After some relatively thoughtful consideration, she decided that it was time to write another entry in her blog. The date of her previous update was looking sadly antiquated and seemed to be rapidly receding into the increasingly distant past. Admittedly, she had indeed been physically absent from the Australian art scene but it wasn't as if she had been doing nothing in the last six months or so... for Jemima had been in France! Yes, France. And what had she been doing there? Studying, in French, to be precise - at the Sorbonne in Paris too. It was a six-month university exchange and she had some open arts electives to spend. What fun! So, she had enrolled herself in a number of arts courses: a history course, one in literature, another French linguistics, some hebrew and a bit of stoic philosophy too. Very, very interesting. And now, after having just spent a very intense last month finishing her assignments and exams, she emerged... scathed? unscathed? not sure which, but at the very least rather fluent in French. And, now very capable of navigating not only Australian public transport but the French train system too.
Incidentally, she had also indeed been enjoying the close access to art galleries in Paris - although admittedly not as much as she could have, especially considering that being a student in Paris she can get into the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay for free... nice : )
In terms of actually making art though, apart from a few sketches here and there, the main art project Jemima had been working on was illustrating a comic. The author's name was Karen Beilharz, and the comic was called, 'A friend in need'. It was five pages long and would be compiled into an anthology of other five-page comics that Karen had written on the theme of depression. There were lots of other Australian artists each working on illustrating a story and they were aiming to have the work published from around August. Do look out for it or let Jemima know if you're interested in reading it. She hopes to put up some previews of her art for this soon.
Some images from Jemima's time in France...
Sketching in the Louvre... like the Parisien art students
My Metro stop
Inside the Bibliotheque St Genevieve, a library near the Sorbonne
Le pont des arts - apparently lovers write their names on the padlocks and then throw the keys into the Seine below.
A school in the Loire Valley - I passed it on an excursion to see the chateaux in this area
Ancient graffiti in one of the chateaux de la Loire (date: 1737)
A courtyard in the Sorbonne that I would often cross
One of the staircases I would routinely climb to get to my classes
