Moving Forward

My painting residency finished and I left Villa Karo and the village of Grand Popo this morning. By the end this strange place and unlikely collection of people started to feel a little like home. There was Jaakko, the Finnish intern, with whom I travelled to Togo among other adventures; Liz, the American peace corps volunteer who brought a little good-old-USA with her; Kaisu the older Finnish painter I connected with; Boris the vegetarian carpenter who never failed to bring a smile; Marcel the raggedy, drooling speach-impaired kid who never left us alone, but who was too adorable to chase away; the family of Adrienne and Francoise and their six kids, who farmed and hunted crabs and lizards for a living and were so warm to me; Abdullaj the easy-going Fulani night guard, who cheerfully ascribed every misfortune to fate, and with whom we shared many funny, mosquito-laced conversations, Victor who guided me safely across the seedy side of Cotonou, and many many many others. It was sad to leave but I left properly, said my goodbyes, didn't leave things unresolved...I'm leaving with less baggage than I came with.

In the end I did make some paintings, although painting here never ceased to be difficult and I'll have to finish most of them in the States: A flowering, overgrown garden, a painting of Abdullay, the night guard, a painting of the sea at sunset, palms in moonlight, two portraits, and maybe a dozen small watercolors.

So I'm leaving, but I'm not going home yet. I'm single for the first time in a long time, I have no apartment, no studio, not really a city to call home, I have no shows scheduled, and it occurred to me that I have no reason to return to the States just yet (although sadly I'll miss the election). I have enough cash from my open-house show in August to keep me going another month or two, so if I want to see the Sahara Desert, if I want to ride a camel or float down the Niger River or sit on an overcrowded train for two days straight...then why not?

I'm in Cotonou tonight, and tomorrow I'll start a one-way trip across West Africa.
I'll travel alone with a small, efficiently-packed backpack and a colorful new watercolor-bag made by Florence, the energetic local seamstress. I got a faux-hawk haircut last night courtesy of Liz and Jaakko, as a kind of going-away-ritual, and it feels great and anyway no one here knows what white people's hair should look like. I've looked at maps and talked to people and made a plan, I feel good and strong and I'm ready to go.

If all goes well I'll travel through Benin to Niamey in Niger, across northern Burkina Faso, up to Mali through the Dogon country, to Timbuktoo and the edge of the Sahara, then up the Niger River to Bamako and across to Dakar, leaving Africa in early December.

I'll write again soonish.