HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!
Sorry I haven’t been able to write in two weeks, and thank you for your patience.
We went through the worst storm I’ve ever been through this past weekend in the southern part of France. It was worse than the one they had in 1999 in force winds, which clocked over 175 mph at the west coast of France. A lot of people have been without power and water this entire week because of the storm and we were some of the very fortunate in Appart Valley to only have problems with the internet for a few days. Some of you are asking me about this because it’s been in the papers and in the news. It lasted for many hours during the early morning of Saturday a week ago. I was so thankful to feel in a safe place. There were a lot of families who had to come and stay at Appart Valley because of their lack of utilities for the week.
I’ve had a lot of great food, and such sweet times with Osamu and Lisa. They became two of my best friends while here. Osamu left today to go back to Florence, as his school is starting back on Monday. He will be sorely missed, especially by Lisa who found a brother in his time here with us. Lisa and I are going tomorrow to Albi, France to see her favorite artist’s museum and his works. I’m looking forward to going, but am wanting a day off too LOL.
We had an Open House at the studio all day today and were busy there watching Pierre do his famous marbles. It was so tediously and eloquently done and I cannot describe poetically enough how beautiful it was to watch his hand doing the marbling. I felt privileged to be in the presence of such a Master and to feel his sweet and humble spirit again since meeting him in Paris in early December. He remembered the “American hugs” and I was able to hug him again.
We are all fatigued and worn out from the long hours we are working on our mural in the studio each day. I leave at 7:45 in the mornings and don’t get back into my room until well after 7:00 p.m. All of the students are tired. The extensiveness of the mural Michel chose is much more than I could have possibly imagined doing and is a very complex and technically challenging mural. (See photos). I’m working through it though and we should be finishing with it sometime early this next week. YEAH. Then, we get to work on an ocean and sky and also come up with a project we want help with in prospective and composition. The next two weeks will fly by.
We had two weeks when we first returned from Christmas break of prospective and color theory. We loved what we learned and then the mural started. We are thankful to gain the knowledge and experience of painting this piece and are proud of our accomplishments. All of us who have been in the program for the entire five months can tell a huge difference in the energy levels in the three new students in this particular module LOL. They are raring to go and we are all exhausted LOL, and it’s NOT just because we are older either.
I have been going through a lot of personal growth and am learning so much more about myself and others and by listening and paying attention. There’s so much to be learned when you put yourself in a position like this.
I read something in regards to the personal things I’m learning and wanted to share it with you, just in case you find yourself in this place in your life. I’ve found it takes courage to look at yourself and see what you need and what you want in this life. Deciding that you are going to expand yourself and grow, is HUGE and costs you something along the way. I’ve also found that fear is nothing but a cloud and when we start to walk through it, it dissipates.
There were five lessons to make you think about how you treat others sent to me via E-mail by my sister and this one was the fourth. Sorry the author is unknown; else I would give credit to him/her.
The Obstacle of Our Path
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then, he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the King’s wealthiest merchants came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand! Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.
This is so about what I’m learning about me, about others, about life, about love, about getting in my own way in life, about faith, trust, hope, and moving into my future. It’s not easy being here and in this place, but I’m facing it and am actually thankful for all the struggles with me personally, because a lot of my walls I didn’t even know I had are tumbling down before my eyes and there is freedom in facing things inside yourself. There is gold to be found later when you uncover things and get things not needed or wanted out of your life taking up your space.
I hope this E-mail gives you all some hope for your own lives. When you don’t have the normal vices in life to divert your attention and fatigue is your best friend on a daily basis, you find a lot out about yourself. It’s truly the best gift I could have received during this time in my life, even though through difficult times.
I must say that my precious husband has been through so much in this journey with me as well and has been the most patient and loving husband I could have asked for. He’s sent me so many care packages and reminded me of his love for me, his belief in what I’m doing and the purpose of me being here and our relationship is blooming even more over it all. I’m so thankful for him in all of this and don’t feel I would be quite so brave without his support, kindness and love through all of this.
I also want to thank Susan for all the cards and notes and pictures she sends frequently while I’ve been here. You are such a GREAT friend and I’m thankful for you woman!!!!!
Thank you to the rest of you who are watching, listening and learning through my experiences here, you are on this journey with me as well. I am thankful for the “village” it is taking to raise me LOL.
Until next time, with great love and knowledge of a much fuller life to come ---- Tammy!!!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
First Two Weeks in School
Welcome back to France with me!!!
