Gettin' my groove back

It's been a week since I left the beautiful Venice, Italy. I am a little disappointed in myself that I did not post on the last day there. I worked so hard for three weeks to post everyday and gave up at the very end!! Oh well. We didn't do too much that Thursday (June 16th). I packed and we went to do our final talks at Giardini and Arsenale. My dislike was Greece and my like was R.H. Quaytman (Gotta read up more on her!). That night we had an amazing dinner at AcquaPazza. A restaurant just outside of our Apartment. It was delicious, and was great to have everyone together for one final sha-bang. Friday was a very long travel day for us, but overall nothing eventful happened. No luggage was lost! Yay :)

Now that it has been one week of adjusting back to my "normal" life, I'm finding that I want to shake things up a bit. Live outside the box. Italy gave me so much to look forward to in the art world. Seeing what is possible, and finding more artists like me. I met some really awesome people, including at the airport on the way home!! (shoutout Alex) :) I'm definitely broke for awhile, but that experience was well worth it. Now I need to get back in the studio and let some ideas cook for awhile.

Day 20

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Today I woke up around 8:30 a.m. We met upstairs in the big living room to talk about the last couple of days. A lot of people were worried about the work we need to do for art history. I don't know why because we have the rest of summer to do it, and it is supposed to help us but oh well. We Went to the Fortuny Museum after that. I really enjoyed it (much more than Ca' Pesaro). There was an ecclectic mix of work and the exhibition space was pretty cool. It was inside of Fortuny's house, and basically there were floors that were left the way he had it while living there, but with the works exhibited. We couldn't take pictures and I didn't buy the catalogue but it was a really neat show. There was a piece by Anthony Gormley in there that I loved, and there was also a James Turrell piece that was almost exactly the same as the one in Arsenale.

After Fortuny, most of us headed back to the house to eat lunch, then regrouped around 1:30 p.m.

San Michele from the Alilaguna boat

lovely Burano

We walked to the Fondementa Nouve (Don't think I spelled that correctly) boat stop and took a ride to Burano island. It was a very relaxed day at the islands. We spent about an hour and a half on Burano (It's next to the famous Murano glass island). It was a cute place because there wasn't a whole lot of tourists, and all of the houses were painted in the same bright color palette, very different from Venice. The girls and I got some gelato and picked up some small souveniers. I did two sketches while we were there as well. We then got on another boat to Torichelli, which was about a 5 minuted ride and even smaller than Burano. It only has about 60 residents on the island, so you can imagine how deserted it felt. The main "attraction" there was a small Byzantine church at the end of the canal, that was maybe a mile or two walk. There were some really beautiful byzantine mosaics in this Extremely old church. I think it was build in 700 A.D.?? Not sure though.

"The Devil's Bridge"

Snuck a picture in the Byzantine Church!

Ah, finally on my throne.

We finally made it back to Venice around 7:30 p.m. and then about 8 of us went to this really nice little restaurant that Matt knew about. It was delicious. I had Risotto and a Gnocchi dish.

Day 19

Today I woke up and my eye was still swollen a bit, not as bad as yesterday morning though.

We walked as a group towards some national pavilions. On the way we found a church with some Tintoretto paintings inside. We also went outside this other cool church that had some pretty fantastic marbeling on it. It looked like the stone was split in half and the marbeling made an ink-blot type design.

A few people got pretty exhausted and went home. Matt kind of let us do our own thing after we looked at the churches together. We saw a lot of collatoral events, and some national pavilions like Iraq, and Bangladesh. I kind of lost the group after Bangladesh and decided I would go into Arsenale by myself. I needed to take some more photographs of individual artists for art history. I went through it really fast because I had already seen most of it, and I was getting really tired. It was hot today too, so the walk home was a little exhausting. I think everyone is just pooped after all the things we have seen and done.

Kenz and I outside the Days of Yi

Frogtopia! Oh geez...

Iraq pavilion

Bangladesh

Josh Smith in Arsenale

For dinner, I just made pasta and did some homework afterwards. I did some sketches too, a portrait of Aaron and an interior view of the apartment. We met up as a group around 9 p.m. and went to Campo San Stefano to do some night drawings. A lot of people didn't stay very long but I enjoyed it once I got in my groove. I started out frustrated as always though--I really need to stop doing that. We worked on black paper with white, grey, and black chalk. We came back around 10:30 p.m. and then I just went to bed. It was a productive night :)

Day 18

Monday, June 13, 2011

Today started off bad. I woke up and my left eye was swollen shut! A stupid mosquito must have bit my eyelid and I had an allergic reaction. I took 3 benydril pills throughout the day, iced it and put benydril cream on it. Hopefully it goes down soon.

As a group we met around 10 and went to the Basilica S. Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari. There were some pretty amazing sculptures and relief work in there. I wish my eye wasn't as swollen as it was because I could hardly see any of the work. I took some pictures though and still enjoyed what I could see out of my right eye!

