Street Art and the MOP

Ernest Pignon-Ernest is French. He is an artist who photographs and creates street art. I think he is fabulous and just gotten to know him recently. I especially adore this work in Naples, one of my favorite cities. I love the way he has combined the street songs of the old women with the sounds of daily life - brings me back to Naples in a heartbeat, one of the most beautiful gritty, dirty, holy places in Europe.

Ernest Pignon-Ernest

EpE says this about his work,  'The aim of the insertion (picture) is both to make the place into a visual space and to work on it's memories, to reveal, disrupt and heighten it's symbolism'. Beautiful words.

With the Month of Photography coming up and specifically The Big Picture these words are very appropriate. MOP is when Mark Sink and his glorious gang wheat paste up not only Denver walls and streets but also connect all over the world with a devious plan to beautify it all. Gorgeous images in black and white will start to appear in Europe, Russia, who knows where else...Exciting stuff.

Mark Sink 

I think it's really interesting to look at this French artist, relatively unknown in the English speaking world, who has been doing this type of street art for decades. I like to imagine the progression of artists he might have inspired all these years. In fact there is a book out with the title "Before Banksy: Ernest Pignon-Ernest".

It's fascinating to read the concept, politics, history behind the art form.

What I know: This is what art can do and does. Inspire.

Personally, I am equally inspired by our Denver scene.

Coming soon. MOP

at the Gov's

Who can resist fancy kitties, ceramic gift boxes, silly Santa's and eclectic  illuminations?

  Sharing some pictures taken while I attended this morning's meet the press at the Governor's Mansion where every year fantastic Holiday decorations are put up and historic tours of the residence are scheduled for the public.

Karen's kitties...

Karen Bozik

Phil's Santa's

Phil Bender

Marie's gifts...

EVB Studio 

fabulous crystals and fairy tales from Tracy Barnes

Tracy Barnes

and yours truly with visual storytelling of food and culture from the Balkans

SVHoitt

I had a lively exchange with Dr. Claudette Sweet of Denver's Kwanzaa Committee and found we had a lot of interests in common that relate back to community and exploring history as a means of learning about the world. I was enchanted by her. 

Wall Pictures

Be Where You're At

Back in town and trying to gauge what has changed since I left four months ago.

Everything.

Nothing.

 It's almost as if I  astrotraveled through the night and remained in my Denver bed the whole time, arriving energized and ...

Be Where Ur At

happy to be here.

I left what had become almost unbearable and leaving brought me full circle... here.  On my return I am in a subtle but synchronistic mode. When I left, I was swimming against the current, like Fishies sometimes do and I knew from experience that traveling would balance things out. Indeed it made embracing the flow easier.

For those of us who classify ourselves nomads, Third Culture or Global Nicher's, traveling is not only an acquired taste. It is what has defined us likely since birth or childhood. Moving 'elsewhere' is our refuge when we need to sort things out. Everyone has their own bag of tricks, moving is part of our magic. My friends @DisplacedNation explain it well in their 'Constitution'.

Going back to Italy this time was good and bad, frustrating, serendipitous, frivolous, scary, disillusioning, grounding, eye opening and life confirming  - not to mention fun freeking fantastic. Bureaucratic misunderstandings made staying impossible for now, but what a wow experience on so many creative levels - human and spirit!

 I re learned once again picking up, leaving everything and diving head long into an adventure in a new country that 'tutto il mondo e paese', like the Italians are fond of saying. In some very trite and familiar sense it is what philosophers, writers and zen teachers everywhere shout out from their book covers. You don't really need to move to find out what it is that you already know, but it is a lot of fun.

I feel this with a longing and a recognition that is deep, deep in my traveling soul -like the taste of a childhood memory of luscious fruit. For now, the memory is strong and the longing not yet critical, which is the best place to be to experience the moment.

Some Thoughts about Food Culture

{My monthly article for the "Go Green" section in The Denver News - formerly the Downtown Denver News}

Recently, I met up with a couple from Italy passing through Denver and other big name cities for a PR tour of America. They run a resort and cooking school where they come from and are not incidentally interested in how we eat. I imagine they will want to give feedback to their customers and friends once they get back home. I saw their website and their quaint operation on the Adriatic Sea looks charming and inviting. I sure do hope they have a good time and it leads me to wonder what they will think of us once they’ve gone.

Since I lived in Italy for many years, I can vouch that the way we eat in America is very different from the food culture there. In the States, we relish in the faster pace and love the fast food nation we have become. We don’t like to go to the trouble of spending too much time in the kitchen. To Italians though, the kitchen is sacrosanct. There is no need for a “structural overhaul” of the food system that is often talked about in our daily news. There is no “rampant child obesity” caused by inactivity and processed food that is eaten everywhere in the US.
One of the reasons they don’t have these problems is that Italy still has small farmers and butchers, bakers, sheep herders, vegetable growers, small dairies and cheese mongers, to mention just a few enterprises. Fresh food grown sustainably is the norm, not something that needs a ‘movement’ to attract attention to it. Every day you can see small markets offering fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as independent grocery stores that do a booming business selling deli meats, locally sourced food and wine, fresh pastries and breads. Restaurants know their farmers and who butchers their pork cutlets. Living ‘the good life’ by sourcing real food, from real people, instead of factories is everyday life, ingrained in their culture. Anyone that has been to Italy has experienced what I am talking about.

So, why am I talking about Italians in my ‘green’ column? Well, making their acquaintance made me think about how I would show off our own local food culture. Sitting at the foot of the Rocky Mountains our visitors will surely experience Denver as unforgettable. They will no doubt delight in our spectacular views and sunny winter skies. They will see the museums, Botanic Gardens and the Micro breweries, even Coors Field and Buffalo Bill’s Grave. After that, unless they spend their entire visit skiing our majestic mountains, where should they engage in that favorite Italian and American pastime, mangiare?

