Shortly after my last post I got the flu AGAIN! What a waste of time that is. But now, half way into January, I’m finally feeling more energetic and have been spending some time in my studio again.

The ‘Raiders’ were scheduled to be here last Friday but I postponed that to this week, partly to really recover but also to allow enough time to prepare the plates. We’ve decided to have the artists paint on a new plate form. It is a distorted four-sided shape which will mean that there is no horizontal or vertical so it will be really interesting to see how they are painted. I have thrown three forms to make these slab/slump plates so can make three each day.

Now that I’m feeling better I’ve been tackling the job of choosing the best of our photos of Cuba and assembling two Picasa/Google photo albums. I’ve been doing this since 2009 as a way of preserving photos instead of making physical albums. I enjoy having them supposedly safe in the ‘cloud’ and it is a way of sharing our travel experiences.

Our time in Cuba, at the end of November 2014, was a mixed experience. We decided to join an Art tour which was organized by the Museum of Anthropology rather than opt for the easy holiday of staying at a comfortable all-inclusive resort in Varadero. We wanted to see more of Cuba and learn some of its history, see Havana and life in the sometimes spectacular countryside. MOA hosted a show of Afro-Cuban Art recently and the curator Orlando Hernandez met us in Havana and introduced us to some of the artists involved, took us to the International School of Art, gave us a tour of the Cuban Modern Art museum and led us to see street art in Havana. The rest of the tour took us on a comfortable bus, with excellent Aventures Abroad tour leader Rachel (from Kelowna) and local guide Carlos to interesting cities and rural attractions. The down side was that several of us were hit with food poisoning for a couple of days so had to miss some of the special expeditions.

We learned so much about this country’s political challenges over the last fifty years, including the Russian presence for a long time and the current difficulties with the ongoing US embargo. Life is a struggle for Cubans, with lots of shortages. But we were told about the universal education and health care, all free. In theory all needs are supplied by the government and art is greatly encouraged (as seen by major public art in the cities). But infrastructure takes decades to be built or repaired, plumbing is basic, food variety is non-existent, shops are a rarity! It was very good to see Obama announce the initiation of talks aimed at softening and hopefully removing the embargo in the near future. This, just after we got home. So enjoy our photos of Cuba as it is now. A second album of photos, mostly of Havana, will appear very soon.

 https://picasaweb.google.com/112208740085943894765/Cuba1November2014

When you click on the link you will be taken to a Google version of the photos. If you look to the top right away you’ll see an invitation to click to see the Picasa version. It’s better, and you can click on ‘slide show’ and sit back and enjoy! Sorry, there are 95 pics!