This Week

We did not have much time to complete studio work this week. Everyone was busy writing art history papers and studying for Italian and art history midterms. We had an interesting lecture on Tuesday given by a lady named Heather White van Stolk. She studied jewelry and metalsmithing at RISD, was a student in EHP, and now is back in Rome with a Fulbright grant. I really enjoyed her jewelry, because she repeated different parts of her body, such as fingers, lips, eyes and teeth to make beautiful objects. We even got to hold her jewelry, some of which were to be sold for $3,000.It's funny because it's along the lines of what I've been creating in the last few weeks. It inspired me to finish this drawing, which originally was a drawing of only ears. Unfortunately the scanner was a little smaller than the page, so imagine it not cropped so close on the left and right.

Fingers and Ears. Conte

This week we also booked our plane tickets to Barcelona, Tangier (Morocco), and Paris. 

Early Friday morning our EHP group leaves for our 10 day southern tour to Sicily, the birthplace of the mafia!

The Three Most Gorgeous Days

A few days ago, Italiaidea, our Italian school, took us to Mussolini's estate. Obviously Mussolini had two huge Egyptian obelisk's, one in the front yard and one in the back. Obelisks, palm trees, golden light... So all day I just pretended I was in Egypt.

Pretending I'm in Egypt again, sitting on

nonsensical hieroglyphic mosaics on the floor of his house.

His Swiss-style second home, located within a few hundred feet of his main mansion. It was filled with beautiful stained glass.

Friday Art History Trek to Palestrina

Yesterday on our art history tour, we went to Palestrina, a small town located about an hour away from Rome. It was great to get out of loud Rome, into a simpler town. Everywhere I looked was picture perfect, so pictures can't do this place justice. 

Our wonderful EHP group!

We went to a museum at the top of the hill dedicated to the Temple of Fortuna. This home was built upon the Temple and now serves as a museum. 

Panoramic views everywhere. 

Then we drove about forty minutes away to Hadrian's villa, which was absolutely stunning. Another place which was picture perfect everywhere. The sun was shining so brightly all day through the olive trees as we walked around on the trails and visited all the ruins of his enormous complex. Talk abut conspicuous consumption on Hadrian's part. And it was all completed in the 20 years of his rule.

Breaking all sorts of rules. Our teachers encourage us to trespass so I walked across this moat on the Maritime Theater (It used to be Hadrian's pool house) which was blocked off for some reason. What's great about Italy is that no one is there to enforce the rules, because no one cares. People in America need to chill out.

Thien, Hamed and I standing in this amazing structure...

This was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It was the golden hour, the sun shining on the olive trees. I couldn't stop looking at it because I literally felt like I was in heaven.

Today's Day trip to Assisi

Assisi is a beautiful little Medieval town located about two hours north of Rome. It is small and easy enough to walk the length of in a day, exploring. We had a beautiful day here. This day and the last couple of days have been some of the most gorgeous of my life. I loved how this was a small medieval town located on a hill. This is the Italy that people fall in love with, because it is a quiet residential town (though there actually is a very decent number of tourists). Plus the sunlight these days is so stunning that it makes everything look heavenly. Assisi was recommended to us by Ezio, our art history teacher and coordinator, who lives on the top floor of our dorm with his awesome family. He has a house in Assisi as well, and he was actually there this weekend but we didn't run into him.

Our first stop, at the Basilica of St. Francis. I can't even describe how beautifully the light was hitting it. 

The inside was just as beautiful. I really loved the colors of the frescos and how it was so brightly lit.

We saw a tower in the distance, so we decided to climb up the hill to reach it. Turns out it wasn't open to the public, so we decided to hop the fence and trespass into this plot of olive trees. It was gorgeous. We walked down the hill and ended up in someones yard. My friend even tried to break into a house, but I didn't know this because I was too busy trying to find an escape out of this blockaded yard. Finally we were able to climb down a stone wall without being seen.

We got this beautiful view. Look what we would have missed if we didn't trespass!

