Day 21

Wow...Blogging has really fallen behind. I guess I've just been so busy, but don't worry I haven't forgotten about. Lately in class it's been work days so that's not that exciting, but I deffiantely have a plan for my final book down and am working on the plates for it!

Other than class I've tryign to visit as many biannale art shows as possible. So I will now talk of art shows....

The End - http://cia.is/venice/

This exhibit is by Iceland and was free along the way to school so I decided to drop in to give it a peek. The first room I entered had four screens of the painter and one other guy playing various instruments (depending on the screen) at varying distances from the camera. It also included a space along the canal where there were beer bottles left about a record player, a couch, lots of

canvases in the corner and the artist and his model (occasionally hanging with some other people). Along with other personal effects of the artist. The artist has been painting during his time here random pantings of the model in different places in the space. I liked how you as a view intruded on the artist space and became part of the piece, but the paintings I felt lacked something to be desired. Later I found out that the painter was on the cover of Modern Painter magazine. And I didn't find that out until later, go figure...

Life by Imitation -http://www.nac.gov.sg/

This exhibit was put on by the Nation of Singapore and was right upstairs in the same building as Iceland, and was paled in comparison a bit. Especially since it was easy to compare painting/video art combos. Nonetheless I was intrigued by it since I didn't know it was video art walkign into it. I had seen adds for the paintings and expecting nothing more. They were all based off of old movie posters in Singapore, but there was also a video portion of the poster. They were filmed multiple times and the roles were switched and played either by the same person or at different times different actors reading the same lines. There was a lot of play on race and gender roles which intrigued me.

Giraffe-Bottle-Gun - http://www.nzatvenice.com/

This is one of two exhibits hosted by New Zealand. This exhibit featured larger than life canvases shaped like a giraffe, a bottle, or a gun (depending on what you saw), thus the name. And were painted abstractly using high contrast colors. What I liked most about this exhibit was the pride in culture they had (and their lovely volunteer she was very friendly). They had a room in the back with lots of reading material. Some on the artists, but also on maori art and a video clip (which was given to you on disc) or preformance maori art they did through out Venice. They also gave us a free necklace of a shell!

Save Yourself - http://www.nzatvenice.com/

The Second Exhibit from New Zealand in a seperate building hidden in the back of an apartment complex near Ca'D'Oro contained different small sculptures of people (mostly men) painted in vibrant colors some solid colors some patterns. They reminded me a little of Maori art I had studied in Art of the South Pacific, but I feel if you hadn't studied the culture the beauty fo the pieces was lost. I had seen images of the pieces too and was expecting something larger, but nonetheless the fluidity of the figures and the personality portrayed theough motion was executed very well int he stylized figures. Plus I have to say thanks for the free bag!

Glasstress - http://www.istitutoveneto.it/

This show is a collection of art in the medium of glass made by well established artists. It's right by the academia bridge here in Venice. Sculpture isn't much of my thing and there were things I liked and didn't like, but over all what made this show so great was see all the possibilities glass has to offer. I've never worked with glass, but sometimes I was just like, "I didn't know glass could do that!" If that's not enough to convince you to see it the buildign itself was GORGEOUS! It's held in the Insitute of Science and Letters (well this but in Italia so it sounds much more offical). The institute was started by Naploeon when he occupied Venice, and so it's decorated super fancy for him.

Mapping the Studio - Link

This was another two part gallery, but it was not hosted by a country rather it's a colelction of Contempoary artists. The first one I went to I entered it and encountered an "nazi dancefloor"

Which as strange as that sounds was rather cool. It was a large dance floor you were allowed to walk on with pictures of people who have played nazis in movies. One of my favorite parts was the 101 things to make art which were done in different ways around the gallery. Including: Put

googley eyes on things. And googley eyes were literally put on to the stone statues that were already apart of the space. There was soem strange stuff, but alot of it was realyl cool and I liked this first oen the best of the two. The Second was at Salute and had the statue featured on the posters (a little naked boy holding out a frig by it's legs) on the ledge that sits out

on the canal. Some of the stuff in this one was a little much for me. My favorite pieces were "fucking hell" and "uterus" two seperate artist, and pieces you can only expiereince in person (that and you can't take photos though I tried). One thing I found funny were two particular. I had read about them online (thanks to a certain perverted friend) and these scupltures had sold for about 15 Million dollars a piece. And I walked in and just went "no...way." I couldn't believe there they were in person.

Marialuisa Tadei - www.marialuisatadei.com

Here is an exhibit that was fun because it really utilized the space as a whole. It was in a church and the first one I saw within a church so I was surprised. (you also were'nt allowed to take pictures of the church, but you were allowed to take pictures of the art discuss...) It was presents by the Republic of San Marino. Waterfall was the most iconic piece which was ribbons of platic in bright and metallic colors cascading from the ceiling, but there was also this grave yard piece that you walking into a black box with a grave yard setting while other worldly music played and you approached the other side of the box which had a key-hole looking into a white and sivler feathery world seeming heavenly. You could realyl feel the piece emotionalyl which I like because it wasn't in your face it just touched you in a way.

