Letter from Lena: Our Dinners
Dear Villa Lena Readers,
Still too close in time to really process it, I’m putting into words the Foundation dinner we just hosted at Villa Lena. A mix of feelings, always, after a heady celebration, including exhaustion and sadness, a come down from the peak of the evening.
I’m writing this while listening to Caleb Moore’s music, our current musician-in-residence, who performed that night, keeping the memory warm and close. If I were to write this up fragment by fragment, it would start with his set—acoustic guitar in hand, silhouetted against the vying yellows and greens of the Tuscan hills, the Villa Lena pool in front, his Blade Runner sunglasses catching the last of the evening light. You can find his music on Spotify.
Next one up: late-night dancing after dinner. My nine-year-old daughter tearing up the dance floor. Earlier, it was Dante—five years old, son of Veronica Buitron, another artist in residence—who stole the show with his moves to Caleb’s music, in front of all the guests. This is Veronica’s first family residency where she could come with her child and her husband to work on her art of botanical dying.
A moment of appreciation for the weather: below 30°C, with a gentle breeze, I don’t remember a July ever being so delectable. As the sun dipped, so did the temperature affording us a rare luxury of putting jackets, sweaters on, shuffling our chairs closer together.
Fragments from the studio visits, the beginning of the event—Freya Bramble Carter’s ceramics, bursting with life: “full of joy, we shouldn’t forget,” she said. Leonie Cameron’s dainty knit-sculptures. Ruba Salameh’s abstract paintings. Veronica’s Buitron’s alchemist atelier. All such diverse practices and such talented ones too.
Later, at dinner, an informal affair with chairs and tables strewn across Villa’s courtyard, next to the dripping fountain, we all kept hopping seats, jumping conversations. In true Italian fashion, it felt like a big family affair—our own wine, our own olive oil, vegetables pulled from the garden that morning, strange and beautiful vases filled with flowers from the fields. And a dessert buffet so extravagant, only our Bea could have made it.
It is such a privilege and joy to enjoy such evenings in our unstable world, we grab them whenever we can.
Yours,
Lena Evstafieva
FRAGMENTS FROM A SUMMER NIGHT
