Mostra Nostra!

We had our final show yesterday! It was a big success, tons of people came, the art looked great...I'm so proud of everyone :)Along with my Annunciation piece, I had a wall for a few of my small portraits I've been doing!


All the art kids with Marsha and Domenic (photo stolen from Jackie!)
Other than that...the semester is winding down--one more week until finals. And then I have until mid June to finish a bunch of etchings and do some more paintings. But I just booked a flight to Greece to see Jeana while she's at her conference in June!! I am so so excited and also terrified that I don't have enough time to do everything...I dread to think about packing up all my stuff from the whole year. But I'm going to paint all day tomorrow, hopefully...

LDM Art Show: the art is in the streets

Yesterday was the Lorenze dei Medici art show on Via Faenza. Marsha had all us CSU kids participate, so we set up our art in the restaurants and shops, and on easels in the street. Here's me with my Annunciation piece!
After all that running around, we had a lovely late morning snack of bagels and cream cheese and lox and a few bottles of wine...
Then we had a very long day of art show stuff, but later that evening we had "Cena sotto le stelle"--dinner under the stars!
It was a yummy price fixed 15 euro meal with delicious antipasta (prosciutto, other meaty things, crostini with liver, and bruschetta), then a pasta course, and a meat and white bean dish, and wine of course, and a chestnut flan for dessert!
I have a lot to catch up on...I've been really sick and I've fallen behind on everything. But my parents visited me for my spring break and we spent a lovely week in Rome! I'll post more about that later. ciao!

ze weekend!

This weekend was spent between school, attending seminars for the "Art Clash" art show, hanging out with mutual friend from LB Jacki who is studying in La Spezia, homemade Italian luncheon with Marsha and prof, walks around town, and some kind of crazy salsa line dancing??!!
Today, we made crepes, and bread. We have almost no food in the house....I went out to paint, the weather is finally nice enough to sit outside! I was only rained on for a little....but I did this little painting in the park near our apartment, with limited palate.
this one was just really quick--of Italian mommies gossiping while watching their kids play soccer...
I spent the rest of the evening in the Art Hole working on my other painting...and now it's time to study for my Italian and Cinema midterms for tomorrow!

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit!

Happy Spring! Sorry for the random updates...I have to play catch up one of these days...but I'll start with today. Went to the Accademia--this is what I've been working on in Painting--imaginative figure/landscape with acrylic and oil pastels...Then down to etching! I am learning a lot (the hard way..) but is very very exciting to see what happens when you print! (and see what mistakes you have to fix...hehe..)
This is our Professor Viggiano--the victim of the Italian's april fools--Pesce d'aprile!
I'm so so excited for spring--the mercato is full of bright and delicious fruits and veggies! Tonight for dinner, we made roasted asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, with beets and bell peppers....
And Gaby made a whole roasted chicken, and I made asparagus risotto!! It came out really well...super creamy and flavorful!
Now Avery has some banana chocolate chip muffins in the oven....mmm...Next week is midterms, then my parents are coming for a Roman Holiday! Everything is super busy and crazy right now--more so than usual. There are 3 art shows coming up, the ever-present need to paint/study.....the weather is different everyday...life is good.

Birthday in Italia!

On Saturday I celebrated my 22nd birthday in Florence! I wasn't too excited to begin with...22 just isn't an exciting year..but thanks to my friends, I had an amazing day!! It began, of course, with birthday gelato.We stopped by the Central Market to pick up some olives, and they sang me "Tanti Auguri"--the Italian birthday song
We went to our friend Stefany's house for an afternoon BBQ--with wonderful burgers, cheesy spinach dips, chips...and a nutella birthday cake!
Daniela and Jeff made awesome calamari with squid fresh from the central market!
It was also Jef's b-day! So we all ate way too much and had a fun time. Later on, dancing! It was a very nice birthday....I don't even feel that old at the moment.

grass!!!

So after my last post about the beautiful sunny weather, it rained for a week straight! They say "marzo e' pazzo" because the weather is so crazy...BUT after all that rain we had the most beautiful weekend! On Friday I walked around all day, exploring Oltrarno, and sketching at the Brancacci chapel and then I went to a fun Italian dance party with Gaby! On Saturday we all went to the Pitti Palace to bask in the sun at the Boboli Gardens....we napped on the grass (it felt just like being at Long Beach!)
It was a lovely lovely day, and we went back the next day to bask a little more before seeing two of our friends perform in an English/Italian performance of the Vagina Monologues! The weather is a little more indecisive right now...but we are going on our last feild trip this weekend to Napoli, and hopefully it will be sunny there! Other than constantly discussing the weather, I am painting, going to the Accademia (now that it's resumed after a month of testing) aaand, cooking a bit and whatnot..that's all for now, ciao!

Ah Firenze!

On Friday, we took a walk Oltrano to go to the Pitti Palace! It was really really sunny...a gorgeous spring day! (I'm sorry, I'm so excited about warm weather it's all I can talk about...)

After spending some time at the Galleria Moderna, we got gelato and marveled at the beautiful twilight colors...


Afterwards, Avery and I went home and our couchsurfers from Spain (who are studying in Ireland) arrived. Gaby made a lovely dinner, and they bought some nice Lambrusco wine for us to all try. Then we gave them a night gelato tour of Firenze, it was fun and we were able to communicate really well between english, spanish and italian!