On Sunday evening there was a spectacular fireworks display atop Monte Cassino (to celebrate the saint's day, which is held on the anniversary of his death). Monday (yesterday) saw a large part of Monte Cassino and neighbouring hills burning again.
The last big fire there was in August 2004, although there have been smaller ones since then in our hot dry summers. These fires explode mortars left lying there after the war, and clear the undergrowth so in the next few days military collectors will be out in force again looking for relics.
Artists travelling to Cassino for the May exhibition will see a more "war-time landscape" than they would have seen had the exhibition been last week.
It was a similar fire in 2004 that gave me the photographs that I later turned into works for my exhibition in 2005.
That was the first (and only) time I used photographs in my artwork, taking them into the computer, layering, altering, and finally drawing into them to form some of the layers of memories in the small pieces.
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