In Italy there is no Thanksgiving.

Hey Gang!

I don’t have much time for a my usual book-post, but I thought I’d just catch you up on what I’ve been up to the last couple weeks!  Seems as though all our profs have conspired against us these last couple weeks, stacking on projects like it’s their job or something… I don’t have too much time to update you on the North Field Trip yet, but I can give you a little tid bit on what I’ve been doing at school!  Lately I’ve felt like I’m drowning in work…. my last Mixed Media class was today, since the teacher has to head back to the States next week (something to do with new Italian laws and Visas, something-or-other).  All we had to do today was tear down our desks and pack stuff up, we were out of there by 10am, which was wonderful, because I had to finish a lighting project for studio that’s due tomorrow! Don’t worry. You’ll see pics of all this good stuff….. riiiiiiiight now.

MIXED MEDIA:

First project was to make a *mostly* watercolored painting using a picture we had taken ourselves.  I’d never used water color, let alone painted a darn thing in my life, but here’s what turned out :

View off of the terrace at my old apartment. Used water colors, pastels, acrylics, and graphite.

Our second assignment was to create a book documenting our time in Rome using mixed media.  This was definitely my favorite assignment and I hope to continue with it once I get home! Here’s a glance at some of my most successful pages:

A map showing our walking path since moving to the new apartment. Got the leaves from our garden!

A night scene from a full moon night at the Pantheon taken from my favorite picture I've taken here in Rome.

Here's a page showing ticket stubs, pictures, and pressed flowers from our South Field Trip to Sorrento, Capri, and Mt. Vesuvius--the flowers are my favorite part!

Here's a compilation of photos I've taken during my Art History class--some of my favorite places I've been. You've seen most of these before!

Our final project was a group assignment for all 20 of us in the class.  We were to make a mosaic…. out of beans…. and Elmer’s School glue…. welcome to the 2nd grade! Ha!  All silliness aside, it turned out pretty cool once we were all finished. We had fun with it and we all got A’s! Here it is:

Mine's the 2nd square from the bottom in the 2nd row from the right... not that it matters! Kinda cool!

And the best part? Now that that class is over–no more class on Tuesdays! Wahoo! More time to explore. 🙂

STUDIO:

So here’s what’s really been keeping me on my toes the last couple of weeks… Our assignment has been to create a visually interesting shop window for a lighting showroom.  My company is an Italian lighting store called Flos.  Retail design has proven to NOT be my favorite thing in the world, so I’ve had my struggles and frustrations with the class, as that’s all it focuses on this semester.  We had to make a model, and do two renderings of the shop window–one showing what the window would look like during daylight hours and one in the dark. I finally finished the assignment this afternoon and present it tomorrow afternoon.  I’m actually pretty pleased with the outcome! I hope my profs are, too… Here it is:

The Inspiration--we were told to create "millions" of ideas from scraps, this is what I came up with.

My model, at a 1:25 scale

View 1: in broad daylight

View 2: Night

Day and Night view, side by side.

So that’s what’s been keeping me so busy and away from the blog–I’m pretty proud of my work, and I hope you enjoy it, too! (Don’t tell me if you don’t!)

Now that I’ve successfully done some productive procrastination, I had better get busy finishing a paper for Art History (10 pages, yuck). Just wanted to let you know I’m still alive–just a little stressed! I’ve got this paper to finish, a critique in studio tomorrow for the lighting project I just showed you, and an Art History final on Thursday. Yes, Thursday. As in Thanksgiving. It means nothing here!  Then Friday morning I’m off to BARCELONA for the weekend!!!!! So excited. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to update you on my non-school adventures!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! Eat an extra helping of turkey/stuffing/taters/punkin pie for me, then take a nice long tryptophan-enduced nap! 🙂

Thanks for readin’!

-J