While I'm Away:

I'll be in Italy, studying, for 4 months. Expect lots of rants about the amazing food and pictures of Italian cats. Oh, right! and art!!

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DAY 96 and 97 (friday and saturday)

refined the legs on the painting and those are the four sets of envelopes, getting close to finishing them. 

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Day 95 (EDIT!!)

So today was my 21st birthday. I spent the morning in Quello, drinking earl grey tea and eating a really good custard-filled donut and attempting to read some articles for my Contemporary art class. Unfortunately, I kept getting side tracked and ended up writing emails to some Florentine street artists, seeing if they would correspond to me, so I can complete some research and write a paper. Two have already answered back and I may meet with one this weekend. 

After lunch, and after Debra gave me a few candies for my birthday when i paid for my tea and donut, I went to the studio with Michele to photograph my two nude self portraits, for promotional photos for my library show. I got some work done with the fetuses and then cut them all out after dinner tonight!! 

Also, my mom had a bouquet of flowers, balloons and a small baby chocolate cake hand delivered to the school. It was a pretty great birthday surprise. Today was definitely a great birthday!

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Day 94

Latest painting, which I started and (finished?) today in class. Its another nude self portrait for my body imagery show. its 5 cm wider than the last one but the same height. I'm really happy with the palette and the contrasting moods between the two pieces. Thursday is my last class in painting before my critique next Tuesday. I plan to spend the class making small changes to each painting I've done this semester, if need be. Since I only spent about 2 hours on this last painting, I'll probably take the most time with it on Thursday. 

The last image is of a portrait I did with sandpaper for the subtractive/mezzotint lithograph I was working on. I acided it today and parts have already changed from that prcoess. I am not really happy with the image, but we will see how it looks printed. 

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DAY 91 (SATURDAY)

The school opened the studio on Saturday for about 7 hours, so I went and did 4 more etchings, plus printed small proofs of them all. I've finally decided how I want to present them. I was really unsatisfied by the single etching on a large sheet of paper. it felt sterile and unapproachable, but the small proofs feel intimate. I am going to print the 11 vertical self portraits on small paper and then sew them together in a long horizontal strip. I hope to make it so they can manipulated to stand up in different formations or to hang in a line on the wall. If i get the chance, I will also complete a bunch more of horizontal portraits and of vertical figural pieces. If not, I hope to complete those editions back in New Hampshire. 

The last photo is my prepped stone for a subtractive or mezzotint litho. It'll be my last piece  for litho. Today (Monday) I will begin carving away the black to reveal the stone, which will print white. Its supposed to be a very hard process and I'm a bit apprehensive. More pictures to come once I've started. 

DAY 92 (SUNDAY)

Just a picture from the great vegan lunch I had!!

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Day 81- Day 87

I know its been a long while since I posted. I have about three weeks left in Italy, so I am scrambling between taking last minute trips to some museums in Florence, doing a load of work for class, and starting to wonder how in the world I am going to get everything back to the states. 

Above, I've got my most recent work, which I'll be presenting to my professors the last thursday before I leave, during individual critiques. 

The third and fourth photo are for my litho/ performative diptych. The vaginas have all be cut out and adhered to hand made vellum envelopes. I have to glue the flaps of the envelope down and then wax seal each one shut. Today, I printed my first edition of the fetuses. The stone gave me a bit of trouble so I may not have the 48 I originally planned for. I am aiming for about 36 good mores instead. Once Ive done all of the printing, I can cut the prints into the envelopes and then I plan on painting the inside with paint made from herbs for a scented effect. 

This project is a focus on the two modes of femininity: virginal and childbearing. I want to contrast the fact that, yes these are the two expectation a woman is meant to uphold, YET they are completely opposite. 

I also plan on doing a last piece for litho, perhaps a mezzotint (wish me luck!)

The fifth and sixth painting are a progress shot and an almost completed shot of my most recent painting for class. It is a self portrait. I am rather happy with it and hope to use it in my upcoming show when I am back in the states. I put all of my work for the second half of the semester together today from this class and I'm pretty satisfied with what I've done. I will also be starting a fourth painting the same size and it will be another nude self portrait. This is all in addition to revising a few parts of the last three paintings I've done!!

The last three pictures are proofs of my small 35 mm etchings. Although not for a class I would like to print them and present them during lithography critique. It is possible I may use a few of them for my body positivity show in January because Jess and I want to focus on the fact that body positivity does not just revolve around the shape of your body. For me, its really important to display a sense of peace with myself as a human. And of course, there's a struggle with that concept that I think is important to show. I also want to highlight/ confront certain ideals that are ingrained in people and are social/religious constructs, such as those of sex, gender, and virginity.

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DAY 76-Day 79

Didn't do too much this weekend. I spent some time working on the imagery for the second half of the lithograph, digitally, which I'll begin to execute tomorrow and Thursday. 

