relics

All over Greece I have come in contact with messages from the past

I am deeply enamored with reliquary objects, and icons.
They are a nonverbal record marking a spiritual event or a transcendental experience.

And this record has been a very normal part of my day to day here. It is very grounding.
To be with these objects , is to come face to face with my ancestors, in a silent dialog.

I don't know

Touch

The fabric of Skopelos is unique and beautiful and can often be seen hanging overhead throughout the streets within town.

blink and they're gone

Stacks

smell

Having never really lived near the beach, it is new to me to be driving with the windows open and suddenly get a really strong smell of the ocean.

Direction by Water

Being from Florida, watershed has always played an integral part in how I tell direction. The direction of an ocean, lake, a flowing river or even a creek can mark or lead towards a location. In Skopelos, the same holds true of water; it can only lead in the correct direction, whether one is following it down towards the bay, or following its path up towards the main road from town.

zeroing in

July 7. 12:58 pm

Sense of Smell

The Shipbuilder's workshop appealed to all the senses: I wanted to touch the delicate woodwork, hear the stories behind the ships, my eyes were amazed, etc. Above all however, was the wonderful smell of freshly cut wood.

a sense of smell

Sitxh Sense

The majestically sloping mountains dotting the Aegean are almost enough to forget that one has a life elsewhere, but, not matter how hard one tries, one will always long for the familiarity of home.

taste

The first thing I noticed about the food in Greece was that this was nothing like the yogurt, gyros, or greek salads that I thought I'd had at home.

Done.

Smell

On this island one can smell the sun. This sense is best exemplified on the goat trail. On this path, in the mid-afternoon, the sun is intense; the color of the ground beneath is a sign of its overbearing quality. As one is walking here, the dust picks up and tickles the nostrils and with it comes the scent of the sun-bleached earth.

Sense of Taste

I found these 'tasteful' ceramic tiles embedded in part of a wall at the Skopelos Foundation :)

Sight

I have been a gluttonous sightseer on this trip

greedily gobbling up the views of the island,

thank you very much, theres no room for dessert

I'm stuffed.

sight

The island provides many varying shades of green. This palette includes the greens of sage, grapes, olive trees, ivy, unripe plums, and cyanotype residue.

Sense of Adventure--the Sixth Sense

The sense of adventure is what brought us all to Skopelos, and what has driven our creativity--the desire to explore and try new things!

Sound

I find it interesting that the service at Christo's church was still meaningful to me even though it was in a different language. It didn't take me long to realize this was because of the sounds and the incantation of his voice combined with bells and the rest of the churchgoers occasionally joining in. For a time I was sitting in a spot where I couldn't really see what was going on; I could only hear and it still held the same power.

Sense of Scale

Taste

On Skopelos the tastes and flavors everyday come to life.

Plucking and Cleaning

a sense of adventure: not knowing where your path will

take you... a simple dinner turns into a hot sour mess...

Touch

The Aegean Sea has a high salt content; in this water the human body can float effortlessly. Aside from the sting in one’s eyes when renegade droplets run down the face, the salt cannot be felt until one is out of the water, baking in the sun. Whilst laying out sunning on a beach towel, the salt dries on the skin forming little granules that are easily detected by finger tips.

Abba to the Max

Douros. July 5th. 1:30-3:26 am.

touch

touch is a sense that is neglected in everyday life in the states

it is easily overlooked and is a very rich and rewarding sense

the subtle feel of a burr on a plate,
...........................or the velvety softness of a mezzotinted plate......
....................................................................Waxy ball grounds

Just for Kicks and Giggles: A Printmaking Poem

A collograph can make you laugh
An etching's rather fetching.
An aquatint makes an A1 print
For those adept at sketching.

Now wood is good
When the cut runs true
And lino's fine, oh yes.
Potato cuts just drive me nuts
For I love to make a mess.

Corrsoion IV

Flowering citrus

Walking through the winding streets, the leaves of the lemon trees give off a distinctive smell of their own. Some trees are heavy with overgrown, aromatic lemons ready for the picking while others are still in bloom. The heady scent of the lemon trees hangs in the air around each tree overhanging the paths snaking through town.

throwing

Rodios' Studio. July 2. 9:40-11:00.

Sight

I first noticed it upon arrival in Athens, this near obsession with potted plants that the Greeks seem to have.  Although most of them do not have yards to landscape, everyone still seems to have an innate desire to nurture, grow, and cultivate life.  

Sense of Creativity

miscommunication:skopelos

touch

I don't think anybody likes the feeling of bugs and flies constantly landing on them or the nasty bites they leave behind; however, to me, the worst is sorting through my suitcase and seeing this little guy squirming around inside my shoe.

