Tueday, August 7, 2007: Last Day in Iran

A bridge dating from 1930's with a village in Mazandaran Province.



A lovely painting by Mokarrameh depicting love and betrayal. This is one of the paintings I used to engage the students in a conversation with her work.


I can never really understand why this last day arrives so quickly. Yet, a few days ago, when I was sweating in the hot sun, wearing a scarf to cover my hair and a long garment over my clothes, I was dying to get away. I couldn't wait to be in cooler weather. Well, here is the last day, and I feel I don't have enough time to see everyone. I will not be able to see Aunt Ghashangi and will have to call her to say goodbye. Nanaz, Shahrokh (whose computer I'm using right now), and Aunt Fakhri will come over in the evening. I'm going to Uncle Ali's house later to see him and say goodbye to him.

I went to the "mahzar" with Mom this morning and signed documents giving her the authority to send stuff overseas for me. Then we went to the jewelers and I bought some last minute things to take back.

I'm glad I will not be blogging anymore. Uploading images in Iran takes forever and it's very frustrating to be sitting at the computer, staring at the screen, and waiting for the photographs to be posted.

Mom.

Here is a picture of Mom sitting in Mokarrameh's house after we had finished the workshop. She is sitting, appropriately so, under a sign that reads: "Maadar" in Persian. "Maadar" means Mother. This was a chance photo.

Monday, August 6, 2007: Archiving the Artworks

The Mountains in Mazandaran Province influenced many of the students and were a common theme in the paintings.



Mokarrameh's kitchen.



Color and use of supply demonstration for the students.


I posted the above photographs to remember our day at the workshop. I don't have any new photographs. I think I'm done taking photos for a while!


I went to Ali's place this morning and we spent the entire day archiving the paintings. First, we looked through each and everyone of them. We had over 150 pieces of artwork, done by students ranging in age from two to sixty. We read each story that was attached to the artwork, and we made sure we had the names and ages correctly written on each one. Then we arranged them by age: 2-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-15, 16-19, 20 and up. After we grouped them, we took a picture of each one. Then we chose eleven pieces of Mokarrameh's work for me to exhibit with the student's work at Teachers College.

Meanwhile, Aida cooked us lunch. Since she is from Rasht, another province by the Caspian Sea, she cooks a lot of vegetarian meals. Rasht is known for its healthy and vegetarian cuisine. We worked for seven hours and then I took all the selected artwork and came home. Later on, Ali, Aida, Morteza, and his wife, Somayeh, came over for dinner. We had a good time talking about future plans.