On Friday (Day 76):

Tim, Danielle, Michele and I went to see an art documentary about Ai Weiwei. It was contemporary, enlightening, and inspirational. Ai Weiwei is a conceptual contemporary artist from China who's work (often installation) is exhibited all of the world. Unfortunately, he has been taken as a prisoner of China and is not permitted to follow his work. After being unlawfully detained for about 70 days in 2012, Ai Weiwei has not been allowed to leave China and the government refuses to give back his passport. He is also constantly followed and harassed by undercover cops. His work is extremely controversial in a country where censorship is a primary mode of authority. It was really humbling to see how strong (emotionally and artistically) this man is, and how his work is sincerely changing the world. 

Saturday (Day 77)

Went to lunch at a Bar on the corner of Dei Neri, with Michele and Danielle. I had the rosti (a potato pancake with zucchini and carrots also), a really good pear and apple juice and the blueberry cupcake above!

Also, a screen caption from skyping with my sister!! After talking with her, Michele and I went to see another film about Meret Oppenheim. Unfortunately, the film was in German with Italian voice overs, so I didn't understand much and can't provide any enlightened statement. These films are from a 50 day film festival in Florence that not only shows films about artists, but also has a week devoted to queer stories and young filmmakers making their debut. 

Sunday (Day 78)

Not much to report for Sunday!!

Monday (Day 79)

Worked on cutting out all of the oysters/vaginas and then began to cut the vellum envelopes I am placing them in. I cut 12, only 36 more to go! Although it is tedious, I am super excited to see them all finished. 

Tuesday (Day 80)

AT LUNCH, WE GOT TO SEE DEBORAH BECAUSE SHE'S BACK AT QUELO!

Spent the entire day in the studio. I prepped my second painting with rabbit glue and then oil paint in turpentine, later working quickly to create the painting above. It's not finished but I did prep a third piece of paper to start a new one. I think (and my professor agrees) that these paintings are very diffrent from what I am used to (and thus may not be well recieved), but they are moving a lot closer to where I want to be as an artist. Oddly, it isn't as different from what I am used to working on, I am just stopping my paintings significantly earlier than I usually do, as such, not refining them. 

If you've read this whole thing, I'd love some feedback on the last two paintings I've done. THANKS!

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Day 75

I finished my painting of the big blue door reflection and cut paper to start on an orange window reflection of Tim (on the left part of the wall). I’m going to tone it blue because the painting will be orange. Same idea as what I did with the finished painting. I’m pretty satisfied with the results of this painting. Clearly some inspiration from Marlene Dumas. (Am I becoming more contemporary yet? Or are my professors still going to say this is “academic”?? Who even knows at this point.)

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DAY 73

A quick update from today.

Did a second edition of my oyster prints on different paper with different ink. The stone was really difficult and although the ink color was beautiful I don’t know how many prints I really got. I will begin creating the envelopes for them this weekend. If I have two editions of six, that means I need to make 48 envelopes because I will be cutting the four images apart. WISH ME LUCK!!!!

In painting I started a Marlene Dumas/ plutonic theory inspired piece. That is what’s pictured above. It’s a very large painting on paper toned with pigment and rabbit glue (how florentine!) the image is of the blue door reflection I have pictures in the post previous to this one. This is the largest I’ve ever worked! (150 cm by 75 cm).

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DAY 72 (MONDAY) Our last day in Amsterdam was long, but really not too stressful. We went to an imax movie called Interstellar. Luckily, it was in English with Italian subtitles. Although it was sci-fi, I quiet enjoyed it and was really moved by the theories and notions brought to light in this space movie about fifth dimension and the relativity of time. I really suggest going to see the movie. I know I'd like to see it again. After the three hour movie, we took a train to Utrecht, a second train to Eindhoven, a bus to Eindhoven airport, a plane to Pisa, a bus to Firenze and walked 15 minutes to finally, at 11:30pm, arrive back at our apartment.

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alright, so we are still on Sunday, which was a pretty long day if you couldn’t tell. 

After the museum, my three friends and I went back across the park to wait for another friend to meet us. What’s pretty cool is that we were actually meeting up with a girl i met online when I was about 15 or 16 and stayed in touch with. She is from the Netherlands, about an hour or so away from Amsterdam and we got to meet for the first time in person on Sunday.

Karlijn, Michele and I went to lunch and then took the trolley to FOAM, a photo gallery located in a house that is deceptively large. The first floor was entirely an exhibition on a Scandinavian photographer who split his time photographing his small home town life and the hectic avant-gard in Paris. They had a pretty extensive Vivian Maier's show on the second floor. Usually I am against the public display of her work because it was against her wishes, but I didn't pay to go to the show so it is likely the man who shows her work won't financially benefit from it.

