Dia ventuno (June 28)

I’m feeling really out of shape and really unproductive, but you just can’t fit everything you want to do into one day when you have 4-6 hours of class plus a 2 hour dinner in your schedule. This week was supposed to be the start of my stone carving project but as I slept in Monday, then had shower issues as my bathroom exploded for Tuesday, I’m modeling for Mei Lin’s photo shoot tomorrow and then Thursday I’m Peter’s model, I’m going to have to start that project Friday or maybe next week :/

Today was productive – I got good sleep, read lots of HP, did my laundry, took pictures of the storm, had a relaxing dinner and gelato, caught up on my blog, etc. It was one of those would-be “errand” days in the U.S. but basic chore to-do days here.

I did have an exciting book arts class today – I made my first piece of hand-made paper! Lisa had pre-beat a pulp out of cotton but we got to add in the sizing and water, mix it around and then pull 2 sheets each. It’s so cool to watch a cloudy water-mix turn into a sheet of fluffy paper that you’ll eventually press. We learned lots of funny paper-making terms and phrases like “hog the vat,” (which means stir the mix) “couch (pronounced cooch) the sheet” (means to lay it down),  “kiss it off” (meaning to slap the surface of the water) and we use tools called moulds, linters, abaca, deckles, etc. It’s a whole new vocabulary. We learned all about the history of where paper comes from and how it took several centuries to get all the way from China to the U.S. The first paper in Europe was made from rotten rags! Ew.

this is 'the beater' that beats our pulp

Tonight we had yet another presentaton from the professors and Melissa Harshman talked about printmaking while Tony Marsh spoke about his world-famous ceramics. He lived in China for three years after college in Cali and grad school in NYC – legit.  Melissa’s work was just basically based on old printed ephemera of things she’s collected combined with whatever’s going on in her life at the moment. She’s really interested with the illustration in old dictionaries and encyclopedias, which is really fascinating. Tony Marsh was my inspiration of the night, however. Here are some quotes I jotted down while he was talking, that I really identified with:
“I thought all my teachers were really important – for different reasons. Even the really bad ones.”

“I was about get married. Artists deal with vessels that are in the frontal lobe, so I made work about that.”

“It’s important as an artist not to just walk around and appreciate stuff, but to learn how to act artistically on the things that you appreciate.”

“Teach yourself to spend every day as a person who’s curious about the world that you’re walking though. The more curious you are about it the more curious it is. Teach yourself to act on those curiosities.” I can relate this to Christianity as well.

“Great artistic work doesn’t always come from great ideas. They come from little whispers on the outer edge and sometimes you can turn a little whisper into a symphony.”

“Don’t be afraid to dream big and get in over your head with your art. Sometimes. It’s far better to fail spectacularly than to succeed moderately.” This is an attitude shared by Google that really appreciate and think about from time-to-time. Life is all about taking risks. Google listens to their employee’s ideas and will often fund them, and encourage them to go with their instincts and don’t punish for failure. The times that the ideas don’t fail, Google is on the cutting edge. If you never try at all you’ll never get anywhere. I’d love to work for them one day.

“Take the time to try to make things. Make what you love because no matter who you think you are making work for, it’s really for yourself. Make what you love.” Not sure how much this applies to graphic design since you’re working for a client and it’s about choosing your battles, but I can see how it applies to many other things.

Change of topic.

I’m currently pausing in my journal to rant to Rachel about my memory of words digressing since I’ve been in college because I haven’t really read or written much on a scholarly since middle and high school, and when I hear people like Mallory write and speak on such a literately sound vocabulary, it reminds me that in my head I use a plethora of strong verbs and words but when I speak I’m not very good at getting across exactly how I feel or what I want to say unless I’ve previously thought it all out and written it down. I don’t know why I have such a hard time conveying what I have in my head lately, but it really makes me want to read and write more or just quiz myself on vocabulary so I don’t constantly have to ask people what word I’m thinking of or when it comes time to lead all these gamma chi’s in a month I can speak clearly and sternly and not stutter through everything. It’s going to be necessary when I get into real business and have to keep up with business talk of people of all ages, so I think I’m going to start Steven’s reading list of classical literature. Oh what I’d do if I had all the time in the world on my hands.

