Dream Ask Believe Receive - Discovering Estonia.

Oh how can it be six months since I spoke to y'all ?

Mil disculpas.

A million apologies.

After considerable dreaming researching asking and believing the summer would  be creative and  fabulous, I left Spain for Lithuania and Estonia on July 6th.  I had a half made plan. There were many loose ends. 

But, I was truly ready to receive, and I did, far more than I could ever have imagined.

 Of course there were many, many, many surprises.

Christmas is now just six weeks away. 2020 is nearly here.  

Madre mia ! 

How did four months pass so quickly?

The old and new in Vilnius Lithuania.

Lots of delicious food including burckwheat  quinoa and beetroot.

Lots of fabulous bread.

The most delicious rye bread ever.

These summer months  have been all about up- rooting, re routing and reinventing my inner artist, and other bits of me too it seems. I didn't ask for this, but it happened.

By the end of August I'd decided I was a visual story teller.  No longer an artist who has solo or group exhibitions .  

The viewer is invited to find their own story in whatever they see in my art - in the colors - the figures - the symbols - in the story behind the story

  

This summer's colors were all about copper, burnt sienna, gold, black and a little turquoise. About spray paint. Paper cutting. Lino printing ( not too successful but exciting), and drawing with a white acrylic pen.

So, just as my Jewish ancestors had traveled for generations, I ventured out into the unknown, hoping to find something I couldn't quite name.  

A  house near Kaunas

A village house in Jonova, a one time a thriving Jewish community.

I forget where this was !

The summer started with losing my iPad in Malaga airport.  As a result, I met three (human) angels. One German, one Lithuanian, one Moroccan.

Daily adventures followed, many involved getting lost and making new friends.

  

The sun shone.  It rained frequently. I ate lots of nuts, loved the beetroot soup, and cooked buckwheat porridge like a local.

When I arrived at Malaga airport, I wanted to get right back on the next plane to Tallinn. The urge was huge! But my friend was waiting for me, so I didn't.

Who knows what I'd be writing tonight if I had?  Probably something about the lovely man I wanted to go back to hug. 

Actually there were two lovely men.  How could I forget ?

 Next summer. The whispering voice is loud. Go back next summer.  Just do it it , we'll work out the details. 

The details certainly took their own time and course to unfold this summer.  

Every door that wouldn't open led to something infinitely more interesting than anything I could ever have imagined.

I love sharing my life and art with y'all.  Thank you Ana in the US and everybody else for checking in. I'd love if you'd leave a comment and say where you live.

So, the update.

From May to September, Estonia dominated my thoughts.

My dear friend Ken made my new art website. He did all the techi bits and being an artist photographer/ mountaineer, he added many great ideas. I needed the  new website to apply for artists residencies. 

Then on the 6th of July the Big Baltic Adventure began.  

I flew from Spain  to Lithuania, stayed two weeks,  then flew over Latvia and  landed in Estonia.

Finland was also a possible stopping place as well as the Baltic islands off the Estonian coast. 

So many ideas were floating inside my head because plan A - a months residency at Nida  Art Colony in Lithuania -  didn't happen.  89 artists applied for the 19 places.

I said a silent sorry to Greta and the Planet for not traveling by train and bus. I could have, all the  way from Spain.  But my right leg developed sciatica, so buses were definitely not going to be possible.

Lots of street art in Kaunas.

Kindness, and beauty colored every single day. 

Naturally there were also a few heart stopping moments too, but they got less as the weeks unfolded.

With the iPad lost, having to reply on my new smart phone was like learning a new language. Embarrassing at times.  Easy when you understand with a little help from a new friend..

In Vilnius, I stayed in a beautiful art and book filled historic house where 4 generations of artists had lived.

The surviving family members were granddaughter Bea (40 something), a super talented graphic designer.  Delightfully stylish, Bea , with her beloved dog, seemed to be always rushing somewhere. 

Eva, her mother, was my age.  Eva did not rush.  A  serious quiet intellectual, I soon discovered  she  was a hugely gifted photographer and painter. 

Mother and daughter are now are guardians of this house, the surviving witnesses of a family who loved each other.

In Eva, I sensed a haunting wordless sadness that somehow, in different circumstances, I have also known. But mine is now archived, albeit chaotically.

Graceful, slim, exquisitely dressed in dark slightly Japanese styled clothes, always with interesting silver jewelry close to her throat, Eva spoke quietly in her hesitant English. I sensed the legacy of the cruel denial of creative freedom the Soviet regime had imposed on her, and her family. I also sensed art has been her salvation.

The horror, terror and fear of deportations to Siberia that Lithuanian artists and intellectuals endured,  has no parallel in my life.

Yet on her kitchen table sat something I've longed for since I was 17.

I've said many times I would give anything to have a photograph of my never known Jewish Lithuanian father.

And there was hers, on the kitchen table. A beautiful intelligent face, framed, with a candle on either side.

There he sat, sharing her every single meal.  

There he'd dined all his life.   
He'd opened these doors.  
Climbed these stairs.  
Celebrated her every birthday  until he died. 
What presents had he bought or made for her?

On some level, I think I kind of pretended he was mine for the week. I borrowed him. I loved him.

In Vilnius I started to walk. I had to to get my food.  During the two months in the Baltic I walked over 350km.  I got super fit!

When the plane landed in Tallinn all I knew about the capital city was the Eurovision song contest had been held there many years ago !  

Google tells me it was 2002. 

I had a rapid learning experience.

At the friendly Holy Spirit Guest house beside the cathedral (an expensive Airbnb in need of a little bit of modernizing),  I met choir singer Carel. Wow.  Did I hit the jackpot.

 Australian/Estonian, she  gave me the countries history, geography, politics, culture, the music scene, and where the nearest food store was, all in a few hours.  She  hardly drew breath, fired by boundless enthusiasm and love for the land of her ancestors.

After lots of research of the Baltic coast and it's many islands, I'd already decided to visit the coastal town of Haapsalu for 10 days.  

A festival of medieval music in the castle coincided perfectly with my dates. The pull to go to this  town was incredibly strong.

Little did I know some heart melting and art inspiring experiences were waiting there to be claimed. Is that the right word? Claimed ?

'Haapsalu.' Good choice said Carel.  'Vormsi island is close by.'   

I could  easily visit it she said.  I did.

Very hard to get a good pic of the boat.

Then I'd be heading for Tartu, where lucky for me, I'd be having a months artists residency in a Paper and Print museum.  

The only thing was I couldn't  find anywhere to stay in or near Taru.  Everywhere was charging high summer prices. I had ten days to find a home.

   

Carel came up with an idea.  Somewhat stressed, I booked the suggested expensive student room at the Uni, only to hear the same day the museum had found me a lovely small apartment for the same price. Bingo. Bodes well I thought.

Tartu was described as a medieval university town.  Anything medieval sparks my interest..

Little did I know I was in for a very big shock on day 1.

Medieval Tartu.

Little did I know I was in for a  wonderful surprise in Haapsalu just a day after meeting Carel.

This was my last day in Tartu, visiting Farenheit 451.

It's a fascinating small Independent  book store close to the museum.

Thank you Miriam Roser Stella Kaisa and Charlotte for your friendship and help.

 Thank you all at the museum  for the wonderful goodbye barbecue.

Thank you Lemmit for this unforgettable experience..

www.megrobinsonart.com