Sunday, October 7, 2007

Sienna and San Gimingano

FIELD TRIP!

So I went to Sienna and the small medieval city of San Gimingano
yesterday...

We spend the majority of the day in Sienna, seeing the Campo- big
square- the Town Hall where we heard a lecture about a controversy
over some frescoes, the Duomo of Sienna and its Opera Del Duomo
museum- works of the cathedral...

Sienna was awesome- it is a cleaner, prettier, version of Florence
with wider streets in some parts- truly a pretty place. If i came
back to Italy, I would put Sienna on the top of my list of places to
go (so far!)...

I would also put San Gimignano on a list of places to go back to- it
is a VERY small medieval city that is called the 'manhattan' of
Italy, because it used to have 76 Medieval towers built in the 13th
century, however only about 4 survive. They had some fabulous white
wine- the name of i dont remember, but Saci bought us some to do a
wine tasting, with peccorino (sheep cheese- that you find all over
italy) and with some boar salami- which is FANTASTIC.

Here are some photos to get the sense of just how amazing these
places were... check out my picasa site for the extent of all the
photos.

Sienna:

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Museum Day. Overwhelmed.

SO- today was a long day of Museums and classes...

it started with walking to the Design Center 10 minutes north of school to my Italian lanuage class- and then we had to leave early to meet my high renaissance class to go to the Opera Del Duomo- the works of the duomo, which many of in and around the actual place are now copies, so we went to see some original michealangelo works, and some things like the originals of the baptistry doors by ghiberti- those of which reside there in pubic are not real.

Then- we went to the Academia, where we had a reservation to go to see the David and the captives which Michealangelo carved. I do really wish that I was in the wednesday section of on-site field trips, so that we would not have been bombarded by lines and tourists. I would have enjoyed the experience much better.

Seeing these works in person was a really fun experience, however would have been more enjoyable if i wasnt trying to remember facts for a class. Maybe there will be a time i can go and (pay) and see it again to truly take in the details, instead of trying to pull facts from lecture to answer our professor's questions.

The last sunday of every month - state museums are free - therefor the accademia is as well... This means that maybe the end of november, since i wont be here for the next end of the month in october- SCOTLAND BABY- I will go and contemplate it in more depth. Until then I will contemplate the copy in palazza signorina.

Then i had to walk across the river to go see an italian artist Cabianca and his contributions to 19th century art history, that which are really interesting. Many impressionist and realist artists of his time were extremely influenced by the industrial revolution, however in Italy it was very different.

While much of europe was going through this change- Italy was just becoming one country. In the time period of 1860 to 1871 Italy united as one country instead of the smaller states that made up the area. This also was reflected in when they had their industrial revolution, which was much later than usual... into the 20th century. So- this is important because of the change in much of Italy's subjects in the movement of painting. Yes, in the idea of capturing a moment of time, and stylistically much of the Italian painging was the same, but the subject of painting was different- more about rural life- instead of the underground french painters etc.

Anyway- IM EXHAUSTED. 3 museums in one day. Enough. Shower time. LATER.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

COMMENTS

So- i know some of you have had trouble making comments- no worries!
No google account needed now! ;) Anyone can post!

Graphic Design




Even though some think i have no credentials for graphic design. These are my projects i have been doing in adv graphic design.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

midterm break

so for the week i have off in the end of october-- i should do something right? right?

well i have a few ideas... so far- my idea would be to go to edinburgh for the weekend, of the 26-30th- see some castles and misty scotland- and maybe a pint with melissa k-p...? Then to dublin for a couple days.

... but a couple of things bother me.

1) traveling alone scares me
2) will i be able to occupy myself? and have fun alone? as much fun as with friends...?

well saying that no one wants to go with me- i kinda have to hope that i do, but traveling is also expensive- so far with planes and hostels it would be probably around 700 dollars- without food or entrance to museums etc.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Adv Graphic Design

So, some of you might already know... but the reason i am here at an art school is because I need a portfolio for applying to grad school, and wanted the resources that an art institute has to create it, with still graduating with my liberal arts degree in the spring.

I am in the adv. graphic design studio and we have just finished our first project, just an introductory thing to get to know our skill level etc.

Our class has started a blog as well, in order to keep a posting of all of our works and so we can continue to give comments to our classmates about projects throughout the semester...

the blog site is http://sacidesign.blogspot.com

- so take a look at my first project: I am near the bottom of the page. And i'll let you know when we update the site, so you can follow along with my graphic design portfolio.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

more photos

so that you all know-

I went to Vinci and a couple Medici Villas the other day-- and there are photos of Vinci and the Leonardo museums we saw there on the picasa sight. Enjoy!