17 people from 5 countries turned up at 08 AM on Fuengirola beach, 5 took the Bloomsday dip and readings were done from Chapter one of Ulysses in 4 languages – English, Spanish, Finnish and Swedish. The weather obliged. It was foggy like Dublin!
Mijas 340 TV covered the event on News and Views during their afternoon show.
Photographs by professional photographer, Philip Magee.
Oak bed frames - shop online for a wide selection of solid oak bed frames - furniture for the home and office - at low internet prices and fast home delivery service.
10/04
- I am now involved in the formation of a new
association based in Málaga, Asociación
Mundo Celta de Málaga, Celtic
World Association of Malaga to disseminate and
promote Celtic studies, and to encourage contacts
and exchanges between Malaga and Andalusia with
countries, communities and provinces with Celtic
historical roots of the European Union. (Due
to launch 02/05).
March
Fuengirola
TV (Es) programme commemorating Saint
Patrick´s Day 2010 with Ma. Carmen Moreno
- Con Otro Acento.
Feb.
Della
Clason Sperling,
co-founder of Dulack
& Sperling Art LLC, specializing
in art advisory, certified appraisals and collections
management, NYC, USA.February
3rd is my painting that was selected
for this calendar.
Dec:
Guest
curator, David
Thompson, Serrano
Contemporary, NY, chose "Gill" l for
the Barebrush.com
Dec 2008 calendar (1st)
Gala
ball,
Dorchester hotel, London. Nov
Queens
University, Belfast, Charity Dinner.
Nov
November:
Donated painting toConcordia
Anti Aids Charity - Princess Luisa de
Prusia,
Grab
a bargain now!
Sept.
18 (Bloomberg) -- While the world's financial
system totters, the shrewd money seems to be pouring
into pickled unicorns and winged pigs. It is a
striking and thought-provoking fact that on the
same day that Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed,
the first session of Damien Hirst's two-day auction
at Sotheby's, London, took off like a rocket.
The
whole affair exceeded estimates by fetching 111.5
million pounds ($199 million). We seem to be living
in apocalyptic times just now -- thronged with
sinister horsemen and seven-headed beasts -- so
what do these strange creations of Hirst's portend?
June
- "James
Joyce and visual Art on the Costa del Sol".
Lunch
time talk to Friends
International, Rosmarino Restaurant,
Elveria, Marbella, 18 June, 12:30.
The
Dublin Connection
The Italian Connection
The Parisian Connection
The International Connection - Ulysses
The Andalusian Connection - The AIA-Group
The Puerto Banus Connection - Summer Bliss at
Sanyres
May
- Featuted
with the
Mayoress of Fuengirola in the BBC
Songs of Praise programme at
Castillo Sohail.
April:
Guest curator, Michel Allen, Allen
Gallery, Chelsea, NYC choseThe
Women of Dublin: Monto - Nighttown,
for the monthly calendar (Apr 02)
at Barebrush.
Winner of the Curators Choice Awards.
Lightbox.
March:
The Ayuntamiento de Mijas
has chosen this painting for their collection
at the museum Cultura La Cala de Mijas,
Málaga, Spain. Buen
Dia.
February:
Guest curator, Peter Scott, founder
and director of SHAG in the Chelsea
art district in New York City chose
The Women of Dublin: Monto- Nighttown,
and Sad for the monthly calendar
(Feb 28 & 29)
at Barebrush.
January: Guest Curator: Alex Katlan,
art conservator, author and collector chose
The Women of Dublin: Monto- Nighttown,
for the monthly calendar (Jan 03)
at Barebrush.
2007
KGAB
650AM. The Talk of Cheyenne, WY. USA - The
Morning Show with Bo Sigvardson and Jill Kouper.
OCI
with Brenda Padilla on the radio.
December 2007. General interview.
Gala
Ball at London's
exclusive Dorchester Hotel.
One of my original paintings, Joyce the Pluralist,
Paris auctioned for Cooperation Ireland, the peace
building charity.
