209. The Tourist Does Art #6

One reason for spending more than five minutes in each city that I visit is that "the-luxury-of-time" gives me the opportunity to do my own art ... be it on a much smaller scale than my usual pieces back home ...

And here in Dubrovnik my stay of three weeks has given me plenty of time for sight-seeing, museum and gallery visiting, enjoying the local ambience, resting and being creative at home ...

My Dubrovnik piece is titled - " Dubrovnik Reliquary" ... and for those of you unsure as to what a reliquary is - it's a receptacle for keeping or displaying relics ( usually sacred - but in this case not sacred but rather historical ... ).

The work measures 200 x 300 x 50 mm - is made with a base of cardboard from the local skip bin, and covered with ripped, torn, cut, rolled and dotted paper - pages from an old romantic novel with a story set in early 19th century Balkans.
 

Walking around this city with its limestone walls, narrow laneways paved with worn limestone flagging, ancient ruins from Roman and later times and millions of steps leading always upwards and drawing the visitor to sights up and around corners - I can't help but be inspired ...

The back wall is woven paper, the side walls and ceiling are covered with paper dots ( using an office hole puncher ... ) and the stairs and outside frame are covered in blank paper from the same book and then painted lightly with white acrylic paint.

The many scrolls tightly bound and glued into place represent the secrets and untold stories from that bygone ancient time.

The miniature shards of limestone at the base of the stairs represent the hills and the beaches that frame this ancient city and the building blocks that have given the city form.

And the relics displayed here are two shards of terracotta I found on an old building site outside the Old City. Because of their shape and density and location I would give an uneducated guess that they are fragments from Roman times. So this piece is dedicated to the early Latin settlers along the Dalmatian Coast. 

This piece - and the previous piece - are now in the art collection of my Dubrovnik Airbnb host - Katija - who is also an assemblage/collage artist - and I am most pleased to see them displayed among her art and "rescued-bits-and-pieces"   ...

My days here in Croatia are fast coming to a close, so in my next post I'll take you around on a bit of a sightseeing jog of this most interesting city before I head off on my next adventure ...