art coma

Yesterday I awoke from my 11 week art coma. As I was packing up my studio, I was reflecting on why time has passed so quickly here and I realized its because I've been completely consumed in making art. In the past, I've had days go by without notice because of art projects but never months. All I've really done is eat, sleep, and make art. This has been a wonderful creative experience and I've learned much and grown as an artist. I have a sense of direction of where I want to take my art and I've developed concepts I want to explore for future work.

As rewarding as this experience has been, I feel I have unfinished business here in Italy. Because I've been so consumed in art and the nature of this trip, I've been with other Americans for the majority of the time. I want to continue to learn the language and come back to live here again one day. Maybe in graduate school or perhaps as a professor. Whatever it is that brings me back, I know I'll return. So as sad as I'll be to leave next week, I know it won't be forever.

final show

 Yesterday evening we had our final exhibit. It was a successful show and a bittersweet occasion. It has been an intense two and half months. We've been up here on the top of our mountain immersed in art. I've produced more in this short time than I usually manage in a regular length semester. Now my time here at our little artist commune is coming to a close. We will be leaving Cortona in eight days and this last week will be spent writing papers and cleaning up studio. 

I can't believe how quickly its gone by. 

Everything culminated last night with the exhibit. Everyone put one piece in the show and each class chose another piece to represent that class. I put one of my paintings in and my class chose another of my paintings; so I was able to have two pieces in the show. I was excited since the two are part of series that I've begun. 

I was very impressed with everyones work.  There are so many talented people on this trip; its been a great experience to live and work with them. 

There was a wide variety of work: stone carving, bronze sculpture, book art, photography, printmaking, drawing, and painting. 

Many of the Cortonese came and the local paper took pictures. It was a good turnout. 

I'm going to spend the majority of this next week trying to take in as much of this quite Tuscan town  as I can. There are still many places that I haven't had the time to explore. 

Oh Cortona, I'll miss you. 

Il' nuovo presidente!

Today in the small medieval hilltown of Cortona, Italy-I am proud to be an American. The last eight years has been damaging to my concept of what it means to be American and has slowly turned my nationality into a source of shame. 

But this morning I am proud.  

I am proud that we have overcome entrenched biases to elect an African American, that we are moving away from cold war politics, that we elected a man in tune with our modern global society, and that we as a people have chosen someone who can rally the disenfranchised, disaffected, and the plain apathetic to give everyone a voice. This is larger than one man, larger than the presidency; this is about the American people. 

My optimism is not blind. Barack Obama will be facing immense challenges, both known and unknown, and I do not expect him to be the solution to all of the problems our country faces. But I do see this as a new beginning, and it is one that I can believe in. 

Today I am proud to proclaim "Io sono Americana!"  

not the bash-but still awesome

One of the few things I regretted missing this semester was the College of Design Halloween Bash.  For the last few years, Halloween has been a big deal. I've had more fun celebrating Halloween as an adult than I ever did as a child. So as 31st approached this year I felt a little disappointed that I wasn't home in Raleigh preparing for the COD Bash. 

There were plans here to dress up in costumes for dinner at Tonino's but it didn't sound like it was going to be a big deal. 

It was.

Everyone went all out with costumes; including the teachers and the creepy groundskeeper, Geno. It was so much fun. They gave us lots of wine and there was a goofy costume contest. 

After dinner, they arranged a party in one of the rooms. They cleared out the tables for dancing and had a band.  They played such hits as: t.v killed the radio star, songs from greece, relax, and the YMCA, all in a heavy italian accent. It was hilarious. Everyone danced like crazy, the waitstaff, the professors, Geno, everyone! 

So even though I missed the bash, Halloween in Italy turned out to be pretty amazing. 

I don't know why I had any doubt. 

deluge

So the other day the power went out for a few hours. This really wasn't a problem, it was just a little inconvenient. The issue was that the water runs on a pump, so it cut off while the electricity was out. While flipping the faucet on and off in frustration, I accidentally left it in the on position. When the power came back on, so did the water. 

It must have been at least an hour after the power came back on before my roommate Fern found the flood. Water had run over the sink onto the floor and out into the room. There was enough water to float papers. It took every towel in the dorm to soak it up enough to then mop it. 

Fortunately, nothing too important was left on the floor and the floor is tile;  so we were able to dry everything out no damage done. 

It was the biggest mess I ever made- and I've made some big messes. 

It was kind of amazing.

midterms and the plague

Last week was midterms. No matter where you're at, its a stressful part of the semester. Projects are due, there are tests to be studied for, and everyone is generally freaking out. But I made it once again. My Italian exam and monster Art History exam are over and I can go back to concentrating on art. The new concern this week is the bad case of the stomach flu which is sweeping through the dorm. So far I've avoided it. I think the count is 11 of 36 people are down. My roommate,Fern, seems to have gotten a particularly bad case. I've basically moved out of the room. I'm avoiding it like... well... the plague. Its pretty ironic, since we just took an art history exam which covered Black Death Style; art that emerged after the plague of 1348. I'm pretty convinced the fact that we studied the plague, and we now have a plague of our own, are not unrelated. We'll see if this influences our artistic style.

florence and feet

I've reached the halfway mark for my time here in Cortona. I can't believe this coming week is already mid-terms!

I've had a great creative week. For most of the semester I've been in a creative rut. It was very frustrating and unexpected since I'm in such a visually rich place. What it boiled down to was that I was putting too much pressure on myself to make "good" art. I was putting too much weight on everything I was doing and it was simply crippling. I've finally relaxed and suddenly the ideas are pouring out. Now the pressure is not on coming up with ideas but completing them in the time I have left.

The week prior was the turning point. It was my best week yet in Italy. On Wed. Sept 24, some friends and I skived off from doing work and took a day trip to Florence (Firenze.) Firenze is about an hour trip by train. We had already explored Florence before we arrived to Cortona, so we already had a good sense of where we wanted to go. My main goal of the trip was to find find some shoes. The tennis shoes that I brought are starting to fall apart, so I felt like I could justify the purchase of some fancy Italian leather shoes. It was fun and relaxing trip- and I found some fabulous shoes. It really was the week for feet, because that Sunday the group got to take part in the grape harvest and grape stomping. It was a great experience and everyone's spirits were high. There was lots of laughing, drinking of wine, and general silliness.

So for all of the silliness and fun the week prior, I was finally able to take pressure off myself and inversely get serious about my art. I've started the largest painting I've ever done. Its over five feet tall and equally wide. I've enjoyed working in oil paint rather than acrylic. Its much easier to work with and the color is so much richer. Acrylic is such a stubborn medium , I'm enjoying the fluidity of oils. I think my painting style was meant for oil paint. I'm really excited about it. I'll post images of the work I've done soon.

I've been a bit neglectful of my blog and flickr lately, but I'll work on updating it more frequently!

hugs and love!