The Lover, the Mistress, and the Muse

By Stan Mullins

Dear Athens,

As I put pen to paper to write you this love letter my mind travels lengths of time and the heartbeats of past, present, and future. You hold me in the palm of your hand, and for this I am all the more blessed.Upon arrival to your shores, the world was my oyster, you showed me pearls. Learning of life, love and Art, I tripped through your streets, alleys and gardens, the world was vast and inviting. With pen and paper, line and colour I embraced the un-embraceable, your security was at times a blanket of comfort, and a smothering of creativity. We battled and argued as young lovers do. We fought, made up, kissed, made love. As an artist you were the grit that would become a pearl.Your pearl of comfort enabled me to risk and reach past your city limits to push beyond my boundaries.

Seeking greener pastures, new loves, I journeyed to Europe and the cities that were your rivals. Yet you lingered in my heart. Your music I carried with me, and thought as I learned of other cultures and arts, how to share them with you, if I ever returned. Your patience and warm embrace lingered in my heart.

Cortona became my new love, yet you showed me love has no boundaries and we formed a beautiful love triangle. Entwining cultures and philosophies our ‘ménage a tois’ has grown beyond a golden age and moved me into the ‘now’ and far into our future.

The Pearl came next in the form of my studio, my private Cathedral and Kingdom and what has become a Sanctuary. How was I to see the wisdom and foresight of such a meeting. I can recall my first sight, a kudzu mountain shielding a treasure beyond time. An assembly of my favorite places, Athens, Cortona and Alexandria, the city of my childhood, the studio became the quest.

Learning of your willing and openness for more, I leaped at the world’s possibilities. Your beauty and grace enabled me to seek the world, and bring it home to be made new in art.

The great unknown beckoned, and now with a crucible to create; I leaped at the adventures. A Knight of Art, seeking the Grail, I set out for adventures; Continents and Countries, Cultures and Peoples, all of these I set out to embrace and explore and bring home to mine for artistry. Athens, you provided the comfort and foundation to soar to new heights.

The newest Pearl is sculpture. O Athena, how wise you are. Your location and proximity to the Granite City now shine with such beauty I marvel at our potential. With your sister Savannah on the ocean, we can receive blocks of Carrara marble from Italy and marble and granite from all corners of our world. I now set out upon adventures in Stone …a Stationary Nomad.

The world is a vast ocean full of oysters, and I know that here in my home town, I can create pearls of beauty to be cast out for all to see.

As we grow together, I come to know more the wisdom of your love. Your isolation, hardships and limitations of the past have been blessings in disguise. Through Isolation we forged a unique style and personality. The hardships were sculpted and polished to form gemstones of brilliant colors and pearls of artistic integrity. Through limitations we created new vessels of travel, breaking new ground in Arts and Sciences.

Our new chapters promise to be even more exciting as we come into our own. What new adventures we will create and what new direction we will embrace? Line and Colour, Stone and Bronze all of these and more are our destinies.For these and so much more I thank you O Athens.

With all my heart I sign this love letter to you and wish for us a shining future beginning today.