time-lapse geography

2007-12-21T15:35:00.000+01:00

It's been a little while since I've updated, and I realized the other night that I completely neglected to follow up on writing about the exhibition in Bridgeport. To sum it up in one phrase, it was an awesome opportunity, a really well-curated exhibition, and a great opportunity to meet new people.

Since then, I've been negotiating about a million things: school, quarter-life questions, big emotional questions, and the like. School wrapped up a week ago, I remembered that I need to take things as they come while keeping goals in mind, and decided that comfort isn't something that I should strive for, nor run back to. I got to go to Detroit to visit the Julie Mehretu exhibition at DIA and was blown away. I have a lot of work to do, and it's going to have to be cumulative.

To celebrate the end of a hard-worked semester, I decided to run off to Montreal for a few days... so for five days of relaxation, the opportunity to speak french and to throw myself out of my own element and scope out art, I'm hanging out in la belle province. My friend Mike has been a great host thus far, and I'm looking forward to his personal guided tour of the city tomorrow. with the hopes of visiting the Expo grounds. Today's mission will be to explore the plateau, scope out more art galleries, and enjoy the relatively balmy weather that Montreal is experiencing. There are snowbanks as tall as I, and about three feet of snow on the ground, but I can have my face exposed and not worry about frostbite, which is great. It's nice to experience a Canadian winter again, it's been about five years since I experienced a good snowfall I think.

I'll hopefully pull out my camera over the course of the week and update with some photos.

2007-11-08T06:29:00.000+01:00

There are always firsts, and this is probably one of the more exciting firsts of late. Opening November 9, one of my drawings will be hung as part of a curated exhibition about drawing down at the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I'll be driving down for the opening reception (partially because it gives me an excuse to visit the collection at Dia: Beacon as I'll be close by). I can't wait to see what's in the exhibition as most of it is a mystery to me at this stage.

Below is some information about the exhibition pulled from artdaily.org. I think that I'm the honorary mention from Canada.

BRIDGEPORT, CT.-Housatonic Museum of Art is presenting Lineal Investigations featuring artists from Bridgeport, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, California and Canada. Lineal Investigations opens Friday, November 9 and continues through December 21, 2007. A reception for the artists will be held Friday, November 9, from 5:30 pm until 7pm. This event is free and the public is cordially invited to attend.

Featured works include traditional portraiture but created on a colossal scale by Bridgeport artist Paul Kaiser, floor drawing made with gaffer's tape by Manchester artist David Borawski and three dimensional drawings by Susan Shutan of Hamden , Jane Miller of Guilford and Glenn LaVertu of Providence, Rhode Island .

Lineal Investigations pushes the boundaries of the traditional definition of "drawing" this exhibit but nevertheless features quieter works with detailed drawings by Melissa Tubbs of Alabama and Patricia Smith of East Branch, New York. Artist Richard Deon of Dover Plains , New York uses commercial illustration paired with a linear structure to create his visual narratives while Henry Mandell of Mamaroneck works with digital materials-vector drawings-to explore the dynamic tension between order and disorder within visual systems.

Eric Van Arx of New Jersey creates linear drawings in iron and Kathy Desmond of Massachusetts combines drawing with installation to create environments. All in all, this show redefines "drawing" by mapping new terrain.

Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 am until 5:30 pm. Saturday, 9-3 pm and Sunday Noon until 4pm.

2007-07-24T21:14:00.000+02:00

If I could count the number of kilometers that I have traveled over the course of the past few months, I would undoubtedly be impressed at how far I have gone. I wonder how it would scale in relation to a trip to the moon. I doubt that numerous return journeys to Toronto, a few trips up to Twelve Mile Bay, Grand Bend, Wiarton, London, and even a trip to Quebec City might get me out of the atmosphere.

Summer school finished a month ago and I celebrated it by spending a some time up at Garett's cottage up in Muskoka. It was beautiful, quiet, and the perfect place to sit back, relax, make buttons, and stop. We came back to civilization again to get my gear together for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. It was a fun weekend, and after a somewhat stressful setup, a lot of fun. I came out with a lot of positive feedback to encourage me that I'm doing something right, interest from a few interesting people, and two awards. Thanks to everybody who came out to visit. If only all exhibition opportunities were that interactive.

Now, I'm back in Kitchener on a full-time basis until school starts up in the fall. I'm going to try to commute for the year to take advantage of having an awesome space to work in. The studio is in working mode now, with three of us all working in anticipation for our joint exhibition at the end of September. We also have a visiting studio member who is working on a sound installation for the rest of the summer before he runs off to Princeton to complete his PhD with a fantastic fellowship. We all have our work cut out for us, so things will likely become more interesting and animated as the weeks go by.

I think that this space is going to start to turn into that drawing blog and a sort of studio journal as the rest of the summer continues. Stay tuned.

2007-05-20T01:17:00.000+02:00

Well, it's been two and half weeks since I landed on Canadian soil, and now I feel like I can officially say that I'm home. After running around like a madcat between London, Kitchener, Toronto, and even Grand Bend I feel like I'm home. I moved into the studio on Monday night after my poor mother dropped me off to see the space was still in a bit of disarray after Gareth had set up his show at the Red Head Gallery last month. I haven't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the space as of yet, but the time that I have spent here has been pretty good. I've got the information cave pretty much set up, and am pretty much set to work. I'm still feeling a bit restless but I think that sensation will wear off after a week or two and I start to feel more comfortable.

In the meantime, I'm commuting back and forth between Kitchener and Toronto to do summer school and take advantage of the time to spend with all of the people that I missed so much while I was away. It's been a relatively quiet return, but I'm sure that there will be time to organise a proper homecoming as the summer continues. In the meantime, I'm going to try to focus on summer school (yes, I am a bit of a sucker for punishment... but if it means that my course load for my thesis year will be a bit more relaxed, it's worth it) and try to get some work done in time for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition the first weekend of July.

As per usual, things don't slow down for this kid. But it's awesome being home.

2007-05-03T04:01:00.000+02:00

After getting to the tube station this morning during the brilliant group of prime-time commuters in London, getting my backpack stuck in a closing door and being pulled inside the train by a few random witnesses (the train was packed to the gills), I survived an hour-long commute from Bethnal Green to Heathrow, with luggage in tow. After a delay for boarding, I got eight hours of easy flying, my first opportunity to see Newfoundland from an airplane window and the thrill of seeing the Toronto skyline from my window. I'm home and all that I plan on doing tonight (after tapping this off) is going upstairs and collapsing in one exhausted heap on the futon. London proper to London Ontario in the span of one day. I think that it's a good way to wrap this up. Now it's on to the fun stuff, what we call living.

2007-04-25T23:50:00.000+02:00

It's official. The Italian chapter in the life of Sarah is over. Tuesday morning I managed to get myself out of bed at a stupid hour in the morning after finally finding a concert in town worth going to. I discovered that Deerhoof were playing in town and decided that ultimately, I had to go. I've been craving a live concert experience since I got here, and while I've seen a few bands, nothing has amounted to what I've missed. Sure, the 60's cover band were good, and the band playing Brazilian music at Gianni's show were great, but I just wanted to be in a room full of people bopping their heads in time with the music, sweating it out all the same. To a certain extent it kills me know that this venue existed the entire time that I was in town and that they only started advertising in the weekly I pick up recently. C'est la vie, non?

After flying to Stansted, I hopped a flight to Copenhagen to come and visit my friend Gerret, who I haven't seen since his going-away party in New Zealand. We used to work together at Waikato Uni and were both a bit on the odd-side working within the computer science department there. It's been great catching up and hanging out. While he's been at work, I've been exploring Copenhagen on foot and taking in what I can manage to digest within a short visit of five or so days. I visited the State Art Museum, went to visit the Lousiana north of town and got to see some great work there. Their permanent collection is very impressive and had a Sigmar Polke painting that stopped me dead in tracks. Julie Mehretu's exhibition that I visited in Spain was being hung beyong the barricade and I couldn't help but feel like I was in a good place. Copenhagen as a city is beautiful and the weather has been incredible. When Gerret isn't working we've been taking the bikes around town and coming across great architecture, ships returning from expeditions to the North Pole, and vibrant little neighbourhoods. Copenhagen is incredibly bicycle-friendly and bikes have the same amount of power on the roads as cars do. I'd come back just to take advantage of that, but also for the people (the Danes are remarkably friendly).

Tomorrow, I'm on a flight to London where I will get to take advantage of the state museums, a thriving art scene, and a city that is a model for so many others in the world. I'll be meeting up with some friends from Toronto who happen to be in town at the same time (Duffield and Jordan), along with my friend Nick who I also haven't seen since leaving New Zealand. Having friends to take a city by storm with will be amazing as will be catching up. I'm on a transatlantic flight again on Wednesday and coming home. All of this travel has been amazing, but coming home will have the same thrill. I'm looking forward to that.

2007-04-22T16:31:00.000+02:00

In the past few days of playing tourist, I've been having a blast. On Friday morning, I hopped on a 7:30 train out to La Spezia to get myself on my way to going on the longest and physically demanding hike that I'd done since doing pieces of the Bruce Trail last summer. La Spezia is the gateway to Cinque Terre, a national park with one of the most beautiful hiking trails that I've been on. It is on par with the parts of the Bruce Trail that were conquered on the Bruce Peninsula and even the Queen Charlotte Track in New Zealand.

