Wolves, bears and vampires

Lipstick red peppers and tobacco leaves drying in Hawaiian style garlands greeted me as we drove into Sloestica deep in the mountains of Macedonia.

As I got out of the car and explored I was greeted with a sight which was more akin to time travel (a task a little beyond the means of the Stornoway branch of Thomas Cook). Before me was a vision of European rural life that was more at home in the novels of Thomas Hardy and Dostoyevsky.

Mud brick and rough hewn wooden houses, horse drawn carts full of hay, and a pre-European Union vitality where livestock have a real value, every house distills it’s own fiery homebrew, and water mills and bread ovens cater for every day needs.

In the small garden plots a mixture of vegetables and multicoloured flowers co-exist. Vivid orange and red homespun rugs hang over ornate wooden balconies and chickens scratch in the dust, oblivious to the many dogs snapping at flies in the afternoon heat.

In the evening stories of encounters with wolves, fairies and vampires accompany the cicadas and the clinking of raki glasses, although the vampires are rarely seen now (a result of the coming of electricity and the car, according to the old folk).

My hosts for the next few weeks are Sergej Andreevski a well known Macedonian painter and his wife Irina (a brilliant cook) at Art Point Gumno, a non profit making artist residency, which has an arrangement to share a programme of exchange and collaboration with the Cromarty Arts Trust for the next five years.

So far I have worked outside during the day, drawing in the village and walking with the shepherds up the mountain tracks, passing small monasteries in secluded shady clearings on the way, curious to know the local names of the new and sometimes familiar plants.

At night hanging paper sheets in the light I’ve studied the moths and insects and tried to understand the complexities of village life from the stories of my hosts.

I’m inspired by the icon paintings here in the monasteries and the abundant plant and animal life, but also the stories and craic in the village. Hospitality and humour are vital, as is the local spirit, raki, which like whisky smooths all social interaction and rounds off the day.

Next week with new art supplies and fortitude I’ll head off to the top of the mountain with Sergej and Meglen, and along the way keep an eye out for wolves and bears, not to mention the vampires.

Jon MacLeod is a visual artist based in Lewis. He works in a variety of media approriate to the ideas and projects at hand, and is currently in Macedonia on an exchange project (see introduction).

© Jon Macleod, 2006