Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1440009
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 JANUARY 2022 8 ALMANAC My essentials JAMES VELLA CLARK 46, Corporate Communications Director, artist Interested in people's stories. Very passionate, typically Mediterranean, love good, honest company especially over good food and wine, I am temperamental, easily swayed by sudden mood changes and highly susceptible to the seasons. I run, swim, and play guitar. I have three children, two cats and half a dog. Don't have much time so very jealous of my ME time. 1 2 4 5 1. Newspaper/Podcast 3 2. Film/TV 3. Internet 4. Music 5. Place I recently re-watched Mr Turner, a movie about the British artist William Turn- er, a movie which not only romanticized how the art- ist must have lived but per- haps how every artist should live, or perhaps shouldn't. I was very mesmerized by this production and the meticulous attention to de- tail in recreating the works, his home and the locations that inspired him the most. What I loved most is the way it communicated Turner's humanity and sensibilities – reminding us that above all, an artist is first and fore- most human. RECENTLY, a New York Times story struck me. It concerned Sotheby's re- cord-breaking auction of the "Macklowe Collection" of highly valuable art that belonged to real estate mo- gul Harry Macklowe and his wife, Linda who amid their divorce proceedings were ordered by a court in 2018 to sell their blue-chip art collection and split the pro- ceeds. The collection sold in a matter of hours and gar- nered $676.1 million in sales. I too know of separating cou- ples who fought about noth- ing but when it came to their art… THOSE who know me, know how important music is to me. I am constantly accom- panied by music. Being a bit old school, I still use my iPod but recently I started using Spotify and it has exposed me to a lot of new music. I can- not really pinpoint a particu- lar artist or album or song because my choice varies with my moods. From Lon- don Grammar, The Weeknd, Sade, Sting, Coldplay, Ma- donna, U2, Radiohead, REM, Stereophonics to Chopin, Sa- tie and Mozart. I love to travel and I for my sanity, I vouched to do it more, even if for a few days. I increasingly need a breather from Malta's claustrophobic environment. Italy remains a firm favourite destination and I've been to many parts of it. But I am slowly building a mini-list of destinations I would love to visit for varying reasons – Morocco, Iceland, Peru, Norway, India, Kazakh- stan, Japan.... But then there are two cities I definitely want to return to – Berlin and New York. SIMILAR to how I paint, where I'd rather work on dif- ferent paintings simultaneous- ly, I always read different books simultaneously. Currently I am reading Michel Pastoureau's Vert - Histoire d'une couleur which essentially is a historical and cultural study of the col- our green. The fact that lately I am frequently finding myself gravitating towards this colour especially for my home, could be one reason why I picked up the book in the first place! The other book I'm reading is Phil- ip Larkin's Collected Poems – also in a green cover.