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Dear Friends,
Wishing you all warm hearts, inspiration, and a golden year ahead
Beginning in Lisbon,
Nilaya and I had a place for 2 months in Graca, the neighborhood atop the highest Miradouro,
a vibrant, peaceful, labyrinthian city, I started drawing blackbirds on the walls, writing
‘The Devil went to Asbury’, dancing 5 Rhythms, watching the lunar eclipse, seeing Fado LISBOA
..then to Shanghai, a painting residency at Paper Shanghai, exploring the hometown of BooBoo, walking to my grandmother’s first homes, painting 5 days in the Yellow Mountains, writing
‘A Hundred Beasts Return to the Mountain’, having a show at Paper: II MOUNTAINS
10 days in California, a group show in Point Reyes with the Lucid Art Foundation, last October’s residency in the Bishop Pine Wilderness, then went to the Redwoods with Nilaya who danced inside the tree of life LUCID
Went to Venice, Pruyear Biennale, wrote Unbroken Homes, parted with Nilaya with sadness and grace
watched Liverpool win the Champions league in Barcelona with Amir, went to Costa Brava to cry by the sea
spent the summer in Luzern Switzerland working with Andre, we built a garden above the Sempachsee
then to Ireland to see Neil Young and Bob Dylan in Kilkenny, greatest of all shows, Ireland filled with angels..
Back to NJ/NY write and record some songs, some with supertalent AM!R, Coney Island, Virginia’s gone, How could this Moon.. Last Tyger
In September I drove solo to and through Michigan UP, camping at Lake Superior, northwest to the Source of the Mississippi and to Dylan’s hometown, Itasca and Hibbing, then followed Highway 61 down the River to St. Louis and east to Nashville for a weekend with Joe and the outlaw Journey to the Source
self published ‘content of all the objects that have fallen’ from Dinkytown
In October had an exhibition in Zurich, Zwischen Welten, at Leonhard Fopp’s gallery in Niederdorf, paintings, drawings, poems and photos tracing journeys from the mountains to the Sea, containing paintings from Zermatt, Asbury, Yellow Mountains, Jaisalmer, and the Lost Coast..
Now back in the NJ/NY, one more Dylan show at the Beacon (big #39) with my sis and friends, spending time with my dear folks, looking back and forward to a year of adventure and art and finding ancient belonging ..
I wish you amidst the rushes of time, an abiding peace and presence to find the poetry in the place where you truly are..
Love
Neilo