carolyninitaly

Hey guys,

I wouldn't be surprised if no one ever checks my blog for updates anymore, but if you do, here's a few pictures of things that have been going on.


A typical street in Florence.


Here's a shot of me and Nick in our Hotel in Rome.


These beautiful gardens are about a block from my house and free to visit.


Here's a little montage of my studio in it's current state.

That's it guys!

I'm working hard and having a great time.

Mum's been asking me to post photos of places I go on a daily basis, so here is the first tour of... my walk to school.



There are a few routes I take to school, but today I decided to take one of the more scenic, but less-crowded routes. The yellow star marks home, and the blue star marks school.





Which brings us to the studio:

Family and Friends,

I'm still having a great time here. I've gotten into a bit of a routine. I wake up, shower, go directly to school, picking up a few groceries on the way, work all day taking all my meals at the studio, and go home and back to bed. Often I find myself still at the studio in the wee hours of the morning, and rather than risk the drunken Italian men on the otherwise-deserted streets, I just stay in the studio until daylight, walk home in the grey morning, sleep until three and start it all again. It's starting to get cooler here, especially at night, but a sweater is still too much in the middle of the day.

One of the students this year is a native to Rome, and he's offering weekly Italian classes for four euros a session. So far he's taught us a few key phrases for the market and social situations and a few key verbs (to have, to be) as well as a few less-key but far more colourful phrases which we must never actually use. (Italian swearing is amazing. One of my favorites translates roughly to "All of the dead people in your family are bad.")

Every Wednesday we have an art history class that forces us all to wake up early and stumble, blinking, into the real world outside of the studio. It's the best part of the program and I wouldn't miss a class. Early in November we're going to spend four days in Venice, and I promise to bring my camera along for a change. A girlfriend and I also have plans for a day trip to Bologna to (hopefully) pick up some discount warm clothing. (We hear there's an H&M there. Everything in Florence is either designer (and more expensive than my budget for the entire trip) or covered in glitter and strategic holes. There's nothing I would be caught dead in in my price range.)

I'm keeping to a very tight budget because Nick is coming to stay with me for three months beginning in December, and we've decided to do some traveling over the Christmas holidays (after the 20th.) We're getting a rail pass that covers Italy, Paris, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. We'll be splashing out a little for Christmas, and taking advantage of the greatly reduced holiday rates, and staying for two nights in a four star hotel in Paris. The rest of the time will be spend in the dirtiest, cheapest hostels we can find. I'm going to be sure to stop back in Florence for New Years Eve, though. I hear it's an amazing party. We're also going to make a point of checking out Genoa (because according to Nick's last name, he's Di there) as well as the small town his father was born in just outside of Rome.

My roommates and I will be hosting the Halloween party this year, and it's coming up fast. Time is absolutely flying here. I can't believe that next week is mid-term crits already!

Mum's requested a photographic account of one of my typical days here in Italy, so look for that in the next few days.

I've discovered that we have a (very low quality) scanner at the studio, so here's a little glimpse of some of the work I've been playing with so far:

Here's a little summery of my proposal for the year, for those who are curious:

This year I'm going to borrow conventions from the comic book-format to create a "comic strip" with each panel more developed than a typical comic, and able to stand alone as a panting separate from the other panels. The stories I will illustrate will be taken from poems I've written. The text will be applied to the images as speech bubbles and captions, and divided among the panels. I've chosen to illustrate poems that are quiet and solitary and plan to work with imagery that pulls-against and reinterprets the words, creating many layers of meaning in the pieces, and much room for personal interpretation and identification. I'd like to try to express and capture something like a scent-memory in the viewer; a feeling of nostalgia and poignancy without kitsch.

For this piece I'll be drawing inspiration from some of my favorite poets and writers like T.S. Eliot, Tom Robbins, Robin Skelton, Charles Bukowski, E.E. Cummings, AJ Little, Milan Kundura and the many writers who've seeped in and left their footprints, as well as from comics, most specifically the new autobiographical comics coming out of Drawn and Quarterly by artists like Seth, Joe Matt and Chester Brown, but also web comics like Sinfest, and Megatokyo and the comics I've grown up on such as Archie comics. I will also be drawing stylistic clues from Action comics and comics I find in newsstands here in Italy.

It turns out I'm not so good at this photoblog thing, but I promise a good update soon! In the meantime, check out my roommate's blog. Seriously. He takes a lot of pictures and updates much more than I do!

Ever wonder where your paintings might wind up?

This is where one of mine did:


(Hi Rodney!)

I'm just getting my things set up in the studio, and I've started a couple of paintings. I'll post som pictures as I get underway.

(I almost forgot what I was here for!)

