It’s been such a busy and challenging autumn here that it feels luxurious just to have the time to sit down by the fire and tell you about it. After pulling an edition of 150 prints for a Malaga artist in August I devoted the month of September to a particularly rewarding Australian artist–and person–who prefers to remain anonymous. After two weeks of wonderful collaborative printmaking together her husband joined her in the Gallinero. Their plan was to tour around Andalusia: Cordoba, Seville, the Costa del Sol, the Picasso Museum in Malaga, etc.
In the end they decided to stay in the Gallinero and visit Granada thoroughly. They found so much to do and so many good things to eat and drink that they never escaped from Granada. We introduced them to our favorite tapas bar–possibly the world’s finest–and they fell under its spell, going back there for lunch most days. They even discovered things in Granada that we didn’t know about, such as the new intimate little Flamenco Theater on the Cuesta Gomerez, the steep street that runs from Plaza Nueva up to the Alhambra. Before their stay was over they were joined by their son and daughter-in-law with their two delightful little girls. The son is a runner/climber and while everyone else was having their siesta one day he took the older of the girls 
(9) up to the top of the mountain behind our house where they surprised a mother jabali (wild boar) and a flock of piglets. The following day they crossed the river and went up the opposite side of our valley and spotted a herd of mountain goats (cabras montesas, the Spanish ibex).
A week before the charming Australians left I got a wholesale order for prints and Rodrigo, my assistant, had just left for Argentina where he had inherited a house. Luckily a willing and talented friend, María José Braojos (wife of Juan Carlos Romera, the video producer who did all of my videos) stepped in and starting inking plates like a professional. We were ticking over nicely when Mike, who had been feeling run down, went to the University Hospital in Granada for some tests. As soon as the cardiologist saw the results he said, “Miguel, it looks as if we’re going to be keeping you here till we can schedule a date to operate.”
Five days later Mike had a triple bypass and a week later he was back home. “Everything in the hospital was perfect,” he said, “a painless experience like watching a documentary with me in it.” He’s recovering nicely, back at work for a couple of weeks now and walking a bit farther every day. Speaking of “work,” how long since you’ve looked at his online magazine about Spain? Here’s a link: ¡Alegria! The Joy of Spanish Living.
A couple of weeks ago I was invited by Munira Mendonça, an amazing leather craftswoman from California, to mount a permanent exhibit of prints in her leather boutique, Munira, in Plaza Nueva, the swankiest gift shop in Granada. I dropped the work off a couple of days ago and it looks pretty good in that old-bricks-and-beams setting highlighted by a 300-year-old stone fountain.
Let’s see what else is new. Oh, it snowed last week and it looks like more this week. They’re talking about opening the ski area early this year. (That snow is 4,000 feet above us. Down here the pomegranates (granadas) are bursting, the persimmons are turning red, the poplars along the river are forming a golden chain, and the new wine is bubbling in the barrels.) And, how could I forget, Nuevo Inicio (New Beginning), the publishing arm of the Archbishopric of Granada has just brought out a book for modern women entitled Get Married and Be Submissive, which I’m sure is destined to be a universal best seller.
Meanwhile I’m looking forward to hosting Mary Majerisson from Italy after Christmas and then Cathy Naro from Chicago and Lorna Ryan Burden from Melbourne and along with their husbands, Mike and Roger, next spring, the third visit for both of them. I love it when email correspondence turns into friendships!
Read Full Post »
Printmaking Courses in Spain 