After giving two american girls a few pointers on how the system works, I made my way up to Monterosso to start the trip down through the villages. The hike in total should take about 5 hours (if you're in top shape, and don't stop in any of the villages), and from what I was told, the hike between Monterosso and Vernazza was to be the most gruelling, totalling at 2 and a half hours and plenty of fun steep uphill walks around people's vineyards and lemon groves (and even an old man selling his home-made limoncello). When I reached what I thought was the first peak, I could see to the Vernazza and figured that I could gauge my pace by that first hike. I stopped and munched on my picnic lunch on the coast in Vernazza while watching crabs pick away at algae growing on the rocks there and decided to get moving when large groups of school children started sitting along the rocks around me. I was really enjoying the space I was getting on my trail, and being stalled by large groups wasn't on my list of fun things to do. So, I made my way from Vernazza to Corniglia, then Manarola where the trails started to get easier. The last trail going from Manarola to Rio Maggiore (which I had already visited a few weeks ago with my family when they were out to visit) was the easiest. Dubbed "Lover's Lane", it's paved with flat stones, and accessible enough for families with strollers, girls in high heels, and wheelchairs. I celebrated by taking off my sandals and showing off my new birkenstock tan all the way to the next town. I celebrated the hike that ended up taking me six hours (thanks to little stops in each village) by grabbing a bottle of beer and taking it down to the rocks at the edge of the village, dangling my feet off the rocks into the water and taking in the view. It was a beautiful day (I haven't experienced rain or a cloudy day in weeks), and I just wanted to take it in. It was amazing, and will probably end up being on my list of top ten experiences from Italy if I ever end up writing one. I ended up falling asleep on the train coming home, and discovered upon getting in that I'd caught a bit more sun than I'd anticipated, but thankfully nothing too severe. If this is springtime, I have no idea how bright and hot the summers are here.

Today, I decided to keep the exploratory trend, and rented a bike with Lily, one of the girls studying with SACI (an international art school here) to see how far the city actually went on its eastern and western ends. Neither of us were too sure, so after picking up our bright orange bikes from the local cycling outlet, we made our way to find out making a few little stops on the way. I introduced her to the San Ambrogia junk market (a daily flea market and home to some of the coolest vintage furniture that I've ever seen) and navigated our way through the city. We discovered that the west just goes on forever, but found the eastern edge marked by Via Aeronautica, flanked by a bright red modern steel and wire bridge and a sculpture to an Indian Prince who died in Florence over the course of the past century. We maneuvered around the scariest roundabouts that I've ever seen, visited the amusement park, and just enjoyed flying around for five hours. We celebrated by having one last hurrah at Il Vegetariano. After stitching a few photos together from the past few days, I'm thinking that passing out is probably the best idea.

I'm trying to figure out if there's anything out in Florence that I really should visit and am at a bit of a loss. I'm starting to think that hopping on a train to Siena on Monday might be a good idea, but I think that decision will be made after a sturdy packing effort tomorrow. Tuesday morning is going to be an early one, and while being tired isn't necessarily a huge concern for a six-hour layover at Stansted on my way to Copenhagen, packing is always a tedious affair and one that can hours, and sometimes days.

Watch the time slip by.

2007-04-19T17:21:00.000+02:00

After officially being free from any responsibility for a few days now, I'm at a loss to describe or fully understand how beautiful this city really is. While I was wandering all over town today, it hit me that I've only got a few days left here. I've started to do touristy things: yesterday I climbed to the top of the Duomo and thought to myself that it was really neat to be at the highest point in the city, even though looking down along the edges of the ribbing of the structure made me a bit nervous (the very fact that Brunnaleschi let his construction crew sip wine while building the Duomo is still off-putting to me, even if the water was tainted during the plague) . It's always nice to look down at the place that you live in and to be able to point out where you live, where you buy your groceries, your favourite neighbourhoods for wandering, and where you work. I did the same going up the CN tower. I was struck by how flat the city is in comparison to its surroundings. You could lay a massive sheet of glass with a hole in the middle of it to accomodate the Duomo and underneath it you would have this fantastic geometric pattern of terracotta rooves held up by yellow walls, and along the perimeter it would be grazed with lush green hills... and that's what I'm going to throw myself into tomorrow.

I only have four days left in Tuscany, and to celebrate that I'm heading to the coast to revisit Cinque Terre and to do a nice 7-hour hike along the Tyrhenian coastline between the five coastal villages between La Spezia and Genoa. I'm not sure if I'll start at the northernmost end and head south or vice-versa, and think that will depend on the flip of a coin in the morning when I hop on the train. I'm hoping to get a bit of a swim in as the weather has been amazing with temperatures floating in the mid-20's and barely a cloud in the sky. I should really take advantage of things as my peeking at forecasts for Copenhagen next week have temperatures between 0 and 10 degrees and an average of about five hours worth of sunlight. The very thought of thinking about having mittens on standby for when I hop off the plane on Tuesday seems odd to me, but here's hoping for a dash of spring-like weather.

So how else do you take in your last gulp of a place before you leave again for an indefinite period of time? Well, you take things slowly and walk the pace of the locals (Italians walk very slowly), and do what fits your fancy. For me, that's been taking advantage of extra energy and climbing to new heights, hiking far distances, basking in the sun, spending time with friends. I'll be hiring a bike on Saturday and either taking the bike trails along the Arno by storm, or heading up to Fiesole. I feel like I should be on a mad documentation mission while I'm doing all of this, but I think that I'll let most of it be committed to memory.

2007-04-13T00:59:00.000+02:00

This is probably going to be my last late night here at the studio at Via Nazionale, and to a certain degree it's a little bit bittersweet. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be hosting my final critique to my peers and the incredibly engaged panel (I consider myself lucky to be presenting my work to OCAD's new associate dean, a former OCAD president, and the distinguised and gentle Peter Porcal). My artist statement is ready to go, my work is rolled up in the hallway ready to be hung over tomorrow's lunch break, and I figured that while I'm waiting for the file for our final publication to finish sending itself to the publisher, now just might be the perfect opportunity to sit down and tap this out. It's been a few weeks since I updated, and more than anything it's just a reflection of how insane things have been since I went to Venezia.

Since then, the publication that I've been editing and designing as a catalogue of the work that's been made here since September has finally come to a wrap. It's been an amazing mission and I couldn't have done it without the help of everybody involved. I can't wait to get my own copy in print. I also finished my last major piece which is probably my favourite drawing that I've done this year and participated in a sketchbook project with a design group in Copenhagen for another publication about traveling and responding to foreign environments. On top of that, my friend Matt has arrived from New Zealand for some time to get to know Firenze better than he had on his last visit in this neck of the woods to decide if he wants to try living here for a few weeks. After everything is officially finished with OCAD this weekend, I'll finally be able to be a proper host and I'll really get to play tourist in the city.

I leave Italy in eleven days, and before that there are a few things that I want to see and do. I'm planning on spending a few days in the Speccola, which is probably the oldest taxidermy museum in Italy to do some drawing, plenty of wandering in the city streets, plenty of documentation, and a trip to Cinque Terre to do the day-long hike along the Tyrhennian coast and get out of an urban environment for the first time since going to Cape Croker in August. It's going to be strange to lose the studio as a home, but the sanctioned spare time will be welcome.

I'm looking forward to the missions following that: Copenhagen, London, and then back to Canada. Home soil will probably be strange at first, but it will be great to see old familiar faces, munch on ethnic food, get back to the nitty gritty of Canadian culture, finally get to a concert, and get reintegrated. Then I'll be able to share these stories in person, and this book. Last night, at a potluck at Ron (our program director's) house, Peter (our art history teacher) spoke about us as being official residents in this city as that despite the fact that we have the tendency of feeling alien here, it's still our home. Some of us will have a harder time leaving than others. I think my biggest sense of rupture will come when I go into the Latteria and no longer have the ability to say "in solito" (which is "the usual") to Matteo the coffee guy; whereas the greatest sense of homecoming will be when I'm able to walk into a place like Bulldog Coffee of I Deal in Kensington Market and spend hours on a patio in the sun over numerous caffe lattes without feeling ridiculous for ordering a second round.

2007-04-01T10:21:00.000+02:00

I've been commenting on numbers ever since I found out that I was going to be coming to Italy. I remember having conversations walking through Chinatown about how time was passing through my fingers like it was nobody's business. The same realisation has just struck me. Seven months ago, I was shaking my head coming to grips with the fact that this city lost in time was my home. I'm still completely unaware of how old my apartment actually is, but I'm convinced that nothing could knock it down. This week I had the opportunity to test my knowledge about Firenze and Venezia when the Kernohan clan (Joan, Steve, Mike, and Denise) arrived a week ago after bearing witness to the transit strikes that plague Italy on a regular basis after they opted to skip their connecting flight from Milano to Roma and take the train from Milano to Firenze. It took them about twelve hours to get here instead of the intended four or so...

I mostly left the gang up to their own devices in Firenze aside from giving them my version of a million-dollar tour of my version of the city and grabbing dinner. The studio still holds a high level of responsibility and I couldn't really get away for a full five days. I did manage to run away for three days and join them on their whirlwind coast-to-coast tour of Italy on Wednesday when we went from Firenze to Pisa (about one hour on the train), from Pisa to La Spezia (another hour-long trip), and then from La Spezia to Rio Maggiore to run up the hills in the first town of Cinque Terre, grab lunch, and then hop back to La Spezia to get a train to Venezia. Six hours later, there were five very tired kids thankful that the hotel was across the Grand Canal from the train station.

