This week I printed the litho, reground the stone and made a second drawing on the same stone (pictured here) which I will print tomorrow at the studio. The imagery I've used is underwater barnacles. I love this process, but I have so much more to learn and two weeks is much too short of a time to learn such a complex, chemical technique.
Tamarind Institute in New Mexico is the mecca of lithography. I'm researching their programs for further study.
Yesterday on the bus I saw a construction area in il centro (city center) with a port-a-potty for the workers. To make my point I really need to go back and take a photo to insert here, which I will do tomorrow. The entire thing is covered with a reproduction of Botticelli's Birth of Venus, featuring a life-sized Venus on the door. I think the intention is chic, but my reaction was something like a chuckle. Florence carts are constantly hocking boxer shorts featuring David's private parts, but I think the port-a-potty wins a 'tacky usage of Renaissance art' award hands down.
Yes, the euro/dollar exchange is brutal. I just bought some autumn clothing, Nike pants and long-sleeved tops and a similar Italian brand of jacket, and it ran me 220 euro (about 300 USD). For what it's worth, they're really good quality clothes, tailored designs, perfect fit. I needed something comfortable and relatively chic (as I live in Florence), but I wish I would have bought these pieces or similar in California as it would have been 2/3 the price at least. It turned out to be an investment, but I've found that I'd rather buy better quality clothes and wear them everyday than buy less expensive clothes that don't keep their warmth and shape very well.
Besides this particular much-needed purchase, at this time I'm only buying food, coffee and bus tickets. I do need a new borsa (purse), but I'm waiting until the Tuesday market to buy a fake leather bag. I know a stand in particular where I should be able to find what I'm looking for for 10-15 euro. Luckily I'm well-stocked on art supplies at this time, as I purchased a lot of paper prior to the summer break and also brought some paper and additional materials from Daniel Smith in Seattle.
Even our neighborhood pizzeria, Casa della Pizza, has raised their prices. In July you could get a margherita (tomato and cheese) for 3,50 and now it's 4,00.
Friday night I went to my professor Vincenzo's house for dinner. The caffé was amazing and I asked about it. It is called Quarta Caffé Rossa and they buy it in Puglia in large quantities when they visit, but you can also buy it online.
We've been a sickly household over the past couple of weeks. I had a vicious migraine, then influenza with a febbre alta (high fever). My flatmates have respectively had a cold and pidocchi (lice) from visiting a young nipotina (niece). Even the dog has a tosse (cough) and is on antibiotics. But we're all getting better, just in the past two days. I attribute most of it to the change of season.
Autumn is new for me in Italy, Toscana is overflowing with grapes and there's some briskness in the air. There are still tourists in il centro, mostly British and German. We're spending more evenings in houses and pubs rather than the piazzas where we spent our summer evenings. The pompelmo (grapefruit) in the courtyard is ripening. It's the size of a canteloupe now. Looking forward to picking it soon.
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