Art Update!

Ok I finally got pictures of everything I have been working on in my art classes so now you can see it with explanation. Ok this is my most recent fresco! I love how it turned out, mainly because of the color and blending. The paints happened to work out exactly the way I wanted them to and it was so much more natural to paint. Mario even complimented my painting and told me he could tell the paint worked better for me this time. Sadly my camera wouldn'tpick up some of the purples that I used in this painting but I am very happy with it!



This next painting is the second fresco I did. I am not happy with this one at all... This was the frustrating fresco where Mario was painting on my piece and I ended up feeling like punching people at the end of class. He told me I over worked the paint and I guess he is probably right but I still get to touch it up so hopefully that will help pull my faces out of the mud. Bleh, anyways I apologize Momma for ruining this picture :( I tried though haha.

These are pictures of the middle step that my third fresco is in. Once you finish the tile, you use a certain type of glue to glue on a cheese cloth. then your ip the cheese cloth off the tile. This is that stage when it's only on a cheese cloth.

 This is my fifth fresco to be :) Its from a picture I took of a baby cow in the snow over spring break this year.

 In Jewelry we have been learning how to solder so that we can make rings and we finally got to make a practice one before we start on the silver for our real project. So this is my first practice ring made out of brass! So basically it went from a flat strip of metal to a convex ring :) I love it even though it is a little too big for me.

 This is the batik I have been working on for a while. I have dipped this four times now but when the picture was taken only three. The keys are at their final color but I dipped in a cobalt blue in order to change the color of the background to a navy.

These three pictures are all of my shabourie pole wrapping scarf. So basically, how I made this was I taped a corner of the white scarf on to the top of a piece of thick pipe. Then I tied a very thin rope in a knot at the top. I would wrap the rope around three times, twist the fabric to one side and then scrunch the ropes upward. I did this all the way to the bottom of the scarf with a string that had been dyed a darker shade of pink. Then I dyed it a light shade of purple. The more 3D looking fabric is what it looked like immediately after I took it off the pipe. The other two pictures are after I ironed the scarf out. I was thinking about doing graphics over the top but I like how organic it looks right now so I am going to leave it!

what a yummy week!

This week has been fun and super eventful even without a field trip! Class wise I feel like I did a ton this week but not much was actually produced to tell you about. In Jewelry I learned how to solder this week which was very similar to welding so I rocked it! I am now coming up with ideas for what to make for my first ring and I think I'm going to make a belt ring with a buckle and everything. In Batik I am working on my key scarf. It is taking a while because of the fact that there is so much detail but I have dipped it in yellow and blue, so it currently has yellow, green and blue keys! I am starting to do shaburi, which is basically classy tie-dye and next week will start my next two batiks which will be abstracted portraits. I am super excited about this class still and I love it!!! In fresco we planned out and got our paints ready for our 4th painting. I know, I know I am super behind on pictures but I just keep forgetting to take my camera to that class! All is well though, my next painting is this drawing except I'm doing a graphic sun behind him in blues and purples. Actually was an eventful week in Art History. We got to go to the Vasari Corridor in the Uffizi. The was the Medici's private art collection and private hall to get from their palace to the museum when they ruled Florence. Vasari is closed off to the public and they have a huge collection of self portraits that have been donated by the artists! So we got a tour on Wednesday and I got to see some amazing self portraits (Durer, Rembrant, etc!). That was super exciting and was worth the extra 30 minutes that Helen decided to keep us in class, making us extremely late to Fresco.


Also did some fun things this week. Sunday, we all went to Fiesole which is a small suburb that overlooks Florence. It was a beautiful town and a great way to spend an hour, since it's so close!

On Tuesday, I went to go see a Beatles cover band! There was a bit of a misunderstanding with the people I was going with so I didn't stay long but it was pretty fun! The band was dressed in matching grey suits and were totally trying to pull of the Beatles look and it wasn't really working out haha. On Wednesday, there was a movie night at SACI so we got to watch, La Vita Bella! If you haven't seen it I greatly suggest it, the subtitles are worth the story. Everyone in the room was crying when the lights came on (yeah, that's impressive!). On Thursday I went out with Kari and Rebecca; we ended up wandering around the city and I got to try kiwi and fruit mousse gelato (kiwi is now my favorite flavor). We had an attempt at a conversation with some random Italians, who kept trying to talk to us in French for whatever reason. Pretty fun though.
Last night was an experience. First, Kari, Clara, Rebecca and Olivia had a dinner party at their apartment so we ate good! Gnocchi, roasted veggies, soup and a chocolate pear cake. It was fantastic and we all sat around and ate and drank wine :) the classic Italian experience.  After, me and Sai headed to Tabasco, the oldest gay club in Italy. For future reference, going to a club at midnight is far too early. It was dead! We sat around and talked to see if it would pick up and a transsexual ended up trying to pick us up haha. She was very nice but that was quite the interesting conversation. People started showing up at the club at 1:30, but it was an older crowd so we ended up leaving around two. It was a fun night, even though the club wasn't exactly what we expected and we probably won't be going back.
Tonight, we are having a dinner party! Since everyone in the apartment is from a different cultural background we are all cooking for different themed nights. Tonight is my night, so I am making fajitas, home made tortillas and salsa and sopapillas! Kari, Rebecca, Olivia, Clara and Jessica are all going to be coming over so it should be a good time! Ciao my dears, I miss you all! I am missing Colorado right about now :)