Next week will be add in stone carving, runs and cooking pasta that Jonathan inspired me with today (simple: noodles, balsamic/olive oil, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil) mmmm. This is all wishful thinking. Something will probably come up. Hopefully this weekend will be productive as we’re not going to any day-trips, but I kinda want to go to the pool or the beach and there’s lots of plans for Saturday. It’s July 2^nd (Cortona day) but it’s when we’re celebrating the 4^th of July. We have an all-UGA scavenger hunt around town and it’s a competition with prizes so everyone’s already forming teams and getting really compeditive. Then we have some sort of party where we’re inviting locals and it has a set menu, so it should be fun.

I’m about to go on a tumble rampage since I’m feeling like I need to clean my computer out of all the screen captures I’ve taken over the years, and Vasalisa and Rebeckka have some cool bloggy things to show me, so tata for now.

p.s. Sidenote: I just switched my highlight color on my computer settings to coral and I really like it J

p.s.s. I almost forgot to tell y’all about the BEST thing I have put my tastebuds on since I arrived in Italy… Tonino’s version of Chili’s molten lava cake!!!! We got it for dessert last night, and boy did it make Monday durable. It was SO good, that I think I might order one and pay for it off the main menu if I don’t ever like their dessert. It brought my group-proclaimed chocoholism to a whole new level.

K night! 

X

Brit

I know I don't normally

post things to this blog that I have from my inspiration blog (tumblr), but I HAVE to show y'all my next project when I get back to Athens. I'm going to work on this and my vintage shutter corner unit in tandum. I'm beyond excited!!! :)

HP & GG

I was eating my lunch in the park the other day, staring at this fountain-->

and I decided that it was very gossip girl, and that Cortona is a mix of harry potter and gossip girl.
Here are my reasons:

HP:
1. Our common room - functions like the Gryffindor common.
2. We have house-elf like angels that make it appear like our beds have made themselves.
3. There's cobblestones everywhere.
4. We live in a great castle on the top of a hill that overlooks a valley and a lake.
5. We're living on property that's older than Christ.
5. We eat in a great hall.
6. We live in a town that has winding streets, alleys and hallways that probably change when we don't know it.
7. We have a caretaker that has a cat (gino & bella senora)
8. R.G. has about as much wisdom as Dumbledore.
9. We have obscure classes like stone carving and print making (ok ok it's not potions or anything but still cool).
10. Mary has to take a sole class with Marco, and his office is at the top of Severini, just like Harry and Dumbledore's one-on-one lessons.
11. Severini sounds like Nagini.
12. Minerva McGonnigal = Danielle Carribino
13. It's a magical world we live in here.
14. There are birds flying all over the place and owl poop everywhere.
15. We've discovered secret passagways and narrow cooridors.
16. There are open air windows that close and latch like in HP.

Gossip Girl:
1. Cortona is glam.
2. We eat lunch on the steps every day.
3. We have a beautiful park and fountain with lots of pigeons just like Blaire goes to the park.
4. I hang out with Peter, who is as bad as chuck, artsy as Dan and as fashionable as Nate.
more to come, it's just early and I can't think.


Maybe this is beacuse we're all reading HP7 in anticipation, or maybe because I really miss GG and STILL haven't seen the season finale because several sites don't work in Italy (pandora, projectplaylist, watching online TV). But probably not.

xoxo

Dia sedici-venti (June 23-27)

buena notta!

