A Laurie Studio Blog: How Laurie got her groove back...

Today France celebrates July 14^thin honor of the day Laurie first arrived in Cannes. (Although I think something else happened in 1789, too.) It was 4 years ago that I flew into Nice, and I remember that my heart gave a little jump when the city first came into view from the airplane. I already had a premonition that I’d love this place. And since I arrived in an American presidential election year, I’m here again during the same season. So, as before, although my French is a bit better and I have more friends, I’m getting many questions about the elections as well as a review of Sarkozy’s first year in office. There’s lots to write on politics, so I’ll postpone that to the next blog.

Yesterday was the 10^th (big 1-0!) birthday of Jackie’s twin boys, Michael and Robert. We’d spent Saturday going to 3 shopping centers to find a new video game they wanted – without luck. But in the process I ended up, in the vein of expanding my cultural knowledge, buying the Lego Indiana Jones game. I mean, really! Put Legos and Harrison Ford together, and I can’t resist! Of course I couldn’t even figure out how to get off the first platform, so today the three of us spent the afternoon in my studio with the AC on reliving Harrison’s adventures. The boys were also very curious about my paintings, asking me which ones I’d done, making sure again that I’d done them all, and then saying they liked them and I should be an artist. Gotta love that! And speaking of anniversaries, I was also quite thrilled on Friday to witness the 1000^th episode of Plus Belle la Vie!

In France, the 21^st of June, summer solstice, is celebrated with the Fete du Music. In every tiny town to the large cities musicians and singers are performing throughout the day and late into the night. It might just be a little bandstand in the park with an audience of 20 to huge electronica dance fests at the Bastille in Paris (which, of course is televised so the country folk can participate). It’s a fun day to be out, especially as it fell on a Saturday this year (although people seemed to come and go from Alcatel to see friends’ performances when the Fete fell during the week in earlier years). All along the Croisette in Cannes small bands or single musicians played for most of the day, until big-name concerts took over the evening.

However, the longest day of the year found me speeding through Provence on the fast train to Grenoble, the gateway to the French Alps. I’ll just say the scenery, from Provencal coastline and wine country to Alpine chalets and mountains and wildflowers was enthralling – and leave it at that. From Grenoble, I took a bus up to Bourg d’Oisans, with its world-class skiing and hiking and climbing, as well as en route of the Tour de France which is happening now. Finally, I arrived at Camp des Cimes, composed of several structures which used to be an entire village. Anyway, I’m getting too much into detail, but I was there to assist with art classes for a retreat called “Refresh” for international Christian workers. The director was my pastor Daniel, along with his wife Lori, from Ventura, CA. Several other friends were on staff as well, and many more to be made. I received such a warm welcome from my friends, as well as the guests, and was able to give classes for teens and adults for 4 days, and one full day with the kids.

I was incredibly impressed and grateful as I got to know the guests, about 18 families. Most were of US, Canadian, or Australian origin but working far from home in Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, India, Iran, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Many are teachers or consultants advising on building projects or environmental conservation and improved agricultural methods. Some run Christian camps or do administrative work for their respective organizations, but many must have a “regular” job since Christianity is illegal. I was captivated by the idea of one gentleman who worked in Iran. He has worked in refugee camps, and he said that among them is a bond much stronger than nationalism. They feel more kinship and will stand up for other refugees much more than another countryman who is not a refugee. Since the number of refugees is greater than most countries’ populations, he wanted to get some good lawyers together to form a “virtual nation” composed of refugees. They would become citizens, with passports and rights, of this new nation. Wow…

I was also most impressed by the teens. One 14-year-old I got to know was with her family in Kuwait and now in Jordan. When they’ve taken furlough back to the States, it’s so difficult to fit in. American culture and entertainment has little appeal for those who have lived in the 3^rd World and even less understanding of it. When talking about Kuwait, her friends told her she was bragging. The teens and many of the kids from 5-10 were so mature and generous. They were protective of younger siblings, and in turn, the younger ones had strong attachments to the older ones. I didn’t witness any squabbling between siblings, or really even between any of the kids. They worked so well together, and their world view had bigger issues to digest than one kid taking away a toy. They were also thrilled to be outside – to have beautiful green trees and grass and safety to play freely. With Euro 2008 in the final games, football games were always the favorite, especially when the dads came out to participate.

