More Homework!

As part of my digital illustration class, we took a trip to the Salvatore Ferragamo museum in Florence to view the exhibit. It was a very interesting experience. Shoes as art.
In the exhibit, it showed not only his creations, but exhibited art and artifacts that influenced his designs. It was also pointed out that because he was working in post war Italy, some materials, like leather, were very expensive and difficult to come by because the country was very poor at that time. Because of this problem, Ferragamo had to invent other ways of using more available materials to make his shoes. These materials included kid skin, fish skin, cork, canvas, and raffia. Another thing that I learned was that Ferragamo also invented the stiletto heel.
What interested me about this was how the time in history that Ferragamo was working in influenced his art. How he was working during and after WWII which influenced him to be innovative with his materials. How Futurist art influenced the patterns that he created on his shoes.
One item that I found very interesting was a screen printed scarf which was the first scarf ever made which was meant to be a fashion accessory rather than a practical item.
Another part of the exhibit that I found interesting was a room where examples of Ferragamo's shoes were placed next to historical items which influenced his designs. It is interesting to see how an artist is influenced by their surroundings to create unique pieces of art and how it affects their thought processes while designing their art.
I also want to mention the Futurist films that were on display also. I liked how there was stop motion animation and color used in the film, which was a huge innovation at the time, but a lot of the films I found were really odd and actually made me a little dizzy (which is not hard to do because I have a really weak stomach). I thought that they used color and music in a fun and innovative way to animate an idea or feeling, and I really like stop motion animation.
Overall an inspiring and very fascinating trip.

10 sketches from the museum.

A handout so I can find this place again.

Ciao!

Some of my favorite images of the Boboli Gardens!

Enjoy!

Mouna wandering through the gardens

Interesting texture on an interesting door

More texture!

At the top of the hill I found a large stone head

Another fantastic view of the city!

Digital Illustration Homework: Finally Finished!! ...For Now

So I was freaking out about posting my homework on time yesterday for nothing for two reasons: One, I get a pass\fail for this class, so if I bomb the first assignment, it's not the end of the world. And two, It is due next Sunday.

So here is the rest of the homework that I was supposed to have posted:

100 circles

100 squares

And to be thorough, here is a collage of my experience at the Boboli gardens yesterday!

It was a little overwhelming.

I got lost for about 5 hours, and then discovered that my ticket covered several other museums/galleries in Palazzo Pitti which I also visited. It was a great experience to say the least, and I definitely want to go back, just when it's not so hot out :P
Because the file for the collage is so large, my next post will include some of my favorite images!

Procrastination

So a half hour before the stated due date, I'm posting my homework. My room mate has graciously allowed me to borrow her internet.

Anyway. Some last observations regarding my first week and a half in Florence.
  Living here for me has not been a very hard adjustment yet. Maybe it will gett more difficult later, idk. I find that it is difficult to find a quiet space for reflection or peace. A space that I did find that I liked very much and was the church and the cemetery at San Miniato al Monte. I have posted pictures and a sketch above, but I wanna write more about it because I like it. I spent some time in the church writing down my observations and I got lost in the cemetery.
First, there was one smaller church which was very plainly decorated. Very mediaeval looking. I liked it very much. It was very peaceful. From there I traveled farther up the hill and found a larger, more decorated church, also a mediaeval building. As I entered I immediately noticed that there were mostly intact frescoes on the walls (depicting saints, the Crucifixion, and the Virgin Mary) and that the ceiling was wood, rather than stone vaults, which was common in mediaeval Italian architecture. Both the inside and the north facade are decorated with a geometric pattern using green and white stone. The facade also incorporated a mosaic towards the top. This is also often seen in Italian gothic architecture because it is a better climate for mosaics (I think? Trying to remember what I learned in art history last year). I also noticed that the vaulted ceilings were decorated in  a geometric pattern with abstract floral and animal designs. I noticed that the right hand aisle ceiling was plain and lacked the decoration of the other vaults.
There is a little chapel to the right, probably dedicated to a specific saint. There is an alter in front of the raised choir which is surrounded by a small arched structure to house the alter. It has a honeycomb pattern of raised stonework on the underside of the vault (barrel vault?) with little rosettes in each box. There are two small statues of eagles on the top of the arch. I noticed that the image of an eagle was used frequently in the decoration of the church.
I proceded under the raised choir to the crypt, which I noticed had gothic additions (vaults and a gothic screen in front of another alter). The vaults had frescoes of saints on them. I think that this was a gothic addition to the romanesque structure of the church because there were large stone pillars which supported the building, with the vaults (plaster covered stone?) built around them.
  When I entered the main part of the building I recognized it as an originally romanesque structure because of the wooden ceiling and the small roman style arched windows.
   When I got to the raised choir, I noticed another altar to the back of the choir. There are gothic style pews in the choir (original? they smelled really old). To the right of the choir, there is another, larger chapel, which was probably another later addition. There are gorgeous frescoes inside with more gothic style pews and a gothic arched window with stained glass.
   It was at this point that the chapel became overrun with French tourists and I had to leave.
My conclusions were that the church was originally constructed as a romanesque building and added unto in later times, probably with little additions over the course of many years. The different parts of the church blend well together because the different designers of the church used the same motifs and decoration in designing the additions. I like how the romanesque ceiling was preserved. I think that it is more common to see the wood ceilings preserved in Italy because designers held unto the more Roman traditions in building (basilican style buildings, Roman arches and the wood ceilings). The abstract animal and floral design of the ceiling also reminded me of the preserved romanesque ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral in England which also retains the romanesque wooden ceiling, while blending romanesque and gothic features on other parts of the church.