After that we went to the San Polo church and looked at the Domenico Tiepolo (think I spelled that right..) paintings. Those were absolutely incredible and I think they are the best classical works we have seen. He used colors like I have never seen to create light and depth, and he was a very young artist at the time. I wish we were allowed to take pictures because they were really incredible.
For lunch we went back the the same yummy pizza place as yesterday. We chilled out by the canal and ate our lunch and then began drawing around 12:30 or 1:00; I drew the Rialto bridge. It was a nice day to draw because it wasn't rainy but the sun wasn't beating down on us either. Of course at the beginning of the drawing, I was so frustrated. I felt like I couldn't get the angle of the bridge from where I was sitting. Matt came over and gave me his usual pep talk that he gives me, then after that I got into the zone. I don't mind people watching me draw, but some of the tourists would come out of their way, stand right by me, and look over my shoulder. They did it to all of us and I think we all felt a little bit annoyed by it. I think it was a successful drawing day. I learned a little bit about my style and what I am capable of.

 Matt said something that kind of stuck with me about 'drawing inside my own lines.' I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that at first but then when he demonstrated to me how to search for a form using many lines, it eventually created the movement instead of just deciding where each line needs to be and never letting them move out of that zone. It's what I have always been told about searching out the form and to keep my arm moving, not to get stuck in one place, but today that idea was embedded just a little bit deeper in my art brain.

After the drawing we were free to do what we wanted. I stayed in the rest of the night and was really tired from all the benydril in me. I took a nap for a couple hours and then went to bed pretty early around 10 p.m.

Day 17

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Today I slept in awhile. Everyone did their own thing and Lilly and I went around to different pavilions that we hadn't been to yet. We saw Macedonia, Georgia, Republic of San Marino, and Scotland (Karla Black). Some collatoral events we saw were, Le Festin De Chun-Te, which had some really interesting photographs, and Montebello megachromia, which was a little bland and basically was just pictures of paint textures on a light board or something that was lit from behind. Definetly the best thing I saw today was the Scotland exhibition and the Le Festin De Chun-Te event.

Canal outside of the Republic of San Marino pavilion. There was a rowing/kayak parade going on today!



Photos from the Le Festin De Chun-Te collatoral event



As Lilly and I walked around, we ran into the rest of the group at the best little pizza place (in Venice, I think). It was the only place that had thick crust and pineapple. Oh it was good!

Georgia pavilion

Scotland (Karla Black)



Working with the ephemeral. Paper, soap, dirt, etc. It smelled and looked so beautiful.



Lilly needed to get home and figure out her travel plans after the trip, so we split ways about mid-afternoon. I walked around by myself for a couple hours. I did a little shopping and conveniently stumbled upon some events and pavilions.

Since it is getting near the end of our trip and we have seen so many ways to approach art-making, I have been thinking about what I want to do when I get back home. I decided I definetly need to make an animation/video piece for my little forms. They have sat for awhile and once I go back to seeing them after a month I hope that will spark some ideas. Many people have told me when they look at my forms they feel like they need to start dancing, so I will make them dance. I also want to do some large paintings again. I mostly worked small throughout last semester and want to go big again. Maybe a self portrait?

Day 16

(Saturday June 11)

Today I felt better than yesterday for sure. As a group we went to Giardini again. Lilly and I finished looking at all the pavilions that we missed the first time around such as Brazil, Egypt, Switzerland, etc. We basically just looked at work from about 11 a.m. to maybe 4:30 p.m. then we went our own ways. Lilly and I walked home and everyone just kind of hung out for the night.

Day 15

(Fri, June 10, 2011)

Today I woke up around 8:30 and we left in our smaller group (5 people went to Rome today), to go see some more stuff. I really did not feel well today and didn't take any pictures of the places we went. There were a few moments where I almost passed out and felt so nausious. I don't know why, I think my body just went through a lot this week and it was time to take a rest. We went to the Future Generation Art Prize first, even though Emily and I already went there last week. We didn't go in and look around, but there was a "performance" type piece out on the lawn before you go inside that we didn't get to do the first time around. There were these holes in the ground with table cloths around them and you sat "in the hole," to be served biscuits (cookies) and iced tea or water. The server would come over and tell you the story of the tablecloth. It was about his city in Czech that had been "taken over" by a car dealership. They built the car dealership in the very center of the city and people had different views on this dealership, as in if they liked it there or not. The tablecloths were all handmade by people and they were of maps expressed from their point of view-so they were all different. The hole was in the center of the map, exactly where the dealership was. It was a sad little story but also beautiful the way they created this work about it. The girl told this story so much more beautifully than the way I could.

After that we went and grabbed food and headed over to two other collatoral events. The first being "Future Pass." I really didn't like this exhibit too much. It was based on Chinese art and basically looked like over-the-top anime to me. It is probably stereotypical to say that but I am just not a fan. And by this point I was feeling like shit so I didn't think too deeply about what I was seeing. There was maybe a few pieces that somewhat stood out, but didn't have the energy to care. I also was bugged because everytime I tried to sit down the show people would come tell me I couldn't be there and I didn't understand why because I wasn't in the way. Then I found out it was because it was a "private palace," but I still thought it was dumb. There was another weird pavilion next door that was about...fish? I'm not really sure but it had a nautical theme to it. We were going to go see "Future of a Promise," after all that (Man there's a lot of 'future' shows around here!), but Matt read that you had to pay to get in and he wanted to research more before we spent money on something that may not be that great. So we all kind of seperated.