My second trip to Venezia was great and I was struck at how much memory I had of the streets and navigating myself. The gang only had one day to explore the city, so we visited Piazza San Marco, introduced them to Byzantine mosaics, Venetian architecture, and the wonderful game of playing the mouse lost in a maze that you're able to do there. You have to take the city as it comes to you, and you definitely can't rush. I was going to visit Caffe Florian, until I discovered that a capuccino there cost 8,20 euro. We found a place with a nice set-price three-course meal (for 11 euro, you're doing well). I had a full second day to myself to explore the city and do the things that the rest of the family might not be so keen on. I spent some time looking at the work that Albrecht Durer did while he stayed in Venice, paid a visit to Peggy Guggenheim and her dogs, wandered around the old ghetto, and made my way to tourist's no-mans land for a quite lunch on the covered patio of a hole-in-the-wall caffe at a massive piazza. I had a great time catching up with the family, and I'm sure that their tour going from Rome to Palermo will tease them into coming back a second time.

It's back to all things Firenze, and the official "month until I leave Europe" countdown has started. We're kicked out the studio for working purposes next weekend, finish our critiques a week after that. I'll have a week and a half to play around Firenze and make sure that I do the hike between all the villages of Cinque Terre. Soon after, I'll be off to Copenhagen, then London, England, and then home. I'll be flying under the radar for the next short while, but ultimately will be back when this final exploratory journey is done.

2007-03-15T18:48:00.000+01:00

It's been a long day of inking. If I could admit to being involved in the comic book industry I would, but alas, part of the longest part of my artistic process. The downfall is that after long periods of time, no matter how much you want to keep going, you need to stop. Part of the reason is for hand cramps (although I could teach myself to draw with my left hand), and the newest hurdle has been developing paper burn. I never thought that it was possible, but I've learned that drawing for hours and hours and dragging your hand across a rough gessoed surface leads to irritated skin. I think that I'll have invest in a pair of fingerless gloves at the market tomorrow morning to halt this new phenomenon. I'll probably get laughed at since the weather has been picking up to summer-like temperatures and I'm considering breaking out the birkenstocks tomorrow to celebrate. This will take me back to the paintbox, which is a good thing as I have one painting that's been almost finished for the past few weeks and it's driving me nuts.

My final critique is in less than a month's time so the pressure is on, and as a result I've been living in the studio again. Let's just say that the apartment has been pretty vacant lately, and I'm sure that Alice is enjoying the space.

In the meantime, things are really picking up pace. I'm hoping to the natural history museum this weekend to draw some taxidermy, and also make it back to Rome this week to visit an exhibition of Albrecht Durer's work. In a week and a half I will be graced by a visit from Joan, Steve, Denise, and Mike Kernohan. We'll be running around Firenze, doing a whirlwind trip to Pisa, Cinque Terre, and Venezia before they meet up with their guided tour of southern Italy within five days. I don't think that they'll have time to realise that jetlag has even hit them. The week following that, Matt (mentioned in the blog entries about my first visit to Venezia) will be returning to Italy to give Firenze one more look-over. So, in the midst of end-of-year mayhem, I'll get the opportunity to play tourist plenty. I'm glad, as I'm realizing that as the clock seems to be ticking faster by the day, my time here is coming to a close and the next chapter of travels and settling will begin. It's starting to feel more and more like summer every day, which is a good sign and will be celebrated by the donning of sandals tomorrow.

2007-03-03T22:26:00.000+01:00

Just when I start to think that I've had enough of Firenze (I have to admit that I've been hit with bouts of wanderlust again), I have the opportunity to hop on a bus and run away to places with lower tourist concentrations rife with surprises.

Today, we hopped on a bus and visited Parma and Mantova. Parma, which is not only famous for parmesan cheese and parma ham is the home of some of Corregio's frescos, crazy shops full of 18th century etchings, and one of the most beautiful public squares that I've run into in Italy. It was a beautiful day, and spring is definitely here (after reading about the snow storms that took over southern Ontario this week, I felk lucky, to say the least). Trees in orchards are blooming, wildflowers are starting to pop out, and everybody is out enjoying the sun and the warm weather. When I came across the grassy square and realised that there was time to kill, I wished that I had a frisbee or time to take advantage of the local bike-share program to run around for a little while. Thankfully, it's on a train route and I can get back there relatively easily.

Mantova (or Mantua in english) was just as stunning and paved with stones that felt like you were walking along the bottom of the stoniest of rivers. We got to take in some frescoes by Romano which were refreshing for the sheer fact that they were tired of divine proportion and religious allegories and much more interested in the pagan, the perverse, and even the rude. It was like seeing comic book panels on a full-wall scale. After visiting the Uffizi on Wednesday which was full of annunciations, adorations, official portraits, and the like, it was a refreshing change.

So, the moral of the story is when I decide that I've had enough of Tuscany, hop on a train and head up north. You don't have to watch your back as much (or even at all, from what I noticed), and it's much more relaxed compared to Firenze which is filling up rapidly with tourists.

2007-02-25T11:33:00.000+01:00

It's been a week since Rome, and I think that my poor body is still recuperating from running around the city full-blast for three days straight. Peter Porcal (my art history instructor who is easily turning 60) has more stamina than the majority of people in my class. We saw everything that would make it on to an art buff's top-ten list: the pantheon, the vatican, the sistine chapel, Caravaggio's paintings, Michaelangelo's stairs, the Trevi fountain, the colosseum... I'm sure that there's more, but when you take in as much as we did in four days, you're bound to forget. I had a great time, though, and am as baffled about Rome as a city now as I was before I left.

Rome a city built in sedimentary layers. You can witness it in various areas of the city where you'll come across buildings that have entry points a meter or two below street level. The ancient part of the city, which is incredibly surreal to walk through has been dug out of this pit. It's here where you can visit Julius Ceasar's funeral pyre, run past where flames were once protected by virgins, and then visit Trajan's column. You can make your way back up to street level, make your way through swarms of people (take how busy you assume a megacity will be and quadruple it, and that's Rome on a good day) and you can find some of the newest in architectural development. It's mindblowing and beautiful until you decide that you want your personal space. I can't possibly imagine how busy it would feel during high tourist season and am thankful that I won't be finding out anytime soon. Florence is going to explode with tourists within the next few weeks and I'm not really looking forward to that.

Playing host this week, I decided to stay in Rome one extra night and check out what was happening in contemporary art and hope to visit the cat sanctuary. Most galleries were closed (Monday is generally a day of rest for people who work in culture), but Mark and I wandered around and explored a few neighbourhoods, popped into cafes for caffeine doses, and window shopping. We came across the neighbourhood with used record stores, comic book shops, and second-hand clothing at the time that we had to turn back to make it to the train station on time.

The rest of the week has been spent in the studio, hanging out, and going for walks. Friday night, a small group of us celebrated Mark's last night in town and The Postage Stamps cd release party (I got my copy on Friday morning, and felt really rewarded to see one of my photographs in printed in a nice neat package) with wood-stove pizza and drinks at Angie's Pub (conveniently down the street from my flat). Aside from a mandatory trip to Parma and Mantova next weekend, I'm going to be spending the next few weeks working overtime in the studio to finish up the work that I want to build for the rest of the semester. My next visitors (immediate and extended family this time) will be arriving in a month, so I want to feel justified in taking a few days off to show them around and catch up. It's time to put those painting pants on and make a mess.

2007-02-15T10:12:00.000+01:00

Ah... Thursdays. It's the day after the head spins that come from our Wednesdays here where we start our days off by filling our heads up with knowledge of art history and get to visit some of the most important examples of architecture and art from the high renaissance. After that, the whole group of us meet up in the studio and sit through presentations which turn into critiques and discussions about art. Yesterday, I started the day off by visiting the Accademia and visiting Michaelangelo's David and a few hours later was able to use a Kurt Vonnegut reference to my friend's paintings. It isn't very often when moments like that happen, but when they do, they're priceless. Most people leave the studio on Wednesday evenings confused, daunted, and feeling a bit out of sorts about themselves in relation to what they're doing. As a result, it takes a while for people to start filtering in on Thursday mornings. This explains why I have the entire studio to myself at 11 am. The music is up loud, and that's just a start.

This week has been fun. On Monday morning, I hopped on a train to Pisa to pick up my friend Mark who has just moved to Glasgow from Ottawa. Having come from a Canadian deep freeze only a few weeks ago, he's been loving the weather here and is scoffing at the people who are wearing jackets and scarves (myself included). He seems to think that it's summer. We spent the day wandering around Pisa and spent a fair amount of time visiting the massive paintings inside the main cathedral and ended up taking shelter inside a cafe for a few hours when the rain started to pour down. Two cappuccinos and some gelato later, we realised that the rain wasn't about to give up and decided to make the soggy trip back to the train station so that we could make it back to Firenze where it turns out that it was raining harder. Thankfully it only lasted the night and the next morning the sun was out and I took advantage by spending time on the patio. I've been leaving Mark up to his own devices to explore the city during the day this week and next week I'll take advantage of having a friend that I can play tourist with and visit the museums I have yet to set foot in. It's nice to be able to live vicariously through your friends. Timing couldn't be better, and thankfully we have a bit of room in the apartment- Dan and Lauren have run off to Oslo for a few days which has opened up two mattresses. Tack on Jon's girlfriend visiting and we have a hotel running from our top-story apartment.

