I just heard that a recent painting was published in the this month’s issue of Gray’s Sporting Journal (see above) and a couple of weeks ago I learned that an essay I wrote about my Aesthetics of Death Series and a couple of paintings would be published in the March issue of the Drake magazine. The Drake’s website will also be showing more of the paintings from the series.
This past summer, we took our kids to Italy to attend an exhibition of my work at the American Embassy in Vatican City (Holy See) in Rome. As part of the trip, we went to Pompeii, Tuscany (San Sano), Florence and Venice. Before we went, I set up a guided fly fishing trip in Tuscany for my son and I on the Tiber River. I was very excited to connect with a different part of Italy and to expand my research on my Biological Regionalism Series. The series uses videos, paintings and artifacts to connect audiences to local and global environment.
I was very fortunate that Janeil found Moreno Borriero as our guide (http://www.mbrods.it/) while she was researching our trip. When I went to his website, I noticed that we shared interest in conservation and fly fishing and we even looked similar: short, stocky and handsome.
Moreno
Alberto
During our time on the Tiber River, we had an opportunity to discuss our lives and interests and we were soon on the topic of the bamboo rod making magazine that he was instrumental in creating. Below is a link to the publication that featured some of my paintings from the Catskills, Bamboo Journal. The magazine is published by the Italian Bamboo Rodmakers Association.
The highlight of the day was watching my son standing in the headwaters of the Tiber as he cast to rising fish. It is one of the many memories from the trip that is embedded in my mind.
This past October, a group of friends and I went to meet an old friend, Jad Donaldson, who had become an accomplished guide in the Northwest. This was a wonderful opportunity to catch up while continuing with my research on my recent body of work called Biological Regionalism. The series incorporates landscapes, paintings and videos of specific areas around the world and the indigenous fish species found in its waters. When the series is exhibited together, it tries to connect audiences with local and global environments.
Here is a link to the video I created to document the trip for the gang:
Steelhead trip to Grande Ronde, Oregon from Alberto Rey on Vimeo.
Last year I documented a small pool full of steelhead in one of my favorite little streams. I had been meaning to put this little video together then but somehow the files got lost and I was just recently came across it.
The fly used was a 2/0 white marabou streamer with olive and black ostrich herl on the back. The silver tinsel is from a spool of yarn that I have been using for several years now. The hook had a clouser eye and four glass beads that made the fly heavy but it cames down into the water flat and fast. The barbless hook always rides up so and is fished just above the fish so that it minimizes foul hook-ups. This also provides some entertaining scenes of steelhead coming up to take the fly as you will see in the video. I usually use smaller, sparsely-tied flies as the water clears…. somethings using a size 12 hook.
A couple of weekends ago, we had gin-clear water conditions on the local streams that made for some difficult fishing although we somehow managed to have a banner day. My client that day was a student that I had taught over twenty years ago outside of Boston, Massachusetts. When I saw this grown man it became clear that I was getting old. The water conditions made for some wonderful underwater footage of him releasing his steelhead.