I am a big baby

So last night was the first night I spent at Gertrud and Heinz's property Art St. Urban, which is kind of like a private museum. A very beautiful but creepy museum, since it used to be an insane asylum. There are lots of small cells and nooks and cranies, and the whole place makes creepy noises at night, as big old buildings with weird histories are apt to do. Needless to say, I was a bit spooked since I was there alone, and I didn't sleep too well. Here are some pictures of the building, the amazing living space, my room, and some of the more bizare art that didn't help make me feel any more comfortable. Fortunately, no monsters got me.

Weird things about the Swiss

There really is something wrong with a country that only puts one thing on their sandwiches. You can either have plain bread with cheese, or plain bread with salami... no lettuce, no condiments, no taste. But they do have something that I love for lunch called cheese cake. It is kind of a mix between a quiche and pizza, and they also have a sweet version of it with fruits. I have been having wonderful food here, some of it strange. I have also experienced some food sins that will probably send me straight to meataterian hell. I ate one day at McDonalds, which I never do at home. Thought I would see if it was any different, since I was told it was. The only thing different was that it was even worse than at home and about three times as expensive. They also list their fries as extra small, small, and medium.... but the medium is really huge. I have also accidentally eaten veal twice since I have been here, another thing I never eat at home. Between me not understanding the menus and Heinz ordering food for me, it has ended up on my plate... and it was good. Sinful but good.

I think I understand why Switzerland is politically neutral... no one wants to fuck with her. It is required by law that every man serve in the army. They go for a training session and then every year go back, similar to our army reserve. Every Swiss national must own a gun and keep it in their house. Every house is required to have a bomb shelter (no kidding) but most people use it as a wine cellar. Many of the mountains here are full of army vehicles, planes, and munitions. There is an evacuation plan for the area to move all of the citizens into huge bunkers in the mountains and shut down all of the roads and waterways in case of an attack. They are either very prepared or very paranoid. All cars have fire extinguishers on the floor of the passenger seat.

We went out on Gertrud and Heinz's boat one evening, which was beautiful and lots of fun. Other than that I have been working like crazy still, both on my work and helping Heinz. This residency has been a lot of hard work, but an amazing experience none-the-less. It is very hard for me to be on someone else's schedule all of the time, but it is driving me to work hard.

Here are some photos from the boat and a funny little sculpture I did when Heinz had me play with the steel cable.

Pictures of Ticino

This past weekend we went to Ticino, which is in the southern part of Switzerland, ver near to Italy. Here are some pictures of a hike I took, the fun bobsled rollercoaster, and Heinz and Gertrud's property there. Also, for your viewing pleasure, one of the many hard core European mountain bikers... kind of like man candy on wheels. Yum.

Um… Holy Crap.

There is so much to catch up on I don’t even know where to begin. I arrived in Zofingen, Switzerland last Wednesday to start my artist residency (which has turned out to be part residency, part internship). I had decided to stay in Hallstatt and had a wonderful time hiking and lounging in the sun. I took the 7am train and got to my destination 11 hours and four trains later… long and exhausting day. Heinz Aeschlimann, who is the artist I am working with, picked me up from the train station and took me on a whirlwind tour of he and Gertrud’s house, the facilities at his business (which produces and lays asphalt), and the grounds at St. Urban. I have two places I can live/work. The first option is to stay with them at their house and work at in the company studio, which I have been doing thus far. Later on I will stay and work at St. Urban, where they have a huge old building that used to be an insane asylum and has been converted into a private museum, apartment, and work studio. I only got to run through there the once and I can’t wait to go back and explore. It looked like they had some amazing artwork on display.

Heinz and Gertrud are amazingly nice and generous people. We have been going out to very nice restaurants almost every night, having hundred dollar bottles of wine and the most delicious food. I am definitely going to come home twenty pounds heavier. This past weekend we drove two hours down to their house in Ticino, which is in the southern part of Switzerland. We drove over the Alps instead of going through the 10 mile long tunnel under them. The scenery is amazing, very green and rocky. Their grounds in Ticino are ridiculously beautiful. It took Heinz twelve years to convert the property from a little farm house and barns to a garden paradise. There are four houses on the property, and I got to stay in my own little cottage. I did a lot of sketching and planning for future work and made some paper drafts for a laser cutting project with steel. Also did a lot of hiking and rode a rollercoaster/bobsled ride… took some video, so if I can figure out how to post it I will.