SO, I haven’t journeled in five days. Really, six… because I don’t even know what the 22^nd was all about with only one paragraph…

I’m trying to remember back to what I’ve been doing over this past week and all that seems to blur through my mind is images of the town of Cortona, a hike to collect plant fibers for paper making on Sunday morning, spending countable but soon to be countless hours in the studio, being really inspired, talks with R.G. about starting my stone carvings at 8ams each morning, and traveling to Assisi and Perugia on Saturday with the group.

pictures of our fiber findings that are currently drying in the sun:

But it’s been studio time that’s most taken up my days that I’ve been absent from Microsoft Word.

I’ve been utilizing my time post-map book project to create gifts for those at homes – handmade books. I’ve been learning more finite details about books and Lisa realizes, I think, that I’m obsessed with this craft. I really wanted to add a minor, and I talked to Melissa Harshman and Spivey about it in Assisi, but UGA only offers book arts as classes within the Printmaking major, so I’d only have advanced book arts and letter press left to take. Unfortunately they’re prioritized to print-making majors, and are only offered once a year. I’m starting to really want to stay at UGA an extra semester, and I would do so, quite quickly, if Dad weren’t paying out of state tuition. I just feel like there are a few studios that really interest me that I want to take and have under my belt that would really strengthen my all-around-graphics skills for the “real world”. Melissa loved the feathers in my hair, and we visited the print making shop in Assisi together and she overhead my talk for one of my off-the-record book projects with Lisa… so hopefully when I e-mail her about getting into the class, she will remember my passion and let me do it! I learned how to inlay a picture, and I’ve taken a lot of peer and Tumblr inspiration of ink and watercolor integrations so I did a few small pieces of crosses and a special one for the book I made mom. I’m also trying to work on a book from a few others who I know will really cherish them.

I was at dinner last night, taking a 2 hour hiatus from the studio with Kellie (we brought our kindle/books to dinner for white wine post-pasta since our minds and bodies needed a break) and we had the best little roomie date talking about our lives at home and our families (hers is coming to visit!) and we got to talking about Italian culture (because our restaurant experience with Mario – the owner of Mario’s was so good) and how they really appreciate the slow-pace of life. It’s not that they’re lackadaisical or anything, but despite their simple culture sans-TVs and modern day amenities like washing machines, they really value the idea of a break, resting. Every town we’ve visited thus far has completely shut down from 1-5ish for siesta. Other than the tourists, the town is silent, everyone is at home and it’s a time of peace and naps. Waiters here don’t constantly try to turn their tables and rush you out. You have to pay a 1-3 euro sitting fee at most decent restaurants, because when you choose a table (particularly the ones outside) you essentially choose it for the night, and aren’t expected to leave any time soon. Kellie and I had appetizers (the best bruschetta on this side of Tuscany), a main, second and desert and sat with our bottle of wine reading for as long as we pleased, and we STILL had to ask for them to bring the check to us. It was such a peaceful night, all we kept saying was how satisfied and content we were.

When we got back to the studios after our nice evening meal, I cut my finger open really bad with a print-making tool. It’s gong to be fine, I think but it’s a deep cut and I constantly have to have it wrapped with a lot of pressure. I was making a lithography print, by carving into linoleum. I’ve decided that while I’m here, since there are so many classes I wish I could have taken and all the professors are really cool about open-door policies, that I’m going to try a bit of everything that interests me. I have very little free time, but I’m gong to use it to cross off some pretty cool things on my bucket list. My goal is to:

1. Make a print (check) – I used Rachels left-over supplies and made a few cute stamp-like pieces. I’ll post my first print on here when I can scan it in! I’m going to use this signature one that I made on each of my hand made pieces of paper and on the end-sheets of my final book.

2. Throw a ceramic vase. I took some sort of ceramics class in high-school and 3-D in college, but I don’t think I’ve ever thrown my own vase, and Tony, the ceramics teacher from California, is world-renound.

3.  Make my own coin ring in jewelry. Mary Purse is pretty cool and this is going to take a LONG time but I want to do it.

