relish

I’m off work for the next two weeks, starting today, after a whirlwind trip for WCEU 2023, my first time attending. It was a wild first time and I intentionally paced myself, thankfully for the lack of rigidity especially as I hardly slept while there.

The first day, I spoke on a panel about women and non-binary people in WordPress:

It felt surreal to try to represent even a small fraction of those wider voices on that stage. I hope my thoughts added to the discussion and perhaps might have helped folks think about things a touch differently.

The Museum of Block Art (MOBA), a side passion project of mine, was featured as part of this event with four pieces placed on top of postcards. Each attendee was given a pack of four of the same pieces of art, encouraging you to trade with others to get the entire pack of four.

I was shocked to see one of my pieces featured, after sharing a larger set of 10 options with the organizers months ago! At the end of the event, I snagged up a bunch of extras and I can’t wait to send them out to folks, especially since writing postcards is a hobby of mine that I’m slowly returning to after my favorite pen pal died (my grandma).

Athens was loud, busy, and monumental. You could feel the history in each step and sometimes see it from afar in glimpses of the Acropolis at different vantage points, even as modern day life chaotically zoomed by.

I’m in Venice now, finally sleeping again and soaking up more art, trying to speak as little as possible. I relish in the silence after days of talking and stumble over my words when I’m forced to say something. It’s worth the embarrassment to be able to settle into my soul in this way. I didn’t bring my “nice” fujifilm camera with me the first day but busted it out today, snapping the following photos:

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is far proving to be my favorite. Inspiration felt suddenly close and tangible as I walked through. There was an entire exhibit on someone I wasn’t quite familiar with but quickly fell for: Edmondo Bacci. I read a letter from Peggy describing how the art made her house feel dangerous with the power of his pieces. I couldn’t get enough.

I wondered about recreating some of the blockier pieces in the rest of the museum for MOBA.

My anxious self was soothed by the prep I had done for this trip making for an easier time getting from the airport to Venice proper. Other tourists were left reading signs, trying to figure out the ticket options, and frantically asking bus drivers for help. I knew where I needed to go and be (a rare feeling).