We went on a work/holiday trip to Vienna, Austria! Travel gives me such intense inspirations like nothing else can. I'm dreaming of the paintings I can make on this new power... hope the ideas don't melt away under the blanket of home-monotony before I can create them.

We also had short stops in London and Paris, which I'll blog about later! - I loved the winding stairs leading up to our borrowed apartment. The building was probably almost as old (if not older) than my country. So many stories must be contained within those sunlit hallways, filled with assorted potted plants from neighbors, ornate wall carvings (in need of a good cleaning), the smell of cold stone and old tobacco... and the occasional echo-y cough emanating from a missing window pane of one of the apartments. - I loved the fresh, spring air of the city as we explored it by bicycle. The bike lanes in Vienna are constant and wide, so you can get anywhere you please with the utmost speed and convenience. There was lots of golden pollen drifting about and people coughed and sneezed with their allergies. But there's nothing like that brilliant yellow golden shine from statues and memorials in the middle of the city. - I loved the bakeries on every corner, and the dizzying varieties of just-baked delicacies. They were all so cheap, though I would have paid anything to have them! The friendly "Grüss Gott!" of the store clerk girls, the bustle of daily patrons, and the tantalizing possibility of adding a fabulous cup of dark-roast coffee to the sugary treasures was also so such a comfort. - Flea markets and recycle shop paradise! The antique shops in the US could never hold a candle to the treasures you can find in Europe! The older I get, the more I love to rummage through dusty old treasures in random shops much more than buying shiny outfits in modern malls. We bought an interesting black iron light fixture for €3, and struck a deal with a kindly old Vienese gentleman over some botanical pages from 19th century field guides.

All these lovely feelings and beauty lead me to effortlessly imagining some new artworks. I'm thinking of girls faces on wood, with wood as the skintone. I was to surround them and cover most of their faces with ornate golden swirls, horses, and boughs full of leaves and white berries. The backgrounds can be pure black. Very European, very chiaroscuro, I think.
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