I made it into Kansas City yesterday afternoon. The travel went fine, no problems with the lights, but sleeping at JFK all night was no fun at all. And by the time I got on my last flight from Minneapolis to Kansas City I didn’t want to be on a plan anymore. 36 straight hours of being on a plane/in an airport will wear you out. But, I’m alive and made it out of the airport, didn’t loose any luggage. I’m at home, saw my family and went and got mexican food with them then got 12 hours of sleep last night to make up for lack of it in the airport and am trying to stay cool and not melt. But, with some good sleep I am adjusting back to KC time just well. 

I will probably post a few more things on here in the next few days about stuff I got to do in Italy that I didn’t get around to posting with finishing my projects, trying to visit all the places I wanted to (which didn’t happen, but I’ll just have to go back) and spending time with my roommates and friends before we all left. So, those will come soon. I am so glad to be home, see my family, got to play with Jadon today which was great and I can’t wait to see the rest of them! And all my trio and my MC family, I am really looking forward to that.

These are some photos from my trip to Siena. Siena is absolutely beautiful and so different from Florence. It is surrounded by the hills and the beautiful landscape that is missing in Florence, though Florence is absolutely beautiful in its own way. I’m not going to write much now, cause its late and I’m pooped and I have to get up early tomorrow for my flight home. But, stories to come later…

One of my favorite things in Florence is the street artists. I’ve seen about ten different people doing them, they take turns and sometimes they collaborate on a piece. Every time I see a new one I am blown away, its absolutely incredible what they do. It makes me wish I could do that and just spend my days outside and drawing. Maybe one day Kansas City will have an outlet for that.

So, conservation this last week has been awesome! Its so funny, everyday we all get to class, expect at least two hours of lectures and we’re working on this sample panel to learn how they originally painted oil paintings back in the day and to learn how to gild gold leaf and such. Thats usually what we start our 11 hour day of class. Then we always end up doing the most ridiculous things. I never would have imagined being able to actually work on paintings, cleaning them, patching holes and tears, varnishing and touching up color, patching and refining the frames, any of it. I know if I went anywhere in the states to take conservation classes I wouldn’t even be close to touching a painting to work on for at least my first year of study. I went into this class expecting to sit through lectures, everyone in my class thought that. Even on the first day we started, I think we’re like little minions in Roberta’s workshop. And Roberta is an awesome teacher, she believes we can do these things, knows we don’t have this kind of opportunity and she is one of the most enthusiastic professors about her area I’ve ever had. I love hearing her lecture. Yes, I kinda like lectures in the first place, if I am really interested in the subject I am so ready to learn. Roberta loves her profession, and she always has the best stories about things she has done in restoration. Any who, its the coolest class I’ve taken in a long time. I want to post pictures, but I can’t. I am taking them though and I will be more than happy to show them to anyone when I come home. Yesterday we got to take scalpels to the back of a canvas to scrape the dirt and glue that has soaked through the canvas, we have to do this before Roberta can reline the painting to make it sturdier. Also, yesterday we got to touch up a painting, with the color, and where the painting had to be completely restored and was flat we had to take a small brush and put plaster dots and lines very carefully try to mimic the texture of the canvas so when it is painted you can’t tell the difference. It so cool, and nerve racking. Like, no pressure or anything on us little minions. But it is an awesome class and I’m so glad I’m getting to do this and its such a fascinating subject to learn about.

So, in the last week I have been to the Boboli Gardens four times. Its connected to the Pitti Palace, which is absolutely stunning, on the outside and as well as everything that is inside it. The Boboli is the most beautiful place of nature and magical surrounding that you find in many plant covered area. Its just where I wanted to be. Don’t get me wrong, Florence is absolutely stunning, all of it. The architecture, the atmosphere, but I needed to get back to somewhere with nature. There’s not a lot of that here, especially in central Florence where I live, and going to the garden was a good inspiration I needed for my paintings and motivation. I’ll post some pictures of my studies and in process paintings in a bit after class. But if you’re ever in Florence it is definitely worth the money to go to the Boboli gardens, its probably the most beautiful garden I’ve ever been able to go in and working on studies there was so refreshing and reviving. 

Ah! My lovely roommates! We all got really lucky, we got an amazing apartment. We’re right in central Florence, a block away from the Duomo and the Piazza della Repubblica and right above all the expensive designer shops. We think that we got the best apartment, especially the best location. We’re five minutes away from SACI, and another five to get to the centrale marceto from there. I’m finally learning my ways around here, plus it helps a lot that we live by the Duomo, so if I get lost I just need to get to the Duomo. 