SO. After my little art history diversion, I have to write a reaction to the assigned reading (The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism). I have mixed feelings about the reading. While I think that it is a great thing to move forward and create totally new ideas based on our reactions to the present, it is an equally good thing to respect and learn from the past. Without knowledge of the past, we can't learn from our mistakes and failures and we can't build on new ideas. I understand that Futurism was a reaction to the passive study and imitation of the old and the traditional, but that does not mean that it is worthless. I think that focusing on contemporary problems using new ways of thinking while also understanding the perspectives of the past is probably the most open minded and effective way of solving a problem.
How did people before me solve problems? How/why did they fail? What can I do in this contemporary context to build off the discoveries of others? I think that these are very valid questions which the author of the reading seems to disregard because they involve the study and understanding of the past. Also I felt that the reading had strong nationalist undertones. While being proud of your country and heritage is great, I think that through past failings, we can see that too much can be a very dangerous thing (take Germany a couple years after this was written).
  So basically my feeling is that building of older ideas and understanding them, not passively imitating is a productive way to solve problems. Progress for pregress' sake is not necessarily good or productive. A respect and understanding of the past and also using completely new and radical ideas to solve contemporary problems, I think, is the best way to go about problem solving.

That was my little rant.

Anyway. Awesome week and a half in Firenze so far. More stuff to come.

Week I Part III

OK. Finally I have found a place where I probably wont get kicked out of the lab. Because I am writing this at a reasonable time of day.
Yesterday I went on a 'mini cruise' on the coast near Rome (but still in Tuscany). It was great, except I get seasick... So the islands were nice (we visited 2) and I got a lot of sleep on the boat. My friends and I explored the islands and went swimming in the ocean. The water was amazing! The islands were beautiful. I took a nap under a boat on the beach (in order to set myself right after seasickness) at the first island, and then explored the island. We went swimming at the second island. Here are some pictures from the first island:

My naptime spot under the boat.

I'm on a boat!!

The inlet in the first island where we parked the boat.

Still the first island

We were very excited to find this lighthouse on the second island.

The wall we may or may not have been allowed to walk on.

The second island.

Second island.

Graffiti.

Pretty flowers on the island.

A really big boat.

Overall, a very fun trip:)

Still working on my illustration homework so... Here are two more of my 10 ethnographic studies:

I doodled the tv antennae and pipes on the roof near my terrace.

Sketchbook doodle of view from Piazzale Michelangelo.

Week I Part II

Here we go again:

The most important room in the apartment.

The damned bell tower I live next to.

The Duomo from a weird angle.

My roomie and I found awesome sandwiches.

Communist manifestation.

'Alcohol Analyzer'

This was part of my assigned 'ethnographic studies'

Piazza Michelangelo

I got lost in the cemetery.

A stall in the market that I got lost in today.

