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!

a weekend in italy

Time has been passing very quickly. I've realized that I'll have been in Italy a month this coming Wednesday. Now that I've settled into a routine, the days just roll by. Every weekend we travel as a group to surrounding cities. This past Saturday we went to Assisi and Perugia. Assisi was an amazing town. Its the town Saint Francis began the Franciscan order. It was interesting to visit the grave of the namesake of my favorite city. After visiting the Church of San Francisco, we explored the town and eventually made it to the market. I discovered that the weekend markets are where most people buy the things they need. You can get anything from shampoo to fruit and vegetables. Since I've been in need of warmer clothes I went in search of a sweater. Once I found one, I put my bartering skills to the test. I'm proud to say I haggled the price down three euro (I did all this in Italian, mind you.) It ended up costing seven euro, much better than the 280 euro sweaters in town.
From Assisi, we traveled to nearby Perugia. We only had three hours in this town, my friends and I decided to spend it in a leisurely manner rather than rush around. Emogene, Lindsey, Dan, and I found a great little pizza place and spent our time there. We had pizza, salad, and later coffees. I think it was the best meal I've had in Italy.
I spend my Sundays catching up on the work I wasn't able to do the day prior while traveling. So I spent most of the day drawing and working on art history. The weekend was caped nicely with a piano concert at the theater in town. It was an amazing recital, the pianist played pieces by Chopin, Liszt, and Debussy. The music was incredible and it was also a good opportunity to hand out with the locals. I feel like my Italian is coming along nicely. I'm not forced to use it much since I'm living and working with Americans but I've come a long way since the beginning of the semester.

life in cortona

The semester is in full swing now and I’m beginning to settle into a routine with classes and homework. After a few crazy weeks of traveling the routine is welcomed. My schedule revolves around art and eating, not a bad way to live in my book. Italy is known for starting the slow food movement and that influence is apparent in our group dinners. We eat at a restaurant called Tonino’s every night and dinner is served in three courses lasting from seven-thirty to nine. I enjoy the leisurely meal and dinner conversation; it’s a pleasant way to end the day.
There is a very interesting group dynamic on this trip. The directors of the program keep referring to it as our family, which at first I thought was cliché but is proving to be true. We live in the same building, have breakfast and dinner together everyday, work in the same studio space, do our laundry together and even hang it on the same line. It’s a lot of togetherness; sometimes it’s hard to find a moment to be alone.
After a rainy weekend, the weather has cooled significantly. Everyone is wearing scarves and sweaters and they gave us extra blankets for our beds. Campus is near the top of the mountain, so to come up from town is quite a workout. The cool weather makes the trek much more pleasant. I’m starting to think I’m not prepared for the weather to get much cooler than it is now. My roommate from Minnesota brought several sweaters while I only brought one. In trying to pack light, I may have inadvertently left out a few essentials, like a coat. The clothing stores in town are great but very expensive. I walked into one to look at sweaters and the first one I picked up cost 280 euro (about 420 American dollars,) I immediately turned around and left. I need a Target. There is a thrift store in town that has clothes I can actually afford. In a few weeks I may be rocking a warm blazer straight from the eighties. I’m going and try to talk to the ladies who work here and figure out where I can find more reasonably priced clothes. Everyone can’t be wearing sweaters that cost half a grand each.
Yesterday was beautiful. It was the clearest day yet. I could see mountain ranges in the distance I didn’t know were there and the sky was an intense blue. When the sun was setting, the valley was illuminated in an almost eerie way, there were shadows that looked as though stretched for miles and every tree or house that caught the sun burned bright. It was breathtaking. I sat on the city wall for a while to absorb the view; I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.