All five of us girls get along great. I have a class with Alyssa, whom I share a room with. We love going out together for dinner, but we also love making dinner at home and relaxing out on the back porch. The first night we were here we found our pasta restaurant, Buca Niccolini, and there we had a birthday dinner and glass of wine to celebrate my birthday. And ever since then we fell in love with that place, made friends with the employees and even have a regular dish we all get, they’re lasagna is to die for. We’ve also found our favorite pub and gelato shop, and we frequent those often. But I think we all got picked really well, we’re all chill but we do like to go out and have fun, its great. And now I’ve got them all addicted to nutella. Mission accomplished.

I love my family. They’re awesome, and I was so glad I got to skype with them on Thursday. I miss them dearly and I can’t wait to see them when I get home but I am most definitely enjoying my time here. The perfect situation would to just move all my family and friends here to Italy with me. I’m thinking thats a good solution. Skyping with Mom, Dad and Jesse was definitely one of the highlights of my week and I can’t wait to do it again!

Dearest Francis Bacon, love of my painting life. 

I can’t even describe the fascination I have with Bacon’s work. If I had had the chance to meet him and work with him or in a studio with him it would have been a highlight of my life. His work really has a presence to it, even with his dark and disturbing feeling to it. His deconstruction of the figure isn’t just about the end result but more about the rawness of the figure, of the portrait. Instead of perfecting and idealizing his subject he does the exact opposite, it is such a fresh and intriguing way of painting a portrait. 

A reflection of what Bacon saw in the person is what he painted. And speaking of reflections, one of my most favorite things about Bacon’s work is that when he finished a painting and readied it to be presentable he always put a glass of pane over the piece. Now, you go to museums these days and there may be glass in front of many of the paintings, in the frame or no. But not many artists purposefully plan to put glass in front of their work for the presentation. But Bacon brings an element to his work just with the addition of glass that elevates the personal and emotional reaction from the viewer. The purpose for the glass is for the viewer to see their own reflection in his painting. When you get in front of one of his paintings, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll spend ages just staring at the painting and its details. The rough and specific marks of his paint handling are severe, yet so delicate in a way that has to do with the reflection and raw life that is staring back at you in the reflection. You think one thing about your reflection when you look in the mirror at home, yet in front of one of Bacon’s paintings you don’t see the same thing, you see yourself in a broken down and deconstructive manner. Yes, artists have been trying to get the viewer to experience a certain emotion or to understand the expression the artist was trying to convey for centuries, but no one quite puts the viewer into the painting like Bacon does.

I could spend hours in front of a Francis Bacon piece. I could probably live under one, though I’m not sure that the museums would appreciate that. If you ever have a chance to see a Francis Bacon, do. His paintings in person are absolutely stunning and you can feel the essence of what he is trying to make you see. There’s so much that I would like to say about his work but some things about it I don’t know if I could even put in words. It just needs to be experienced in person. 

So classes the last week have been good. Minus the Bologna field trip debacle. This last Thursday in painting conservation we got to clean a painting that was painted in the late seventeenth century, and that was amazing! Something I’ve always dreamed of doing and the experience is unforgettable. I believe we’re going to be cleaning a Bronzino painting, or at least starting it with the tests for what cleaning chemicals to use. I mean, who gets to have that experience? Yeah, I know you’re jealous, as you should be. This week we’re going to a tabernacle in town to learn how to transfer and restore a fresco painting and we’re going to get to help with the transferring too! I would love to share pictures of the class and what we’re working on with you, but because of Italian copy-write laws I can take photos for personal use but I can’t post them online anywhere, so hopefully I can show those to whoever wants to see them. Painting is going, I just have a lot to get done, and this heat is not helping my motivation. But we’re going out to the Boboli Gardens this week, so that will be amazing.

Sunday, after some terrible miscommunication with the field trip going to Sienna and therefore missing our bus by five minutes, Nicole, Lauren (my roommates) and two other girls who also missed the bus went to the Uffizi Gallery, and it was absolutely fantastical there. We have a card from SACI that gets us into a lot of the main museums and galleries in Florence without having to pay an admissions fee, which is awesome. And, as we found out, at the Uffizi we get in right away without having to wait in the extremely long line out in the heat. Win for us! So, while missing the trip to Sienna sucked going to see some classic Michelangelo’s, Caravaggio’s, Leonardo’s, Raphael’s and Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus, which were stunning, made up for the crappy situation. Post about those to come later. We went and talked to the dean today and we are working it out for us five to go to Sienna when the art history class goes in two weeks, which we don’t mind tagging along for an extra class. So, thats a relief to get that worked out and still be able to go, cause thats one of the places I really wanted to get to see. 