Since returning to France, it has been a totally different journey and I’m thankful for every moment in this experience. We have three new students. Osamu, who is Japanese and is studying at an art restoration college in Florence, Italy for four years and is on winter break. He will not be able to finish the entire six week module, because his winter break will end at the end of this month. He is kind, quiet, sweet and tugs on his little goatee constantly, even while eating lunch or dinner LOL. He’s a darling and is 26 years old. The youngest student we have.
Then, there’s the American Lisa Burns. Lisa and I hit if off the moment we first wrote each other. I was in class one day in the first module and heard Kyoko answer the phone in French and immediately say “yes, I speak English”. I knew in my heart at that moment it was an American and asked Kyoko if I could write her about my experiences here and see if she had any questions about the school. This sweet thing Kyoko gave her approval over; started a unique friendship between Lisa and me. She is absolutely precious and I am learning more and more about the French culture from her as she can explain the differences in the American ways and the French ways. She married a Frenchman this past year and has been living with Tom in Belgium for the past four years. They met in her home state of Oregon. She is delightful and adds so much to our class. She has been doing art for years and I enjoy watching her work, she's great.
Jasque is a French Architect who joined us as well. He’s been an art instructor and is talented. I love how he has moved the window treatment portion of our mural. He swims during lunchtime, while the rest of us chill and eat lunch together and just enjoy each other’s company. He’s high energy and very active and is nervously running around all the time trying to get his things done LOL.
We have been celebrating since our first day back at class, this custom with the French called “The Epiphany”. It is the celebration of the three kings visiting Jesus and Mary and Joseph. They celebrate this custom by putting little prizes into cakes and tarts. If you are the one who gets the prize, you are a Queen or King for the entire year and you have a crown to put on. Then you have to purchase the cake on the following day. I keep winning this stupid little prize LOL. No, actually I and Kyoko won the first two on the first day. Patrick had bought two cakes and then we each bought a cake. Marina and Osamu won those two and Marina bought the third one, as we all said we could not eat four pieces of cake to find the prizes, so we cut this down to one cake, instead of two. When Marina bought the third day, the last piece was left for Jasque and we knew it had the prize in it. When he came back, we told him the piece of cake was waiting on him. Before he could even eat it, a visiting artist came into the studio; we’ve seen her a few times. All of a sudden, the piece of cake disappeared and we all laughed when we realized she took the piece belonging to Jasque and didn’t bother to let us all know. We didn’t celebrate this tradition again, until this week. Michel bought one and started it all over again. Patrick received the first prize and on his tart he bought, Michel won. We thought it was all over, until I was eating my piece and low and behold, there were two prizes in that tart and I had the second one LOL. You’ll love this, the tarts were prizes of The Simpson cartoon characters and our crowns were Simpson crowns.
Getting back to the school and what we are learning. I cannot begin to describe how intense this module is compared to the others. We were warned about this many times before by Michel and Kyoko and none of us could have prepared ourselves for this learning curve. I believe that in the prospective, color theory, where we had a visiting artist and teacher come to teach that portion and then the composition of art we have done in the past two weeks is as much as you would get in a year in an art college. I cannot believe how much information and subsequent change in my life. I’m so thankful I didn’t get to The Louvre before I left Paris and that when I go home in February, what I will see in these paintings will be totally different and my appreciation much greater. This module is exhausting us and by the time we get back to our rooms, we are can hardly function. Our eyes, minds and bodies are suffering LOL. We are all so grateful though, that Michel built this curriculum around giving us, as is his method, everything humanly possible to enhance our growth as artisans. I am now beginning to understand why he said this entire course was the equivalent to a seven year apprenticeship.
I am shocked at what I’m learning and gleaning from all of the teachings of Michel and so are all of the other students along with us. The new students got introduced to a very loving group and they are commenting on how close we all are and we have embraced them as part of our family. I personally am spending a lot of time with Osamu and Lisa taking them around town, introducing them to my favorite crepery restaurant, taking them to Chinese buffet and generally seeing around town. Agen truly is a beautiful experience. I did find out that the population here is around 70,000 and outside the perimeter of the town limits is another 70,000 people.
Oh, and one thing I have decided since my last blog. I said I would tell you when I figured out if I liked the French custom of how long it takes them to bring the check. Thanks to Lisa explaining why they do this, I think it is a wonderful concept. She says the French think that the dining experience is just that, an experience and they consider it rude to interrupt you to bring you the check. They expect you to ask for it LOL. All this time, I’ve been waiting patiently and getting frustrated at times when they were just being respectful of my time and meal LOL. The culture differences are most difficult in this regard, what is meant as a courtesy can be perceived in a totally different manner. I am so reminded of the movie Crash so many times as I see what happens around me in regard to how humans relate and look at each other. I think we could all learn from each other and be better people just by being open to listening and hearing what others feel, sense and how they function in their lives.
