Have you noticed how much Georgia is creeping into many people's second choices? Somewhere that appeals to me hugely. I have a friend - like I said - who, along with his twin brother, was an icon painter in the church there, and the two of them managed their blag their way from that to the famous art college in Dusseldorf (I forget the name), I don't know the full details of the story but it is a totally incredible one. They first impressed a local businessman who sponsored them and then they used that money to blag their way west and sort of bit by bit impress more and more important people until somehow they were accepted into the college and managed to - and it's the only word - blag their way to getting the right to remain in the country and then citizenship and so on. In short they went from being people with no formal training doing religious pictures In Georgia, to somehow being personally taught by Peter Doig at one of the most highly respected art schools in Europe.
Although after that it didn't really go so well as one of them had a complete breakdown and at one point was living on the streets and so on and now, very sadly, he seems to be on so much medication that appears totally sedated. I never knew him before but everyone says that he was a real live-wire, in fact the more dynamic of the two, the impetus for getting all that done... but anyway his brother I do really love and I'm trying to arrange a visit there to coincide with him returning to see his parents; I get the impression that it's one of the places where people feel mortally shamed if the guest doesn't feel like his visit was the best few days of his life and that they will force you to eat an entire sheep personally killed just for you every day as a pre-breakfast warm up for the serious eating.