Weather. This is what I am contending with. I´m not sure why I have chosen to collaborate with such an unwilling partner, but I have. And I´ve tried working with this unpredictable compadre many times in the past. There are actually quite a lot of unpredictable collaborators that I´ve tried working with in the past: ants for example. They come when I don´t want them, yet don´t come when I do.
For my mural to be "successful" (whatever that even means) it must slowly wash away. This will cause the colours to run and eventually for the image to fade away. The clear, crisp azulejo design is meant to turn ugly and decrepid, turning from decadence to decay. So rain will be a good thing. Once the work is installed.
When I arrived here, my friend Gaio said, "oh, there is no rain at this time of year. It´s summer. There will be very little rain." So of course I was troubled by this, but what could I do except just plug ahead and make my work. Most of my tiles have been layed out on wooden boards and on a shelf in a balcony-like space in Gaio´s apartment. Its a fully enclosed room but has a large open window. It´s like a cross between a porch and a balcony. This was a great space, it seemed, because it was out of the way, and there was a lot of air flow for things to dry.
I´m sure you can see where this is all leading... Yes, it finally decided to rain. 2 days ago it rained and there was no major problem. It was a short rainfall, and no moisture got into the room. But then there was today. I woke up to the sound of rain, so I quickly ran out to make sure things were alright. At first, all seemed fine. I had a few sheets of plastic covering one shelf and then I hung up a sheet across the open window just to prevent drops from blowing inward. It all seemed fine. Then the rain increased. And the wind picked up. Before I knew it, moisture had covered most of the tiles, and I was desperately trying to shield the finished tiles with a thin sheet of plastic. It was still quite early and Gaio and Liane were sleeping, but I had to yell for help! So finally they came and we carried the shelf and the table surfaces into the apartment living room, out of harms way.
The result: Most will be ok. The tops only got a small amount of moisture and they seemed to have dried already. Some,that weren´t dry to begin with are still very moist and may take longer to set up. But all in all I think it´s ok. But I don´t feel safe using that space anymore. So today we´re going to go out and buy some large shelving units that I can set up in the living room and store everything inside. I didn´t want to monopolize all of the apartment, but it looks like I´ll have to for the next 2 weeks.
You may wonder, "why no more pictures, Shelley?" Well, that´s the other story... My camera was stolen 2 days ago. Canon G9 - gone. I was outside our building putting up a small sugar test piece. Leane was using my camera to take pictures of me. It was just the 2 of us, Gaio stayed in the apartment. And before we knew it, this kid came at us and grabbed it from her. It all happened to fast, there wasn´t much we could do. He ran back down into the favela (slums. There´s a favela just down the hill from where we live. Normally, there seem to be police everywhere, but of course they aren´t around when you need them. It was 4;00pm. This isn´t a bad area, it´s just a really quiet street and there was no one around at that moment. Thefts can happen anywhere. We should have been more careful, having a camera out. When I install my big piece, we´ll have more people. We even spoke to one police officer and he said it would be easy to get some police or security supervision. It probably won´t be necessary, but it would make us feel better having our cameras out. I still have my video camera, and Gaio has the same camera I did, the G9. So I´ll use his when I need to document the work. I´m not sure if my insurance will cover it. I have a police report but I´ll likely wait until I´m back home to find out if it even matters.
Of course, it was a difficult experience and I was pretty upset the night it happened. Moreso than angry or afraid, I was just sad that there is such desperation in the world that a 13 year old kid would need to resort to stealing a camera. Of course, there are even worse things in the world, but it all just makes me sad.
I´m alright though. I´m more thankful for the life I have and the things I´ve been blessed with.
On the bright side of things, I may have found a good location for the work to go. I´ve been out scouting locations, trying to find something just right. I saw a wall today in an area called Pelourinho. It´s the historic and touristy area. I would compare it to the old port in Montreal. Monday, we´ll go down to the place and see if we need permission to use it. Gaio and Leane are amazingly helpful. Without them, I don´t know what I would do. They help me find whatever I need. Like today, when we go out to find shelving, Gaio´s mom is going to drive us out to some big markets. They´re all awesome.
Once I have shelves set up, it can rain whenever it wants. Baby steps... I just want to finish one thing at a time. I´ll worry about the installation when I get there.
