I am about to cross the Atlantic, take up residence in a strange and new place, drop out of my routines, and find new ways of seeing, feeling, moving and being.  For the month of February, I will be an artist-in-residence at the Bogliasco foundation in Italy.  All of that anticipating has me hibernating, contemplating, packing, distracted and focused at the same time.

I am reading On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz, and am delighted by her observations on how our expectations (habits) determine much of what we see and perceive.  I have been walking and riding around today, noticing what I expect to see, which means that I probably won’t see what I don’t expect, even if I am looking for it.  Sometimes a big geographic shift can shake you out of those habits, at least initially.  Then it is our job to stay open, to keep from mindlessly attuning to the automatic, the familiar, the friendly.

I will be posting from Italy starting next Wednesday.  In the meantime, a little quiet on the blog front.  Back soon.