The Gallery in via Fiesolana in Florence 1998 /2005 (Italy) "A Time For Dreamers"

A song by van Morrison

Foreign Window

I saw you from a foreign window

Bearing down the sufferin' road

You were carryin' your burden

To the palace of the Lord

To the palace of the Lord

I spied you from a foreign window

When the lilacs were in bloom

And the sun shone through your window pane

To the place you kept your books

You were reading on your sofa

You were singin' every prayer

That the masters had instilled in you

Since Lord Byron loved despair

In the palace of the Lord

In the palace of the Lord

And if you get it right this time

You don't have to come back again

And if you get it right this time

There's no need to explain

I saw you from a foreign

Bearing down the sufferin' road

You were carryin' your burden

You were singing about Rimbaud

I was going down to Geneva

When the Kingdom had been found

Ponte alle Grazie on top of via Maggio 

My story in Florence began in 1982 ....  i had just arrived in Florence from Perugia where i had had a great time getting to know new people and living in the countryside.( Here i had lived with an american student who was studying to be vet) I loved the feeling of this medieval city, Living on Beverly's farm i had the wonderful experience of living in the huge fire place like they used to do on farm houses.  I was eating lots of Bruschetta which is toasted bread with garlic rubbed on it and olive oil on top of the garlic .... it was incredibly healthy for a cold winter ,  I was also getting to know the animals on the farm , i loved the animals all except  the rooster because it was not at all friendly . He  used to sing a lot and then there were two dogs which Bev called Cipolla e Carota (onion and carrot) and i could have stayed there for the rest of my days. 

 However i was thinking of going to an art school or perhaps to study at university, and when some friends decided to go to Florence to look at the works of art in the Uffizi i went along with them .... i had been living in London were i had studied for three years  and then in Karachi were i had gone to visit my relatives .  When i turned 22,  i had  some ideas about Art  and creativity and wanted to take that direction.  I knew Florence because of  the sculptures of Michelangelo and the paintings of Boticelli because an art historian called Agdashloo had programes on TV about western art.  

Me working in my studio in 1998 …..

it was full time Art until 2005

 I had arrived in Florence before xmas and was saving money by sleeping in a camping place and a hostel in viale Africo and i was there for a month. I was going  to Art school and learning about engravings. The school  was in Via San Gallo. I met some people who were art students ....  i was very surprised to hear that young people there only knew about western art  and thought that Greece was the cradle of "world" (Western civilization perhaps would be right)  civilization.  They didnt consider Egyption or Chinese or even South American history.

Some students had no idea about art from other countries and only for this reason would think Greece was superior to the rest , and i was glad that i had some notion that Art and creativity had happened all over the world. Infact one of the positive things one learns in school in Italy is that many civilizations have existed side by side.  Rome itself  had infact been built on a multitude of cultures.

my studio atelier in 1998

I guess i got lucky because  of the students from an american University studying there, hearing that i was sleeping in a tent, was very kind and told me that a friend of hers was leaving and would i like to share the apartment with another student.  That is how i met Emily who was part of an American university programe in Florence.  The apartment on via Maggio was gorgeous and very soffisticated , but i was simply overjoyed to be in a warm place that winter and  Emily told me about her friend  working  as a shop assistant in a shop selling leather goods.... She said that i could work there as well  that way i could pay the rent and when Emily left for New York i was in the apartment  on my own.

   I enrolled in the University of Florence ( 1984 )  for a degree in english and german literature .  In London i had done art school but by the time i reached Italy i thought it was safer to follow in my mother's foot steps and study literature and languages.  I was painting all through university years and only after finishing university  in 1992  i made up my mind; i could only try being a creative and had to work towards that as a profession.  Some people have it so easy, because they already know that creativity is a profession  (in later years when i met the Artist Mario Mariotti who was teaching at the accademia ... he told me that Art was Work and there was nothing romantic attatched to that) , but i had to learn a lot before being convinced that i had any talent, and that i could make money through creativity.  A lot of people dont know that every individual is endowed with some Genius in some shape or form, but that it has to be trained, it is a seed that  will grow but has to be watered, live in good soil and conditions….

Decorated door to the Studio Atelier in via Fiesolana

Now it is a private place and totally redone

 Bob Dylan 's Genius was mainly in this one rebelious song and how i found it through some of his music ….  some words are unbelievably  expressive of how i feel about people not being encouraged in this direction (of creativity) even now ….   it is a form of political agenda , just recently a friend told me that only people from military backgrounds could be successful in the Arts ! which is a wierd  thing to say ….