You’ll get a kick out of this, on my way into Paris at the airport, I was asked by this couple where the train station was in the airport and I guided them there. Now, mind you, they were totally speaking French and I had to get the woman to speak some broken English with me speaking broken French and I mean broken LOL. When we got to the train station in the airport, they were heading to where they live in Bordeaux, which is one train stop before Agen. While waiting in line at the café to get a cappuccino, they got behind me in line and were asking more questions about me liking being here in France and studying. She told me that she had been in NY quite a few times and that her opinion of Americans was that we all walked around with our head’s off. ROFL. I laughed at this and knew she had not been around many Americans and thought of the biases we all have toward one another. It was sobering. Come to find out, she wasn’t French and was from Amsterdam. This is all saddening to me on so many levels, wishing that we could all just hold hands and love each other. (I know, I hear you Tom, me wanting to sit around the campfire and hold hands and sing Kum BA YAH with everyone and you keep telling me that’s not the case LOL). I still wish for a more united world. My being here is opening up the French more to Americans and me to the French. In that regard, this is a beautiful experience!!!!!
Don’t forget to look at the new pics on the blog (you'll have to scroll down to find them, don't know why they don't automatically go to the top of the page), and the article for Artisphere is completed and it will be coming out soon. They changed their minds from them writing about the opening of Michel’s studio, to me writing the article. They are planning on doing a personal article on me when I complete the course. I’m excited about that as well and have found working through this process of this article an absolute wonderful experience with the Editor, she is awesome. Had an interview and photo shoot while in Greenville for the local magazine called Talk Art, look for that article by Ann Hicks coming your way soon as well. Ann is a good friend of mine and I can’t wait to see what she has to say. She is a wealth of knowledge herself.
Hope all is well with each of you. Thank you so much for going through this experience with me and I am finding out that there are more of you reading this than I knew. I love that you are finding something in this reading that touches you and hopefully, you are being enlightened as to what it is like living in a foreign country. We can all grow from each other's experiences. Thank you for your portion in this.
Happy Birthday to the love of my life - Tom!!!!!!!
Tammy Goben
Since returning to France, it has been a totally different journey and I’m thankful for every moment in this experience. We have three new students. Osamu, who is Japanese and is studying at an art restoration college in Florence, Italy for four years and is on winter break. He will not be able to finish the entire six week module, because his winter break will end at the end of this month. He is kind, quiet, sweet and tugs on his little goatee constantly, even while eating lunch or dinner LOL. He’s a darling and is 26 years old. The youngest student we have.
Then, there’s the American Lisa Burns. Lisa and I hit if off the moment we first wrote each other. I was in class one day in the first module and heard Kyoko answer the phone in French and immediately say “yes, I speak English”. I knew in my heart at that moment it was an American and asked Kyoko if I could write her about my experiences here and see if she had any questions about the school. This sweet thing Kyoko gave her approval over; started a unique friendship between Lisa and me. She is absolutely precious and I am learning more and more about the French culture from her as she can explain the differences in the American ways and the French ways. She married a Frenchman this past year and has been living with Tom in Belgium for the past four years. They met in her home state of Oregon. She is delightful and adds so much to our class. She has been doing art for years and I enjoy watching her work, she's great.
Jasque is a French Architect who joined us as well. He’s been an art instructor and is talented. I love how he has moved the window treatment portion of our mural. He swims during lunchtime, while the rest of us chill and eat lunch together and just enjoy each other’s company. He’s high energy and very active and is nervously running around all the time trying to get his things done LOL.
We have been celebrating since our first day back at class, this custom with the French called “The Epiphany”. It is the celebration of the three kings visiting Jesus and Mary and Joseph. They celebrate this custom by putting little prizes into cakes and tarts. If you are the one who gets the prize, you are a Queen or King for the entire year and you have a crown to put on. Then you have to purchase the cake on the following day. I keep winning this stupid little prize LOL. No, actually I and Kyoko won the first two on the first day. Patrick had bought two cakes and then we each bought a cake. Marina and Osamu won those two and Marina bought the third one, as we all said we could not eat four pieces of cake to find the prizes, so we cut this down to one cake, instead of two. When Marina bought the third day, the last piece was left for Jasque and we knew it had the prize in it. When he came back, we told him the piece of cake was waiting on him. Before he could even eat it, a visiting artist came into the studio; we’ve seen her a few times. All of a sudden, the piece of cake disappeared and we all laughed when we realized she took the piece belonging to Jasque and didn’t bother to let us all know. We didn’t celebrate this tradition again, until this week. Michel bought one and started it all over again. Patrick received the first prize and on his tart he bought, Michel won. We thought it was all over, until I was eating my piece and low and behold, there were two prizes in that tart and I had the second one LOL. You’ll love this, the tarts were prizes of The Simpson cartoon characters and our crowns were Simpson crowns.