Em, Lil and I got some snacks on the walk back. Emily ended up with a beer in one hand and ice cream in the other. We were laughing and taking pictures of it because back in the states there is no way you could walk down the street with a beer in your hand.

When we got back I laid in bed and napped for maybe an hour and a half. I feel so much better now that I rested, and I don't feel sick anymore. I think I just needed to rest my body and eat some food. I didn't have an appetite earlier walking around and I'm mad because everyone got the best looking pizza when we were out and I just couldn't eat. I seriously thought I would throw it up. Oh well, I will just have to get Matt to show me where it is again this week. The rest of the night was spent catching up on some homework and just relaxing.

Day 14

(June 9, 2011)

OH HOW THE DAYS ARE BLURRING.

It feels like we have been in Venice for such a long time. It's cool, because I feel like we have "lived" here and not just visited as tourists. We have gotten to know this small special city, and seen some pretty cool stuff while we were at it.

Today we started the day later, around 10 a.m. We went and saw Glasstress 2011 today, which was a collatoral event for the biennale. There were some cool works in there, and as you would imagine-most of it was made out of glass. There was a really cool piece by Kiki Smith that I liked. There was another piece that was quite a hit among our group. It was a tabled covered in different size wine glasses. A light hung above the table and if you put your hand over the glasses creating a shadow above them, it would ring-similar to the chime you hear if you rub around the rim of the glass. You could move your hand around and create a chorus of ringing. There was also a piece called "Disorientation," that was pretty sweet. It looked like a big sheet of aluminum or something reflective stretched over bars and it was mounted on a wall that vibrated. It look like rippling water as it shook back and forth, and if you looked at yourself in the reflection it just looked like you were a melting blob. There were some fun pieces, and I am finding that I really like works that involve interactions between viewer and art/artist.

After Glasstress, we walked over to Pilazzo Grassi, which is like the sister museum to the Punta Della Dogana that we saw the second or third day here. I think I favored the Punta Della more, but there was still memorable works that we saw. A new painter I saw there, named Adrian Ghenies, had some pretty amazing work. I like the way he applied paint and when you walked up close you could see little bits of collage elements in there. Jeff Koons big pink dog was in there as well, and sad to say I really like his work  now. In person, it is just different and you respect it differently. I bought a book on Marlene Dumas while we were there and a canvas bag.

The Andorra national pavilion was right next door to the Pilazzo Grassi, so Mckenzie and I went and walked through it. There was nothing particularly spectacular about this one-I didn't even take pictures inside. We went home, recooperated ourselves and then Lil, Mckenzie and I walked over to the canal side where Giardini and Arsenale are. We ran into this cool collatoral event called, "The heard and unheard: Soundscapes," from Taiwan. It was pretty neat and I picked up the cds they have, and that was the first audio pavilion/exhibition we have seen. There was a "sound bar," and various videos you could watch of musical performances. There was this one video called "Plastic Man," and this guy went around in what looked like a garbage dump and identified various plastics. He knew how each was made, their properties, etc. It was like his scientific knowledge helped him figure out how to make music with them. The cd of it had a little piece of plastic attached with it that was from one of his "musical instruments."

After that pavilion we went to Mexico, and I liked that one too. My favorite was a video piece at the very start. We kind of stumbled upon the Roma pavilion which was a collatoral event, not a national one. It was kind of about gypsy art but I really wasn't that impressed with it. It was comprised of all videos, and for some reason I'm not the biggest fan of video art--or at least in large amounts. Mexico being the exception for today. I feel like it takes too long to sit there and watch a 10 minute video, and for there to be like 15 of them in one room is a little much. I also really have to be interested in it from the very start to invest time in watching it. There have only been a few that felt worthwhile. It's the same with 2d media I guess. I need works to stand out to me in order to really pause and reflect. I shouldn't have to "work" to understand the artists concept, and that's really becoming apparent to me with the amount of looking we are doing. There simply isn't time to dissect every little thing.

The Sound Bar

"Make our own songs sing our own things CLUB." :)

Narrow street!

We tried to go see Haiti's pavilion but it was inside a museum and you had to pay to get in. I remembered Matt said it wasn't that great so we decided not to go in. We walked around for awhile and found some cool shops were the shopkeepers were a lot nicer. Kenz and Lil bought some gifts for people back home, and then we made our way back to the house. We made pasta for dinner and then around 8:00 p.m. We would draw for 10 minutes at a time and then switch to modeling for your partner. It was really fun to sit there and draw the head, because in figure painting this last semester I always would avoid it. I really need work on my drawing skills and should probably just draw Brock when I get home all the time. Haha, I am sure he would love sitting there for hours while I draw him.

After the drawing session, Kenz, Lil and I went out to Campo Margerita again. It was alright but Kenz and I left maybe around 1:00 a.m. and then we talked by Accedemia bridge for what felt like an hour at least. It was nice to sit and talk to her one-on-one. She is a really sweet girl and I like to bond with people in that way, getting to know them.