After the gallery we walked back to the tram stop through the well-known tulip market, grabbed some very very Dutch sweets called stroop waffles at the grocery store and then karlijn and I said good bye. It was a pretty lovely day and I'm very glad I got to meet someone I never thought I would get a chance to meet!!

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Rijksmuseum part four

Final post from this museum, and if you can believe it, we saw all of this before 1pm!!

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Rijksmuseum Part three

This museum was HUGE! The Vermeer post and tis post were all from the same floor, practically the same hallway! It reminds me of the MET in NYC. 

The first image is a pretty bad picture of the Night Watch, which resides on the opposite side of the long hallway as the stained glass windows. There are three or four monumental sized Rembrandt images in this room. The rest of the images are also Rembrandt's except the last image. Artist unknown (to me), but I really loved it!

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Rijksmuseum Part Two

Vermeer master pos!

Of course, I've never stood in front of a Vermeer, at least not to my knowledge, so this was an incredible experience. They are actually rather small paintings, just as the Mona Lisa, but I wasn't disappointed.

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Day 72 (Sunday)

Early morning visit to the Rijksmuseum.

1. view of the Rijks from across the park, near the Van Gogh museum. 

*the stain glass windows are here for my sister (universallysmall) . I thought she would like them. Even Tim remembered that she liked stained glass, so I took some pictures just for her!! These windows were on the second floor, at one end of the hall, before the hallway full of Vermeers and Rembrandts. Enjoy merow!!!*

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Stedijilk part 2

The main reason that we went to this museum was to see a huge exhibition of contemporary artist, Marlene Dumas. And boy, am I glad I got to see this show. It was inspiring, emotional, affirming and breathtaking.

I also bought the catalogue of the show, which I showed in a previous post, that I accidentally posted out of order. I am slowly but surely reading everything and hopefully absorbing event a glimpse of the power her work possesses. 

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After Van Gogh, we ventured along a street near by and eventually ate lunch. I had a sandwich with brie, honey, walnuts, lettuce and cucumbers on it. It was fantastic!!

Our second museum of the day was the resident Contemporary museum, right next door from Van Gogh: The Stedilijk Museum

1-2. Piet Mondrian, I actually don't think I've seen Mondrians in person. There were maybe three red, yellow and blue compositions and two of the earlier works like in image two. I wrote a paper on Mondrian last year for my Modern class so I feel a certain proclivity towards him, as with any other artist I've written about. It may seem like dull work to most, but it was actually kind of moving to see his work in person.

3-4. Marc Chagall. I haven't done as much review of his work, but he is sincerely growing on me. i feel a great connection with the subject matter of his work. Chagall is a jewish artist who often explores judaism and the community/ stories/ and tragedies attached to the religion. 

5. Franz Marc

6. Jan Toorop, Old Oaks in Surrey

7-8. Billie Zangewa,  Midnight Aura and Angelina Rising, 2012

I think this work is both interesting and important in understanding the capitalist relationship between the Netherlands and some African countries. Here is an excerpt of the museum provided explanation:

"[These works] are a tribute to the fictional female figures used by Dutch company Viasco to show off its textile designs. In Africa, Viasco is the market leader in so-called Dutch wax: brightly colored, attractively designed textile prints manufactured in Java...A notable feature of Zangewa's work designs id the use of a highly lustrous silk, with which she can recreate the reflective glass frontages of Johannesburg skyscrapers or more intimate compositions which, in both subject matter and size, share a kinship with 17th-century Dutch genre paintings."

The ninth photo is also from the same exhibit, but I don't have the identification information. There was also a performance recorded that was an woman presenting the different types of patterns used in the clothes in her African country. She explained the names that the "mothers" had given the patterns and what it mean tot wear each pattern. I wish I has spent more time in this area, but we had limited time. 

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Day 71 (Saturday)

Our first full day in Amsterdam was spent at the Van Gogh museum, the Stedilijk Museum and then in the Red light district.

Here's some shots taken once we stepped off the tram onto Museumplein and some contraband shots from the Van Gogh museum of Potato Eaters. (Unfortunately, it is common in Dutch museum to not allow pictures. I took these two before I knew this rule. A security guy rushed in and yelled at me, saying he would kick me out if I was caught taking pictures again. I definitely didn't try my luck.)

Instead, i took notes on the work and did very quick compositional sketches in the small grey notebook I keep on me. (Funny thing, european museums don't care if you have pen in the museum, like they do in America. JUST NO PICTURES!)

While I was sketching a portrait of Van Gogh by Gaugin that I had never seen before, a peculiar man came up and started talking to me. He was older, and dressed in all khaki, and also very excited that we were both artists. It was a bit uncomfortable, but definitely a memorable moment.