Before escaping to Barcelona, Istanbul’s Blue Mosque, and the Acropolis, the 13-year-old was bullied daily by rock-throwing schoolmates. She tried to find refuge in her art books, and fantasies. But as she recalls, life in the icy oil fields of…
The Invisible Anthropologist
Armed with an AK-47, a fierce-looking Karo tribesman sits next to his son on an Omo Valley riverbank in Ethiopia. Their eyes are intense, vigilant, and each of them is sheathed in white body paint, adding to their aura of…
Beekeeping By Tafadzwa Tigere Tandi
Bees hover next to her, seduced by her life-giving charms. They know this Shona goddess will honor her promises, protect them, so they reward her with the gift of nourishment, their sweetest huchi. Whispering to bees, encouraging them to create,…
Dancing to Be Free
Life is a struggle these days. Cloistered in her Brazil apartment, unable to dance before live audiences, ballerina Juliana Rodrigues is facing the pain and frustrations of living in a nation grievously impacted by the Pandemic. She usually lives free. Her…
The Great Illusion
It was a charmed life. Animated dinners with Marc Chagall and Georges Braque, hopscotching from Paris’ Left Bank to the Meditteranean, and driving along the glittering Côte d’Azur. During these evening get-togethers, those art world luminaries would discuss their latest…
LOVE IN BEAR COUNTRY By Kasia Kay
Expanding the reach of the Exquisite Corpse had taken a toll. It was stressful to convince artists to play this hide-n-seek game with me. They had to be convinced to activate their subconscious, and to draw torsos, legs, and other…
Embroidered in the Past By Marjan Samie
As the sun set, and a hush descended on Bandar Kong, the women in their rose-colored dresses made last minute preparations for Hana Bandan. It was “Henna Night,” and each decoration marking this festive “new beginning,” the bliss of marriage,…
Entering Ali Baba’s Cave by Muriel de Lamarzelle
Able to transform plastic pollution into eco-responsible and poetic flowers, William Amor is an ennobler. A self-taught French visual artist, he turns ugly, discarded plastics, consumer products and waste into sublime objects of beauty. The storyteller, vividly and sensually transmitting…
Creatures in the French Woods By Marie Guegain
My hall of death was a daily assault of pressures. I had to console the grieving, arrange various bereavement ceremonies, and also ensure the fire was working properly. Fire is very capricious. Some days it is predictable. Other days it…
The Hunt for Anchovies and Inspiration
Rogoznica is a small, inviting village on the Dalmatian Coast that attracts the rich and famous from all over the world. They shelter their large yachts in gloriously-blue bays, and either retreat to hillside villas or to small restaurants lining…