4. Make a stone-carving out of MARBLE! I’ve already talked to R.G.  and I’m going to make an egg, and then maybe turn it into a tulip if I have enough time. I have to make diligent sketches, promise to finish and “KISS it” (keep it simple stupid), but hopefully I can work smaller on my first one so I can use it as a large paper weight, because although big is easier, I don’t want to pay a lot to ship it home.

5. Take photos of the morning light with the photo teacher. He’s really understanding of and interested in photojournalism, combining art history with modern photography and telling a story or narrative with one photo. I think this will be a good warm-up to my photog class in the fall.

6.  Keep experimenting with watercolor and ink.

7. Experiment with hand-type and calligraphy.

This means that my Sundays will be booked, that I’ll have to work extra hard to keep on top of my other school work, and that I’ll probably have to cut out a little running, but I’m determined.

Speaking of running… toward the beginning of the week (since I’m covering so many days here) I was running 45 minutes a DAY! Yeah, be proud. I would run all the way to the most beautiful panoramic place on the mountain and then go back. I love this spot so much that I used it in my first graphics piece. (I posted it earlier). 

I’ve been on-goingly inspired by hand type, calligraphy and my first journal that I made with the maps of Italy on it (I’m going to post all my creations, and hopefully my peers’ works too from book arts and all the classes around) but I’m thinking of doing a calligraphy page of funny things that Mallory Davis says. I was on the phone with her and in 10 minutes she used “the straw that broke the camels back” and “he played my like a fiddle” and we got into a talk at breakfast about Richard’s old parents and the funny sayings that they say – just southern phrases and old folk slang. I love it J I’ll even use Mr. Hannah’s “dental floss and over the shoulder bolder holders”.

I’m learning that art isn’t necessarily always supposed to have intrinsically deep meaningful messages, but can be very light hearted and silly. People have used their post cards to say things like “this is where I sleep,” “this is where I wash my clothes,” etc. and I really like funny little non-over done puns that people place within really good design. It makes me want to personally get to know them because I know they’re serious about design but they’re chill enough to put some personality in it so that everyone can enjoy. (for all my inspiration check out brittayyy.tumblr.com).

Back on my list of funny things I’m picking up in Europe – I’m starting to see the uses of military time, and really enjoy that they operate on it. There’s never any mix up of when you’re supposed to be somewhere. Just a thought.

Here’s covering the day tripà

We went to Assisi first, where we toured the Church of St. Frances, which was really cool because he founded the Franciscan order and because I hiked to his monastery in Cortona last Sunday. There was a bottom level more Romanesque and dark portion with some cool relics and his tomb and an upper cathedral that was more gothic and appreciated the sunlight. It had a really long and old fresco by Duccio that marked the old to new testaments and I could read the whole story and know what it was talking about!

We explored the city on our way back to the buses and found an adorable print-making shop.

adorable soap shop that reminded me of frontier. 

spivey and I (graphics professor)

lisa and I (book arts professor)

The 2^nd half of the day was spent in Perugia – a collective group favorite. It has the best chocolate in Italy, really good shopping and lots of museums (that we didn’t visit..oops). We ate for really cheap in a coffee café but it was still delicious and we ended up spending our money on sweets and at the INCREDIBLE antique and flea market at the end of the main drag.

Flea market: (I'll post my other finds later!)

a very happy brittany with all of her flea market purchases :) 

(other finds: coin ring, hand soddered pinky ring, 2 skeleton keys, 2 small coins from Italy and Germany to make my own coin ring!) 

Saturday night, most of the program went down to the valley for a fundraiser 5 course dinner with karaoke, but Rachel, Mei Lin, Kellie and I ate at Flux Fluns and got AMERICAN FOOD. Can you say hamburger and French fries? MMMM. We ran into Meg Tooher and some ZTAs from Florence stopping through and Preston Shurley, and some boys from the Cape Town program. The odd assortment of UGA students gathered on the steps to enjoy some Cocoa’s cookies (I’ve deemed Cocoa’s the best sweets in town) and then ventured over to the Lion’s Well for a fun night.

