Bread – a work of art – by the artist Marianna – CASAdelDRAGON – January 2021

FamiliaFeliz is a place to develop personal happiness. It is not a place to apply for solving problems by others. It is a space to relax, to recover, to restart. It is a place where you can fail, fail again, fail better and be successful in the end.

It was three years ago that Clara and Juan made a wholemeal bread from organic grain as part of a joint venture with the local bakery. It was about giving new impulses for nutrition, also in view of the fact, that more and more people from other countries have found their new home in our Spanish village. The art project was limited in time and has contributed to the fact, that wholemeal bread is now regularly offered by the only remaining bakery that is so important for village life.

In the last summer Marianna entered the space of FamiliaFeliz and asked herself how and by which she could participate in these special times. She started making our bread. She tried out many recipes with yeast and sourdough. She studied the extraction of natural yeast, she refined recipes and she also worked on the design of the loaves of bread.

In the history of art there are periods when bread seems so beautiful that it nearly gets into museums.

Janet Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939

The free initiative of Marianna is a good sample how it works in an open living community of individuals.

Nobody told Marianna to make bread. Nobody asked for quantity or quality. We see every bread that Marianna gives us as a gift. We are always happy that it just won’t stop and we have an inkling of what will come when it starts to smell in the house in the evening.

Again and again she surprises us with fine spices that she has incorporated, with new grain mixes and with new shapes. Again and again it gives the eye a feast and increases the anticipation. Bread becomes art. Art becomes food for the senses, the body and the soul.

With bread and wine you can walk your road.

Spanish quote, unonymous

After a while, friends of the CASAdelDRAGON also appreciate Marianna’s bread. She willingly trains others in manufacturing and passes on her knowledge. But we know. There is no right to be given gifts. So we can only be happy when it happens and be grateful.