For me personally, I just felt useful as I haven’t in a long time. I could listen to some of their fears and future decisions and concerns about their kids. I could pray with them. I could watch the kids, encourage them in their art, and help them find Mom when they were terrified they’d never see her again. I could get a peek into their lives; feel grateful for mine, for peace, for having a Bible and a church. My first day there I said yes to an invitation to teach math and science for a year in Turkey where those subjects are no longer in the high school curriculum due to lack of teachers. We’ll see how God makes that happen!

The weekend after the retreat found me in Geneva where my friend Yoann and his wife Camille live. He used to work at Alcatel and just began a job at a private bank in Geneva. They were out of town for the weekend, but still encouraged me to come and use their apartment. Yoann and I had a soda Friday afternoon near his work and got to catch up on the last few years and big career changes for us both. I also had to ask about the currency, since they aren’t on the euro. I’d thought the Swiss Franc was about equal to the USD, but the cash machine only gave me withdrawal options of 200 or 1000+! He said I was right about the exchange rate. Forget the little $20 we get out of our ATMs – imagine if the minimum was $200!

Yoann’s apartment was a 5-minute walk to the old city center, and just a bit more to the lake. The weekend was quite hot, and both days I slept in very late – to recover from Refresh, ironically! The evenings were most enjoyable, but the museums closed at 5pm, so I really couldn’t hide from going out in the heat.

Geneva was the starting point of the Reformation, voted on in 1536, with Jean Calvin spearheading the movement. While others worked elsewhere, like John Knox in Scotland and Martin Luther in Germany, Geneva became central because it took in so many Protestant refugees from France, the Netherlands, and Italy during the 8 subsequent religious wars, so there was a concentration of Protestants here. Next door to the Reformation Museum in the old city is the Cathedral of St. Peter. Originally Catholic, the Protestants removed all the ornamentation, save the stained glass and the raised pulpit, and white washed all the gilt (good pun, eh?) from the walls, ceilings, and columns. Once Bibles were available to all literate citizens thanks to the new printing press and translations of the Bible from Latin into French, German, etc, the church services needed to function as Bible application, rather than the Catholic translation. So the pulpit in Protestant churches was physically moved to the center of the church (putting emphasis on the sermon) and replacing the altar (blasphemous as it replaced Christ on the cross and Mary). In one of the parks, the Reformation Wall was constructed in 1909 to mark Calvin’s 400^th birthday. It was pretty cool. Aside from the four main statues of Calvin, Knox, Farel, and Beze, were inscriptions in different languages of some of the Reformation texts, as well as the Lord’s Prayer.

Genevans love bikes, parks, the water, philosophy, roses, high-end sports cars, precision watches, and lots of money. While I didn’t partake of the latter few (although I felt like a high roller with 200F to spend in a weekend!), the parks around the lake were wonderful evening walks. Saturday, after the Reformation museum and sitting in the cool sanctuary of St. Pete’s, I walked along the left bank. The first thing to see is the flower clock which was decorated with a football (soccer ball) for the main clock, flanked by Switzerland’s flag and Turkey’s, since that was the last game for Switzerland and the last game to be played in Geneva for Euro 2008. Walking through the English garden to the lake, the soccer ball is now floating beside the big water jet in the middle of the lake. The Jet d’Eau was originally a security valve for a hydraulic factory (it’s 140m high and flowing at 124mph!), but has become a symbol of Geneva. Further down the shore I came to the kids’ beach (Baby Plage) with all kinds of fun stuff to climb and swing – see the pictures. I got rather jealous! I took a rest (as is the custom) in the La Grange Park in the shade among the 12,000 rose bushes. Quite lovely!

Sunday I walked the right bank to my final destination of the UN and Red Cross museum. After seeing Les Grottes, some really funky Gaudi-like apartments built in the 80s, and Palais Wilson, named after US President Wilson which now houses the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the right bank becomes a continuity of different parks (one called Parc Mon-Repos, meaning “my rest”). The parks were former lake-side private properties. Only one family was willing to sell to the League of Nations (formed in 1920), and the mansion became the Palais. Other manors have become museums – one was the natural history museum. Anyway, I finally arrived at the UN building, second only to New York. In front is the 1997 artwork by Berset called the Broken Chair. One of the four legs is broken, and it was installed for the movement to prohibit and eliminate anti-personnel mines. It’s 12m high and quite impressive – see the pictures.