Also on my to-do list is suggestion given to my by Lanny Webb (my favorite advisor).

1.     Eat at Tucher’s and get white sangria (summery – in pitchers) enjoy the best, free h'orderves, and watch the procession of the city at dinner time.

2.     Take lessons from the chocolate man – they’re 25 euros a piece, and I have to get a group of 4, but it cooking lessons on making home made Italian desserts and chocolates and gelato and I get to take home everything I make!! I’m PUMPED.

3.     Go down to the valley for the Market on Thursdays – I’m going with Olivia this week!

4.     Be wary of the Lion’s Well – which I am doing. After talking to Preston about taking FIVE classes when he was here 2 summers ago (not allowed now), I was extra pumped on my quest to try out different disciplines here, and not get caught up at the Lion’s Well like Webb warned.

We went to the Etruscan museum for Graphics class on Thursday and that little museum is beautifully and graphically laid out. I took so many pictures of the labeling system and signage. I’d love to do a project on a museum like that one. They did a nice clean job with a simple type and color pallet but also with a translation of 2 language and with very nice illustrations. It incorporated a love of type and nice scanned images that I was missing in my link of Murawski and Spivey last semester, but which will hopefully help me in the semester ahead.

Spivey and I just talked and for a warm-up exercise for image and layout, I get to design a CD cover! So Tuesday’s Gone, look out!!

As you can see, I’m very busy, and have lots I want to do, but hopefully I’ll get around to photographing all my art and everyone else’s that we’ve done thus far and posting it up on here so YOU can be inspired!

Xoxo 

Dia diciotto (June 22)

I wish I had more TIME! Spivey showed us these beautiful journals of this guy that said he didn’t do art but died a martyr and all of his journals were published into books. They’re collages with doodling, pictures, images he’s sketched, and pretty words or quotes. SO cool. It makes me want to combine my entire cortona experience into ONE book. All the class projects, all my personal thoughts, all the images I’ve captured, my quiet times… I just don’t have the time, because I’m living la dolche vita! 

Dia diciassette (June 21)

P.S. – had to add this little tidbit before HP + bedtime. I had the BEST night tonight. Actually the best DAY! I woke up at 8am and went for a 45 minutes run with peter. We ran the whole hike from Sunday to the point of the mountain that I took my panoramic picture of:

When I got back I had enough time to do all of my daily things and catch up on all my art history reading, outside in a hammock in the open air mountains of Tuscany! Love my life. I’m actually doing all my homework here because it’s cool to read about the things I’m getting to witness first hand, and it’s also awesome to read laying out in the Italian sunshine or in a hammock like today. In class I bound my first book! It took 2 hours but it’s precious and such a hand-crafted beauty in my eyes J I’m so proud of it.

tabs for tacking other papers in that I collect or like.

coptic bound, and good for mapping my summer's journeys. I want to find little push-pin sticker, or maybe I'll paint them on :-)

Graphics crit went really well and afterwards I went back to the book arts studio and bound a second little sample of Coptic binding. With an hour before dinner I started watching Under the Tuscan Sun. Best movie I’ve seen since the plane ride up, haha…but really it’s soo good. It’s a-typical in the plot line, so even the master of calling all movies (me) wasn’t able to get a grip on it. It was a “real life” kind of movie that dealt with heartache, love, reality, and life being cyclical and always moving on. But the most magical parts were that it is staged completely in Cortona and in other places of Italy that I’ve been. If you want to see the town I’m living in, plus parts of Rome that I’ve visited, just pop it in. Every scene, my roomies and I would gasp because we go to these places every day: Snoopy’s, our gelato place is in it, the Pizza that I sit in with the birds every day – in it. The bank – in it. The main house that I run by every day – in it. The restaurant I ate at when we were all fancy – first scene in Cortona. The market where I shop for produce – in it. It was crazy! We’d spot things and yell them out. We had to pause the movie half way to go down to Tonninos’ (which is in the background when she’s on the pay phone) and it was unreal walking outside and seeing the exact landscape and views that we’d been watching on a motion picture. We were like, wait, is this real life? It was such a nice reminder that we are in IT-TA-LY! Also, crazy about the movie – the man who’s quote I was assigned for my graphics project, is in the movie! My quote for my poster is “There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.” – Federico Fellini, but midway through the movie when they mention his name, I made the connection and had already written a quote of him that was mentioned –