Today is the last day in the studio for a few days. Tomorrow morning, the entire class is meeting up at a bright and early hour to hop on a train to Rome for our weekend-long art history trip where we'll get to visit the heavy-hitters of Italian art such as the Parthenon, the Vatican, the coliseum, and many other things. To go along with the cliche that Rome wasn't built in a day, I'm following the belief that you can't possibly tackle a city of that enormity in three days, and have made plans to stay an extra night so that I can sniff more out. I figure that if I'm already there, there won't be any harm in sticking around a bit longer. You never know what you'll find. I can't wait to see how Rome is a wild balance of modern life and history where age-old ruins are in close proximity to subway stations, sky scrapers, and all is monumental. Compared with sleepy Ravenna, and tower-power Pisa, the madness of a city of that size will be a shift that I'll look forward to the way that I did when I went from Zlate Morace to Vienna. The population jump will be enough to get the curiosity going, I'm sure.

2007-02-09T18:19:00.000+01:00

I woke up this morning to the sound of sledgehammers against stone and the sensation of a moving wall behind my head. The stone building that my apartment in is not falling apart at the edges (although I am convinced that it's rotting from the inside-out from the moisture inside the stone from the "great flood"). It turns out that a lot of apartments in Firenze are being re-done. I learned that the two downstairs from our place are being reconstructed a few weeks ago, when I woke up one morning to the sound of a pile hitting the door downstairs. We thought that we were getting raided. It turns out that wasn't the case, but the construction starts at 7 am every morning and judging by the pile of rubble that covers the floors of both apartments, they're carving the apartments instead of building them. A few of my studio-mates have the same thing happening below their apartments. It's officially renovation season here in Firenze.

I was a bit foggy when I left my place, but carried on to feel like things were happening in slow-motion all around me. Matteo had the day off today and the woman who was working as his replacement seemed to move slowly, and even articulated slowly. Delivery trucks (that are only allowed in the mostly pedestrianized core before 9am) were collecting their free morning papers from people at the corners from their cab windows like they were running a delivery marathon. The last and the best site of the morning was noticing an older gentleman standing with his back up against the wall of a building with this incredibly happy look on his face like he was entranced by a glowing light, a treasure perhaps. He had his portfolio clenched to his chest and looked like he was aglow. He was staring at the house that Mozart lived in during his stay in Firenze. He's the biggest fan that I've seen here. I kept walking, and turned around a few blocks later to notice him still standing there. I was struck at how much he seemed to enjoy the building (there isn't much to it, either... it's a simple stone structure with chain retail stores operating at the street level and apartments or offices upstairs from that) more than the majority of people stop and look at the duomo. It brings me back to thinking about labeling tourists as gawkers or snappers. This man won the prize for the best gawking I've witnessed since I landed in Europe. I'm impressed at how legacy can have such a strong impact on people.

I've been noticing these things more and more as time keeps passing. I'm in this mode where I'm trying to get to know as much about the details about Firenze as a city as I can. At the same time, I'm trying to be as diligent as I can about keeping up with painting. I've been distracted, but thankfully focus is starting to come back. Progress gets fuelled with energy and then you've got me running around on a natural high that doesn't want to leave. Let's just say that I'm jumping for opportunities to run off for coffee whenever they pop up. The fact that it's visitor season at the studio doesn't help matters much. So far, four from Canada have passed through the studio visiting friends and family over the course of the past three days, and we apparently have ten extra heads joining our excursion to Rome next weekend.

To keep up with this theme, though, I'm thankful that the next week and a half will be full of opportunities to run off for coffee. Tomorrow, I'm going on a full-day field trip to Ravenna to visit some of (what I'm told are) the most beautiful mosaics in Italy. According to my instructor, Peter, it will be so beautiful that "once again your presence is mandatory". On Sunday, Firenze is hosting carnaval. On Monday I'm going to use my friend Mark's visit en route to his move to Glasgow as an excuse to run around Pisa for a day. Later in the week I'll be going to Rome for a long weekend -slash rockstararttour of the city. I'll be playing with my camera a fair bit over this time, and I'm hoping to use the mobility as an excuse to do some field drawing to spice things up a bit.

Things are likely to pick up the foggy-minded pace over the course of the next while. This semester is going a bit differently from last on account of not having any concrete deadlines and just being able to work and I think that's probably throwing the pace off a notch. It's reading week in Toronto from what I understand, which technically means that we're at mid-term, which also means that I'm not longer counting into being here and have starting counting on to the next major steps... really slowly.

2007-01-25T17:58:00.000+01:00

My old flatmate, Steve, used to say "ghetto times call for ghetto measures", and it's an expression that I have unashamedly adopted to this day. I got to use it today, and it's been a bit of a motto of late, but today it became incredibly appropriate given the situation here in the studios, and funnily enough at our apartment as well.

Apparently there was an explosion yesterday down the street and the local authorities cut off the gas in the neighbourhood for safety reasons. Our old heater (which has probably been in here since the 1950s) turned itself off. The group of us here in the studio were wondering why it was a bit chillier than usual in here, but when I came in today it was downright cold. I think that it's also what's caused our hot water heater at the apartment to go bust as well. I made the mistake of boasting earlier in the week about how warm it had been here lately (and I'll admit that the temperature's been hovering at an incredibly bearable 15 degrees celsius since I returned from Vienna). After yesterday's rain, it's cooled off immensely, diving down to a seasonable 6 degrees. If you look into the hills north of the city, you can see snow at the top of the hills. The studio is housed in an old stone building, minus insulation, complete with drafty windows, and puh-lenty of humidity. Firenze is based in a river basin, making the climate quite similar to what I experienced when I was living in the Waikato in New Zealand. This means that this weekend I'll be buried under piles of sweaters and shawls, a few pairs of socks, and a toque. Thankfully, I'm getting out of town tomorrow and I can postpone chilly drawing hands for a day.

This weekend, Bologna is hosting their international art fair and the whole group of us are going to be hopping on a train first thing in the morning to investigate the goings-on. The city is going to be hopping with events for the whole weekend, and apparently it's one of the biggest and best going in Europe. It should be fun to draw comparisons to Toronto's own fair. It definitely won't be a way of getting out of the cold, but it will definitely be a way to pretend that we're rid of our refrigerated conditions here.

2007-01-12T20:24:00.000+01:00

The first week back has turned out to be relatively relaxed. It's been great to be back in the old neighbourhood and to be able to negotiate around a city without a map or too much of a language barrier. It's more refreshing that I anticipated that it would be. It's been nice to get back to the old routine and to catch up with people here.

I've spent a lot of time updating the photo site and if you go to check it out you'll be treated to a large portion of the photos that I took in Spain and in Prague. I got distracted with drawing, and will hopefully get those posted in the next few weeks.

I think that the hardest part about coming back was to remember where I was head-wise when I took off, and to remember what my last steps were in the studio. I was knocked all over the place when it comes to developing ideas while I was on the road, and I spent a large part of this week coming up with ways to apply these. After reminding myself that time and process are all a massive factor in making things work, getting back to work didn't seem like such a daunting task... until I ran into the math side of things, which brought me here.

I have a feeling that the next four months are going to fly and that I'll be experiencing the same feelings when I return to Canada in May where there will be moments of complete relief, excitement for the little things, and a bit of wide-eyed wonder all at once. The first four months of being here were all about adjustment, whereas the next will be about savouring things. I'm pretty sure that won't be hard. With the weather being as gorgeous as it has been (it was sunny and 15 degrees celsius in the shade today), enjoying Florence for what it has to offer won't be too much of a chore. I'll probably be back in my sandals before I know it.

2007-01-08T18:31:00.000+01:00

Well, it's official. I'm back in Florence and back to the grind... sort of.

I got back at 6:30 in the morning and managed to give my roommate a bit of a fright (I was napping and was woken by Dan asking if it was really me sleeping in my bed). I was surprised to see how dirty Florence was in relation to pristine Vienna, but at the same time I was quite happy to be going home. I celebrate this morning by visiting my coffee guy, Matteo and going for a hefty walk. Everybody in the studio seems really refreshed, and we get back to our respective grindstones tomorrow afternoon when we have our first general meeting with our winter advisor.

I've been updating the photo site with photos from Spain. There's a lot to get through, but the photos should be trickling through over the course of the next week or so. Keep your eyes open.

2007-01-06T16:42:00.000+01:00

It´s almost the end of day twenty something and I've decided to sit down for my last few hours here. Today is a national holiday which means that the majority of businesses are closed (which scratches my plan of having a picnic dinner on the train tonight), and answers my question as to why I've been seeing piles of kids wandering around the city dressed as wise men. It´s the feast of the epiphany which lets people here in town crowd museums and spend their afternoons in cafes. I've partaken in both activities already today and I´d say that I was actively participating, but I didn't learn that it was a national holiday until a few hours ago.

After dumping my bag at the train station I made my way into town and had coffee at a tiny little hole in the wall which I seem to remember from the film Before Sunrise (unless my imagination is playing with me), I made my way to the Albertina where I was able to take in more of Franz Gertsch's work - this time monumentally-scaled woodblock prints about 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall on average, Andy Warhol´s portraits of pop stars, more Picasso (which is why I had to wait twenty minutes in line to get my ticket), and the museum´s collection of incredible drawings. I got to take in work by Albrecht Durer, Egon Schiele, and Michaelangelo, to name off a few. It made me want to sit down and draw... thankfully I have an eleven hour train ride tonight to give me the space to do so.