Joint
Patrons
Her Majesty the Queen
Her Excellency President Mary McAleese
Interview
OCI radio wirh Brenda Padilla Oct
9th.
EVENT
NAME: Gateway to the Quarter
DESCRIPTION:
York's first outdoor digital urban art gallery,
The Gateway to the Quarter, will be located in
Finkle Street, opposite Victor J's Art Bar. Two
video projectors and screens will showcase local,
national and international work from the fields
of digital film, art and animation. The Gateway
to the Quarter also will provide a platform for
local community arts projects.
"Gateway
to the Quarter" will be a permanent installation.
Site:
Finkle Street, York.
"Gateway
to the Quarter" has been commissioned by
the York Renaissance Project, which aims to refresh,
re-interpret and breathe new life into York's
historic urban environment while inspiring and
showcasing the creative talent within the city.
The project is supported by funding from the regional
development agency Yorkshire Forward and is delivered
through a partnership with the City Council and
the First Stop York Tourism Partnership, conservation
groups within York and by a panel of experts selected
from the City’s creative industries. For
further information on Renaissance: Illuminating
York visit: www.renaissanceyork.org.uk
Roger
Cummiskey is delighted to have his work represented
at this event.
Interview
with Brenda Padillo OCI Radio
- Sept 5 and 12
Bloomsday
- June 16th - is an annual celebration among Joyce
fans throughout the world, from Fort Lauderdale
to Melbourne.
It is celebrated in at least sixty countries worldwide,
but nowhere so imaginatively, of course, as in
Dublin.
The novel, Ulysses, by James Joyce recounts the
hour-by-hour events of one day in Dublin - June
16, 1904 - as an ordinary Dubliner, Leopold Bloom,
wends his way through the urban landscape, the
odyssey of a modern-day Ulysses.
Airy,
spacious and Spanish, away from the tourist traffic.
The
infrastructure is second to none. We are within
a 15-minute stroll to Fuengirola train station
that services the main towns all the way to Malaga
city. This train links with Malaga airport and
the mainline Spanish station that can take you
to London, Paris and beyond!
The
buses are also frequent and service all of central
and southern Spain to Murcia and beyond, including
Gibraltar from Fuengirola.
•
What is your property like?
We
live in a large three bedroom – 125 sq metres
- with 1.5 bathrooms, large lounge, a hallway,
spacious kitchen and utility room built during
the 1980’s.
It
has two balconies. My “morning balcony”
off the main bedroom that gets the sun in the
morning time and is a very pleasant place to breakfast
which generally consists of freshly squeezed orange
juice, coffee or camomile tea and toasted small
roll with olive oil and a little salt. I call
this my Mediterranean breakfast!
My
“afternoon balcony” is quite large
and gets the sunshine all afternoon right up to
around 9.00 pm in the summertime. We have a toldo
(sunblind) on this balcony as sometimes it can
get rather too hot for sitting about in the direct
sun, so we can enjoy the sombre (shade).
Generally,
we have a light lunch and evening meal on this
balcony with or without friends. It is possible
to sit out until almost 2 in the morning, if you
like!
•
What preparations did you make before you bought
your house in Spain?
Before
we bought we sat down and decided what it was
we wanted. We took a map of Fuengirola and environs
and drew a half moon with the sea as the base
line. We decided not to look at any properties
that were not inside this semi circle.
Dolores
did most of the footwork, firstly scouring the
various publications that are full of properties
and then contacting a young Spanish chap, Antonio
Barras Frias, who worked for an agent and gave
him our specification.
This
was that we wanted - a three-bedroom apartment
with a southwest-facing balcony so that we got
the afternoon sunshine and also a swimming pool,
within our budget. Also, I wanted a view of Castillo
Solhail – Fuengirola Castle.
•
Could you speak the language?
The
simple answer is no. However, we may have been
akin to Russians or Poles trying to communicate
in English in the UK. We knew a bit but really
not quite enough.
•
How have you improved your language skills?