“You have to live spherically - in many directions. Never lose your childish enthusiasm - and things will come your way.” So, on top of being staged in the city I’m living in, the class project I’m working on was also randomly integrated into this movie at this exact cosmic, random moment in time."


 I swear my whole summer is about “integration”. Lisa, my book arts teacher, is constantly teaching us about artists books and ways of using paper and books sculpturally, and also combining graphics and print making with the things we do. How to use books unconventionally and also to use them in collision with other mediums of art like hand typography and photography and sketching or painting. It’s basically all the things I’m really passionate about, tied into one thing. Then, I march on up stairs where Spivey is encouraging us to get out in the city of Cortona and use our photographic images in our projects with her. She loves books and the folds we’re learning, so most of our posters have turned into some sort of paper fold – a box or a hidden flap, or for man accordion book that I learned in my book arts class. Then, there’s the integration with art history, as the things I’m seeing day-to-day are the artifacts I learn about in lecture. And the Italian language I’m immersed in, and the culture I’m encouraged to accept as my own for now, is the one that is constantly found in these pieces of art and the history. Speaking of history, you have the integration of Christianity (as a vital part of art back then) with all the cathedrals I’m constantly surrounded by as well as the biblical background I get each morning in my bible study. I feel like each aspect of my day is constantly overlapping. It’s just one big ball of passion and inspiration. I’m so inspired to learn here. I want to learn everything! How to be an Italian chef, how to speak the language, all the things in my classes, how to practice photography and how to practice integration itself, how to apply Jesus to my art and how to interpret religious art based on my background of Christianity. It’s such a beautiful picture!! But back to my night (I go on the worst tangents sometimes…mi dispache (my apologies)) We had our second professor speeches tonight. Julie Spivey + Lisa Switalski. Best combo ever. I’m TOTALLY inspired right now, if you can’t tell, and this didn’t help at all! Typography baller and the most patient paper-maker, artist book and book designer, makes me want to pull an all nighter and do a ton of graphics and book research and basically make tons of stuff. Lisa not only makes sculptures out of paper but she has worked on so many beautiful book projects and she is a fabulous writer that draws inspiration from landscapes and photographs. She’s also really interested in maps, like I am, which is pretty cool. I can’t wait to get back to Athens and talk to Moon about all this stuff, because I feel like its so right up her alley way. I’m finally appreciating all her abstract books and maps and graphics that have won so many world-wide awards. After the artist speeches I just wanted to get to work, but Netflix was running out so we finished the movie, and now I’m going to sketch out my map project, which I think is going to be an abstracted map through time – my child hood, and I’m going to make a crazy complicated fold book and have the pages fold and turn and unfold but connected by string that’s sewn throughout so that you have to follow the strings path but you’re turning the structure around and at odd angles. It’s going to be abstract but maybe have a color key and be really simple, or maybe have text or some sort of symbol of a girl growing, I’m not sure. Lisa wants it to be metaphorical, and include something like how our thoughts have matured over time and we think differently about things now as we did when we were younger – how our point of view and perspective have evolved over time. I’d love to play around with that and also with a family tree, because I saw this picture at the book archives in Sienna….

We’ll see J

K, night for real this time! MUAH!