Residency's End

It was a brief residency, and today's the day I leave. I've got a 5:30 pm train back to Toulouse and an early flight from there (to Frankfurt, then Dulles, then Shenandoah Valley) on Friday. I'm sorry to go, but looking forward to getting home, springing the dog from the kennel, sleeping in my own bed . . .

A few nights ago, after Craig and Sandell arrived and we were up to 4 artists in the house, all trying to share a kitchen, we agreed to rotate cooking duties. My turn was last night, and I think I produced a passable eggplant/tomato/chickpea dish along with a cauliflower salad. The night before that, though, we had a "fellows' dinner"--VCCA feeds us once a week--at Le Petit Palais (check out that website if only for the pictures of the village), in Auvillar.

On the way up the hill to dinner, I spotted the little fellow at left. Cheryl explained that there is an annual Marche des Potiers in Auvillar every year and one year there was a "pilgrim" theme (see earlier post on the pilgrims of St. Jacques de Compostelle). The village then bought several ceramic figurines and installed them around town. I'd photographed several on an earlier exploratory walk, but I'd missed this one.

Also yesterday, besides cooking dinner for the artists, I managed to finish my book. I'm still going to be fixing a couple of things next week, and there are two scenes that I have doubts about, but otherwise it is done. I arrived at that point late yesterday afternoon, so today I've been working on other things, and packing up, including straightening my studio. Here's all that's left at this point.

One of the things I'm missing by leaving now are some celebrations that will occur here in a couple of weeks in connection with a visit by several members of the VCCA Board, and as part of that Craig Pleasants, a sculptor and also director of Programs at VCCA, is here and he's working on an installation on the hill behind the studio building. There's Craig, picking the spot. I wish I were going to be here to see the thing come together!

And that's it. I'll be heading out soon. And I'll check in on the other side.