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Bob Dylan

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Johnny's in the basement

Mixing up the medicine

I'm on the pavement

Thinking about the government

The man in the trench coat

Badge out, laid off

Says he's got a bad cough

Wants to get it paid off

Look out kid

It's somethin' you did

God knows when

But you're doing it again

You better duck down the alley way

Lookin' for a new friend

A man in the coonskin cap, in the pig pen

Wants eleven dollar bills, you only got ten

Maggie comes fleet foot

Face full of black soot

Talkin' that the heat put

Plants in the bed but

The phone's tapped anyway

Maggie says that many say

They must bust in early May

Orders from the D.A. Look out kid

Don't matter what you did

Walk on your tip toes

Don't tie no bows

Better stay away from those

That carry around a fire hose

Keep a clean nose

Watch the plain clothes

You don't need a weather man

To know which way the wind blows

Oh, get sick, get well

Hang around a ink well

Hang bail, hard to tell

If anything is goin' to sell

Try hard, get barred

Get back, write braille

Get jailed, jump bail

Join the army, if you fail

Look out kid

You're gonna get hit

But losers, cheaters

Six-time users

Hang around the theaters

Girl by the whirlpool

Lookin' for a new fool

Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters

Oh, get born, keep warm

Short pants, romance

Learn to dance, get dressed, get blessed

Try to be a success

Please her, please him, buy gifts

Don't steal, don't lift

Twenty years of schoolin'

And they put you on the day shift

Look out kid

They keep it all hid

Better jump down a manhole

Light yourself a candle

Don't wear sandals

Try to avoid the scandals

Don't want to be a bum

You better chew gum

The pump don't work

'Cause the vandals took the handles

1998

"living by  my production of art" 

"A Dream Come True"

I had been living comfortably in Via Delle Cinque Giornate ( The street was called after the five days of revolt in Milan 1848 , was the first struggle towards independance in Italy to break away  from the Austrian empire).  This was in the Fortezza area in Florence for many years, but i had never been able to travel to other countries in europe as i wanted to.   I had met Guido while i was living in via Maggio and he had written a formal letter of proposal to my parents and seemed to be serious about getting married.  I had made a big move from via Maggio where i lived during 1983 and 1984 while i worked as a shop assistant in the center of Florence . We had met when i was sharing the flat with Emily Miller the 23 year old photographer from New York  .  Emily found me a job because her previous flatmate who was from the US had left her position , she  was working for a family in their shop in Borgo ss Apostoli; thanks to Emily who introduced me to Anna Maria and Renzo  i took the job.

Later on i was working on the Ponte Vecchio for Mr Ricci.  He was a pianist but had inherited the buisness and his son was running it when i went to work there.  There were some english girls who were working there ; Kathy , who was english with a pile of glorious thick blond hair and in love with a sicilian, Lina who was from scotland and with a heavy accent and kate who was scottish as well and had had a boyfriend from a noble florentine family but was now with an iranian .... and other girls whose names i dont remember but whose life stories were interesting,we some times talked about episodes of our life while waiting for clients to walk in and buy gold jewels .  Mr Ricci came to visit some times and  talked about when the river Arno (which runs through the center of town) , flooded everything in the old shops on the Bridge  the "alluvione"was a recent experience even if ithad happened two decades ago on the 4rth of nov 1966.  An international effort was made to restore the city center.

This was the time when i finally left via Maggio and moved to via Bolognese , to live in a students appartment with Jurgen who had a very friendly girlfriend from Naples, Andrew (his friend who wasaPHD student, who was leaving ) , Sonia (who was from Ohio with her beloved running cat Arthurro, she was soon to be married to Franco in the city town hall and every one was looking forward to being part of it because it was in the Palazzo Vecchio.

She was marrying a respected accountant  and Silvia who was from Sardinia and who worked as a waitress and was never in .  Sonia was working  as a  sales person just like myself and we became friends, right uptil she moved away after her marriage.

I could confirm what my brother (who lived in LA in the 90's ) would say later on .... "when you live abroad .... People you meet become your family ...."

Part of the door sculpture i made in 1998

In 1984 jurgen had to leave the appartment and me and Guido were also looking for a new place he .

had found an appartment and i decided that we could share the appartment with him .  This new place was in via delle cinque giornate.  We had just signed the contract when there was a phone call after a week or two telling us that they were going to be a raising of the rent.  It was a wierd phone call and i couldnt understand why they were doing it as we had just moved in .

I made many sculptures and paintings in that appartment ... it was inspirational ....  Guido however wasnt moving to Florence as he thought he would do and later on he had found some one else .... which gave me a lot of time for socializing and for painting !