We climbed to the top of this castle, Rocco Magiore, on both sides.

That long tunnel on the left was what we walked through to get to this side of the castle. It was a very long, cold, and dimly lit corridor. It was incredible to stumble across.

They shouldn't even have bothered to put lights. I imagined that I was a soldier who had been shot in the arm with an arrow through one of those tiny windows.

Just laying and frolicking on the fortress walls which have a sheer drop on each side. But like I said, no one cares in Italy. We stayed there for a while. I have never seen views like this. We were SO high up. It was like a castle in the sky.

I am also going with some of the same girls on Spring break. We booked our plane tickets to Barcelona, where we will be from April 13th until the 15th. From there we will fly to Morocco and stay for 3 or 4 days (Yes, I insisted this. It is the closest I will be able to get to Egypt for a long time), and from there we will fly to France, to see Paris and the south. I am extra excited for Morocco because I will ride a camel through the Sahara Desert! My life's dream!  

Bodies and Books

I finished this sketchbook that I started yesterday. It's about 5"x9"

I also had my weekly meeting with our chief critic, Nick, and he has encouraged me to explore the broken mirror sitting in our studio. I was planning on self portraits. My recent drawings have been very fragmented, just like that mirror, and I plan on translating these drawings into mosaics eventually. It's all working out quite nicely, although I got lost trying to find a mosaic factory he told me about. He also encouraged me to explore different materials for making mosaics. Lastly, he suggested some interesting drawing exercises involving my portraits. 

There was also a dead body floating in the Tiber River today, literally right in front of our dorm. I got word of it right before my meeting with Nick, so I had to persuade him to come see the cadaver tumbling around in the undercurrent before we could get started on critique. It was surprisingly easy. There were people surrounding all sides of the river. A lady even asked me, "Cosa e successo?" I was able to respond, "C'e un corpo." She ran away.

Shnoz

Yesterday it rained, so I spent the day staring at my nose doing this Conte crayon drawing. I plan to do more studies of my facial features in preparation for future portraits. Eventually I think I would like to turn these into mosaics.

This Weekend

I was thinking of visiting Pompeii but I decided to stay in Rome this weekend. I asked my RA where the closest dead bodies were and she told me to go the Capuchin Crypts. I've really been meaning to examine dead bodies. This was the PLACE. There were 5 rooms devoted to bones and mummified bodies of 4,000 friars since 1528 until the 1870's. The soil in the crypt was taken from Jerusalem. Monks were buried in this soil and decomposed there for about 30 years until their bones were used to decorate these underground chapels. There were 5 rooms, each utilizing specific body parts, such as skulls and pelves. The ceilings were covered in sacra, vertebrae, mandibles and basically anything you can imagine. There were femurs stacked on top of each other everywhere. It was awesome. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I bought a couple of postcards... (They are now hanging next to my pillow so I can wake up to them every morning).

Here you can see the room of mummified bodies and skulls

In the last crypt hung this skeleton of a child on the ceiling. There were also 3 other children's skeletons  in the back of the crypt. They were the children of a Pope.

In this last crypt we were also left with a heartwarming message:

"What you are now, we used to be. What we are now you will be."

Thanks for stating the obvious.

It was pretty amazing though because it seemed to solidify the fact that there is nothing after death, even for the religious. For this reason, it was surprising to me that this sort of thing would be underneath a church.

Then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. We really wanted American food. My friends actually spent 12 Euro on hamburgers (about $16). I've never eaten so American in my life, actually. I got a plate of fries to myself (haven't done that in about 10 years) and a Caesar Salad (it was covered in cheddar, cranberries and bacon, which confused the hell out of me but I ate it). I enjoyed every bite which was a pleasant surprise!

A beautiful evening at the Roman Forum. I was able to draw a bit in my new sketchbook.

I did a self portrait on this rainy day in studio in china marker. It's a very strange drawing and we'll leave it at that. I've got to keep practicing. It's also cut off at the bottom because the scanner wasn't big enough. (Those are scissors on the bottom right).

