Sara is another American artist who is staying here in Mooste. She is here in Estonia for nine months on a Fulbright scholarship doing landscape painting. She rents out an apartment in one of the "blockhouses"- I think their name gives enough of a clue to their appearence. This afternoon Sara invited me over for tea- when I arrived I noticed that the outside of the door was padded so fortunately enough she had a buzzer. Her living room was full of oil paintings, which she has done en plein air in various places throughout Estonia. The wallpapers in this apartment are outrageous, although a little distracting for viewing paintings. We sat down in her kitchen and discussed many aspects of creativity & insanity as well as the need for fiscal & emotional stability and independence as an artist. We also discussed the ephemeral nature of much of conceptual art, & how it can feel like throwing a big dinner party and then it is all over...where as with painting, by contrast, it seems to have an everlasting historical nature and what she claims to be an "intrinsic value". Sara had previously made installation art, including a project in Seoul, Korea where she filled an entire subway with her artwork. However, now she feels more inclined to express herself through her oil paint & watercolor landscapes. After a glass of Irish whisky & some chocolate with hazelnuts- (what decadence!)- She offered to drive me back to MoKS, as it was starting to rain again.
When I got there, one of the girls from school had returned to work on her soap bust & was waiting by the door! I could have given her her bust and lent her a plastic knife, but I felt flattered that she had returned so keenly & I let her in to work in my studio for an hour or so. She spoke English remarkably well, which I told her would help her finding a job in Tartu when she was older. She responded right away, & very matter of factly- that she had much bigger dreams for herself. I asked her what her dreams were, and rather coyly she expressed her dream for wanting the "magic world" from Harry Potter to become real but that that would probably never happen & so she was pursuing music- but that one never knew where life would take them. She stayed there carving her soap bust, trying to perfect the shape of it's skull while telling me stories of her step parents, the snobbery of the popular girls in her class, & above all about the ghosts that reside in Mooste & that haunt many of the children and even "teachers that never lie". She even revealed her own personal encounters with the ghost baron- that whistled for his small hunting dog & then disappeared. Never thought too much for ghosts, but the creaks in the floor & random sounds of the night seemed that much creepier tonight...thanks to my "A+ student"!
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