Seeing Red

In Roma, someone threw red dye in the fontana di Trevi. Then ran away. Which resulted a bit of a photo opportunity until they drained and refilled the fountain. You can read about it in English or Italian. Each article gives a different reason, but both articles state there's no permanent damage, which is the important thing.

It's Friday (finalmente!)

It's Friday (finally!) and I'm home for the night. Today I etched 4 states of the two aquaforte (line etching) copper plates and worked on the sugar-lift for the large zinc plate. On Monday I need to etch more aquatint into the large plate to make the darkest areas so they will print velvety black. I apologize for the lack of photos but in my everyday morning rush I keep forgetting to charge the camera battery.

My professor approached me with the opportunity to do another stage (internship) here in Firenze. I would be able to work on conserving works of art on paper in a studio that specializes in restoring fine art prints. On Monday I'll learn more about where and when, but I'm glad they chose me for this, as I think I could learn a lot. My professor said they need someone who's work is precisa, precisa. I'm not sure here if that's a compliment or not. I'll take it as an, er, observation.

After working in the studio I took the #12 bus home and was welcomed by a dog who hugs and a note on the kitchen table. The flatmates were out of town car shopping and they asked if I could walk the dog. With pleasure! So we donned the leash and went for a walk along Viale Volta towards Piazza alle Cure. I walked while Buska peed on all the cars, which is regular behaviour for him. He met two dogs along the way and stayed away from the biciclette (bicycles), which made my job easier. We came home, drank our respective water and made comfy on the divano (sofa). I made a peanut butter sandwich, which always piques his curiosity, demonstrated by a pricked ear and tilted head, and I explained that it is a 'panino americano'. He had a taste and I enjoyed watching him lick his mouth endlessly. A simple pleasure.

So the flatmates returned home and we discussed cars and the prices of assicurazione (insurance) and how it differs based on the driver's gender, age, power of the car and such.

I'm excited to have a weekend with no plans (and more importantly, no high fever). I could just sleep or I may head into il centro to see what kind of trouble I can get into there. Vediamo (Let's see)!

Dirty hands and lots to do

My hands haven't been clean in weeks. Don't get me wrong, I wash them about 30 times a day. But it's the inks, varnishes, chalks, pastels, kerosene, etc. And I'm a bit afraid I'm eating this stuff. And if so, in what quantities?

Today I did a sugar-lift technique to two plates, prepared three additional plates (two quite large). I also did a ceramolle (soft ground) technique to one of the larger plates and placed it in the acid for 50 minutes. Tomorrow I will do aquatinta (solid tone) on the sugar-lift plates and print proofs of everything to see where I'm at.

I just finished some aquaforte (line etching) on a copper plate here at home tonight which I'll also etch it in the ferric chloride tomorrow. I've done the math and we have 245 studio hours left in the program, so I'm in overdrive to get everything done.

Yesterday we had a revisione (review) with the director and I'm pleased because he was quite happy with how my lithography prints turned out. They're the most ambitious works I've done at the school and I was glad to get some positive feedback on them.

I'm really just making art right now. No travel, fewer social activities. But I'm happy and very much in love with my citta (city) and my friends here.

Sunday morning

I slept for nine hours, and for the first time in weeks I feel rested. For breakfast I munched on some biscottini (little cookies) and caffé.

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.

Permesso di soggiorno

To live here as a foreigner requires first a visto (visa) for entry, which I obtained last year from the Italian consulate. This document is necessary for anyone staying in Italy longer than 90 days. My visa is a student visa and it's good for one year, expiring on January 7, 2008. Secondly, upon arrival you need to submit your visa and all the supporting documentation (including the signed acceptance letter from your school, proof of adequate funds for the duration of the stay, proof of housing and medical insurance) to your city's questura (police station). This is to process your permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay). This permesso process has been notoriously difficult and time consuming, involving long queues and multiple requests for additional documentation. This process historically took about 2 months in total. However before I arrived they changed the process. Now the stranieri (foreigners) apply for the permessi at a designated window at the poste (post office). The post office sends the documents to the questura and the questura eventually contacts you with a day and time to arrive for fingerprinting and to receive your permesso. Now, as brief backstory, the Italian poste is a bit, er, how shall I put it, disorganized. So what they've done is take a difficult process involving one large institution (questura) and placed another large institution (poste) in the mix, which has created utter chaos. As my segretaria at the school puts it in English, "It's a mess for the whole of Italy."

So I checked the status of my permesso application online, and I have an update. (Keep in mind I applied on January 16, 2007.) On December 12th I have an appointment for fingerprinting and to receive my permesso. My flight to return to the states for Christmas is on December 19th. The permesso will expire January 7th. You do the math. Hilarious!