Right now, all I want is some lasagna. The first night we were here was my birthday and we found this amazing little, family owned pasta restaurant and we dined there. And, we’ve been a few times in the last week and a half for dinner. So we’re regulars, they know us, and give us free desert shots. But really, they’re lasagna is to die for! I’ve been craving it all weekend and I want tomorrow to come because we’re going back there for dinner. But tonight I will fulfill my gelato craving. And we’re regulars at a gelato shop too, no big surprise there. We go and hang out for an hour. Or two. We’ve gone almost every night, except the last few cause Friday we went out and didn’t get home until 5am and the sun had already started rising. Yeah, not gonna do that one again, but it was a fun roomie outing! On that outing we also found this quaint little pub around the corner from out apartment… which we’ve gone to the last three nights. And, we might-as-well just call ourselves regulars there too. We’re kind of ridiculous, but I love it! I got four pretty great roommates, and probably one of the best locations of the apartments that SACI has, its beautiful and we can see the Duomo any time we want to. Can I just stay here and my friends and family just move here too? I think thats a good plan.

So I’ve been here for a week now. It seems like I’ve been here for forever, but in all reality it is going so fast. Classes started on monday, I’m taking a painting class and a painting conservation class. Painting is pretty cool, just more independent studies for that. Painting conservation is awesome! So far we’ve learned how to clean a painting, doing the tests and documenting the whole process, and then today we cleaned the painting, which was kinda scary and kind of really awesome. But it went really good and I had a lot of fun doing it! Painting, has been interesting. Last weekend I just got to hang out, get to know Florence and my roommates and hang out. We went out for dinner and wine for my birthday the night we got here then met a british guy who told us about a pub that gave free champagne to international students, so we decided to check it out. It was delicious free champagne. The big central market was absolutely amazing! I need to go back, I wish I had that big of a market to shop at everyday. 

We went to Bologna yesterday for a field trip to see a house/studio of a mid 19th century and then went to the Morandi museum, its was okay, but not my taste of painting. But after going to that, we got dinner and hung around until our train, which was going to come at 8:30. Well… we’re at the train station waiting and we found out that it got delayed 30 minutes, okay. So, about ten minutes before our new departure time we head to the right platform. Only to find out hat the train was already there and that it started leaving and, literally, we were one minute late to catch the train, which wasn’t suppose to leave for another ten minutes. So, half of our class was on the train on time and made it, and six of us and our teacher missed it and got left behind. We learned that the train was late because the union went had just got on a strike… of course that was lovely news to hear. So, those of us to got left behind found another train that would get us home, so we waited for an hour for that train, and then ten minutes after that train was suppose to come we went to check, only to find out that because of the strike that train got cancelled, yet they decided not to let us know. Again, lovely. Then we go to talk to people and find out that an hour after that we can get on a train to go home and they would get the tickets figured out. So, yet again we wait for that. We finally got on the train, after that one having been delayed as well. We got to sit/stand whenever someone needed to walk by in the hall. It was the longest train ride ever and it sucked. Then, we had catch a bus from that station to the other station so we could walk home from there. We met some locals that were waiting for the same bus, so they helped us out and made sure we got off the right stop and then they walked us to the end of the street we needed to be to get home. They were nice, but trying to talk to me, at 1230, when I’m pooped, pissed off about the trains and don’t really speak any italian. I felt kinda bad about it, but, considering the circumstances I got over it. So I got to bed way later than I wanted to, and still had to get to class at 9. I didn’t want to wake up at all, but I made it on time. Only to struggle with trying to stay awake while my professor was lecturing. Which I find out later that she noticed, ohhh well. She knows the situation and understood.

So, crappy field trips better redeem themselves. Because sunday I will be going to Sienna, and I can’t wait to go, sketch and photograph things for paintings. I have lots of work to do, and many places to visit. Many museums that my roommates and I are planning to go visit. But, hopefully we can do it all. But tonight, I sleep and make up for lack of it last night. 

Buona notte!