I also attended this book art show; though I wasn't aprticularlly impressed with a lot of the books. Except for two:

Day 12

So The internet went out last night otherwise you'd already know that, Shepar Fairey has been spotted in Venice. Last night when my friends Cristina and Alyssa went out on a run they met Shepard Fairey. That's right ladies and gentlemen Shepard F***ing Fairey. 

Today we had class blah blah... THEN! we went for a walk (not to self my short shorts in Venice attract much unwanted attention). Found the second Shepard Fairey mural, and hoped to see the man heimself... to no avail, but we did take some scraps of his work left behind...mwahahaha.  We peaked in at many pre-biannale art parties non- of which we coudl get into, but Cristina and Annie Lucky found invites to some swanky party...luck ducks. I did find a Yoko Ono Poster for her art show. It's a giant picture of her boob and it's deffinately goign to be hanging in out dining room.

PS I found a Pirate bay balloon, so they are totes goign to be here.

Day 10

Well the last todays have been fun filled days of class. We Critiqued our scrolls and it was nice seeing our porfessor Ed excited. I guess he's been afraid we weren't having fun, but now that he's seen how wee feel about our "journeys" in Venice he feels better. Dominicks was funny because up until recently he hasn't enjoyed Venice. He has been really homesick and just isn't fond of Cities, pigeons and especially Gypsies. lol

We are going ot turn our scrolls into Codexes. Mines goign to be a serpintine pages book with a non-adhesive cover. I'm pretty excited about it It's going to communicate the meaning of the imagery very well. Pics later! We also started mono-prints in Intalgio I kinda like it. Though I still need more practice.

I'm realyl starting to warm up to Ed. At first I thought he was kidn of mean but I find he is just a crazy old man with no tact. But he can be really kind as well. He is genuinely interested in his students, and if you talk to him there is kidness hidden beneath those silly New York Jew Yiddish terms and Stuck in the 60s art opinons.

Day 8

The evening before (after the friday excursion and such) Soem of us went out to Dinner. Got some pizza and just leasurely enjoyed our time together. Our waitor was amusing because when he came up, Will asked him how to say something. And the waitor decalred himself out teacher. He took the the time too flirt shamelessly with us and learn our names. I had a little arguement with him that I am Alysha not Alice (in italian it is pronounced Ah-lee-cha). Then after I hung on the second floor with the other half of the students here from IU (we are all one big family living on two different floors). I listened to Liv and Erin play. Erin has actually toured check it out (this is a live recording of one of the songs she played for us): Floatsam Wake Sorry for the bad quality.

Then began Our first saturday in Venice. Woke up at noon like any responsible college student. Then went to the Billa (groceries!). Along the way we saw people gearing up for the Regatta which is the following day. Boats everywhere needless to say. We came back and I ate food cleaning out the old food from the fridge. All I can say is I can get used to olive oil bread and cheese all the time, ahaha! Nom nom...

We worked on our homework most of the evening. THat night we tried to find Harry's Bar which apparently is super famous, and the students last year used to go all the time. But when we got there it was close. Note to take when in Venice Things don't open until 8 or 9 AM and close 8 or 9 PM. So some people bought a beer and we all sat by the grand canal and just talked before some us got tooo cold from the wind. We curled into bed and slept.

Day 5

Today was lots of class lol. I had my frist experience of Italgio. I will hopefully start printing soon. Pictures coming soon! I also did some more book binding acordion fold books mostly, plus a look at some more artist books. Some made by our professor. To the left is the sketchbook I was telling you we were binding using a criptic stitch. ^^ Done all by me! WOOO Even the cover gluing. It was fun! Not perfect, but hey it was my frist time.

Today was actually cool too. The last few times it's been

85 degree plus, but today was 75 and due to the ususally heat I wore a sweater. Oh well it was glorious. First day I didn't sweat profusely. William, one of the Grad students had his birthday today! Quarter of a Century so to Celebrate the occasion I went to the BP and bought some cake mix and constructed this monstrocity that William is displaying. It fell apart a bit, thus it's lumpy shape, but we repaired that with Nutella. So it then became no mistake, but a process of Design. And a Delicious one at that. Cristina added the 25 swedish fish in the shape of a W. If you can't figure out why you fail. THe cake was delicious by the way.

Happy Birthday William

Day 4

Well woke up at 8:30 this morning and took a shower then had some breakfast, as usual. Today however did not start with class. Our assignment instead was to get "lost". So Cristina, Annie, Alyssa, and I went and grabbed some authentic Italian cappacinos and the continued on our way. We wandered about and found this adorable little campo and decided to draw there. The main point of persuasion was the benches shaded by trees. I thought this cute little calle off the campo was adorable so I drew that. It had a clothes line which are all along the lines of ideas I have for some projects here. The drawing of the Calle itself will be for a print I'm making tomorrow. 

