Just the Beginning of the Rainbow
The first few months in a new city is like throwing yourself hardcore into the battle of survival of the fittest. Finding work, friends, something fun to do at night, enough geld to live. And this is the moment we find ourselves in now: Every day is a surprise, good or bad, always different. A sculpture sold assures us we can pay our rent next month, job interview rejection brings up doubt, an opportunity to travel to Switzerland for a week´s work seems a gift from some higher power. Each disappointment is compensated with an even better chance that gleams out of the corner of our eyes.
And thus we have been on the prowl for work. Me mostly. I´m a beast turned loose on Berlin, pouncing on any little squeak of a job.
Yes, I went so far as to make a T-shirt advertising myself (Hey, the unemployment rate here is 13%. I needed to make myself visable somehow!). But with that said, the work I have found I adore. After years of teaching English and music to rowdy Italian kids, I feel more than adequately prepared for my job as part of the Storytime Books staff, where I read stories and sing songs with the comparedly well-behaved German children.
Adding literature to my mix of songs and gestures has been an unexpected delight (mostly for me!). The kids love it, too, of course, but I have been thoroughly enjoying exploring the world of children´s literature through my almost infinite access (and in two languages, at that!) to books at the bookstore, where I do these sessions of reading and music. I have also met some very interesting people who write their own music for children, which I have come to respect and admire as an important part in bettering the world (and also a possible future venture for myself!).
Something else I´m looking forward to is this almost random, yet I want to believe destined, opportunity to go to Switzerland for a week to work a private party at the Maloja Palace in St. Moritz, one of the wealthiest areas of Europe. The huge historic hotel (think, The Shining), undergoing restoration, will be hosting a private party for the owner´s friends, who are mostly Italian or English speakers. That´s where I came in. A stroke of luck had it that a place opened up for Luca to come along, too! So we´ll both be going in December. Look at those gorgeous mountains!
And so we are happy, for the time being.
Grateful for what life has presented as gifts to us, and proud of the strength we have as two people who go whole-heartedly after our dreams.
Luca´s side of the story is more intriguing every day. Lately he´s been selling sculptures as if they were kebabs out on the street. He has a hot spark inside of him, in the place where art is born, that drives him to create, believe in what he´s made, and make others stop and stare. He has the necessary ability to convince people to buy his art. But they don´t need to be convinced that it´s beautiful.
Both of these have sold, by the way, for several hundred Euros. Just to brag a bit. 
It is amazing to follow the path of a visual artist. The excitement when you realize he has real talent, disappointment when he becomes too critical of his art. One thing for sure is that the art itself evolves, begins to grow its own spirit, has a character, and has to be both stimulated and disciplined, like a child. Or a walrus?
Some of the possibilites that pop up every day at Tacheles for Luca include going to build a sculpture from scrap metal at a festival in Ireland, someone making a documentary about his art, going to Paris for an exhibition, making a sculpture for an emergency waiting room. All of them within his reach, but never garanteed. Because art, in the end, is a risk.
Last weekend Manuela Barile, experimental vocalist, performance artist and friend, came to stay with us in Berlin while she was in town for two performances. We bothed lived with her at separate times in Bologna. It was amazing to have her here, and realize how much we´ve all grown up in the past two years. She has a one-and-a-half-year old son, and a professional career as an artist and director of Binaural Media (www.binauralmedia.org), one of the more important art associations in Portugal.
Her performance was fantastic, a mix of vocal and theatrical improvisation. She amazes me, because when she´s on stage it´s like she´s another person, or rather, possessed even, by a spirit that wants to play with our function as an audience as well as her own limits as an artist. Truly spectacular.
And so we are just at the beginning of the rainbow, and rising. The future holds more interviews, more propositions, more sculpture, more unexpected surprises. And that, it seems, is our little pot of gold that keeps us going.
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