Hand bound reproduction book of watercolors and drawings. “Rambles in Mojacar” was created at Fundacion Valparaiso Artist Residency in Spain January 2010. Each hand bound book contains reproductions of over 50 watercolors and drawings. Book size: 8-1/2” X 10”, printed on archival matte photo paper.
The visual images arrived out of daily walks in the stark and dramatic Spanish countryside by the mediterranean, where a forest fire had occurred the summer before. In January 2010, apricot tree blossoms come from burnt bark. Cactus hulks stood lifeless against a sandstone ravine. Dandelions covered the hills.
The drawings became a book, inspired by Noble Laureate, Camilo Jose Cela’s 1946 Novel, Viaje a la Alcarria, which takes place right after WWII. The novel tells of a ramble/journey on foot through the Alcarria, depicting the beautiful and stark life to be found there. It echoes still in the land at the edge of the mediterranean of Mojacar, Algeria, Espana.
Come on a month of rambles, appearances, dreams, imaginings. Along the way find memories, encounters with land, people, sun and air. Mojacar Espana -yellow sand-clay shapes ancient terraced hills that roll to the deep blue edge of the sea. Centuries ago leaving a mark, Moors, Jews, Christians, spiders, snakes, flies and raptors, all roughed out a life in this land. At the very bottom of the continent of Europe, people, animals, plants landed here, before jumping over to the unknown of Africa. Rivers flowed scarring the hills of sandstone. Rubbles, mudslides, floods, desert fires, wind storms, droughts are here, on the paths I take in the late hours of winter.
~From Rambles in Mojacar
Michelle Spark
January 2010 Mojacar, Espana
“It is cool and pleasant walking along. A faint, almost imperceptible ribbon of mist hangs over the river. Starlings and swifts are flying around.A black-and-white magpie hops from stone to stone,while above the fields of crops a lark sings. The light morning wind moves across the countryside and the air is clean, clear, transparent, diaphonous…..”
~From Viaje a la Alcarria —-Camilo Jose Cela, 1946
