La Casa del Circo
Change of a year number is one of the harshest evidences for me showing how quickly time passes and more importantly, how long I wait before I start actually realizing the plans I've kept on my To-do list for months. Therefore I dedicate this post for my fellow (ex-)house mates Fabiola and Dunga back in Guadalajara who quickly became my family during my last months in Mexico while also were my source of inspiration and mentors in many ways. Happy New Year! ..and while I look forward to this year, I am now taking time to look back towards "many months ago.." and "many miles away". My most colourful moments of 2016 were surely spent at my home in Guadalajara - the most creative house I've ever lived in.
My dwelling in visuals:
Here is Fabiola working on something, as she always was :) ..probably in editing, as she is the official graphic designer, photographer and videographer of Circo Dragon. Besides that, also a freelance editor and artist with a unique touch, owner and creator of Amapola. www.amapolacultura.com - a cultural online magazine of Guadalajara.
The photo is taken during the first weekend since I moved in. They created so called "cultural Sunday's" which is rather ironic knowing every single day somebody was creating something in that place. On that night some of Fabiola's and Dunga's friends were over and we made some water colour paintings. On the corner of the table you can also see my creation in process. It is sad for me to witness how after leaving my Guadalajara's home I also left large part of my habit for visual creations and arrived back to Estonia slowly sinking back towards self-doubt and my "normal self" which I hope to redefine. Below are few of the shameless images I produced while living there, while others are hiding inside my sketchbook:
Some views of the living room, walls decorated by the juggling rings on the left and artsy colourful collage of colourful vaginas at the lower corner on the right.
Below is a professional circus artist, my other ex house mate and great friend Dunga. At that very night we were preparing some filled mushrooms for dinner. Another lovely habit and skill I picked up there was learning and experimenting on how to cook. Unfortunately, as I arrived to Estonia, I also left my cooking interests to that house. It is nice to cook when you know someone else will (have to) eat your food experimentations and you can see their reaction. However living mainly alone has taught me that I'm happy with my regular candy and cheese eating habits with 0 efforts. One time Dunga had ordered the oven (on the picture), yet he wasn't home when it was delivered. Me and another "family friend" did not open the door when they called out a name we did not recognize. It turned out Dunga is not his real, legal name afterall but simply a name everyone knows him by. Therefore the door was kept closed, the oven did not make it the first time and I learnt the real name of my house mate.. which, unfortunately I can't remember at the moment either. So in the picture you can see a guy I lived with for several months, who's name I still don't quite know and who I remember by the name of Dunga. Everyone in Guadalajara's circus scene knows him! ...or do they, really?
One weekend everyone had left for a circus tour out of the city. Fabiola gave me the freedom of painting whatever I feel like to the walls as her vision was that everyone who is living / will be living in the house will leave their marks. How amazing is that by the way? And how unfortunate that I have wallpapers in my Estonian home. I took the liberty and improvised with some acrylic paints. Below you can also see her fragments of the mirror collage below at the corner.
The balcony, which was filled with lots of great details that captured my attention.
An adorable juggling club - plant pot, which was a gift from Dunga to Fabiola during their first phase of dating.
Below are the images of our nearby street - the main alley, which I walked daily in order to go to training or to head downtown. To be honest, I also walked those streets very often, several times a day at times, without any destination in mind, in order to simply clear my thoughts - that was my kind of meditation during the time. I was also pleased to see how often the trees change their character and colour during my fairly short period of stay in that location. Another miraculous impact that those bricks had under my feet was the fact that I picked up early morning running for couple of times while I generally dislike running as a workout. Of course, when those streets disappeared from my life, so did the 5.30 AM morning runs, and so did my meditation walks. Time to find a new path. ...or perhaps go back to the same path one day again.
Outside view of our ocean-blue house, Dunga guarding the house.
During my travels I've noticed that the air smells differently in different countries, cities and places. I've also realized that the sky and sunsets always look as if they're painted by another artist depending on the location. On one night we climbed up to the roof with Dunga and one of our friends who came to visit and enjoyed the dreamy sunset. My iphone pictures don't do it justice while the atmosphere was magical, simple, romantic and rustic - an accurate presentation of a beautiful contradiction of Mexico.
We had two more members living with us: one of them was the cat Mi, who I have several photos of, yet didn't connect that well as I'm more of a dog person; the other inhabitant was Rafa, a musician, composer and a music teacher who I connected very well with, yet don't have a picture of him.
When I moved to Guadalajara I spent my first week crashing on my friend's couch for a few days (just like Mi in the picture above). After my first trainings in Circo Dragon (I was invited to train with the performing group) I met Dunga, who mentioned they have a free room to rent. Apparently the room I lived in has been, and probably will be in the future, also a home to other circus artist from different places around the world. It was a perfect fit. Therefore it was pure luck that I managed to find myself living in that wonderful place until I left to Estonia. I use the word "luck" eventhough I strongly believe that it was rather "faith" or something greater, as the opportunity truly seemed to be delivered to me on a silver platter. Then again, right paths always seem to find me whenever I'm in a position where I even don't know what kind of a path am I on.
"If they don't let us dream, we won't let them sleep."
