Day 23 continued

--drawing club: round two!


After Il Papiro, I had our second drawing club meeting. Again, four people is my lucky number, but there were three new people! I was excited. We ventured off to the Piazza with a little lake right next to Fortezza de Basso. 

Jayne, Lisha, Katie

CC up in a tree

my sketch for the day,

again with red paint

After drawing, we went to a caffe and had cappuccinos on lazy couches. What a lovely day.

Day 23

--Il Papiro is a paper store that specializes in marbled paper. As some of you may think (cough, cough Greg..), the process of paper marling does not involve actual marble. Sorry to burst your ancient statues. Paper marbling is created through a process of having a tub of wallpaper glue --mixed with other things-- and splattered watered-down acrylic paint evenly into this glue. Then, using combs and sticks, designs are formed into this layer of glue. When you lay the paper onto the top of the glue layer, the acrylic paint dyes onto the paper, and you let it dry.


A group of students from my program and myself got to have a personal demonstration from the founder of Il Papiro. We were also each able to make our own piece of marbled paper. Here's a peak into this artistry of Firenze.

creating the design

with the founder completing my work

finished paper marbling!

drying finished works of our group

Day 22 continued

--I drew quite a bit today, with accents of  red paint

we miss Pan

Day 22

--Started our first fresco today! We are painting on a 9 by 9 inch tile. Fresco means “fresh” in Italian because fresco painting involves painting onto a wet/fresh of plaster (a mixture of water, sand, and lime—not the fruit!). The paint that is used is actually just colored pigment, that is similar to fine, colored sand. You mix these pigments with water, and then paint onto the fresh layer of plaster.

For our first fresco, the assignment was to make a geometric design. We completed half of the piece today, and will complete the other half next week.

my tile (left), my painting sketch (top), colored pigments on palette (right)

my tile with half of the fresco plaster 

the first completed half of my fresco

Day 20

--random drawings

the man who said no

amongst

other things

Day 19

--A group of girls and I went to to Piazzale Michelangelo. It is a piazza located on top of a hill that overlooks the entire city of Florence, and it is such a beautiful cite. We went around sunset, and were able to see the sun go down, and walk back home amongst the incredible colors of the sky. && here are some pictures from my day.

a view on our walk up

Nikki & I

waiting for the sun to set

are you sure i live here?

Day 18

--Happy Friday! Today was quite the productive day of errands! My friend Nikki and I went around wandering, and in this adventure we accomplished several things. We got took some photographs, saw a really neat stationary store (with ink, pens, wax seals, etc.), bought groceries, dropped off my film to get developed (get excited!), and most importantly: got our Uffizi passes!

“What is a Uffizi pass?” you might ask. Well, it is the most magical, fantasy-esque thing for an artist, of course!

The Uffizi pass lets you into the Uffizi museum as many times as you want (for the full year), and is also an unlimited pass to get into the following: the Accademia Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, Museum of the Medici Chapels, Museum of San Marco, and so many other wonderful places! With our shiny, new cards, we decided to browse through the Uffizi art museum. It is such a lovely thought to know that I can come back as many times as I would like. 

photograph of a statue inside the Uffizi 

-photo credit: Nikki

We found an exhibit of woodcut art from 1400’s-1600’s. Please note: that is a terribly rough estimate of dates, as I don’t quite remember. Nikki and I sat and sketched Andrea Andreani’s Eva, which was a woodcut made from three blocks in 1587.

my sketch of Eva

A great day in Florence with a friend, and hopefully many more days of art and exploration to come!

Day 16

--Today was the first day of the drawing club! It went really great! (even if the turnout was only four, I am still satisfied). It was difficult coordinating people’s schedules, as I’ve had four other people express interest, but have the conflict of class at the time today. I’m going to try to have a few different times so I can provide an outlet for other’s creative outlets!

Our big group o’ five (myself included) went to the Piazza della Liberta and sat down and sketched for a while. It was really nice to have sketching company, and to see what the others were drawing. Here are some of the photographs from our sketching sesh:

Katie

Karlie, Lisha, Jake 

my sketch of Katie drawing

& myself

Day 15

--In my fresco painting class, we watched a (let’s call it) epic video about the start of art, and how people creating and recognizing images came about. It was highly dramatized with the musical background and a British host/narrator. Anyway, in this video, some of the ancient cave paintings were analyzed to determine how and why people began to make images. The solution that was reached at the end of the video was that people were hallucinating, and were simply putting these hallucinations/visions down in the two dimensional form. There were two groups very far apart geographically as well as time wise. One was the Sans people, who are from Africa, and the other…oh, well, I wasn’t paying attention that well. Regardless, the Sans people would set themselves into these traces and hallucinations through dancing, music, and chanting, which would lead them to having these visions. For the other group (my apologies for not paying super attention), would be deep in these caves for days. When our eyes deal with extreme amounts of bright lights or with a lack of light for a long period of time, our minds start to create visions of hallucinating something-or-other (colorful blobs, black nets, etc.). These people deep in the caves were deprived from light for so long, and had these visions. So there was the connection between each of these similar, ancient forms of art.