I'm about to be kicked out of the computer lab again... But here are some photos that I've taken so far which I will explain later when I have more time. I've been having computer issues.

Allora....

Here is my first blog post from Italy:
 So it's been pretty awesome so far. I've already become a loyal patron of a local pizza shop and a local cafe. I've been taking ridiculous routes to an from different places so I can better understand and navigate the city (as a result I got hopelessly lost on my way back from Italian class the other day). I've found a great market to shop at with really cheep, fresh food, and really cheep clothes. My apartment and my house mates are awesome. Four bedrooms, three full baths, a good sized kitchen, a terrace, and 6 fantastic girls. I have yet to visit the inside of the Duomo and the Uffizi gallery, but I have time....
  Today I visited Piazzale Michelangelo and wandered around an awesome Romanesque church and cemetery at the top of the hill. I sat there drawing the view for a while. It was very peaceful It's on my list to go there at night, the view in the daylight is great.
   For my homework for one of my classes, I have to keep an illustration blog and post my homework on it. That makes having this blog very convenient :) So here goes part of my homework:
I had to do 10 ethnographic studies, but instead of posting them all at once, I'll post them as I complete them. It will make blog posts shorter and I can go in depth on my pictures, sketches and observations.
    First are my observations of similarities and differences between living in Italy verses living in the States. I'm not sure where to start really... There are many noticeable and subtle differences, the language being the most noticeable difference. Obviously the language is very similar to the Latin language, but I noticed that the language was grammatically more similar to Latin than other romance languages. This makes it interesting for me, having studied Latin for 4 years in high school. It also makes learning the Italian language easier because it is like picking up Latin again without all the crazy declensions. I like the way the words are pronounced also, they roll off the tongue in an almost musical way.
  Another difference is simply the age of the buildings that I am surrounded by. At home I'm used to being surrounded by buildings that are a little over 100 years old. Maybe 150 years, max. And then my college campus was built in the 1960's, so its relatively new. These buildings in Florence have seen and lived through at least 600 years of history. To think that I'm living in a building that was built when some people still thought that the earth was flat is incredible.
   Some more subtle differences is how people here eat dinner later than people in the States. I've adapted by eating a small breakfast and lunch and snacking on a pizza or a sandwich between lunch and dinner. I also noticed that in restaurants or cafes the offer sparkling water more often as an option. I do see sparkling water offered in cafes in the States, but I've never seen sparkling water offered this often.
I noticed that people working at restaurants like to receive exact change.
  A similarity between my experiences living in the States and in Florence are the tourists, though not to this magnitude. I unfortunately and fortunately grew up in a town that brought in a lot of tourists during the summer. This brought in a lot of money for the city, but us locals also had to put up with traffic and tourists that drove like idiots, and drunk tourists stumbling in from of your car at night downtown. I noticed that at night there are a lot of drunk American students also. I find this embarrassing because I think that it gives a poor image of Americans, students especially. I notice that when I'm at home, foreign tourists are usually polite. Most of the tourists that I've met at home generally are polite, just a bit clueless. The tourists I've met at home are usually families vacationing for the week or thirty or forty somethings there for the racetrack and the bars.
   Another big difference I noticed was that there was a general strike the other day. People aren't happy with the government, so they strike. I would much prefer the inconvenience of busses being out of service for the week to the apathy that I see among people in the States. People are not satisfied with the United States government right now, but are there strikes? Marches? Do people take action? No, people are either too busy, or they do not care and have settled to just deal with the problems that the government fails to fix. You'd think that with the advances in social networking today, people would find it easier to organize......
I'm ranting.....
...
Allora.... What else... I didn't notice any suburbs like we have in the states. From the top of the hill behind Piazzale Michelangelo I saw only city and countryside in the mountains. Perhaps there are similar suburbs elsewhere, I have yet to find them.
One last similarity before I get kicked out of the computer lab:
American clubs and bars. I went to a couple, and I felt like I was back in the States. Except I am legally allowed to buy alcohol (my rant about the drinking age in the States is for another time). SO MANY AMERICANS. The streets around Santa Croce are crawling with them at night. Very strange to me. I came to Italy to experience a different culture but I keep getting stuck in a little America.
Anyway... I am getting kicked out of the lab. Pics to come!!
Ciao!