This
has been one of our greatest pleasures. Both Dolores
and me attend Universidad Popular de Mijas in
the Casa de la Cultura in Las Lagunas. Dolores
is repeating the second year and I am repeating
the third year of a three year structured course
– espanol para extranjeros (Spanish for
foreigners). Repeating? Well, we missed lots of
classes last year and felt that we could benefit
from having another go. For the record, the cost
of the course is €12.00 per month for 12
classes over 1.5 hours two days a week.
I
had attended elementary classes at the Spanish
Cultural Institute in Dublin (instituto cultural
de espanol en dublin) about ten years ago. It
is now the Cervantes Institute.
We
practice our Spanish whenever possible when shopping,
eating out, speaking with our neighbours and whenever
opportunities arise. A buenas dias or buenas tardes
costs nothing!
•
Are there good travel links to the area and is
it easy to get there from Dublin?
There
are affordable flights to Malaga each day from
Dublin all year round and sometimes several a
day. The journey is only 2.5 hours flying time.
The
route is serviced by Ryanair, AerLingus, Futura
(BudgetAir) and also CityJet. May times in the
past we have flown to Leeds or Luton and then
connected by EasyJet to Malaga.
•
How have you benefited from your move to Spain?
I
have a great tan all year round!
•
How have you found the cost of living compared
to Ireland?
In
many areas Spain is not as expensive as Ireland.
Specifically, housing, drink, eating out. Petrol
and clothes are about the same as is furniture
and other household goods.
•
Can you see any differences to living in Ireland?
Here
in Spain we enjoy participating in an outdoor
culture that is not possible to any extent in
Ireland primarily because of the weather. Where
in Ireland the weather “is as unpredictable
as a baby’s bottom” one can go for
walks in Spain in the sure knowledge that you
will not need a raincoat or umbrella.
•
How is your business doing in Spain, do you find
the area is accommodating for artists?
I
find that I have had to go back to basics again
here in Spain and this will be my first year making
a commitment to the Spanish marketplace as an
artist. The standard among Spanish artists is
very high as they are following in the footsteps
and the examples set by the likes of Goya, Picasso,
Dali and Alberti. Their appreciation of and attention
to innovative activities in the area of visual
arts must put them almost on a par, in my opinion,
with Italy, Holland and Russia.
In tandem with the UK and Ireland I have found
that everyone and their Grannies are artists and
that the standard is reasonably good.
Spain
also caters for many other art forms.
•
Can you tell me more about the Andalucian International
Artists Group?
These
artists came together only in November 2004 as
an informal grouping of artists from various countries
having initially the common interest of living
in Andalusia. A formalized committee was put together
and I was appointed Chairman (reluctantly).
We
decided that we should limit our group to 30 people
and now we are 9 - from England, Ireland, Sweden,
Denmark, Holland and Spain. We have our modest
objectives laid out in our constitution.
I
suppose that in our embryonic state we are trying
to attract members at the princely sum of €
60.00 per annum, to put together our first annual
exhibition – we need a good venue.
We
are also seeking out any company that might sponsor
our activities to our mutual benefit. We have
a couple of modest joint ventures between our
members underway already.
We
have produced “the web site” at www.aia-group.net,
all by voluntary endeavour and we are going to
use our collected fees to have a brochure printed.
We
are considering locations for exhibitions during
the rest of this year. There is terrific energy
and goodwill within the group.
You
are holding an exhibition on paintings by Don
Quijote and Cervantes, what is your connection
to this hero of Spanish Literature?
I
have always picked themes that interest me and
into which I can make exhaustive studies for my
paintings. For the James Joyce series I spent
years studying and reading his works. This continues.
I have made plans in relation to Samuel Beckett’s
19 plays and have produced works based on some
of these. I have used the works of the poets Kavanagh
and Yeats for other studies and I have even used
one of my own poems, Under Construction, as a
theme.
The
story of Miguel de Cervantes has always fascinated
me as, in it’s simplicity and worldwide
appeal (translated into over 100 different languages),
everybody can identify with the daft intellectual,
Alonso Quijano, who, dressing up as a Knight with
a barber’s bowl on his head, changing his
name to El Don Quijote de la Mancha, mounting
his mighty steed, Rocinante, taking with him as
his manservant Sancho Panza astride Dapple the
donkey, appointing a local farm girl as his muse
- Dulcinea del Tobosco - sets off to conquer the
ills of the world!