Heinz is probably one of the most active people I have ever met. He gets more done in one day than I could do in a week. For starters he gets up ridiculously early. When we drove back up Monday morning we hit the road at 4am. I have been getting to work at 7am, which is late for him, incredibly early for me. I have been working 12 hour days and after one week am about ready to drop over dead… don’t know how he does it. Heinz also flies planes, drives formula one cars, has been helicoptered onto mountains to ski down them, owns five companies, and still somehow has time to make sculptures.

So far in my residency I have been playing with a bunch of different materials, such as tar, asphalt, welding, foam, glass foam, etc. The first two weeks are going to be spent experimenting (Heinz gave me a spreadsheet that pretty much has every minute of every day planned out for what I am learning/doing, I am surprised that bathroom breaks aren’t on there… very organized.) The third week I start making my own art. I have a few ideas in mind and am trying to figure out if I want to depart drastically from my usual work and use this as an opportunity to work in a more minimal and formal style, or if I want to continue in the vein of some of my past body work. Maybe a combination of both.

I’m sure there are lots of things that I am overlooking, but now I have to go home and die of exhaustion. I spent 12 hours welding frames on some huge pyramid shaped molds for Heinz…. Tomorrow we are going to cast large asphalt sculptures in them.

Hallstatt - now with photos

Right now I am in what could be the most charming and romantic little town I have ever been to... alone I might add. So again, for all of those who I invited to Europe, you suck. However, I have been enjoying wineing and dining myself. Yesterday I woke up early to the wonderful sound of the waterfall outside of my window, walked down to the park at the end of town and dipped my feet in the lake for a while. Then I walked around town, changed into my swimsuit and went back to the lake for a very cold swim and to lay in the sun topless... gotta love Europe for that. After soaking up all of the cancer causing rays I could handle I took a long hike up to the source of the river that flows through town and into the lake. At the very top, a few miles up into the mountains I found a tiny baby duck that was all alone by a huge cliff and waterfall. If its mother was around it didnt show itself and the baby wouldnt have survived on its own. I emptied out my camera case and transported it down to the lake, where there was a mother with two babies the same age. It took about two seconds after I put the duck on the pier for it to jump into the water and swim out to the mother... who after pushing it away for a few minutes gave up and let the baby join the family. This morning I am happy to report that it is still hanging out with its foster family. It was pretty special to do that.

This morning I went out on the lake in a kayak for a while and then sat and drank coffee in a little pub by the lake. There is an ice cave here that I might go to and some salt mines. I have also seen people paragliding off of a cliff above the lake, so if I can afford it I might go and do that. I was only planning on being here for two nights, but have decided to stay longer. I am due to arrive in Switzerland on Wednesday. There is a chance that I might skip Salzburg and stay here until then. Yah I know, scenic town... blah blah blah. Sound of music... blah blah blah. Really close by you shouldnt miss it... blah blah blah. But really, get on line and look at some pictures of where I am... would you leave

Budapest

I just took a four day trip to Budapest. It wasn't as beautiful or charming as Prague, but there was still lots to do and see. Amie and I went spelunking, which was tons of fun. At first we weren't so sure about the adventure, since there was a huge group of people signed up, but we were split into three groups of about eight people - our group was all women and one guy, which was alright by me as they were all really nice. We got to gear up in overalls and hardhads and wriggle through tiny cave passages. There is one picture of me going through a hole known as Winnie the Pooh, since people get stuck in there. It was a voluntary thing and I was the first one to try. I had to take of my hard hat to fit through and it was one of the few times in my life that I noticed that I do indeed have hips... which wanted to get stuck, but I did squeeze through. None of the other ladies tried, but the one guy in our group did. So here are some silly pictures of us and one of our super great hungarian guide. The whole cave was kind of choose your own adventure, and we mostly went for the longest and hardest passageways. I'm not sure how long we were down there, but I think it was close to two hours. I didn't feel too claustaphobic except for one tunnel that was about 10 feet long and was just big enough to squeeze through. At the very end we had the option to go through a spot called the sandwhich, which was about 30 feet long, uphill and a very tight fit. Only the guy in our group went through, all of the rest of us and the guide took another route. I almost went through, but decided not to push my luck... the last thing I wanted was to suddenly panic about 15 feet in.

