Summer Summary

Hi All,

Each summer I tend to have the cherished wish that I'll somehow overcome the constant pressures of life and work in order to actually slow down and enjoy this prized season of hot, torpor-inducing, beer-in-hand leisure time before it inevitably passes into fall. And each summer I tend nonetheless to feel shortchanged in this regard, grappling as I do with a complex number of demands and options in my free lance career or home life! Normal people (i.e. those with conventional jobs/careers) can generally expect to be able to schedule a vacation of about 2 weeks duration (or more) at least, but we who enjoy the advantages of free lance careers, also must tolerate its constraints, one chief one being the way there just aren't definite lines between work and other obligations, and personal time. Ah well--'join the club' I hear you say!

I certainly doubt I'll generate much sympathy by complaining about any 'obligation' involved in the fabulous invitation last month to the Count's Castle at Diez, Germany, for instance. I can only express great appreciation for the wonderful welcome and experience I had while among members of the German Tolkien Society during their annual gathering, and appreciation for the opportunity it gave me to see a little of rural Germany and its unique charms, too. My sincere thanks go to long time  acquaintance and GTS Chair Marcel Bulles, as well as to his able committee in such persons as Christian, Nina, Alex, and Alex, et al. Thanks also and greetings to the various GTS members I was able to get to know a little, and who welcomed me so heartily, as well as the established friends/acquaintances I enjoyed seeing again on this occasion. 

Among the highlights, it was especially gratifying to have such a truly enthusiastic reception for my musical offerings. Even the noon chiming in the castle's bell tower couldn't spoil things! To you who wonder what I mean here, I will explain: I was called on to offer an encore, but the noon chiming had begun during the previous song. On any Sunday it tends to go on beyond 12 strokes however, the traditional call-to-worship, it was explained. In a bit of quick thinking I'd never have imagined myself capable of, I quickly realized that the metronomic rhythm of the bells was fairly close to the song's tempo, and that it was sounding the note 'E', which happened to be in key. Thus I did my best to incorporate the bells into a song describing the ominous approach to Angband by Beren and Luthien as bat and wolf!

While not travelling to Europe, I've been busy doing my best to maintain a schedule of painting, and am busy these days working mostly on a series of castle depictions for a concordance to be published next year (by Dell Books/Random House) on the fantasy world in which the novels of George R.R. Martin are set. In Germany, during a slide presentation of mostly Tolkien artworks, I shared slides of two of the Martin works. I intend to post those and the two newest works here in the near future, I've decided. It is a wonderful project, and a refreshing (if temporary) departure from the Tolkien works. The latter continue as and when I can get to them, too, with a list of new works I'm committed to over the coming months.

And with that I'll conclude for the moment, in order to get over to the studio and carry on; the more diligent I am, the more I'll be able to enjoy that elusive summer idyll I once again fear is slipping away too fast. 

Posted by Ted on August 07, 2007

Comments

Posted by Dawid Michalczyk on October 23, 2007