Then 12:30 rolled around and we wandered off in the direction we believed would take us to our apartment. Then we noticed the San Marco signs stopped. So we were like WTF? we check our maps and realized we had walked much further than we thought and to the Realto Bridge across the Gran Canal and then just walked to class since we were almost there and had lost a lot of time wandering in the wrong direction. 

It was very crowded adn very touristy, but we made there. We took a stop for lunch at this deli and then took it to class and ate with the 15 minutes we had left before class. Thus began binding the sketch books we made. We'll finish them tomorrow we ran out of time all I have left to sew is the cover. 

We stopped at the grocery store the Billa on the way home for dinner. Tonight we made a delicious Penne with tomato sauce. In the sauce (which you can only buy plain in Italy apparently) were mushrooms, garlic, balsamic, pepper, olive oil....mmm.. Topped with parmesan. Good eats. 

I went upstairs to hang with the other half of the gang on the trip. For a while. But class bright and early tomorrow. We begin Printmaking which should be interesting since I've never done it before. And then more book binding or maybe caligraphy I don't remember. And after I'm going to make a journey for my project. 

Ciao

Day 3

Today I woke up at like 5AM and I don't know why... I think it may ahve been goign to bed at 10PM so I'm goign to try and stay up until midnight tonight. We're going to go out and do some night drawings later! 

Once 9AM rolled around we headed to our Orientation at La Scuola Internationale Della Graphica.  It was cool, but I don't know anything about printing, I'm curious to see how this turns out. Later was bookmaking and we started by making covers for sketch books we are going to bind for tomorrow using a Criptic Binding technique. 

But the REAL fun began this even because at 6:30 there was an art Opening at the Guggenhiem! That's right THE Guggenheim and I went!

 We even had to wait in line to get in! I felt super special. Once we got in there was a DJ, drinks, and Ea'douvears to taken in 

(while they lasted peopel were grabbign them left and right). I know, I know...I came to Venice to eat jalapeno poppers and tuna? Psh whatever it was delish. At least 

I weas like those crazy Italians that once a new tray of pork sandwiches that the cateres were carrying over their heads to 

the table. The Italians started jumping up grabbign them right form the tray! HA! I Was laughing so hard. Then these Italians infront of me were laughing too and turned to me and commented about the specticle we both just witnessed in Italian. I of course 

had no clue what they were saying so I just laughed and nodded.  

  There was lots of crazy cool art including Picasso, Pollack, Dali, and so many more! It got so crowded too. It was deffinately the happening place in Venice this evening. And I was part of it. I'm living an Venitian Fantasy.

 

Ciao!!!

Day 2 - Photos

The clock tower in San Marco Square!

    

San Marco's Cathedral

Making Dinner

Le Gran Canal

Where they fix the Gandales

Day 2

Today I woke up to the sounds of church bells  a ringing, though Venice has never really been a religous city in Italy. It was different. haha! But I still got a full ngihts sleep. As I got ready this morning I heard the music in the Vivaldi museum playing across the campo and people singing behind us. Ed later told us there is a music school in the area thus all the music, but it was rather pleasant to hear. 

Some of us met up at 11AM to go on a tour to see where the grocery store and art supply store. Along with other points of interest. We hung a talked during the Dormentia or Ceista. We Then bought some groceries. On the walk back I indulged myself in some Gelatto. nom nom...We got some good preices on the gorceries. 

At 5-ish we made dinner. Katya was our main chef, spaghetti noodles, Balsamic, onions, garlic, and bell peppers. It was delish! 

Then A bunch of the people from our aparment wandered around. And we saw some cool sites!

Day 1

We arrive in Venice much earlier than expected. The flight was expected to land at 9:05 AM, but rather we landed at about 8:30 AM not to mention we started 30 minutes late! So our pilot was booking it. Overall the flight took about 8 hours. Customs was a breeze, stamp and we were done. Pick up our luggage and realize we have 7 hours until we could meet Ed at the Apartments. So we started our journey through Venice carrying out luggage in tow.

We got our tickets and took a bus to Pizzale de Rome. The plants

here are a wierd combination of plants you

see at home and down in florida. The houses and apartments are old and colorful with tile roof tops! So gorgeous. The bus took us to the heart of Vencie and there we got on a Water bus to Giglio.  

We got a little lost trying to find the campo where are plaza was and traveled in the completely wrong direction for over an hour. it was hot, and our luggage was heavy NO FUN! But we made it to the apartments then by noon-ish and waited for three hours for Ed. And other joined us along te way.

All of us are here except for Mollie of course. We got ot know each other pick our rooms and Then at 7 seven we enjoyed a delicious Pizza Dinner with some delicious wine! This is the Italian life. We walked back and got some Gellatto. I ahd Coffee and Mint chocolate ship, mmmm. I will have more pics now that I'm not schlepping my luggage around. 

Chiao!

More photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1881&id=1711770129&l=c74589fd71