Nobody Leaves Venice
NOBODY LEAVES VENICE A-K
NOBODY LEAVES VENICE L-Z
Novelists, Journalists,
Screenwriters, Directors, Actors who live or lived in Venice
Reminiscences by Moe Stavnezer
Carol Biddulph Dickinson reminiscences
The Christmas Ladder
Dale Hartman and I moved to Colorado just before Christmas. We didn’t have any furniture or money and the car died - but did this stop us from decorating? Hell no. The landlord had left a ladder in the house. It was tall and triangular - so we put the colored lights on it. I doubt if this solution would have occurred to us, if we hadn’t lived in Venice.
As expatriate Venice artists, we had a certain amount of attitude. About a year later, the co-op gallery we’d joined was getting ready for a show. The venue had two kinds of wall space: smooth white paint, and rough stone. The lighting was kind of uneven, too. Some members became very emotionally involved with the need to display their paintings on the good walls. A lottery system was proposed, a rotation system was proposed….
While discussion was ongoing, I chose the least desirable space in the whole gallery and hung up my stuff, with a sign:
This is a good space because my work is here.
There’s an old saying: “Where the MacGregor sits is the head of the table.” I think living in Venice turned us into MacGregors.
The broom closet in
the Venice kitchen was Comix Central.
The unwritten rule was, you put up a strip
or cartoon if it reminded you of someone in the house - preferaby yourself,
but one of the other inhabitants would do. Or a situation that had arisen
within the walls.