardless of what Vladamir believes..

Vladimir's oils have this soft innocent beauty to them.  Another example of, "regardless of your beliefs or faith, what is inside of us is what comes out of us  in our lives and art.  And our faiths can not be a blind excuse or justification for good or bad outcomes or quality in our actions and lives".  
God has instilled gifts/seeds  in every persons life that naturally produce good fruit if discovered and allowed to grow.  I believe we then take the credit for what's given supernaturally, and we then perhaps give that credit back to whatever god form we are linked to (or not).    

In my faith, i've come to realize that there are so many gifted people who live outside of my beliefs in God and His plan for mankind in redemption through a cross. How do I reconcile their gifts as holy if my faith says they are not redeemed? Can I call this art God inspired? Can I call it worshipful if the artist is not redeemed according to the thoughts of so many teachers in the history of my faith?   

Yes I can. Oh yes I can and I do and I will.  For  God's children whether redeemed by the cross or not are still His children whether they accept Him under my understanding of Him or not.  No, I am not making a judgement either way about salvation or eternity here. Only God has that job, and His living word (as I believe it) will be finalized by our own choices and actions individually.  I only hope that my life might be some example on some days of a life redeemed through the cross of Christ instead of a selfish, narcissistic aging artist.   Can Christ teachings redeem my life enough daily to make it a life that is loving enough to make another man say "I want to be like that, I want that love".  Outside of shedding that love; His love each day, I have no claim or judgement on anything or anyone except by my own life example (which is certainly fallen).  

My faith, my ashes into beauty, my paintings, songs, writings and words are my creations and like Vladimir, an expression of my giftings to the world.  And to be sure, I believe God will judge them differently than men. 

I always relate God to our earthly fathers. If you had two sons and one was a natural athlete and one was handicapped. If you went to watch both play in a football game, which one would you be rooting for more? Even though you love them the same..  Of course the one without natural abilities who is trying his best regardless of failure.  Come on, you can do it, atta boy, atta girl, I love you, you're the best. 

Friends, God is rooting for us, each broken and blessed soul. I believe the gifts He bestows on each of us are part of our journey to find Him. To come home and say thank you dad. To learn to dialogue and ask Him questions where we are capable of understanding His answers. 

And then there are those days where I stumble over a Vladimir. And his beauty and incite to have a team that films and edits his multi tool methods of painting in new media for all to see and be inspired. To inspire new young artists in this process. 

  And although I'd tell you i'm concerned about what Vladimir believes as it relates to his eternity. I'm sure he may feel the same about me and both of us about the world.  Yet I see the beauty of God in his work and art and I thank God for His gifts manifest in Vladimir. To God be the glory for the things He has done.  Some may want to judge the fruit by the type of tree, I'd prefer to judge the fruit by how it affects my 5 senses. I may see a Large Mouth Bass under lilly pads in my sleep, but I now can imagine the beauty of this Water Lilly painting as well. Always good to have options:)

Good fruit Vlad, Good fruit!  

How do you enjoy and relate and share art based upon what you've been taught? I look forward to your thoughts.

Till next time..
Craigt