Here is my sketch page for the day. It consists of a sketch for a birthday card, leftover mailing stamp pieces, and a little inspiration from the film in fresco. I also played piano after, and started to write a new song. Creatively productive day, I’d say!

Day 14

I sat in Piazza della Liberta and did a few sketches after class today.

knotted up

give & you shall

Sidenote: I just started a drawing club at my small study abroad program. The idea of it is to embrace the beautiful city of Florence and the art culture here. We will wander Florence until we find a place to sit, sketch, doodle, draw, and admire. I can't wait for the first meeting in two days!

It is a lovely, lovely thing to have time for art.

Day 12

--Remember to Wander. Today was a day for wandering, as I feel like I needed to explore at least some of this beautiful city that I will be residing in for four months. So, with my map, minolta camera, sketchbook, paint, and pen in tow, I went out a-wandering! I saw a few (or a lot) of piazzas, as they are everywhere. Sidenote: a piazza is a public square or sometimes resembling a park, depending on which piazza you are talking about. I made a list of all the places that I ventured to today (see below). It is such a beautiful thing to explore by oneself in such a lovely place.

At the fourth piazza that I visited, I stumbled upon a swap meet! It was huge, and there were so many neat, antique things. I would have bought so many old letters and postcards if I could actually read Italian. I loved it though, and shot a few black and white photos (stay posted!)

Then, I went more downtown and past the Duomo. I bought a panino (the singular form of panini) and sat on the sidewalk next to the Ponte Vecchio. After eating my sandwich, I pulled out my small piece of mat board and some paint. There are many artists painting and by the Uffizi (art museum) as well as along the pathway that I sat on by the Ponte Vecchio. I let myself be inspired, and decided to try to join them for a day. I made this simple painting-sketch combination.

I began to sketch the bridge, which was incomplete for an unfortunate run-in. I was interrupted by a seemingly nice, local, Italian man. You know, I’ve heard that Italian men hit on American girls, but usually thirty is the common & gross age of these Italians. Well, with my luck, I get the geezer. Gross, gross, gross.

Note to self: 60-something year old Italian men can be just as creepy as the 20/30 year old men. Don’t be deceived by the nice grandpa! Sheesh.

Day 9 continued

an afternoon in caffe cavour

cafe americano

sipping strong coffee

completely content

one euro cost

for happiness

& a seat to be

in Florence

among locals

deliciously drowned

in

language

& voices

                                   that aren't

                                      my 

                                              own

Day 9

--Let me tell you a little bit about where I live. I live in a pensione, a small hotel or boarding house in Italy. The first floor is simply a walk in “lobby,” which now looks a little bare since the Christmas tree was taken down. You walk up the stairs, and on the second floor is where twenty other students from the university and I live. On the third floor, there are guests, as well as the host family/owners of the pensione live and stay. The guests on the third floor are staying here as a bed & breakfast.

These are the stairs when you first walk in.

This is where I sleep.

Middle bed; I have two roommates. There are also  two small desks and a bureau that we share in our room.

This is where I look outside my window.
Hence the messy sketch.

This is our bathroom.

Our pensione host family cooks meals for us, providing us with all meals during the weekdays, and breakfast on the weekends. All the students on the second floor eat together in our family dinner style. 

This is where we eat meals.

This is where the host family cooks for us.

The pensione hosts include a bit of a family. Kiara is the main manager, and is a very pretty Italian woman. Her relative’s name is Illio. He seems like an uptight guy at first, but trying to speak Italian with him brings out his funny (and dancing) side. He also gave us girls a tip for how to keep the forward Italian men away (with language that I will not translate for you; very entertaining though). There is also grandma, and I am pretty sure her name is Marianella. It’s hard to know as she speaks almost no English. She’s terribly adorable, and was so cute and excited when she heard us practicing our Italian we had learned in day one. There is also Jesus, who helps clean up after dinner. He is from Lima, Peru, and insists that I am Liza Minnelli. Kiara and Illio have a son and a dog. 

