carré d’artistes

How I found freedom from my dream

| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli
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This past year has been a time for reflection and it’s brought big changes in my work. Looking back I see that I realized the dream of my youth.

What was that dream ?

Move to Paris and be an artist. Dreams are attainable. In 1988 I left the US with 400$ in my pocket and a one way ticket to Italy. During the 21 years I lived there I carved a niche in space and built a career.

Then one day I woke up and saw that wasn’t the life I wanted. I sold everything and moved to Paris. People said I was stupid to give away all that I had built and move for the unknown. I had everything in the material world that would make 90% of the people happy. Including a house on the Etruscan coast. Every summer I spent 3 months at the sea…

But Paris was the destination. And it’s been good to me.

Then last year the persona Angie the Artist seemed to vanish. Nothing worked, nothing sold. I was in the red and digging. I had to get a job. I was terrified. I had to get a facial🤣 and I sobbed for an entire day. Starbucks refused me. Amorino didn’t even respond. My ego was a doormat.

Thank God I was practicing Hatha and Nada Yoga everyday. The vritti were calm.

I wanted a job where I didn’t have to think. I cleaned a house and the lady never paid me. I didn’t want to teach English though I had a good CV and I’d been smart enough to get a teaching certificate. Just before the massive strikes last December I interviewed with Cap English.

Then the strikes hit.

They offered me classes the next day because many of their teachers couldn’t get to work. I walked 3 hours in the rain to teach for 3 hours then another 3 hour walk to get home…

I subbed in different schools until in one school the teachers begged me to take over because the former teacher left.

I never knew how much I would like teaching. I even forget I exist when I’m writing on the blackboard. I was liberated from the persona Angie the Artist because I was enjoying myself, thought I did have to think 😉. No time wasted declaring taxes, doing marketing. No pressure.

One day during the lunch pause I looked at a tree and thought how the tree was content. It didn’t need to be anyone. It didn’t have to pretend

I was liberated from a 30+ year ego trip.

And now I am free to paint, scuplt, and play music.

My paintings in Sedona, Arizona

original oil painting of Sedona Arizona by Angie Brooksby
| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli
original oil painting of Sedona Arizona by Angie Brooksby
Pink Light – 36×36 cm – oil on canvas ©2016 Angie Brooksby

I forgot to announce that my paintings went up on September 30th in Carré d’Artistes Sedona gallery. When they invited me to paint for the Sedona gallery I hesitated. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I’d been painting cityscapes of Paris for the last nine years. Several conincidences made me decide, yes.

The word Arizona kept popping up in unexpected places. For instance I was jogging through Luxembourg Gardens and saw a poster of the Grand Canyon. It was publicity for an exhibition at the Palais de l’Eau in Paris. I went to the exhibition and walked all the way back, along the Seine. That day I took excellent photos for the next series of Paris paintings I am planning.

Other things happened but Arizona was on my mind. When I was a child we went often to Arizona, driving through the Painted Desert. Everytime I saw a cactus, I had to touch it. My mother spent hours plucking needles out of my soft skin.

It’s funny how life brings you full circle.

One of my mannequins is for sale at Carre d’Artistes Sedona gallery, here is a photo from Instagram.

The first forty paintings I did seem to be flying out the door.

I wish I was in Sedona this week to see the plein air painters. There are some excellent artists at work. Check out the website for the festival: Sedona Plein Air Festival.

Painting onsite is so much fun. I painted Tuscany for 20 years before moving to Paris.

If you want to see what I’m painting, check my instagram feed up on the top right.

 

Marianne at La Republique

| Angie Brooksby Arcangioli

place de la Republique- oil on canvas- 36×36 cm- Brooksby

The Monument à la République was inaugurated in 1883. Léopold Morice is the sculptor. 

The bronze on the pedestal is Marianne. She is an allegorical figure of the French republic. 

Three stone female figures, also allegorical, flank the pedestal. They are La Liberté, L’Égalité et de La Fraternité. A bronze lion symbolizing universal suffrage stands at Marianne’s feet.

A bust of Marianne is present in every state school. Marianne wears a phrygian cap. 

I think this fact is interesting because phrygian was somewhere in the middle east. The bonnet is considered to be of anatolian origin. This hat became a symbol during the revolution because it represents the pursuit of freedom. Emancipated Roman slaves wore a similar hat.