The state of my studio
Mid pre-thesis semester studio filled with fleshy monotypes and silkscreens and my sparkling purple Davidson.
Home Again
Well here is the drawing I did in Parma for the exhibition that was held on our last day there. I did it with conte crayon, and it’s about 28 x 40″. As you probably can tell, it’s a sort of explosion coming out of a mossy mass with a fountain-like face. I drew from insects and feathers I collected from everywhere we went, and the fountain was from the botanical garden in Parma, that is from my understanding, the oldest botanical garden in Europe.
Now that the trip is over, I am going to begin working on the prints for the Portland show, whenever that is I’m not sure. The entire experience in Parma was ridiculously amazing. All of our teachers were magnificent, all the places we went were gorgeous, and all of the people were super friendly. For more extensive descriptions of our Parma experience, you can check out Untitled Magazine on the PNCA website.
Firenze, food valley, heat
We went galevanting off to Firenze this past weekend, did the whole thing in two days, what a whirlwind. Our main targets that we accomplished were Santa Maria Novella, the Duomo, the baptistery doors, San Marco, the Accademia (all on Saturday), then on Sunday was the 5 or 6 hours spent at the Uffizi, of which we were first in line early in the morning, and then a bit of wandering and the Palazzo Vecchio. Out of everything we saw, I would have to say that Artmesia Genileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes was the most amazing thing for me. I was surprised however at how captivating the David was, as i was not expecting be wholely wowed.
Then on Monday we went on another series of excursions, this time in the food valley, where parmesen cheese, proscuitto, and l’ambrusco are all made. We went to a cheese farm, if you call it a farm, I’m not sure. Only three people worked with the cheese, of which they make around 12 wheels a day, with no breaks, ever. There was the cheese master, his assistant and who seemed like the boss, this wonderful 90 year old lady who had worked with cheese her entire life. We then went to the proscuitto museum, which was informational, but not as fun as a slaughterhouse or production house would have been, but I think the smell was much more tolerable for most. We then from there went to a winery, where one man was in charge, and whose family had lived there since the 15th century, and the oldest part of the house was from then. We tasted 4 of the wines, all delicious in their own ways, paired with different pork products on bread for the different wines. It was crazily enjoyable and a relaxing time, although the after effects of drinking at noon on a hot hot day were definitely felt. And after the winery, we were not done just yet for the day, we went to a castle, where one of the host mothers, who was showing us around, had lived growing up, which is inconceivable. The majority of it was closed but we walked around the inner walls in the outer part of the castle, where people do still live, it was of course picturesque.
And today, Wednesday, we worked on art, I finished my drawing for the “exhibition” at the end of our stay, however that will be, and went to the weekly market, and later to Parco Ducale, a French style park on the Otra Torente, a beautiful and spacious large park with statues and such stationed around the grounds.
This weekend, to Venice! Exciting! I am pretty worn out from all this nonstop learning, art-making, Italian speaking, but it is a truly wonderful experience, and I can’t wait for tomorrow’s all day on site lectures from Elena. Featured artists: Coreggio, Parmigianino, and several churches included I believe.
And a note of the weather. It is hot. Italy sun. I think it hit almost 90 degrees here today, which apparently is inconceivable for the PNW right now. I wish the Northwest some sunny days.
Bodoni!
Today we went to the Biblioteca Palatino, I think it was called, and saw an amazing collection of rare books, illuminated manuscripts, printed books, in Hebrew, Arabic, Ethiopian, Japanese, Chinese…all from one man’s collection. Mind boggling-ly awesome. It was great to have Claudio, a scholar of old books and the like, explain what they were about and how they were made. The other amazing collection was the Bodoni Museum, which had all of the books that Bodoni had printed, books that explained the history of printing (in Latin of course) and then books that were made in Parma, contemporaneously with Bodoni. I was very starstruck with the Albrecht Durer print, the Da Vinci book, and the type, tools and press of Bodoni. Amazing!! Later in the day we drew the beasts around the baptistery, which was also of course luxurious and wonderful.
Day something or other, May 26th
Today we had our first studio time in the garden at the bibliotec internacionale. It’s a pretty romantic and picturesque place to draw. I started off the Parma work with drawing a moth and some explosion with conte crayons. Yesterday we went to Fontanellato, a quant little town out in the country, a bus ride from Parma, where there is this old 13th century castle with amazing furniture, weapons and art inside. The San Vitale family lived there until 1948, when the family gave it to the town, because the family line had ended. There were glisteningly beautiful paintings of fish and meat in the dining room and billiard room, by an artist whose tag is a cat, whose name escapes me. There was also a camera obscura from the 19th century which was obviously amazing, but best of all was the Diana and Acteon fresco by Parmigianino. It was stunning, words cannot give it any justice, neither can any reproduction. The colors were so rich and the figures so alluring.
This is a picture of the entrance to the garden by the library.
Parma! Second full day
It’s been a whirlwind so far, what with getting oriented in the city and timezone and figuring out how to communicate in broken Italian and English, and all the rest. Our program is so far really awesome, and we have the most romantic space to draw and paint and do whatever in, of which I will post a photo later. I’m relying on the other girls to take the photos of all the nice stuff, I thought we didn’t need 8 copies of the same things, so I’m saving my digital space for birds, broken things and and whatever catches my eye, other than the obvious. My host family situation is interesting. I’m staying with a hip 35 year old woman who has an apparently very busy life, as she isn’t home much. She’s very nice and accomodating and welcoming, but I cannot get over her clear plastic dining room chairs, so funny. 
Preservation and Entropy
Before I leave for Parma, Italy, I thought I’d give a taste of what I’ve been up to in the past month or so. This is an example of recent work of mine, I think the list of materials gives a good idea of whats going on: print, wax and birds in a box.
First Post of First Blog
I set up this blog for the purpose of keeping people updated on the Parma, Italy trip with PNCA. Once I get the lay of the land of the blogging world I’ll upload photos, keep relatively updated posts and all that.
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