Who
could not be taken by the story of his adventures?
Who
could not be impressed by his pronouncements?
"And
so, to sum it all up, I perceive everything I
say as absolutely true, and deficient in nothing
whatever, and paint it all in my mind exactly
as I want it to be."
"Although
it's true I'm pretty clever, and I'm something
of a rascal, but all that's well hidden under
this always easy and natural disguise of behaving
like a fool."
Yes,
he was indeed The Knight of the Sad Countenance
-
El caballero de la cara triste.
Happy
IV Centenary Caballero!
•
Have you found it easy to become part of the community?
Do you know your neighbours and do you feel that
they have accepted you?
Not
really, but we try without overdoing it. I attend
the openings at the CAC Malaga (Contemporary Art
Museum) and I am on the list of invitees for the
Picasso Foundation in Malaga. I generally attend
first nights at the Casa de la Cultura in both
Fuengirola and Las Lagunas. During the summer
I have attended outdoor events at Fuengirola’s
14th century Castillo Sohail including, in Spanish
of course, Madama Butterfly de Puccini, Los Gigantes,
The Malaga philharmonic orchestra with the baritone
Alverez, The Victor Ulate Ballet, Zarzuela Katinska
de Pablo Sorozabal, Pastora Soler, the singer,
and many other performances.
Yes,
we know and speak with our neighbours who are
all Spanish people.
•
What do you like about the lifestyle?
It
sure is very easygoing for a City boy!
• In hindsight, is there anything
you would have done differently?
Studied
Spanish more diligently years ago.
•
Have you encountered any difficulties? (If
so can you please be quite specific as it is really
helpful to our readers)
Everything
stems from the language, Spanish.
This
is Spain and not little Dublin or little England.
We live among Spanish people who are very kind
and simpatico (friendly) to the multicultural
society that has been allowed to develop among
them. Many Spaniards speak English and most problems
can be solved with patience. Take your time to
find out what an NIE number is, what taxes you
are liable to pay, the days that are national
holidays and fiestas. There are Foreigners departments
attached to most townhalls where the staff are
very helpful. Remember also that you are the foreigner
and not the other way round.
I
have a friend who sold their house in Florida
recently as she contended that she hated Florida
because there were too many Americans there! What
can you say when you hear the same in Spain?
•
Have you encountered any peculiarities in everyday
Spanish life?
Most
of the shops are closed for three hours in the
afternoon. I found this strange until I discovered
the siesta!
•
Do you have any amusing anecdotes from your time
in Spain?
Not
at this time as I’m knackered writing the
replies to these questions!
•
Is there anything you miss from Ireland?
Our
family and friends, the craic and the familiarity.
Lansdowne Road and Leopardstown.
•
What did your family and friends think about your
decision to buy a house in Spain?
They
were happy for us and mad jealous!
•
Do your family come and visit?
Some
of them have. Dolores is one of eight and I am
one of five, add on the siblings and you have
a pretty big party.
My
son, Paul, lives and works in NY www.djpaulc.com
and my daughter, Nikki, lives with the three grandchildren,
Rudi, Kofi and Tully Patrick in Kingston upon
Thames.
Paul
and Nikki were reared on the beach in Fuengirola
when they were growing up.
•
Are you planning to move out here permanently
or do you think you may move back to Dublin at
some point?
We
are still toing and froing but the likelihood
is that we will settle in beautiful Spain but
not cut the ties with dear old Dublin.
Cummiskey
print fetches €500.00 for charity. (See right)
November
2004:
The
Slovenian Ministry for Foreign Affairs
informed the Embassy of Ireland that paintings
of mine that had gone missing in 2001 have been
located by the Slovenian authorities and are in
safe curtody at the District Courthouse in Kranj.