Past the Starbucks, the Outback’s, the Malls, the All-you-can-eat places, the fast food mecca’s and Mexican dives, how will they experience our local food? Sure, there are loads of restaurants everywhere but the food served is not necessarily a showcase of Colorado products. Fewer in number but important to the local and organic scene are the venerable farm-to-table restaurants in and around the city that have been in the forefront of the Colorado food movement. I feel the European travelers will want to experience some of that.
Italians are known for their reverence of the earth and the fruit that comes from it, especially the wine. So I really would like our guests to feel that as Coloradans we too are proud stewards of the land. I’d like them to see that we have the food to prove it. I want them know that we support our local, smaller scale agri-oriented enterprises. There is, I told them, a fresh food revolution that is struggling to emerge right beneath our noses on the Front Range. It would be nice to see a strategy of supportive infrastructure geared towards those who are interested in hand craft traditions, like artisanal bread baking, common just a few generations ago. But I didn’t mention that. They probably won’t notice what is lacking and just go with the good stuff available.
I’m not too worried. We show up pretty good, what with the sheer physical beauty of where we live; the snow capped mountains, the pristine lakes, the hiking and biking and especially, the friendly people - those are the stars of Colorado. I’m just hoping the Italians find our local food culture something to write home about in addition.
 
Silvana Vukadin-Hoitt, is a creative entrepreneur and currently lives in Denver. She writes a monthly column for The Denver News and advocates for sustainable living.

At the Residence

 Karen Bozik, Director/Designer for the Holiday Events at the Governor's Residence, invited yours truly along with other individuals and organizations to contribute to this years installations at Boettcher Mansion.  I saw some of Karen's pieces from last year's installation via Facebook - beautiful handcrafted Victorian type dolls, cards. collages -  already then I was smitten. Through talks we found out that we both have a passion for researching similar cultures and traditions -   music, literature, art, language.... and we both  love to delve into our Slavic heritage.  This often shows up in Karen's collages and art craft and is something that I have admired since I first laid eyes on her work years ago. Being part of this project would be great!

As a theme this year Madame Governor, Helen Thorpe,  chose 'Holiday Heritages'.  Brilliant for me! Here I am back to heritage and origins, which  I have  used as inspiration for my personal spaces and very often also professionally in my design themes,  fashion styling, or conceptual art. Karen knew that about me and asked if I would create something representing Eastern Europe. My dream!

I worked on getting information and loan pieces for the Eastern European installation through the month of November.  When last minute another local organization was not able to participate, I threw my hat in for the Central Asian table also and drew from my family's private collection. I finished up last week and it looks great.  Today, press day. It was very exciting to have people interested in the themes, asking questions about the provenance of the pieces, many of them antiques from local museums, others beloved personal objects on loan from friends and acquaintances.

I'll post some more specifics at the end of the week and for now show off a couple of snapshots of what the tours will be showing.

Bosnia

Jewish Sarajevo

Central Asia

A Mad Dash to Arash

No coffee in the house, a lawn party on Sunday with gift required and on top of that Mary Day celebrations coming up on Monday gaaaaaa!  near hysteria! The thought of going to the bulging Bulgarian store on Arkansas Avenue was alluring - but, as Deshi san was out of town (this is a place we only go 'accompanied') that was out of the question.

What were the options? We needed fat sugary dates to go with our almonds, we needed above all to buy fresh vegetables that wouldn't ruin our weekly spending limit (why do we forget to buy at the Wednesday farm market even though we work the Wednesday farm market?) and desperately we needed Bosnian coffee. I found coffee beans in the pantry but since our coffee mlin is tucked away in storage....no grinding possible.

Then the Queen had a great idea! We should go to Arash, the Persian store on Yale and Hampden.  Yes, that Yale and Hampden, a million miles away, through the Glendale Corridor up Parker. Might as well be the other side of the moon! I was loathe to make the trip (traffic and stupid drivers) but since it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and we were starved and ready to compromise on a much lesser option, we jumped into the car, settled in for the drive, got there in no time and the day was saved.

This is the bounty that we bought home.

The after Arash table

Fresh Dates

Sweet Dates

Fava Beans

Fava Goodness

Night Sky August

The Sun & The Moon

Pink in Nature

Chiaro di Luna

Clouds

Lately the Target Parking lot has been the spot for a lot of beautiful sky visions. Who knew? I think it's a particular light that bounces off the foothills and the mountains and reflects on Sloan Lake. Then, there is the Sun and the Moon...What ever it is, the colors and images are entrancing. 

Dusk at Home

More Wall

Photo's by Mrs Peel

The Wall

Hanging out with Mrs. Peel late one night.What else could we have done but....

 Passed from terribly funny conversations with goofy Persian looking boys inside to momentary art shock once back on the streets: the beautifully decorated west side wall right outside the door at Z Cuisine, {courtesy of the MoP mob} (Redline, the amazing Mark Sink).

Tantalizing backdrop, just like the Boulevard St. Germaine cup inside. Groovy moods show.

 The gorgeous Mrs. Peel and I will be hanging out at the wall, our new love object, for the next week, watching the paint dry and kissing passers by.

La Vie en Rose

A pretty birthday celebration, quiet and subtle with Prinz Achmed in the background supping on Z's famous Assiette de Charcuterie and an earthy glass of rouge. An early night, as far as birthdays go, I left before midnight and walked to my car following the noiseless, dark sliver of Z's side street up the hill. Dimmed street light streaming through the trees hightened the atmospheric experience of the evening even more...the duPays magic is truly in every detail.

Was feeling most Parisian when I encountered ....