“Go Ye Into All the World…”  

You may have noticed that my blog has been transforming. The banner is new, the photo is different. I have new content in the bio field. There’s a reason for these changes.

My husband, David, and I will be picking up once again and heading out into the wild, blue yonder. Sailing the unknown seas and facing our deepest monsters. We will chronicle our adventures on this blog.

I have always wanted to travel the world. From a young age, I felt the call in my heart to be a missionary. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of great women of faith like Amy Carmichael and Gladys Aylward. I repeatedly watched The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, which tells the true story of how Aylward rescued over a hundred Chinese orphans during the Second Sino-Japanese war. I revered this woman who was so passionate about her dream that she didn’t let any adversity stop her.

I have always had a deep desire to give of my life for others, to experience exotic cultures, to live in foreign lands, and to learn from other people. While most teenaged girls daydreamed about having bigger boobs and boyfriends, I fantasized about building orphanages and digging wells. I wanted to have stories to tell. I wanted to get my hands dirty.

I must admit that my dream of traveling to exotic lands was not only because I wanted to live a life of giving. I also wanted to do some getting. I was bored with my life. (Aren’t all teenagers?) I craved adventure, romance, and intrigue. I wanted to be the heroine of my own story.

 

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David is affiliated with the Gallery Gabrichidze in Brussels. We’ll be working with the gallery in April and possibly into May. We want to travel all over Europe, but we can’t afford to stay in hotels, so we’ll be staying with friends in Paris, Dublin, and London. David has a meeting with a gallery in Frankfurt, Germany. We’re fantasizing about sharing in the local entertainment in Amsterdam and visiting the Van Gogh museum. Then we’ll settle in Prague for the summer and autumn months as David paints a masterpiece mural for the Tina B. International Art Festival.

We’ll be living like Buddhist monks, carrying only our clothing, some art supplies, and a couple of books in our backpacks. Oh, and a towel. We can’t forget our towels. (Yes, that was a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Thank you.)

Since we won’t be staying in hotels and we won’t always have friends in the cities we visit, we built a profile on couchsurfing.com.

“CouchSurfing is an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world. Since 2004, members have been using our system to come together for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experiences. Today, over a million people who might otherwise never meet are able to share hospitality and cultural understanding. 

Our mission as an organization is to create inspiring experiences: cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging, and illuminating. These experiences take many forms. CouchSurfing's initial focus was on hosting and "surfing" (staying with a local as a guest in their home). Alongside these core experiences, we now also facilitate a growing array of activities and events.”
  

The philosophy behind couch-surfing is in line with our core beliefs. We believe that we will only obtain real hope and peace if we connect with our world community. Life is an adventure. We strive to be aware every moment. We believe that every experience and encounter enriches our lives.

“When one has a great deal to put into it, a day has a hundred pockets.”  ~Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human. 

“The Hungry Artist”
 

While no longer starving, David is still working very hard to make his dream a reality. We will be living on a very tight budget for the foreseeable future. Even though our accommodations are taken care of by the galleries, we still have to pay for travel expenses and food. We’ll probably eat rice and beans every day. But we don’t mind. The sacrifice is worth it for this amazing experience.

You can support our artistic adventure by purchasing merchandise from DerosaArt. (Continue to check David’s shop for more merchandise.)

“I am influenced by many artists in a variety of disciplines for very different reasons depending on my mood at the time. Often, I get compared to POP legends like Warhol, Davis and Lichtenstein – compliments, all – but it’s usually because of my color palette, more than my technique or subject matter. However, if I had to list at least one, I would say – Rodin. Definitely. He taught the artist who taught the artist who taught the artist who taught  me, which is why, by the way, I align myself with the impressionists and why I refer to my work as POP Impressionism. The distinction being of course, that POP -- here --  is a verb.” ~ David DeRosa

*old world map of Europe http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/blaue_europe.jpg