Behind the UN is the Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. I didn’t know about the Red Crescent, but most Middle Eastern and Russian nations use the Red Crescent symbol. As for the museum, it is quite impressive – very creative imagery. Henri Dunant is considered the founder – he was impressed to write the proposal for the Red Cross after witnessing the Battle of Salferino on 24^th June 1859 in which the French drove the Austrians out of northern Italy. With tremendous losses, he saw the wounded lying without help, sometimes for days. In the museum, they presented the battle with a “slide show” series of paintings depicting the Italian countryside, then regiments marching, renderings of commanders’ uniforms, and ultimately, battle – all set to emotionally appropriate music without a word being spoken. At the end, instead of exiting the dark theater by the side door where I came in, the screen itself began to split in two. Gradually, a blinding-white room, lit by skylights, was revealed. In one corner is a life-size all-white statue, by George Segal, of Henri Dunant writing his proposal on his desk. His proposal led to the first Geneva Convention in 1863, convened with the help of two generals and two doctors, to establish the Red Cross. I was really impressed by the emotional impact of the dark theater opening to the white room. Additionally, the work of the Red Cross in the First World War was on display: 7 million file cards documenting 2 million prisoners held in camps of all the involved nations. These were the real cards, still used by historians and POW descendants, stacked in 10-foot-high cases and maybe 30 cases? I felt like I was walking through a miniature Manhattan. One display showed the grey card of Captain Charles de Gaulle verifying his capture, then a white card with a request from a relative for his location, as well as other cards documenting his rank and battalion, plus camp transfers. Excel would have been nice.

After the First World War, the Red Cross was well-established and had lots of supplies and financial support. Since that was believed to be the last war, RC’s charter was updated to include helping victims of natural disasters. During the Second World War, the RC couldn’t help concentration camp prisoners since the charter didn’t extend to civilians – and the prisoners were considered criminals by Hitler’s decree. This was changed in 1946, but in 1944-5, a German general allowed RC workers into the camps as long as they stayed in the camps until the end of the war. Amazingly, volunteers went and saved many from Hitler’s last extermination order. At this point, I came to the anti-mine displays, but was a bit drained emotionally. However, there was a temporary exhibit called “In-decision – the Nuclear Debate”. It was quite one-sided against nuclear production, as it’s hard to determine whether a country is using nuclear power for energy or weapons. France owns 59 of the 414 reactors in the world, and Germany has 19 which are to be entirely shut down by 2021. 80% of France’s electricity is supplied by nuclear power. But the exhibit was photography of the various stages of nuclear’s development since the 1930s. Pictures of Oppenheimer and other scientists and generals working on the Manhattan Project were followed by those of test sites in the deserts of New Mexico, Nevada, and eastern Washington State. One series was of photos of objects found in Hiroshima and Nagasaki – personal items like a melted briefcase, twisted eyeglasses, and a school uniform found in a tree without the child’s body ever being found. Another series documented survivors and deformed children of survivors. Finally, a look at the present-day surroundings of Cherynobl showed many farmers and villagers who still live within the 30-km zone because they have no place else to go.

The bus ride back to Yoann’s was a good 20 minutes, and I realized how far I’d walked. The final game of Euro 2008 between Germany and Spain was held that Sunday evening, helping me re-integrate into the present-day. When Yoann came home about midnight from his weekend, I told him Germany had lost and he responded “Good!”. Of course he apologized once he found out I’m half German, but obviously national animosities continue for generations. Then of course, we talked politics until after 1am…

Back at the homefront in little La Roquette sur Siagne, near Cannes, the weather had finally decided it was summer. I became a hermit again in my air-conditioned studio, determined to get a few pieces resolved and finished! Frustrated and discouraged one day, I was reflecting that the piece I liked the best was the one I did after hearing of Michel’s death. It’s nothing that I’d use professionally; it’s not well-balanced and a little raw, but life is like that. So I did include it in the pictures for the blog. But I enjoyed – well, not the right word really – painting that one the best. Knowing it would be private, I just did whatever I needed to. In the others, I always had my goal of exhibiting in a gallery here, and they’re stinted in a way. So I’ve decided that I’m probably not going to have a show, unless something just happens. Also, I started taking intermediate pictures of the paintings and thought that would be interesting. After the first three, I recognized a theme to produce a “body of work”, which gallerists like. My theme became various “emotional states” for lack of a better description, which I’ve experienced. They’re things like Pride, Indecision, Jealousy, Confusion, Love, Joy, Comfort, Defiance. The first three I think are finished, so I included them here.

Also, thank-you so much to all of you giving me condolences for Michel’s death. I really appreciate it.