This prompts me to puplish on the right of this
page two images that "disappeared"
during this year after an exhibition on the north
side of Dublin city. Keep an eye out!
891
Artists from 72 countries were invited by the
jury to participate.
June
2003:
Featured
on the RTERadio One show "Rattlebag".
June
2003:
Featured
on the Newstalk 106 radio show.
May
2003:
Dublin
watercolourist illuminates the joy of Joyce!
By
Peter Hughes, The Northern Standard Newspaper,
15/05/2003.
The
devotion of Dublin watercolourist Roger Cummiskey
to illuminating the life-affirming themes that
stand out vividly in the writings and personal
history of James Joyce has resulted in a striking
assemblage of paintings which can be enjoyed to
their fullest advantage in the gallery of Monaghan
Co Museum at present.
The
exhibition "A Stroll Thro' Ulysses",
a new collection of watercolours which Cummiskey
has assembled on Joycean themes, remains on show
until May 30 at the Museum at Monaghan Town's
Hill Street.
Town of Monaghan Co-op Chief Executive Vincent
Gilhawley performed the official opening of the
exhibition on Thursday last.
Such occasions can carry their share of loneliness
and trepidation for the visiting artist, but Roger
and wife Dolores were protected from such hazards
by a warm phalanx of the friends they have forged
in Monaghan in recent years through Roger's association
with the Rossmore Golf Club.
The fund-raising campaign three years ago to assist
young Ballinode fire injury victim Mark Monahan
received the considerable boost of a donation
by Roger of one of his Joyce-inspired works, which
was auctioned and raised substantial funds for
that cause.
Cummiskey's impressive work seeks to celebrate
some of the preoccupations of the writer who penned
in Ulysses what is arguably both the most influential
and the most intimidating novel produced by an
Irish writer. The psychological depths of Joyce's
characterisations are explored in paintings reflective
of the texts of Ulysses and Dubliners in the main,
but the powerful pillars in the books of women
and drink are accorded a due and pleasing prominence.
The artist is obviously a Joyce zealot, but he
doesn't climb into a pulpit in his attempts to
convert us. Indeed, speaking at last Thursday's
official opening, Cummiskey seemed keen to sweep
away the off-putting influence of Joyce's huge
reputation. Many, indeed, would have been nodding
in sympathy with Vincent Gilhawley when he confessed
to getting as far as Page Two of Ulysses when
he attempted the book as a 20-year-old.
"I left Leopold Bloom to carry on his voyage
of discovery without me at that stage," Mr.
Gilhawley said. "I realised it may have been
the greatest book of the century, but I reverted
back to Spike Milligan. For me it was a stagger
through "Puckoon" rather than a "Stroll
Thro' Ulysses"!"
A
GOOD STORY
But to Roger Cummiskey, while Joyce in general
and Ulysses in particular is "a bit mystifying
when you start off", he described Ulysses
at its heart as being "a lovely story about
three people: an ordinary salesman selling advertising
copy for The Freeman's Journal, his wife Molly
Bloom who is having an affair with Blazes Boylan,
and Stephen Dedalus who is in effect the young
James Joyce."
He added: "The story is basic and simple,
and a good one."
All three protagonists themselves stroll through
this exhibition as prominently as their creator.
Molly is particularly vividly manifest: in "Waiting
For Blazes", she is depicted nude letting
the varnish dry on the nails of her extended fingers,
the pose at once delicate and predatory. We also
see her as a young girl in Gibraltar, where "I
knew more about men when I was 15 than they'll
all know at 50."
We see Stephen Dedalus magnificently minuscule,
striding the eternity of Sandymount Strand. Leopold
Bloom wanders the same landscape, and is seen
in reproduction of a caricature by Joyce himself.
And the author is everywhere, dandified here,
despairing there,
rendered in abstract and "pop art" and
caught superbly in one heart-rending portrait,
at a low ebb in Trieste.
"Ulysses the book celebrates probably the
most famous first date ever in the world,"
Roger Cummiskey stated, relating the narrative
to the formative days of the relationship between
Joyce and Nora Barnacle.