Last night my roommates and I were all feeling a little homesick, so Luca, (who's been to Florence three times before,) suggested we go out for gellato. He took us across the Ponte Vecchio, through the courtyard of the Uffizi, and into the Piazza della Signoria. The Piazza della Signoria is an amazing sculpture garden, and absolutely beautiful at night all uplit. Some of these sculptures took the artists ten years to complete. Every detail is perfect. I find myself blown away by the hands and feet most often. You don't see that kind of artistry anymore.

My roommate Kyle is much braver about taking pictures than I am. (I'm afraid of looking like a tourist.) He just posted a whole lot on his blog, which you should check out if you're interested.
florence-boy.livejournal.com.

Hey everyone :)

I've invited a lot of people to stay in Florence with me, and I really want you all to come, but upon arriving I've found out about a few restrictions I want to let everyone know about.

Because of new anti-terrorist laws, I have to register any visitors with my rental company - Milligan and Milligans. They need to have a copy of any visitor's passport a couple of weeks in advance, as well as the visiting dates. We can also only have up to two visitors staying with us at any one time. That includes any visitors my roommates have, so we have to plan a little in advance.

Of course, this only applies to those who would like to stay in the apartment. It might not be possible for everyone, but I pass about a dozen hotels and hostels just on my walk to school, so there's always somewhere to stay.

I just remembered that all of our significant others plan to visit at the same time... We'll have to work that out.

Lots of people have been asking for my mailing address here. It seems the best place to send me mail is to the studio. I'll get that address soon. If anyone would like it, please leave me a note here or email me and I'll send it to you.

You can check out the work produced by last years Florence students here.

Carolyn!

After I got settled in on Via Mazzetta (beautiful!) I went exploring with my tiny little map with the idea that I'd try to pick up a few necessities -- groceries, alarm clock, hair dryer, shampoo - and try to find Via Nationale #7 where the studio is located. There was a lot of fumbling involved, but I managed to find the studio and pick up a few cheap things. (I found dollar stores! Tutto 99 cent!) I didn't find a grocery store on the first day, but I did find places that sold sandwiches for 2 euros. I made some friends too. They took me to this place where if you buy your drinks, the food is free. I bought a four-euro ginger ale and had pasta, rice, pasta, bread, and even sushi! It was amazing!

Today I went back to the studio to meet some of my classmates and pick up my keys. Sarah, my prof, showed me where I can get groceries. You can get a free discount card and use it to get huge discounts -- 30% here, 50% there... I bought strawberries, fresh pasta, 4-cheese pasta sauce, vine-ripe cherry tomatoes, banana yogurt, a bottle of white wine, a loaf of bread and smoked salmon -- all for 11 euros!

Florence looks like Florence the way New York was startlingly like New York. I don't know what I expected, exactly, but I think it was something quieter, colder, more like the google-map satellite images. Now that I'm here there's cobblestones and scooters and streets so narrow that they don't let the light in. Everywhere there are people eating in cafes that spill out onto the street. The sidewalks are high and narrow and so old that they've been worn into a deep dip in the middle. Most people don't even bother with them. Most of the streets are one-way. The windows in my flat have shutters that I leave closed to keep the heat out. The shutters let in the air and the street noise and the yelling all night. I've been too busy to be startled by the change. I don't even think I'm jet lagged. Everything is brand new, but it's also like I've been here forever. I don't have time to think during the day, but at night I come home to marble floors and large, empty rooms with beefy antiques and pictures in my bedroom.


Tonight I didn't get lost finding my way home. You would think that a straight line would be easy but the streets seems to shuffle and jump around, and the names change every few blocks, so I can't keep things straight with my half-labeled map. It took me a long time to light my stove. It's gas, and the landlord just left me a little cigarette lighter. I had to steel my nerve to try it, I was so sure I would light myself on fire. Every time I got it lit, I scared myself so much that my hand would jerk on the dial and the flame would go out. Each time made me more afraid to try again. Finally, after a couple of swigs of wine, I managed it. I ate pasta with cheese sauce and smoked salmon mixed in, half a bottle of white wine and crusty bread. I ate with the kitchen window and my book wide open. The kitchen looks out into a courtyard with laundry hanging and windows into so many kitchens with people having so many dinners. I was the only one eating alone. Afterwards, I fell asleep watching cirque de solai in Italian, trying to learn some words.

I arrived safely in Firenze today. I meet with my classmates tomorrow but for today I'm alone to explore and fumble.



My apartment is huge. Sprawling. Wandering. There seem to be rooms everywhere. There are two living rooms, a dining room, kitchen, two bathrooms, three bedrooms -- and every room is huge, marble or hardwood-floored.. The furnishing is kinda sparse which just makes the place seem bigger and emptier. The view is amazing.