We also went to the largest public bath in Budapest, which turned out to be a bunch of warm swimming pools in a courtyard. Inside the building were a bunch of hot and cold tubs with mineral water, but it all smelled kind of weird and was full of really old and ailing people, so we didn't hang out in there. Just didn't seem like a good day to get some weird skin disease. Maybe next time.

Getting out of Budapest sucked big time. Trafic was way backed up on the way to the train station, and our bus took forever to get there, and we soon found out why... Somebody must have been hit by a bus or a car. We got off of our bus and the only way into the train station was essentially by walking through a bunch of police cars and ambulences and by a dead person. Second one I have seen in my life (not including at funerals). They had covered the person up with black plastic, except for their left hand, which was just casually hanging out from under the tarp, as if to casually say 'hi, I'm dead and bloody, have a good day'. How hard would it have been for them to tuck it in, really? It was kind of weird and surreal and we ran past trying to catch our trains. Got into the station and every young backpacker in Europe was there on their way to Serbia for a huge concert. Needless to say, I missed my train, and I ended up waiting five hours until the 6pm train. I mostly sat and read and drank beer. If I had it to do over again I would have put my luggage in a locker and gone to one of the smaller baths in town. Ah well.

Now I am back in Vienna for a few days, just hanging out and relaxing. It has been a bit rainy, so that has inspired me to sit and knit and watch movies. Traveling for three months is an exhausting prospect, and it is kind of fun to just be still for a little while and pretend I live here. I will probably be here for a few more days and then make my way towards Swityerland. Next I am going to Hallstatt to sit by a lake, go hiking in the mountains, and explore an ice cave!

Free Wheel'n

Yesterday Amie and I rented a car and drove around for about twelve hours. It was amazing to get out of the city and into the lower Austrian Alps. Loads of castles, Eddie Izzard is right about that, more churches than you can shake a stick at, and about every town is ridiculously picturesque and cute. Wouldn't mind living in any of them. We took a boat tour of a flooded mine that the Nazis used to build airplanes in. You can see here the blurry evidence of our being in a cavelike setting.

Tomorrow we are going to take a train down to Budapest, and hopefully see more amazing underground things... there are lots of catacombs, caves and baths under the streets of that city.

Blurry photos of neat stuff

I have been hanging out with Amie, the girl that I met in Prague who got the snake tattoo. It is fun to travel a bit with another person. As much fun as I think my own company is, I'm a little tired of just being by myself.

The other day we went to a crypt, where I got some great blurry pictures of amazing sculpted bronze coffins. Today we went to a cemetery, more dead people in boxes with huge head stones. It is interesting to me what lengths people go to do respect the dead... somehow entombing a body and keeping it from returning to the earth doesn't seem very natural to me.

The Moose Strikes Again

Today I encountered four more moose tags. The one with the spray paint can is my favorite. I think I am going to begin the great Canadian moose hunt... I think they might be trying to lead me somewhere. This afternoon they led me to a construction site. Silly moose.

Bone Church

While I was in Prague I took a train to Kutna Hura, which is about and hour and a half south of the city, to see the bone church. This was a church that had been built way back when (sorry, didn't absorb the history very well). After the plague about 40,000 people were burried in the cemetery, and then later were dug up and stored. Until 1870 when a carpenter who was hired to work on the church got permission to use them to decorate the place with... and this is the result. It is pretty fascinating and a bit of a morbid tribute to our mortality.

Some of this and that

While in Prague I met a girl named Aimee who was staying that the same hostel. She wanted to get a tattoo of a snake while she was there, so I went around town with her on Friday looking for a good tattoo shop. We settled on a place where the tattooist was nice (some of them were really rude), spoke english, and was willing to research pictures and freehand a realistic corn snake around her wrist. So here is a picture of Tom at work. I don't know if he didn't want me to be bored, or if he was trying to give me something to do so that I wasn't hovering, but he gave me a chunk of granite clay, telling me that if I sculpted him something he would give me a free tattoo. I wasn't too interested in just picking a tattoo at a monents notice, and definately not interested in having a healing tattoo while traveling, but I sculpted something for him anyway. It was just a little crouching guy with one hand over his head. Reminds me of something I made in the eighth grade. Here is a little blurry photo of my embarrassingly bad sculpture that I made in 45 minutes. While waiting I also got my left ear pierced with one of the industrial bars. I have been wanting one for a while, but now that it is in I am having serious second thoughts. It feels a lot larger and bulkier than I imagined, and it hurts like hell. I know that the whole healing process with take time, but jesus. Barb, any thoughts? You guys have a vote whether it looks good or not? If I keep it I will probably put smaller ends on it when I get back to the states... less pokey for sweaters and lips to get caught on.