Vienna has been amazing, and I think that it´s officially on my list of cities that I could picture myself potentially living in in the future. I've found my home neighbourhood with a good coffee shop (the coffee here is amazing), nice people, great record stores, and the types of places that I feel at home around. I've learned a lot, seen my heroes, met some cool people, and even went to my first opera (last night I went to a performance of La Nozze di Figaro at the State Opera for 2 euro). I´d say that it was a dignified affair, but I didn't have time to get back to the hostel to get changed into my "nice" clothes, so I was wandering around in jeans surrounded by people in tuxedos.

So for my last trick, I´m going to make my way to find another coffee shop and get myself more fired up on coffee, and hope to find a cheap place to eat before I have to make my pilgrimage tonight. As they say here in Vienna (and I´m being serious here)... ciao!

2007-01-04T17:42:00.000+01:00

I´m back in Vienna and I´m on to day three in my second instalment of the city. It´s a little more low-key this time on account of definitely being up to my own devices at this stage in the game and wanting to take things really slowly.

Zlate Moracze was a great way to start the wind-down. I spent my first day there not doing much of anything. We had both slept in after having a late night at the pub entertaining some of the locals who wanted to practice their English on us and talked about hockey - I completely froze when they asked me who my favourite team was, music (they were listing Celine Dion as a favourite, whereas Dan and I didn´t think that it would be safe to name more than the Guess Who. I ended up sleeping in past closing time at the grocery store (they shut at noon on St. Sylvester day, and I got up at at 12:30). We made instant soup and rice from Dan´s dry storage stash, and hoped that the buffet that we were invited to had veggie options for the night.

New Year´s eve was a blast, and I met a lot of really nice people, practiced my incredibly basic Slovak (please, thank you, I don´t understand...). By the end of the night, we were all happy from the wine, the majority of people were dancing in the hall. It was pretty quiet at the bar that we were at, and I would hazard saying that there were about 40 people there in total. It was definitely a unique experience, and definitely one that I won´t forget.

I came back to Vienna two days ago, and after spending my first night doing laundry and planning out my next few days, I hung out with the Italians and Americans that I had met while cooking dinner at the hostel lounge. I called it an early night, and decided that my full-on solo tackle of Vienna would start early the next morning. I just had to move hostels to stay in my budget first.

I spent yesterday in museums, then wandering around the area that is called inside the gurdel. I saw a photography exhibition about "Americans" at Kunsthalle, the collection at the Leopold where I got to see Schiele, Kokoshka, and Klimpt at their best. I later found my home neighbourhood and traipsed through second-hand shops, record stores, and little art galleries. Today has been pretty similar. The only difference has been the fact that the skies have opened up and it´s raining, and that the art has been different.

I did take the opportunity that came with the rain to duck into a coffee shop and write for the length of three cappuccinos, which has me pretty happy and a bit shaky. I need to learn more German in order to get by when people start asking me questions, but I´ve been thankful that the majority of people that I´ve been meeting on the street are able to speak a bit of English after I process the sounds that have been said to me.

I really like what I´ve seen of Vienna so far and am looking forward to my self-guided architectural tour tomorrow and will hit up the monster of an art history museum when that´s all over. I´ll be searching for Adolf Loos amongst others.

It looks like it´s stopped raining for now, so I best get outside and explore a bit more while things are still open, granted a bit more easily than I have been.

2006-12-31T14:15:00.000+01:00

I'm on to stop number six on this tour, which has me in a town called Zlate Morace in Slovakia with my friend Dan. We met up in Vienna and have spent the past few days exploring the city. He had a few days on me there, having arrived just before Christmas, so we were a bit selective about what we were going to see. Amanda wasn't able to make it to Vienna as all of the trains are booked solid, and if all works out she'll be able to come after New Year's when the rest of the world goes back to work. I've been meeting a lot of people who are on whirlwind trips of Europe and giving themselves two or three days to each city. I've had two days in Vienna so far and feel like I need another week to really get to know it. I'll be giving that to myself in a few days, but this little side mission will be something to remember, and definitely a unique experience. I've just started scratching the service, and have already fallen in love with Austrian coffee, and the art galleries are amazing.

Dan has been teaching English here since August or so and one of his students has invited us to spend St. Sylvester night feasting and being merry with him. I got my introduction to Slovak culture last night after we dropped our packs off at Dan's house and made our way to the pub. A few locals sat down and joined us and asked us about our favourite hockey teams, music (they were naming Celine Dion off as a favourite, to which we replied that we weren't fans), and so on. Thankfully, Dan has a handle on the language and was able to translate most things to me when they reverted from their broken English to Slovak. I'm learning basics, but it's a tough language to wrap your tongue around, that's for sure.

We've had a blast in Vienna so far. My first full day was spent exploring the Haus der Musik (the music museum). I learned that morning that I was sharing a room with two music-loving kids from Toronto (we were convinced that they wanted to confine us to a corner room together), and Ricardo (who we spent Christmas with in Prague) who was also staying at the same hostel. It was probably the coolest, and most interactive museum that I've ever been in. The first floor featured the foetus room, where you could experience what sound felt like on the inside, if you will. The floors and walls vibrated, and the light was really soft, and the room filled up with this crazy drone. We all took our spots on the floor to take in the experience. The museum covered a lot of aspects of sound, and had plenty of toys to play with, and at the end you could make your own CD with the sounds that you'd collected on chips and modified. It was an excuse to be a kid.

We also hit up the architectural museum, and did an architectural tour.

Yesterday, we went to the modern art museum and checked out the Erwin Werm exhibition (if anybody has a sense of humour, they will love this guy), a Franz Gertsch painting retrospective, and a massive exhibition about Fluxus art and conceptual work in Vienna in the 60s. By the end of it, with spinning brains, and after arguing with a computer in multiple languages with an interactive sculpture called The Factory, we decided to hit the road, get our bags, and make our pilgrimage to Zlate Morace. If a computer couldn't understand the humour of "mop mop banensplit", "dei fletermaus", or "fischmac" we decided there was no point in talking with it anymore.

It's nice to be in a home, for a change. I got to sleep in, and even though everything in town is closed today, we've put together some pancake mix and will be sitting down to a late brunch. This stop is going to be the most relaxing part of my trip. I think that I'll stay out on the road for another week and go back to Florence next weekend in time for the semester to start and to get back to my much-missed studio. I've been learning a lot from everything that I've seen so far, and can't wait to apply it.

This is likely to be the last post of 2006. Happy New Year!
mopmopbanensplitdefleitermausfischmac.

2006-12-28T16:23:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Vienna this afternoon wondering if my Dan-radar was broken. After waiting around for an hour, I made my way to my hostel, got an email from him saying that there was a really good reason for him not finding me and basically to stand still because he was on his way. He arrived after having gone to two bus stations then being stopped by police for a quick check (they were looking for somebody matching his description), we found each other here. Since then, we've been wandering around Vienna checking out the architecture, finding public sculpture (on that list is Rachel Whiteread's Holocaust memorial), playing in the snow, and even stumbling across the secession building. This is an art geek's biggest dream-come-true. There's so much to see, but I'm going to hold off the major highlights until Amanda arrives... hopefully tomorrow.

But, I figure that it's worth a shot to sum up Prague in a nutshell.

I arrived in Prague on Christmas eve and had met a few kids on the plane who were going to be spending Christmas there as well. We ended up staying at the same hostel and after a long-drawn mission to find one member of their party, we were a happy family of five: one Canadian, three Americans, and a Chilean. MacKenna, Riley, Ricardo, and Patrick were a great lot to spend the holiday with. We celebrated Christmas eve by running to the Old Town Square to take in the Christmas markets, svarak (mulled red wine), a cheap dinner, and not-so-cheap dessert coffees in front of the astronomical clock. We went back to the hostel to take in some dark Czech beer and conversation and to try to get an early night so that we could see about helping their mission of taking in Prague in one day.

On Christmas day, my plans to take photos of the streets were completely abandoned as soon as I saw that everybody and their dog was out walking the streets. We took part in a walking tour that covered Prague's greatest hits, if you will, and when we were left to our own devices, we explored areas under bridges and went on a photo-taking mission. We finished the day off at the hostel pub socialising with some people who were also passing through and some of the staff. We were at the swankiest hostel that I've ever stayed at (I'd put it at par with the Gladstone hotel in Toronto, minus the artist-designed rooms). The Christmas gang left the next day (after they slept through their 5am flight), and I was up to my own devices to getting to explore the city. I lost a day to personal maintenance (including travel planning and much-needed laundry), and spent yesterday wandering as much of Prague as I could muster.

I hit Praha 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 (each part is a region named in chronological order to the city's development from what I can understand) on a mission to find Alphonse Mucha, contemporary art (I'd found an English-language rag that focused on music, art, and partying the day before hand at the English-language bookshop and used that as a guide), architecture, and holes in the wall to drink coffee at. I found all of those things, took my fair share of photos, watched the fog bringing the frost descend on the city (the fog covered up the sun the same way far-off forest fires do), and discovered the parts of Prague that I could picture myself living in. After all of that, I topped the day off with the first proper dinner that I'd had since Barcelona (I celebrated being away from felafel) and went back to the hostel to research more about Vienna and call it an early night.

