5 still life paintings, 6 finished figure drawings, 5 editions of a lino-print series book (all handprinted, hand cut, covered and bound) oh and....an italian test to study for.
I know it sounds like a lot, but I am a very happy girl. To be working this way, filling up the days to the brim...there is just something so satisfying about it. This is the first time I've been allowed to take 3 studios during a semester (I usually take 2 at my home college because they are pretty intensive) and so its nice to have almost all of my homework be art related. It doesn't always feel like work....which is when I know I'm doing something right.
Here's some of what I've finished so far for painting....
And here is a teeny tiny preview of my book arts/linoleum cut project...."Whimsical and Improbable Displacement..."
Today was actually sort of a mini-break from the work week. It was a scheduled field trip day to Pisa and then to Lucca. Pisa was pretty cool, although aside from the leaning tower and the few museums/the cathedral beside it...there wasn't much else going on. Which was kind of perfect. Today was not the day to for me to be overstimulated. On top of the fatigue that comes with working long hours in the studio, just about every single one of us has come down with a nasty cold. The pace of the field trips today ended up being perfect. We still walked until our feet hurt, but it wasn't overwhelming.
Pisa did have a beautiful duomo, baptistry, and cemetery. The cemetery had some beautiful statues and incredible frescoes. We even got to watch the painstaking restoration process as we saw two art restoration specialists take on a frescoe - one centimeter at a time. The cemetery unfortunately was bombed in WWII. Because of it, a lot of historical art was lost. But....miraculously, art historians and restoration workers were able to reconstruct some enormous frescoes that had previously been in shreds after the bombing.
Incredible.
We had a nice lunch in Pisa after seeing the sights before we literally just made our train to Lucca. Lucca is beautiful....and so quiet and calm. Its a medieval town that still has the surrounding medieval walls that have protected it for hundreds of years. AND, because it was not bombed in WWII, the town inside the walls...is still intact.
We walked inside what used to be a Roman ampitheater....we literally walked through the same tunnels the gladiators were sent through to face the gauntlet of roman "games." Of course it is a beautiful open space now, with restaurants and housing, but you can see the stones, the original structure...still intact.
We also walked by one of the oldest cafes in Lucca, where Puccini and "The Bohemians" - a movement of artists, poets and musicians - would all gather to share life and culture and ideas. (Puccini wrote La Boheme...which I was introduced to in high school...it serves as the inspiration for the modern day musical, Rent.)
It was a great day trip. :) Tomorrow, to celebrate one of my room mates birthdays....we're taking a train to Perugia for the annual Euro-chocolate festival! Rumor has it, this festival is so huge, you can smell the chocolate as soon as you enter the city.
Oh yeah. It's okay to be jealous. But before you get tooo mad, remember that as soon as I get home tomorrow afternoon, it's back to the studio for me. homeworkhomeworkhomework.
I'd say I'd send you some chocolate, but I don't think it will make it home. ;) So instead I'll just send you more of my love. Sooooooooooo much love.
~Hayden
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