This is part two in a series of four inspired by Nicolas Lancret’s ‘The Four Ages of Man.’ This was a popular renaissance theme in painting where a series of works were produced to reflect childhood, adolescence, maturity, and old age. The overarching theme in all these pieces is traditionally a love that outwits & perplexes time. I chose to also consider themes of self-worth, rejection, humanity and architecture, as well as paralleling Adolescence with The Silver Age in Ovid’s metamorphoses.
June
Somehow (somehow) we all got into the Spa with the rest of the crew. Someone took the opportunity to push me into the pool, and my ribs hit hard against the edge before I fell in. In my affected state I made for the sauna, and laid down on the wooden planks, watching the other guys run back and forth like crazed squirrels to get more water to pour over the coals, everybody crowded in. At some point somebody poured tequila over the coals and started smoking a joint. I leaned back into the planks, feeling my body tingle and telling my mind to go up, up, up, up to that somewhere else and inhaling the weed (remembering I love the smell) swallowing it the way the Russians had taught me. It was breaking hot, so hot that someone joked that our enzymes would denature and we would all die in here. Everything was sluggy and everything felt connected as I stood and made for the jacuzzi. I dipped into the water, it cooled my skin and absorbed the sweat. The jacuzzi, cold pool, and sauna were all close together, the floor was black stone, and there were covered windows at one end of the spa that filtered the light.
July
Walking through that crowded small street alley with a loud traditional Spanish band on drugs and cool wine splattering us at random from above and getting into my eyes (The pain! The pain! My poor contacts!) and shooting people with sangria filled guns and coming out purple and then heading right into a foam party where our group was right at the front where the foam was being shot out and there being so much foam that I almost drowned in it (seriously, someone had to pull me out) and then bad bad Chinese food and someone motivating me to try my Spanish on some of the cute guys who’d come with us to ask completely bizarro questions (think: why do people prefer to ride horses and not donkeys instead?) then finally the bus ride back where I kept falling asleep but hated how I napped (head back, mouth WIDE open) and waking up to one of the cute guys asking me if I was okay because the way I napped was a little scary then walking back to someone’s by the beach watching the sunrise..