After exploring Prague, though, I'm really curious to see how Vienna works out. Dan and I are going to meet up in the morning and head to the architectural museum and the music museum where you can hear what things sound like inside the human body, make your own music and record it, and just goof off. The snow started to come down thick and heavy a few hours ago and there are already a few centimeters of it on the ground, which means that if it gets really wet, I'll probably end up staying indoors... winter's here, and as cool as it is to wander around amongst piles of snow, I don't think that I'm super-keen on wandering around chilled to the bone.

2006-12-28T09:20:00.000+01:00

I've spent the past few days looking for the golem. Instead, I haunted Praha 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. I found some cool art, brilliant cafes, cool scenery, wickedly cold fog, and a space cow (when I get to a computer that I can upload my photos onto I'll post it). I crossed the river yesterday to Prague 7 and hiked up through this park and discovered a statue of a cow wearing an orange jacket and a spaceman helmet. I'm curious to know if this was an intervention.

Either way, I'm on a train in about an hour or so to Vienna where I'll be meeting up with friends, and soon after that heading off to Slovakia for New Year's eve. Apparently there's a feast being prepared for us. After mostly living off felafel since I left Barcelona (being veggie isn't easy in Prague, or Spain), I'll be looking forward to it.

To the train station, batman!

2006-12-26T09:37:00.000+01:00

Well, Madrid has come and gone in a bit of a whirlwind. I've landed in Prague and had a day to get my bearings on the city. This shift from eastern to western Europe is really refreshing, and in all truth, I'm loving it.

Madrid was a beautiful city with a lot to see and plenty more to do, and between mine and Chrissy's lists of places and things that we wanted to see and do, it was hard to tackle all of it. We went to the Prado and I got to lay my eyes on Hieronomous Bosch's work, as well as paintings by Goya, Bruegels, and a few Flemish and Baroque painters whose work has infiltrated my art history studies since I started learning about the lineage of painters who have been deemed to be really important and a cut above everybody else. I was more impressed with the collection at the Reina Sofia, probably because it got me away from looking at depictions of crucifixions, annunciations, adorations, official portraits, and resurrections. There, I was able to wander around the most impressive collection of modern art that I've seen since Duffield and I went to MoMA in New York in February. The highlight was definitely seeing Picasso's Guernica in it's large-scale glory. It's a striking painting, and the collection around it shows how the painting developed from start to finish.

The rest of Madrid consisted of plenty of wandering, a wild goose chase or two about Chrissy's Eu Rail pass, a lot of architecture, and even a mission to go see Fama El Musical. We spent our last day in Toledo wandering around a crazy organic medieval town. It was a steep city, and difficult to navigate without a compass, but we had a lot of fun.

On Sunday morning, I made my way to the airport in Madrid to hop on a plane to Prague. I had gotten used to security being a major priority for Madrilenos, and I'm sure that the film that I've had in my bag is pooched from x-rays at every entry point for museums, and even the train (security won't let anything pass for hand inspection). The lineups at the airport were insane and full of people getting on each other's nerves. It easily took an hour of waiting in line to get my boarding pass, and the lineup to get through security was even hairier. I looked at the boarding time on my card and it said 11:15 and looked at the clock to see 11:30 and got worried. Thankfully, some people were nice enough to let me jump ahead of them and as soon as I got x-rayed again and passed through the metal detector scot-free, I was sprinting to my gate. I wasn't the only one who was worried that they were going to miss my flight, and we ended up taking off later than expected. I met the kids that I've been spending my time with in Prague in line for the plane and even ended up staying at the same hostel and sharing a room.

I spent Christmas eve wandering around Praha 1 (the old town) with MacKenna, Patrick, Riley, and Ricardo (three Americans and a Chilean) drinking hot wine (svarak) and listening to Christmas songs being sung by a local choir. People were out in droves, and it was a really friendly atmosphere. We made our way back to the hostel to try to get a fresh start on Christmas day after making calls home for the holiday.

There is a lot to discover with this city, and I'm thankful that I have the next three days to myself to take it all in (the kids are off to Budapest today). Yesterday, we went on a walking tour through the old and new town and up through the main castle and my idea of haunting the streets with a camera in hopes of capturing a city deserted were foiled by the majority of people here seeming to be out in the same spirit.

I've been wanting to come here for so long that I'm still shaking my head in wonder that I've made it here. I have to make the most out of my daylight hours to see the city in full light. I have a list of places that I want to visit, museums that I want to visit, and walks that I want to take. I might tackle the old city wall today on account of the majority of places being closed for St. Steven's day. Whatever the case, I do need to make a stop at a laundromat to alleviate the clothing shortage.

2006-12-20T10:20:00.000+01:00

I´m going to have to keep this short on account of being at the hostel and there being a bit of a lineup to use the computers. It´s funny to use the computers in places like this because everybody seems to want to contact home, sort out details for their next stops, whether they be planned or spontaneous, and there seems to be a large number of people who are addicted to their instant messaging services. I just want to get things out in pixels before I completely forget and have too much to put into a large entry.

I arrived in Madrid during rush hour yesterday, and was one of those annoying people on the metro with too much stuff trying to make my way from my seat to the door. Walking around with a large backpack impedes on my normally small self who can usually squish my way through most situations. I found my hostel easily and quickly after that found Chrissy waiting for me in the common area (which is this beautiful Spanish courtyard). We got ourselves settled in and went for a wander to catch up over wine and dinner. We were both pretty tired (she won though having taken a long flight here and having left Toronto at some ridiculously early hour in the morning). She´s still sleeping, which is part of the reason why I´m down here in the basement.

My last day in Barcelona was pretty cool and I made it my mission to go to the weekly flea market where I found a courtyard full of old men selling stamps, cards, coins, and other ephemera. I later made my way up to Gracia to find where the hippies hang out and plunked myself down in a cafe to read, write, and load up on caffeine. Not having had much sleep the night before, I needed it to a certain degree. My eleven hour bus ride that night to Leon provided me with the time and space to sleep to recoup a notch. It being dark, I didn´t feel so bad about missing out on the landscape. I was woken up at one stage by a ticket inspector who shook me awake to see my ticket and I saw some crazy cliffs. I wish that I´d known where I was exactly.

I got to Leon early in the morning and nothing had quite opened up. I found the tourist information office and got my map, found my hostel, and decided to tackle my day. The woman running the hostel offered to do my laundry after I asked her where the nearest lavendaria was (I took her up on it in exchange for a bottle of wine), and took out to see the city. Leon is pretty small and I went to the cathdral there. I think that my timing made my visit there count... I hit the cathedral at dusk when the stained glass windows haunted their walls with a strange glow, and nobody was inside. I´d read that this was probably one of the most impressive Gothic churches in Europe, and me being the only person in their compounded the architectural experience for me.

Yesterday morning, I promptly made my way to the train station to dump my bag and run to the contemporary art museum (MUSAC) to see the Julie Mehretu exhibition. It was really impressive, inspiring, and got me thinking a bit about my own process. I wanted to pick up the catalogue, but couldn´t justify carrying a tomb around with me (I´ll get myself a copy when I get home as a late Christmas gift to myself). I´d write more, but time is running out.

The train to Madrid ended up being quite beautiful and I wished that I could ask the conductor to stop so that I could get out and take photos. We made it into the mountains, and I saw my first snow of the season (just a small dusting), and the drunk guy sitting at the other end of the car was exclaiming what I was thinking (he was also yelling hello to the bulls from what I could gather, which made me giggle).

Now, I have a few days to tackle Madrid. There´s a lot to see, and Chrissy and I are hoping to make a daytrip to Toledo as well. I should go and wake her up so that we don´t lose too much time.

I will try to find a place where I can scale down my photos and upload them to the photo site. In the meantime, I´m going to place myself as a gawker when it comes to seeing beautiful things as opposed to being a snapper.

2006-12-17T15:40:00.000+01:00

Well, it's day number five and I've ended up staying in Barcelona for another night. This was something that was somewhat out of my control, partially my fault, but altogether alright. I'm sadly going to be missing out on seeing the Guggenheim collection as I'm due to be in Madrid on Tuesday. At the end of the day it gives me an excuse to come back, which I'm fine with.

I'm back at the hostel using the internet while I can and slowly uploading photos to the net. It's taking a while, so I thought that now would be the perfect time for a catch-up.

I've tackled bits of Barcelona on foot, and considering how far this city spans, I think that I'm doing pretty well. It's hard to keep track of everything that I've seen and done. I've been stumbling across some pretty interesting stuff, mostly neighbourhoods, fun little shops, and events.

Yesterday I started my day off by going to the Santandel Cathedral (another architectural feat by Gaudi that is yet to be finished) and was blown away at how much detail was there. After that, I made it my mission to go to the Barcelona Center of Contemporary Culture. I came across this recycled arts flea market where piles of people were peddling things that they'd re-made into cool toys, clothing, jewellery, books, you name it. I think that it was happening in conjunction with the Contemporary Arts Festival happening here (my timing is impeccable). The area surrounding the BCCC and the MACBA is chock-full with record stores, vintage clothing shops, great little hole-in-the-wall cafes, and personality.

