Travel experience with the Albaneses
Travel
As an architect and painter, I find that travel is one of the most stimulating, creative experiences one can have. My interest in traveling is to anticipate every trip abroad as an adventure, a journey, and an opportunity of discovery. Being a tourist will get us to a destination; however, being a traveler, willing to experience how people of other cultures live, opens our eyes to a world of social, esthetic, and environmental enrichment. Painting and sketching can be our license to observe, listen, taste, or otherwise experience in every way possible, the daily vibrations of a new culture.
Every plaza, pedestrian street, or even modest market place has a cultural signature of its own. One only has to stop and observe to realize how much actually takes place in the cycle of daily life. I love to experience and share with those I travel with, the human signature of place and attempt to sensitize others while I capture the spirit of space in my paintings
For the past 23 years I, along with my wife Claire, have conducted trips through the Mediterranean in an attempt to teach the art of traveling and experiencing the most a cultural journey can offer. In our travels, we try to avoid being tourists as much as possible and take time to enjoy the history, art, architecture, and food of the Mediterranean. I enjoy focusing on the most beautiful places possible, in the limited time we usually have, and encourage those who travel with us to explore and "make memories" that only an individual or couple can experience on their own. Today, we have introduced places we love in Italy and Greece to over 600 college students and adults beyond college years. Not everyone sketches and paints, but everyone who travels with us inevitably learns to see much more in the places we visit.