Villa Giulia

Finger Printing...

On the bus as the sun comes up

We all agreed that this was the first sunrise we had seen in Rome

The building where we were fingerprinted

Parco Della Musica

sketchbook...

... so worried I'm gonna screw it up
... don't want to touch any of my drawings...
... not sure how to decide when they are "done"

dislike

why do they always give us extra time to work on our sketchbooks? I would much rather just hand them in; that's a better representation of my work anyway.

Children's drawings...

"Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called

True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a boa

constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: “Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without

chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the

six months that they need for digestion.”

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some

work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing

Number One. It looked like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the

drawing frightened them.

But they answered: “Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a

hat?”

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor

digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it,

I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the

grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My

Drawing Number Two looked like this:

"

More than just a pretty picture...

Here's to doing more than one drawing, to diagrams, to perspectives that lack verisimilitude, to palimpsest, to things that don't line up, to compositions, to freedom from the rectilinear grid, and all the other wonderful/beautiful things I am encountering here!

Cheers!

Vatican Museum

This is how school should be

I’m learning so much in Rome beyond what a book or professor can teach.

I’m altering the way I think… no, Rome is altering the way I think…

And I like it =D

Carlo Scarpa Stairs

Thank Carlo Scarpa, for your attention to detail. <3

Venice

Verona

Verona

Verona

Milano

Stazione di Milano Centrale

Outside the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

a random pavilion we happened upon

New Faculty Building @ Luigi Bocconi University, Grafton Architects

Vicenza

Villa Rotunda... gorgeous

Teatro Olimpico... forced perspective!!!

Giardino Salvi

Fountain near our hotel

Verona

Scarpa Door in Castelvecchio

View north from the battlements of Castelvecchio

Scarpa drawings for the Castelvecchio

<3

Scarpa Garden on the southern battlements Castelvecchio

Venezia

Campanile Di San Marco

Carlo Scarpa

Cool gate in Murano

"Something Strange Happened Here" @ Bacini vaporetto stop

"SSHH By Daniel Firman, is a work that offers an extendable rendition of reality. The work provokes a questioning of one's interpretation of the 'world' in which we live. Daniel Firman explains: without any explanation nor assertion, the work must simply remain a psychological or even a metaphysical question that one asks oneself."

Florence

Pizza della Signoria (From the Duomo)

Uffizi

Santa Croce

Fly Away Home!!!

Looking Back

It’s amazing how much one can think in the span of a few seconds, more in a moment, an incomprehensible amount with the passing of a day, an infinity in a month.

It is not possible to capture all that has occurred since we got here, and I dare not try. Let it suffice to say that as every thought runs through your head here, it has different meaning, almost as if you were translating it into another language, where if you translate it literally the meaning becomes slightly skewed, but if you capture the meaning you happen upon a happy new phrase that give you a new mode of expression, a new point of view.

breathe in... breathe out

This started out as a vacation with all the excitement of a trip to Disney World and the eager relief of a trip to the beach. However, it quickly became all too apparent that this is not a fully existential excursion. This has been perhaps the most important thing I have learned thus far, that it is not possible to completely escape; one must simply take it all in.

…people…buildings…sights…smells…sounds…food…experiences…

Prima Notte

Blogging is hard to start. It’s been suggested that we perhaps choose a theme, but I think maybe it’s just best to start and see where you end up.

I guess that’s how I’ve approached this trip; I mean, I knew I wanted to be here, but I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I made a point of not thinking about it too much.

Probably the best place to start this blog is the same place we started this experience, the Pantheon. Julio Bermudez gave a lecture on Beauty, a moment of Inspiration and Ecstasy, a moment of Understanding and Unity. I don’t believe I have yet experienced such a moment, but perhaps the closest I have come was my first visit to the Pantheon three years ago. Feeling the cool, monolithic granite of the columns, staring at the blazing oculus, it was (to be cliché) magical. Therefore on our first night in Rome, as Eric led us through the winding (then confusing) streets of Rome, when I started to recognize our surroundings I was overcome with silent excitement building in my chest. ‘He can’t be taking us there… the first night… is it possible?’ We burst from the weaving streets onto the piazza and before us stood the massive, quiet structure of the historic temple. I can remember nothing that was said as I walked toward it, only the feel of its draw. Standing there on the porch, feeling the columns rising next to me, I knew that this was what I had waited for, this was the reason I needed to come back to Rome.

Many people come to Rome. They take pictures of the outside of the Pantheon and move on along their Rome-In-A-Day tour. To some this is distressing, as it is the inside of the Pantheon that is truly a must see. To me, however, it is standing on the threshold of a masterpiece, feeling both the inside and the outside, feeling it pull at you, threatening to overtake you.

MAXXI