I came back toward the hostel much later after finally picking up a winter jacket (it's going to be cold in Prague), got myself all together, and then made my way to the bus station to get on my way to Bilbao. I'd made arrangements to meet the person that I was to be couch surfing with at 8am and had gotten myself all geared up to go... to learn that the bus that I was going to take wasn't running until tonight. I guess it takes four days for a travel bump to come to me. Thankfully I was able to get a bed at the same hostel for the night, contact my couchsurfing friend to let him know that I wouldn't be coming in the morning, and then to change my plans to catch a bus that leaves tonight to go to Leon. The bus trip is a lot longer (it'll be about 11 hours), but it only cost me an extra 2 euro from the fare that I would have paid to go to Bilboa (and the extra money to take the train between Bilbao and Leon). It's also given me the opportunity to explore more of Barcelona, which is great by me.

I celebrated my misfortunes by spending the night hanging out with two Scots who had money stolen from their bags upon landing in Barcelona, an Argentinian who had to find a new way home when the airline that he booked his trip home with went bust, and an alcoholic kid from Iceland.

This morning I made my way down to the weekly flea market where I came across a public square full of older men selling coins, stamps, cards of all sorts, pins, and bits of ephemera (there were also a lot of pocket watches). I had a good look through everything and would have bought piles of stuff if I didn't have to carry it all with me. After the recommendation by one of the kids who works here at the hostel, I made it up to the neighbourhood called Gracia north of where I'm staying to see (this was his exact quote) "where the hippies hang out". I got there as the siesta began, but I plan on going back when I'm done here (hopefully it doesn't take a full hour).

So tomorrow, I'll be in Leon where I'll get to check out gothic cathedrals, the Julie Mehretu exhibition, and even nicer, have a single room to myself. After sleeping on a bus tonight, it will be a great treat.

2006-12-15T14:57:00.000+01:00

It's full day number two here in Barcelona, and I can now understand why Bill wanted to run back here so badly and why everybody raves about it the way that they do. This city is beautiful, the people that I've met here have been awesome, and there isn't a shortage of anything to do. I'm sitting down and taking a bit of a breather between jaunts (my legs are recuperating after a twelve-hour wander yesterday). Some summing up is in order, so here we go!

My flight got into Gerona about 45 minutes earlier than scheduled, which was great by me. I was lucky enough to chat with my shuttle neighbour who is studying here who was kind enough to show me how to get started on the metro system here and I made my merry way to the hostel to check in and take it easy for the night. My last day in Firenze was a bit of a whirlwind getting last-minute fine details sorted out, having farewell coffee with a friend of mine who is moving back to Ohio on Monday, and making sure that I hadn't over packed. When I weighed my bag in at the airport, I was weighing in at 10kg, and considering that I'm carrying a sleeping bag with me, I think that I'm doing pretty well.

I ended up meeting this group of kids from Virginia here at the hostel the first night and ended up talking over a bottle of wine that we bought off the bar here and staying up until 4:30 in the morning. After two of us tried to dismantle the wall (there are panels hinged on and we were curious to see if there was anything behind there), we decided that it was probably about time to crash out for the night. I spent yesterday haunting Barcelona with Bryan (one of the kids from the night before), who was awesome company and up for a contemporary art mission. We made our way to the Museum of Modern Art to discover that it was closed for renovations, but wandered through the park that hosted the World's Fair waybackwhen. Along the way, we discovered an exhibition of paintings and prints by Stanley Donwood (who is well-known for doing the artwork for Radiohead's albums since OK Computer).

We eventually made our way to the harbour to check out the boats, up Las Ramblas, then over to the contemporary art museum via the central market. There was a massive retrospective of Gego's sculptural work, and their permanent collection was really impressive (there was even a bit of Canadian representation with Jeff Wall's photographs). I came back to the hostel after discovering that the neighbourhood that I'm staying in is crammed with art galleries and made up a feast, then ventured out again to go explore the area surrounding the university.

I only have a few days to tackle Barcelona, so I'm trying to be somewhat selective. It was pouring this morning so I decided to check out Museu Picasso, which was impressive. Thankfully the rain cleared up and I made my way back toward the university in hopes of finding something healthy to munch on for lunch. I spent the rest of the afternoon hiking up to Gaudi's Park Guell and celebrated by taking a break at the top of the hill and taking in the panorama of this massive city.

I've just made it back to the hostel now to decide my next move and think that I might go and check out some more Gaudi (thanks to siesta, most things are open until 8 in the evening).

I can't believe that this is just the start. I think that I'll have to make it back here sometime soon and get to know it a bit more. The majority of the people that I've met here at the hostel are conspiring to move here eventually (one's actually made the jump and found herself an apartment) and I've contemplated the possibility myself (the rose-coloured glasses must be working), but I think that I'll find that with the majority of places that I'll be visiting. The more I haunt the streets here though, Barcelona becomes just that much more appealing.

I have one more day to conquer before I head on a bus up to Bilbao, so I should get cracking.

2006-12-12T16:15:00.000+01:00

It's official: three and a half months have passed, and I'm on the verge of embarking on my European tour. I'm off tomorrow night and on a plane to Spain. I'm going to be going on a three-week mission which will see me embark on a mini-tour of Spain, take on a stint in Prague for Christmas, on a train to Vienna, then into Slovakia for what I've been told is called Sylvester Night, then back to Austria before hitting the rails and making my way back to Firenze near the beginning of January to start up another semester here. It's a lot of ground to cover, but considering that I've been curious about Prague for about a decade, and would time travel to Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century if I ever had the chance, I thought that now would be the perfect time to explore.

I wrapped up everything OCAD-related on Monday when I wrote my final art history exam and handed in my last essay. It was more of a relief to get everything done, and it's been great to spend time with friends and research my trip.

There are a few things that I'd like to tackle in Florence before I take off: one hike up to San Miniato al Monte, a print trade with my friend Kevin who is going to be moving back to Ohio within the week, perhaps a meal at Il Vegetariano (who make the best vegetarian grub in the city), and figuring out if a transit strike tomorrow will impede my budget-minded train ride to Pisa and cause me to feed money to a shuttle bus company.

If anybody has recommendations of places of things to check out in Spain (I'll be touring through Barcelona, Bilbao, Leon, Madrid), the Czech Republic (I'll be spending the majority of my time in Prague, but can easily be enticed to take on a side-trip), or Vienna they would be greatly appreciated.

Before I do any of this, though, I should really pack.

2006-12-06T12:56:00.000+01:00

I'm at the studio which has turned itself into an art gallery almost overnight. Tonight we're having the opening of our term-end exhibition, which is apparently an event that's well known in Firenze. Part of me wonders if we're just being told this and that we're all going to be geared up for a large turnout tonight and will end up standing around in a cluster of about thirty people eating home-made biscotti and getting drunk on cheap wine. I have a feeling that tonight will end up being relatively cathartic when the guests leave. The past few weeks have been stressful on many and even some of the quietest and reserved people here have started snapping. The holiday that officially starts on Monday is going to be well deserved.

This lack of spare time factor is part of the reason that I've neglected updating things here and on the photo site. I inauguarated myself into the big bad world of oil painting and finished my latest large drawing in time for my final critique that was held on Sunday. As usual, I was in the studio the majority of the time, but I'm really happy with how things have turned out. I'm excited to get back in to the studio in the new year and keep plugging away.

There are stories to be told, rest assured. In the midst of all of this madness, I made it out to Pisa for a lazy Sunday afternoon after picking up my friend Halden up at the airport to start off a week and half long visit after his recent travels through Asia. I also made my way out to Assisi and La Verna on an art history mission to see Giotto's frescos and learn about the life of Saint Francis. It was probably the foggiest day that I'd seen in a really long time and it was great to wander around and take photos to take it in. We made it high into the mountains, found liqueur made by monks, and took over a tiny delicatessen at the end of night for dinner.

More stories will come with time, but anticipation is riding high over top of pre-opening jitters, pre-exam stress, and travel anticipation. More than anything though, I'm quite surprised that four months has slipped by this quickly.

2006-11-16T23:37:00.000+01:00

I've just been looking around on the web and went to visit my friend Matt's travel blog. He has some amazing photos of Venice including some from the trips that he took with our group, and even a littlel insight into being guided around the city by our professor, Peter. I'm not the best person for documenting holidays, so I thought that this would be a good add-in.

2006-11-16T15:13:00.000+01:00

It's been business as usual for the most part here at the studios in Florence. The monster drawing that I've been working on for the past month or so is finally done, and work is underway to make sure the next is ready in time for beginning of December and our end-of-term exhibition. There are of course other things up my sleeves that are all there to keep me busy and ultimately distracted. Books are being devoured as quickly as time allows, and my music library has been put into overdrive in finding something new in something that I already know. More than anything I'm really surprised that there are only two weeks left until the end of semester. Time flies, I've been told.

I haven't been partaking in too many adventures of late, if you consider adventuring to be an activity that involves going out and exploring. The majority of my adventures have been soaked with watercolours and ink and involve getting lost in mazes of detail. I'm hoping to figure out a way to properly light the work that I've been building to update the online portfolio. I might book a studio to do it if it can't be improvised here.

Any other adventures have been happening relatively close to home... beit the one that I sleep at or the one where I spend the majority of my time. Last night was one of those instances. We had an exhibition opening at a little lounge of a bar called Mayday where the staff are super-friendly and you're better off buying a bottle of wine than a glass just for value for money. It wasn't a major exhibition, but a group show with a good turnout, some strong work, and a good community surrounding it. The turnout for the event turned out to be pretty good, although the majority of our guests didn't end up turning up until well after the free food and sangria had been consumed. They did make it in time for the majority of us to have relaxed (I don't know about you, but I find most gallery openings pretty nervewracking for the most part), and for the games to begin.

