Travel might be seen as a break from the routine of the studio. True, I enjoy the change of pace, leaving routine behind and seeing new places. Yet travel has always been something quite other than just a break. My first trip to Europe was as a teenager; a full year of travel from Norway to Gibraltar, with prolonged stays in England and Spain. Since then I have been back repeatedly, studied the languages and visited art museums and archaeological sites.
Above: two photos from a recent visit to Prague. An upper-division art history class entitled Northern Renaissance (the art of Northern Europe, particularly Flanders, in the 1400s and 1500s) was a transformative experience. With artists like Memling, van der Goes, and Bosch I felt like I had discovered my long-lost artistic family, and through travel (and visits to European art museums) I felt able to re-connect and to enlarge this sense of family to include the early Italian Renaissance (i.e. the Quattrocento) as well.
Above: a map showing the route of a recent trip; Vienna: The Albertina (art museum) and Portrait of Wally Neuzil by Egon Schiele. People flock to Vienna to see the work of Gustav Klimt at the Belvedere and the Albertina. Yes, I did the same, but I spent even more time with the work of Egon Schiele.