This Week

This week it was difficult to devote a lot of time to studio work because we were completely swamped with Italian classes, extra nightly activities, and a poetry workshop. That's right, we spent 3 hours a day in a poetry workshop. In no way am I a talented poet, but it was quite amusing. Last night was the "poetry slam," in which I read a poem about my gecko (I would post it but there is some profanity), and then sang a song with my friends Youbin, Eliot and Susie. We called the song, "Ode to Per Diem," based off of Dean Martin's, "That's Amore" (Per Diem" is our bi-weekly allowance). I sang my lines in my deepest man voice. Luckily the refreshments included wine.

I don't have any photos of the event but I will steal them from other people and post them soon.

Paste this link in the url bar to see a video of us: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B2BhVufavE&feature=player_embedded

Here are the lyrics, with wine driblets. 

I FINALLY made a sketchbook today. I've been meaning to do this for about a week. It's about 14.5"x6," which is almost 4 times the size of my other one. It's quite an irregular form but I plan to draw panoramic landscapes so hopefully I will find it to be a useful shape.

Aerial. Notice the different colored paper. Yeah yeah.

Yesterday I sat outside Trajan's Market and drew while all the British people tried to "discretely" watch over my shoulder.

This drawing was done today right in front of the Pantheon. There was a guy playing an instrument that I don't know the name of.  I got to listen to the music while I drew him.

Just another balcony.

Napoli

I loved Naples. Although it rained essentially the whole time, I think it is my favorite place in Italy so far. The food is dirt cheap and delicious (drunk waiters too, so it's entertaining), the shopping is dirt cheap and great quality, there is a beautiful coast and mountains to climb. The buildings are also painted beautiful bright Naples yellow and salmon pink. The only pitfall is that people never clean up after their dogs and there is trash all over the street, but it feels like a place that people actually live. I thought it was charming.

Our first taste of Naples pizza. It was so delicious and we each got our own for only 4 euro! 

View from the Naples Archeological Museum balcony. It was raining and sunny at the same time. There were beautiful mosaics in this museum which have inspired me to make my own. The sculptures were also in impressive condition.

We entered a curious door to find this little courtyard.

We climbed Castel dell' Ovo...

It had gorgeous views from every angle. Here is a group of sailboats.

Notice Mount Vesuvius (the still active volcano which erupted and covered Pompeii) in the background. I am going to hike it one day. We were also thinking about going to Pompeii which was only half and hour away but the weather was just not going to hold up. I'm going back.

Thien and I in front of the coast

Another view from the castle. 

Galleria Umberto, which is a beautiful and famous shopping mall center.

View from the Hostel

We climbed the NEVER ENDING steps to reach the top of the mountain...It was beautiful but raining and freezing so we did not stay long. Naples is famous for it's sun, so I can't wait to come back when the weather is a bit nicer. I loved it even in the rain however.

Sketching Outdoors

It was a beautiful day yesterday to sit outside and draw. I sat in one place for a few hours and did these drawings, turning in different directions for each. Later that night I went to see "Romeo e Giulietta," however the three and a half hour show started at nine and I fell asleep at ten... 

The old and the new. The column illustrated here is ancient (Part of the Theater of Marcellus), and the plaster formed around it and connecting it to the medieval building is modern. Like I said, this integration is one of my favorite parts about Rome.

To the left of the column was this window. It is a very high end apartment building which was built into the ancient "Theater of Marcellus."

To the left of the window was this very beautiful and quirky building. For hours I sat on the curb drawing, and the whole day I got to watch the trouble that occurred for people trying to round the bend with traffic (yes, the road was such a sharp turn and so narrow that people needed to be directed...) I also made friends with a mangy little gray cat.

Portrait Sketches

Since it was still frigid today, I decided to stay in and draw my fellow housemates. Portraiture is an interest of mine, and I would like to continue with self portraits eventually, probably in oil paint.

Hamed and Astrid

Maddy in her studio 

Stephanie

Beautiful Susie, my roommate. That's what she gets for making faces at me.