Terry at the MAXXI National Museum of the 21st Century Arts. Rome, Italy.

TERRY BARRETT made these gorgeous photographs when we were in Italy and part of the University of Georgia, Studies Abroad program. They are realistic, unaltered photographs of surfaces of walls and doors.

I chose to use these photos on this website because they visually depict Wonder Anew's message about transformation and becoming. I see in them a witness to living and an exquisite reflection of being cracked open or rawly exposed in life. They become portraits of being.

  

As we wandered the streets of Arezzo, Assisi, Cortona, Florence, Lucca, Montepulciano, Orvieto, Perugia, Pisa, Rome, Siena, and Venice, I watched Terry pause and study flaking paint on cathedral doors, and decaying and crumbling walls. I laughed out loud knowing that Italy is a place traveled for iconic photographs of history and marvel such as Michelangelo’s David, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Florence’s Duomo Santa Maria, and the Colosseum. Though he captured photos of these pieces and places, his eye seemed drawn to the walls.

I watched as he owl-turned his head side-to-side taking in his surroundings drawn by a dimension beyond our five senses. He’d point his iPhone and make a picture.

Later when he showed me the printed photographs, I gasped realizing the importance of slowing to notice what is passed by. This is how art serves. I get to look again from his perspective.

The printed photographs look like paintings of saturated and muted colors, cracks peeled up or flaked off revealingly layers of color applied over hundreds of years.

His pause and notice of those details affected me. During meditation, I began to think about the generations of people who passed by these walls.

On subsequent outings, I noticed people and friends heading to school or work or market to buy tomatoes and tagliatelle. I delighted in watching children walking with their parents to school, lovers strolling hand-in-hand, families nibbling sfofliatelle or sipping café. I saw monastics sauntering slowly up a hill towards St. Francis’ hermitage. Together, we passed these walls.

Terry titled this series of photographs, "Accidental Paintings." I hope you enjoy these photographs as much as I do.

Susan