Σεντούκια

The trip to Sendoukia was one of the most interesting excursions I've been on during my time in Skopelos. Being up at that burial sight gave me chills. It was the highest up a mountain here I've been, we took a long moment of silence to take it all in: the incredible view, the graves, but especially the eerie feeling that we experienced there.

I think my sixth sense would have to be the thoughts that went through my head at this place. It is rumored that pirates created these graves, but our intuition told us that this site took a lot of hard labor to build: the graves were perfectly chiseled out of the rock with perfect right angles; this was a place built for someone more important.

The feeling at the top of that mountain gave us a feeling of royalty, even holiness, and I'll never forget that weird sense of being in a place where so much work was done, in order to give whoever these people were, a incredible resting place.

Coffee Comfort

When imagining tastes, color always comes into play. I find the color brown to be a rich, soothing, luxurious color; thus most foods which are brown have a rich taste and texture. Skopelos has many cafes which serve coffee type drinks made with Nescafe. The rich color reflects the strongest taste memory from Skopelos that I will carry with me. As Nescafe is not used as commonly as ground coffee in the United States, it will forever remain a symbol and a taste of Skopelos in my mind.

6th sense

So I'm going to start this off by saying that I am the type of person who gets lost a lot; I have a really bad sense of direction. The first time I set out to try and make it back up the hill from downtown, Rachelle and I found ourselves not knowing where to go. After a few more times up and down never quite knowing which path to take, I realized that its pretty much impossible to get truly lost in Skopelos.

Sendoukia

Sound

It interests me to see how Zoey exerts sound not only to communicate with both Greeks and Americans but also all other creatures. She can be heard crowing to roosters, neighing to horses, and interacting with all of life around her.

Passers-by

Cafe Korali. June 30. 7:35-9:40.

Touch

Our delicate American skin was not prepared for the vicious insect attacks we would encounter at night.

smell+taste megablog

Smell and taste are two senses that are intimately intertwined.

Smell precedes taste
It can enhance or deceive.
Smell is a sneak preview
-of the taste attraction to come

Smells and taste mix like paint on a palette (palate)
or ink on a slab.

The octopus
mixes
with the lamb
the calamari
eggplant
fresh bread
tomatoes

guzzle down the wine Yorgos
keeps
giving
us
more

and more and more....

hungry beasts wait patiently for the feeding to begin
waiting
waiting
waiting

waiter arrives and the beasts snap hungrily at the floating feast.

foods here dig in..... but WAIT! a prayer

rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub, yay god.

Smell

This is a memory drawing of the different smells I have experienced in Greece.

Doors

Sights to see for me

(above:"melia")
In my case the best sights on the island would have to be the beaches. Each different in their own way and all worth seeing at least once. Though some are expensive to travel to, an afternoon spent on the beach is never a bad idea.

sound

Contrary what is said of roosters, here they do not act as alarm clocks and alert us at dawn. Instead, their "Cock-a-doodle-doos" pierce the air at any given time of the day, calling to other roosters and just becoming a nuisance, especially when attempting to take an afternoon nap.

THELO ελληνικά!

While I am in Greece, I am trying to learn as much Greek as I can so that I may go back to the States and speak to my Yiayia, Pappou, and Dad in our language.  Both my grandparents are sick, and I know it would make them very proud to see their granddaughter immersing herself in our culture.  Thanks to the help of Jill, Christos, Jorgos, Minnolis, and Giannis, I am picking up much more of the language than I thought I would in three short weeks.  

I am trying to learn the alphabet, as well.  In my sketchbook, I recorded the alphabet and phonetic sounds of each letter.  I am particularly interested in the Greek letters which look like English letters, but are pronounced differently.  For example, the Greek B is pronounced like the English V.  

I consider the ease with which I am able to learn Greek to be my sixth sense.  Perhaps it is an innate manifestation of my culture. 

Sense of Sound

I have heard the whir of an electric pottery wheel before, and never really paid attention--it's always a background noise, like air conditioning or the current on a power line. Today I heard and saw a manual wheel, or kick wheel, in action. It was a beautiful sound--the potter's foot scraping and propelling the big wooden wheel at the bottom made a rhythm that complemented the constant, up and down, in and out flow of the potter's hands on and around the spinning clay.

MUSTY SHIPS

Today we visited the workshop of Giannis, a master shipbuilder.  His work is incredibly meticulous.  I was amazed most by the fact that he does not conduct research to learn the designs of the ancient ships; he knows the dimensions and such from talking to people and mentally storing information.  

Giannis' workshop was so full of wood and sawdust, it activated all the senses.  Most notable to me was the sense of smell.  The air was so saturated with sawdust that I had to step outside to catch my breath.  Especially in the second room, the smell of walnut wood was potent.