Week numero cinque

Busy as a bee I have been this week! Lots of things have gone down, all of which has been awesome!!!
In Batik I got my second project back (the blue floral scarf) and I love it. The colors are so rich and beautiful and people even asked me if they could buy it from me!
I also started my third project with the keys and am currently working on waxing the scarf so I can start dipping it. I am going to dip in yellow, green, two shades of blue and purple. The background will be black and it should turn out way cool. I finished my pendent in jewelry as well and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. It is super cute and now I just need to figure out a chain to put it on.
Now we are going to start to solder metal and then we are going to start making rings which is really exciting! In fresco we worked on our third fresco in class. I finished the painting of the hand with the grapes on Friday which turned out really good and I a really excited to see it completely finished and off the tile! Its very bright and graphic and I had a lot of fun working on it. No frustration with the class this week which was refreshing, I have learned that if I don't ask for help Mario won't touch my piece so I just have to work through my problems on my own.
Thursday night I went to The Jazz Club with Kari, Clara and Olivia, which is a little underground club with live music Tuesday through Saturday. It was a Jam Session so as we sat in a booth and drank a bottle of wine, random musicians would wander in and just set up their instruments and join in to improv songs! It was so much fun to see all the different ages and instruments working together to create something beautiful.
Friday night I stayed in since I had a field trip on Saturday. Candice and Sarah's friends, Emily and Perna, who are studying in Brussels were here for the weekend. We ended up spending the night jamming to dance music and taking ridiculous mustache pictures which was super fun!

Saturday I went to Mantua with my class which made the day super long. Mantua was basically an Italian suburbia which was adorable! We went to see the Palazzo del Te to see the Fall of the Giants which was very interesting and cool to see since I had studied it in a previous art history class. We mainly went to see various Palazzi which was amazing to see the frescoes and the way the old Italian families made sure to surround themselves with lavish beauty!

After I got back and ate dinner we decided to go out on the town and really do as the Italian's do! So we first went to the Shot Bar, which is right next to our apartment and is constantly packed on the weekends. I proceeded to order everyone's drinks since it was crowded  (so first time I have ever ordered drinks at a bar done haha). It was packed full of people our age and was pretty uncomfortable so we didn't spend too long there.
Then we proceeded to go to the Jazz Club which was packed by the time we went there! We all squished into a tiny booth and listened and danced to the Big Black Mama's Blues Band, which was fantastic. My new favorite instrument is the electric harmonica! The guy would rock out like it was an electric guitar and it was so much fun! Needless to say, it was an amazing night and we plan on spending many nights at the Jazz Club grooving away :)

Fun week over all and I am excited for this next one!!! Ciao amici

Classsss

This week was mainly made up of going to class and spending my free time sketching or walking around the city :)
In Jewelry I am almost finished with my Pinocchio pendant!. I have two more rivets to do and then I will completely done with my first project which is really exciting! My Pinocchio may look like he has a snowman head but don't judge :) I am starting to enjoy the class more since I feel like I am working on a piece which is actually mine and am actually creating something. I seem to like when I can see active progress in my work haha.
In Batik I have been working on my second project and waiting for my first project to get back from the dry cleaners, which it finally did and I love how it turned out!

I also finished my second project which is a blue floral scarf that I am really excited to see when it is done being dry cleaned! We had to dip the colors on this project instead of painting it on and it was fun to see the process and how the colors changed as you layered them over one another. My next project I am doing another decorative scarf covered with vintage keys! It is turning out to be pretty tedious but it will be really cool!
In Fresco I got to paint my second painting, which turned out to be the most frustrating class period of my life haha. For one, in my mind, it is completely taboo for a professor to paint on your work. If they are painting for you, then the work isn't completely yours. I have always preferred being told how to fix it and then doing it myself. So I am painting the portrait of my mother and nephew and the faces were looking muddy because I had put too much color on some places. So I asked Mario how I could fix my painting and there he goes, painting the face for me. I tried to get him to stop and let me do it but he wouldn't listen! Then I didn't like some of the stuff he did so I went back to try to change it and he would rush over and tell me to stop messing with the face. Oh I was so pissed at this point. So I finish and the painting turned out ok. Then Mario goes on to tell me that I had picked a too hard subject and I should have chosen something simpler. Well why then Mario didn't you tell me this last week when we showed your our sketches! Needless to say, not the best class period of my life. But for my next project I am doing a sketch from a photograph I took of Sai holding a bunch of grapes and hopefully that painting will be more successful.

Art history is art history haha not really exciting enough to say much about.

Last night was a first for me and the roommates. We held a dinner party, with multiple courses and everything! It was amazing! Dana invited some friends over that she had made at church and we ate stuffed zucchini, tomatos baked with breadcrumbs and cheese on top, cannolini beans, pasta, and pears with chocolate chunk biscotti.

 

 We also had a pretty epic conversation about mustaches. Which resulted in the following hahaso to leave you with a laugh