Andrew Wyeth

Andrew (oil on canvas), L. MacLaughlin

"Painting is all about breaking the rules. Art is chance. It's like making love. Hell, you don't have a written book for sex; it's always spontaneous." 
- A. W.

Home is where...

I recently heard that a girl I grew up with back in Pennsylvania is making a film about our hometown. Actually, our home-county - Schuylkill County. I'm talking about "Skook" - a nickname that can be positive or negative, depending on how you wield it. This term can be used as a proper noun, i.e. a place name ("Born and raised in Skook") or a common noun ("Our lad's a real Skook, ain't he"); and don't forget the adjective form ("Guers Iced Tea is a real Skook drink"). From what I understand, Ashley plans to praise the place rather than criticize, which is definitely a good thing. The tourism industry needs any help it can get.

So the news comes to me at an interesting time, since I've recently been thinking a lot about my origins. Most successful young people who leave the Skook never look back. They shake the dust of "small town America" off their boots and move onward to bigger and better things. That was my plan when I left for college, and then eventually, for Italy. In high school, I looked down my nose at Skooks (the inhabitants, that is). It was their fault that there was no bookstore, art gallery, coffee shop or museum to even speak of. I hated that everything I deemed important - art, culture, creativity - seemed to play second fiddle to football and alcohol consumption. By now, I'm far removed from the dreary mountains, grey mining towns and flowing rivers of Yuengling beer; it took about 6 years of living on the outside, but I can finally see Schuylkill County in a new light. I can see sweet little mountain towns trying to stimulate outdoor tourism. I worked for the "mad" potter (an amazing woman) who offers summer art classes for kids. I listen to "Gleason's Drift", an area band that tours the east coast and is proud to sing about living in the Skook. I totally dig how last autumn, local brewers got together for a beer festival to celebrate and judge their handmade drafts.

I could never see the positive aspects of where I came from, I only ever saw the negative. Skook was the place I needed to escape from! It was the person that I didn't want to become. But I guess that no one truly appreciates where they come from until they're far removed from it, both physically and emotionally. Now as I survey the rolling hills outside of Florence, with silver olive trees and rows of Sangiovese grapes ordering the landscape, I know that I'm at home here. A Skook in Italy. It's who I am and rather than deny it, I'm learning to embrace it.  "Cripes, I could drink a Lord Chesty."

Check out Ashley Pishock's future film, "Skook: The Movie": 
http://republicanherald.com/news/schuylkill-haven-native-shoots-her-1st-feature-film-in-county-1.1269695

The Coal Region Dictionary - for those who dare venture into the Skook without a tour guide:
http://www.coalregion.com/Speak/speakA.htm

morning protest

Winter mornings lend to that really hazy, fuzzy feeling. The alarm sounds and you just snuggle in tighter, disappearing under the downy mountains of comforter. You rub your feet together and wait for the courage to emerge from hibernation. Winter. In a high-ceilinged, drafty house. Saturday morning are the worst at this time of year.

Now the first (and only) snow squalls of the year have blown through Florence, leaving a white film on roof tops and potted herbs - a film which disappears by noon in this city. During these winter months, Italians are in danger of getting a colpo d'aria (a hit of air). Strange illnesses such as this, whose translation makes no real sense to us Anglo-Saxons/Americans, seem to effect only those of Italian origin. I think I'm immune for now. Or at least until my citizenship comes through.

In the mean time, I'll spend the morning rolling around on the floor, risking torcicollo, in protest of winter and having to work at 9am on Saturday.
Link to video: (click me!)
BLUE ROOM IMPROV 1