I also went to the modern art museum in Prague, which was great. It was huge, full of lots of angry Chech artists, and did I mention huge? Here is a photo of one of the pieces that made me laugh. Also, a photographs of some blacksmiths at work in the main square. I bought a pretty cool corkscrew from them. I like buying things from local artisans rather than the touristy crap in shops.

Some beautiful views of Prague

For Muffy

Muffy, I know you will appreciate this... there are lots of beautiful benches here to look at!

Prague

I had an amazing time in Prague and in some ways I wish I had stayed longer. The city was beautiful and fun, the hostel I was staying at was nasty and not fun. Well, it might have been fun if I was an 18 year old partier looking for hash and ass. Okay, I was looking for one of the two. But there were a rediculous amount of imature, drunk guys in the place. I was in a room that had 10 bunks, attached to two more rooms that each had 10 bunks. For all of that there was one bathroom with a toilet, one shower, and a kitchen, all of which looked like it had been ages since they were cleaned. Pretty much every night the boys went out to the Caberets, which from what I understand are strip clubs that you can have sex with the girls at. They would get home around 4am or so and yell loudly about whatever happened that night. One night a guy was so drunk that he couldn't find the bathroom and pissed on his friend's bed in his stupor, kid you not.

Anyway, the hostel was the only downside of Prague, the rest (if you ignore the touristy aspect) was rather enchanting. I arrived Thursday afteroon, checked my things into my room, and set out into the city. I walked over to the Vltava River, which runs through the heart of the city. I was greeted there by a bunch of swans and a beautiful view of the castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. I then proceded to the St. Charles Bridge is a famous bridge, which is a famous bridge that connects the two sides. There are also about five or six other bridges, kind of like P-town. Over the bridge, on which lots of local artisans were selling photographs, paintings, marionettes, and other hand made things. On the other side I stopped and had a beer in one of the many outside pubs and then headed up the hill. Half way up I got some home made tarimisou icecream, that actually had ladyfingers in it. Yummy! Then way, way up to the park overlooking the city, where I managed to find shelter in a doorway of a huge wall just before it started to downpour. I was hiding from the rain with a local man who was very nice and spoke a tiny bit of english. All around were the tiniest of frogs. The first one I saw was super cute and I picked it up to take a closer look. But when I started walking around, there were hundreds jumping out of my way, then it became a little creepy. Creepy, but cute. It poured for about twenty minutes, then cleared up into the most beautiful sunset with a double rainbow over the city. A very nice first impressio of Prague.

Toys for big girls

I bought a cheap car to get around in, since I am moving here and all. Okay, not really, but this is the car I would buy if I lived here. It looks like it breaks down every two minutes, but at least I would look good standing over the engine pretending to fix it.

Not only do they have small cars, but there are incredibly cute and little trucks with hoists here. The one up on ballancers that looks suspended was outside of the Belvedere in Vienna (which had a huge Klimpt exhibit and 'The Kiss'. The other one was up on a hillside in Prague on the way to the castle. Very cool.

The last two pictures are of art that I accidentally ran into. Very happy accidents. The first is a Jewish memorial by Rachael Whiteread, which some of you may remember from Prudence's contemporary art history class. The second was a piece by Dan Graham! Good timing, since he jsut visited us at PSU. Crazy guy. So this picture is you looking at me taking a picture of me looking at me.... or some other such Grahamian nonsense.

Schönbrunn Palace

I am trying to catch up on postings and pictures, now that I am at a computer that has these abilities. Last week in Vienna I visited the Schonbrunn Palace. These are a few photographs from the grounds. Plus pictures of the crazy squirls with pointy ears and the gray and black crows.

Signs and graffiti

These are some of my favorite signs, the one for the rat poison is in my neighborhood and is pretty funny. The other one is on the subway. Also, I have been seeing this moose tag on a few buildings. The first is on the Albertina, which is a great museum, and the other is about a mile away on some random building. Other people take pictures of beautiful vistas (okay, I do that too) but I am more interested in odd things like these.

Ancestors

There seem to be a lot of Schenk's in Austria, this is one of many business signs I have seen.
Now I know where I get my uptight, obsesive qualities from.