This is Forco, the dog.
He smells a little, but is still super cute.

Oh yes, did I mention that my pensione has a great location? School is 4 blocks away, and the Duomo (yes, folks, thee Duomo) is down my street about 7 to 10 minutes walking. And the Ponte Vecchio (translating into “old bridge” in Italian) is not too far from there. I was stunned when I found this out during a wandering walk on the first night. Bene bene!

I’m hoping to take photographs on my film camera of the members of the family, which I will post if and when I ever get it developed. That's all for now! 

Day 5

--A group of us woke up at 6:15 am and went to revisit some of the sights from the night before before the sun and tourists were up. Seeing the Pantheon with virtually no one and the Trevi Fountain (which is constantly crowded) amongst four other strangers was simply incredible. 

The sun rose behind the Colosseum, and here is my sketch from that morning.

Day 3/4

--First few days for the trip to Roma included a tour through the Vatican’s art gallery, which was followed by the ever-incredible Sistine Chapel of Michelangelo, and lastly St. Peter’s Basilica. Our entire study abroad program had a many-course meal together in a great restaurant. Stuffed.to.the.brim. The next day, I wandered to the Piazza of St. Ignacio. I sat on a chilly, Roman sidewalk and sketched a small bit of the lovely architecture. The architecture of Rome in incomparable to anything I can remember seeing in the U.S.

Day 2

messy sketch of the view outside my window

off to Roma tomorrow!

Day 1

--Got lost already.

I’m in Florence! Safe & sound. In Frankfurt, I met two LMU students who are both from Arizona! Crazy or what? Once we arrived in Florence, Victoria (from az) and I took a taxi together. We live in different penciones, and hers was closer to the airport. She showed him both of our addresses at the beginning of the drive. 

After the driver dropped off Victoria, he went straight onto mine. When he arrived to the pencione, he turned to me and said, “21, right?”  I couldn’t quite remember or find the address in the accessible part of my backpack, but that sounded right. I got out of the taxi and went inside to find my pencione. Well, the name on the residence inside the hallway of number 21 did not match the name of my residence. I fumbled and found my address  --102. Oy. I went and asked a lady who worked at a little shop at the end of the hall. She told me it would be a few minutes down the way. I started walking, like such a tourist, with my camera bag, 2 big suitcases, and backpack in tow. Sidenote: my boots had been tearing up the back of my heels all day (even ripping one of my socks), so I did not feel like walking for miles with all that luggage. 

In Italy, there are apparently red, blue, and black address numbers, and none of them make sense in conjunction with one another. For example, I was at 21 black, and not too far down the way I found a 106 red. There was no "102" in sight. I saw a man in an Italian Express truck, which seemed like a much larger postal service truck (though I’m not sure). I asked him and showed him my address, and even though he didn’t speak any English, he walked up and down the street looking for 102 for me. He then went and pulled out a map in his car, and found the location on there. He then spoke a lot of Italian, of which I understood absolutely nothing. Soon, I understood that he was offering to drive me. I agreed (Mom, don’t kill me!) and he even lifted my heavy bags into his car. It was a ways away, and I was so grateful that this stranger took the time to not only find it for me, but to drive me there. I wish I could have thanked him more than saying,  “grazie” and “muchos grazie” (pardon my horrific Italian) many times. I shook his hand, as to not give the American girls a weird rep with a hug that I would have normally have given him, and left in a much brighter mood. Lost within my first couple minutes of being in Florence started out as a just-my-luck situation, but the kindness of an Italian stranger put me in such a lovely mood. =)

Note to self: Thank you so much is “grazie mille!”

Day 0

--Left on January second, starting the day off with catching my last Arizona sunrise at the airport. I am equipped with 2 suitcases each weighing exactly 50.0 lbs, a back(breaking)pack, coat, and Mom’s old 35mm Nikon. You could say this was my day of “f’s/ph’s.” Let me show you. My fflying itinerary goes as follows: Phoenix to Philadelphia to Frankfurt to my final, fabulous destination of Florence. I don’t think I’ve fully comprehended the fact that I’ll be living in Italy for four months yet. What a crazy dream of mine to be able to live out! Random note, but if anyone is curious, the courses I will be taking are Italian I, Finance, Philosophy (ethics), and Fresco painting. Excited to almost be on the last let of the plane.

Note to self: do not order coffee on a regular plane unless it comes with forty packets of sugar and a new tongue. Oof!

ps – who wants to count the f/ph’s in this little post?