Getting back to the school and what we are learning. I cannot begin to describe how intense this module is compared to the others. We were warned about this many times before by Michel and Kyoko and none of us could have prepared ourselves for this learning curve. I believe that in the prospective, color theory, where we had a visiting artist and teacher come to teach that portion and then the composition of art we have done in the past two weeks is as much as you would get in a year in an art college. I cannot believe how much information and subsequent change in my life. I’m so thankful I didn’t get to The Louvre before I left Paris and that when I go home in February, what I will see in these paintings will be totally different and my appreciation much greater. This module is exhausting us and by the time we get back to our rooms, we are can hardly function. Our eyes, minds and bodies are suffering LOL. We are all so grateful though, that Michel built this curriculum around giving us, as is his method, everything humanly possible to enhance our growth as artisans. I am now beginning to understand why he said this entire course was the equivalent to a seven year apprenticeship.
I am shocked at what I’m learning and gleaning from all of the teachings of Michel and so are all of the other students along with us. The new students got introduced to a very loving group and they are commenting on how close we all are and we have embraced them as part of our family. I personally am spending a lot of time with Osamu and Lisa taking them around town, introducing them to my favorite crepery restaurant, taking them to Chinese buffet and generally seeing around town. Agen truly is a beautiful experience. I did find out that the population here is around 70,000 and outside the perimeter of the town limits is another 70,000 people.
Oh, and one thing I have decided since my last blog. I said I would tell you when I figured out if I liked the French custom of how long it takes them to bring the check. Thanks to Lisa explaining why they do this, I think it is a wonderful concept. She says the French think that the dining experience is just that, an experience and they consider it rude to interrupt you to bring you the check. They expect you to ask for it LOL. All this time, I’ve been waiting patiently and getting frustrated at times when they were just being respectful of my time and meal LOL. The culture differences are most difficult in this regard, what is meant as a courtesy can be perceived in a totally different manner. I am so reminded of the movie Crash so many times as I see what happens around me in regard to how humans relate and look at each other. I think we could all learn from each other and be better people just by being open to listening and hearing what others feel, sense and how they function in their lives.
You’ll get a kick out of this, on my way into Paris at the airport, I was asked by this couple where the train station was in the airport and I guided them there. Now, mind you, they were totally speaking French and I had to get the woman to speak some broken English with me speaking broken French and I mean broken LOL. When we got to the train station in the airport, they were heading to where they live in Bordeaux, which is one train stop before Agen. While waiting in line at the café to get a cappuccino, they got behind me in line and were asking more questions about me liking being here in France and studying. She told me that she had been in NY quite a few times and that her opinion of Americans was that we all walked around with our head’s off. ROFL. I laughed at this and knew she had not been around many Americans and thought of the biases we all have toward one another. It was sobering. Come to find out, she wasn’t French and was from Amsterdam. This is all saddening to me on so many levels, wishing that we could all just hold hands and love each other. (I know, I hear you Tom, me wanting to sit around the campfire and hold hands and sing Kum BA YAH with everyone and you keep telling me that’s not the case LOL). I still wish for a more united world. My being here is opening up the French more to Americans and me to the French. In that regard, this is a beautiful experience!!!!!
Don’t forget to look at the new pics on the blog (you'll have to scroll down to find them, don't know why they don't automatically go to the top of the page), and the article for Artisphere is completed and it will be coming out soon. They changed their minds from them writing about the opening of Michel’s studio, to me writing the article. They are planning on doing a personal article on me when I complete the course. I’m excited about that as well and have found working through this process of this article an absolute wonderful experience with the Editor, she is awesome. Had an interview and photo shoot while in Greenville for the local magazine called Talk Art, look for that article by Ann Hicks coming your way soon as well. Ann is a good friend of mine and I can’t wait to see what she has to say. She is a wealth of knowledge herself.
Hope all is well with each of you. Thank you so much for going through this experience with me and I am finding out that there are more of you reading this than I knew. I love that you are finding something in this reading that touches you and hopefully, you are being enlightened as to what it is like living in a foreign country. We can all grow from each other's experiences. Thank you for your portion in this.
Happy Birthday to the love of my life - Tom!!!!!!!
Tammy Goben
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