"James Joyce at 22 years old was a very bright
young man walking around town in Dublin with a
sailor hat that he had acquired, and a pair of
runners which at the time were very avant garde.
He had electric blue eyes.
"When he saw a woman with auburn hair on
the street he went up to her and asked her for
a date and she agreed. But Nora then went back
to Finn's Hotel where she worked as a chambermaid
and had second thoughts and didn't turn up.
"Joyce wrote her a note stating that he would
like to meet her, which he eventually did on Thursday,
June 16, 1904, which is the day on which Joyce
built the whole book of Ulysses."
GENIUS
IN HIS TIME
Joyce was a genius IN his time, not before his
time, the artist emphasised.
In looking ahead to the centenary next year of
the date on which the events of Ulysses unfold,
Mr. Cummiskey said it would be celebrated all
over the world, "from Melbourne to Miami,
Alaska to Australia."
He acknowledged the existence of a Joyce industry,
recommending visits to the Joyce Centre in North
Great George's Street and the Martello Tower at
Sandycove.
"I am only the painter," he said modestly,
attributing the power of the images around him
to the still compulsive allure exercised by the
restless, pathfinding writer whom he refers to
in a poem incorporated in several watercolours
as "James Jaysas Joyce".
But acceptance of this statement would be to unfairly
diminish the vivid and often elucidatory interpretations
that comprise this exhibition, and the way in
which it celebrates the territory of Ulysses and
the physical and intellectual landscape James
Joyce stalked like his alter ego Dedalus, walking
into eternity....
GRATEFUL
Vincent
Gilhawley expressed the view on Thursday night
that Monaghan should be grateful to Roger Cummiskey
for bringing his exhibition of paintings to Monaghan.
"The writings of Joyce are rather deep and
he has translated these into accessible watercolour
pictures," he stated. "Roger reflects
in his paintings what Joyce so eloquently wrote."
Mr Gilhawley pointed to an interesting Co Monaghan
connection with the inaugural Bloomsday celebrations
in Dublin in 1958, when Patrick Kavanagh was one
of the five literary figures who performed the
re-enactment of Leopold Bloom's journey.
"We are privileged that we can stroll through
Roger's paintings in the excellently appointed
Museum. Roger is a regular visitor to Monaghan
- he has been coming here for many years and has
made many friends and acquaintances here."
Mr Gilhawley said he had come to know Roger when
he (speaker) was Captain of Rossmore Golf Club.
The members of the club thought of Roger as a
wonderful raconteur and someone with a wonderful
sense of humour and an excellent outlook on life.
In expressions of gratitude on Thursday night,
Mr Cummiskey thanked Monaghan Co Museum Exhibitions
Officer Liam Bradley and the museum staff for
their beautiful presentation of the exhibition.
"You can be very proud of your Co Museum
and I hope you all support it well into the future,"
he stated.
Thanking Mr Gilhawley for performing the official
opening, Mr Cummiskey noted that Vincent had recently
been appointed a Director of An Bord Báinne
and congratulated him on that.
The artist also thanked his wife Dolores for the
support she gave him in putting the exhibition
together.
Roger
has been invited to exhibit at the Florence
Biennial in December 2003. In this endeavour
he is being supported by IRISHOP.com
Participation in the Biennale is by nomination
only.
Roger
at the U.N.with Ramon.
The
River Slaney
Roger
represents Ireland at world's largest art exhibition.
During
the year 2000.
The
painting, left, from the series Some Greeks Some
Romans - The River Slaney - was selected to represent
Ireland in what was the biggest Art Exhibition
of paintings ever in the history of the world
of a truly international flavour. 52 countries
submitted 5 paintings each.
This
painting featured in all three exhibitions at
The
Mall Galleries, London, England
The
World Trade Centre, Stockholm, Sweden
The
United Nations Building, New York, USA.
HRH,
Prince Charles, was Chairperson of the selection
jury.
Kofi
Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations,
opened the Exhibition at The UN Headquarters in
New York.
All
proceeds went to UNICEF and The Princes Trust.