This was marked when Gianni (one of my studio-mates) turned to my friend Dan and said "Let's do something crazy!", to which Dan replied "Let's put shoes on our heads". I walked into the room to discover a table full of incredibly happy people all donning shoes as hats. I tried to participate, but was disappointed to learn that my boots (which lack laces) don't balance. At least I tried. I'm sure that there is now a small contingency of international creatives who are mildly confused about this occurence, but for the majority of us it was the source of a good hour's worth of laughter.

I'm convinced that as the next few weeks barrel forward we will all end up having moments of stupor-induced enligntenment where the most inane of actions will cause the highest moments of laughter. I just hope that I can capture the majority of these.

2006-11-07T19:54:00.000+01:00

Since Bologna, I've mostly been running around the studio like a madcat getting work done and wondering why things take much longer than I'd actually like them to. I just need to remind myself that working on the large scale that I am takes time. I haven't been to the studio since Wednesday evening and am glad to be back. I've been tripping around and taking in more of Italy, which has been great. This is a long entry, so grab a coffee or a cuppa and get comfy. This could take some time.

Last week I spent a lot of time out of the studio hanging out with Rowena and Megan, two girls who are currently living in London (UK) who were sent my way via my six-degrees of separation friend Rory who is also living in London. I had a great time meeting them and took them out to a few of my favourite hangouts in Florence to wrap up their full days of sightseeing and a hallowe'en party. The party was fun and the costumes were great. One girl dressed up as a squirrel and made herself a squirrel mask to boot, Pinocchio was there, as were a few token pirates, a gladiator, Salvador Dali (which could be expected to a certain degree from a pile of art school kids), and the scandinavian air hostess from the 70s (that was me).

Thursday, Megan, Rowena, and I decided to hop on a train and go to Siena (which is about an hour south of Firenze) to take in the sights, and then make our way over to San Gimignano, which is a tiny little village between Siena and Firenze. It was a cold day, and we spent most of our time in Siena taking in the major cathedral there. They had just finished restoring the floors which feature 56 large panels about the history of the city. There was a lot to take in there aside from the floors as there was a room full of illuminated manuscripts (which was exciting because I'd never had the opportunity to look at one at such close range). Siena needs a full day's worth of attention, and I'm thankful that it's close enough to drop by for a day trip if I need a break from Firenze.

After spending the day in Siena, we decided to hit a bus to get to San Gimignano in hopes of getting out there before the sunset. The clocks went back the weekend beforehand and now the sun starts to go down around 4:30 in the afternoon. We ended up missing daylight in the village, but ran around cobblestone streets in hopes of finding a restaurant to find dinner at before catching our last bus back to Firenze at 8. We took in a few of the local artisans shops and ended up eating dinner at a little trottatoria and hiding out in the back where it was a bit warmer and it felt less like a cafeteria. Fall has definitely kicked in, and you could feel it up in the hills where San Gimignano lies. I wished that I had brought an extra layer, and I'm pretty sure that Megan was wishing that she had brought her jacket. It gave me a good idea of what was in store for Venice for the weekend, and I made sure to pack my mittens. I learned a while ago that living in Canada doesn't make you invincible to the cold, even if you are used to winters with temperatures that dip down to -10 degrees celsius.

My trip to Venice this weekend was entirely class-related and I met up with the class at the bright hour of 8am to catch our early train. Many were groggy, many were armed with take-away capuccinos (I was one), and some almost missed the boat, but the three-hour train ride was definitely worth it. When you leave the mainland and head out to the island you're suddenly surrounded by water and on a causeway that heads to the northern "hand" of venice. I realised after we got there that I had forgotten my book of maps and had no idea where we were going and that I was about to embark on a whirlwind tour of Venice headed by Peter Purcell, our art history instructor who spins stories about bastards who are angels, people smoking marlborough lights, characters in paintings flying lufthansa, who describes artists such as Donatello being big strong handsome truck drivers. He knows his stuff, and has been taking classes like ours to Venice for so long that he's able to get into most museums for free and without the necessary reservations that large groups of 30 or so often require.

Once we were off the train, we were running through the maze of streets that make up the city while hearing stories about how expensive venice is. Most things need to be shipped in, and there are no cars on the main part of the city. Shallow boats are used to take things from the main shipping landings to the center of the city and you'll see the majority of venetians carrying stuff on dollies to spare themselves the potential backache of carrying groceries or other goods across the street. It will cost you about twice the amount of a sandwich to sit in a cafe and eat, and many places carry a heavy coporto (cover charge).

We spent the first three days in Venice running from sight to sight for our art history lessons. We went to a pile of churches, including San Marco (the biggest and most beautiful church in the city), one of the oldest scuolas (and the only one that didn't get shut down by Napolean when he invaded Italy), the island that houses the cemetary where Igor Stravinsky, Ezra Pound, and an old Grecian queen are buried, the island where some of the most beautiful lace in the world is made. Our last mission with Peter took us to the Peggy Guggenheim collection where I was able to rest my eyes on something modern as opposed to renaissance grandeur.

One of the biggest surprises of the weekend was running into a friend of mine from New Zealand who happened to be staying at the same hostel as we were on Isola della Giudecca when I was eating my breakfast on Saturday morning. He was travelling by himself and I invited him to come along on our rock star tour of Venice. We had already accumulated a few people (fellow OCADers Brett and Catherine who just got married in Croatia, and Fish who decided to surprise Alice by carefully co-ordinating an appearance with our flatmate Jon), and were paying our own admissions to venues, so I figured there would be no harm. He'd been sharing a room with the guys in our program anyway, and already had an idea of what he was going to be getting himself into. It was great to catch up with somebody who I wasn't anticipating running into again for a really long time. Apparently he left for a holiday to Wellington a few weeks ago and caught a flight to Italy.

Venice is a fun place to get lost in and just wandering around is a good enough way to get a feel for the city. The people there are incredibly friendly, and the atmosphere is fantastic. Gondoliers fight with the local transit authorities on an ongoing basis for right of way. Venice has a transport system that looks as efficient as a world-class subway system on a map, but moves about three times as slowly. Apparently the gondoliers and the transit people have been arguing for some time now about the type of damage that motor-powered boats do to the canal system and the building foundations that line the canals which speeds up the city's detioriation, but when it came down to a town-hall meeting about the issue, the gondoliers all showed up in a motorboat because it was faster. Somebody lost their fight.

Yesterday was the day of freedom, which was marked by my highest point of anticipation over the course of the past month. It was sadly cut short by a bug that decided to get the best of me. The architectural biennale was pretty amazing for what it was worth and looking at people's presentations on how to make sustainability possible in an incredibly diverse range of ways. Canada's "Sweaterlodge" pavillion was a playful look at recycling complete with a massive orange polar fleece jacket made with the by-product of hundreds or thousands of plastic bottles. France won the competition for me and had built a city within their pavillion complete with housing on scaffolding, a full-range kitchen, and other components that were needed to support a group of people. People have been living in the pavillion since the biennale opened, and they are doing their best to set an example of how to build a space from scratch. There was a lot to take in, and I wish that I could have had two days to take all of it in.

I made it back to Florence early yesterday evening to lay low and chase away the bug that got me yesterday. If this weekend showed me anything it was that I need to get out and travel around this country as much as I can before I take off. I'm into month three now, and while there is a lot of work to be done, there is a lot more to see and do as well.

2006-10-26T15:39:00.000+02:00

I think that I'm suffering from post-critique depression where finding the headspace and motivation to sit down and work can be difficult at times, and in most cases it's a stop-and-go process. I've got three drawings on the go, a pile of new things that I want to try out, and a few ideas on the backburner. I just need to pare things down and focus on one thing at once. This is where work-avoidance behaviour comes to the fore. With me, work-avoidance normally gets shown by cleaning sprees, embarks on long walks, and internet meanderings. I'll get to work, but maybe in about an hour or so.

I went on my trip to Bologna with Carolyn, Jennie, and Jon on Saturday and had a blast. We all met at the train station at the bright hour of 8 am (the sun was rising when Jon and I left our apartment) and it looked as though we were going to have a nice sunny day but as we went further north on the train, it got progressively cloudier and sure enough it was raining when we got off the train there. Our gallery and museum mission was canned on account of the majority of the galleries being shut on weekends, but we did get some winter sweater shopping done, and we wandered around the city a lot. We also found the most beautiful home-made gelato that I have yet to try in this city and some incredibly colourful wait staff when we sat down for breakfast that were running around singing "non capisco" (which means "I don't understand" in italian).

Bologna is a beautiful city with a lot more breathing room than Florence. The streets are a lot wider, the buildings seem shorter, and the prevalence of red brick adds a bit of warmth from the stone walls here. It being the wet day that it was, I was really happy to see that most buildings had covered arcades as part of the facade structure. I liked the casual mood of the city and it was really refreshing to see groups of young people out strolling on a weekend afternoon checking out the local market (which is dubbed the "punk market"... I'll have to ask Jennie more about that later). We went to the landmarks: the two leaning towers (Torre degli Asinelli and Torre dei Garisenda), the fountain of Neptune with mermaids shooting water from their nipples, and a memorial to victims of the holocaust. Bologna is a big university town and you can feel it in the air. I've been looking at concert listings there and the musical traffic passing through is really impressive and will have to make myself another mission to head up there for a night to get to know the city a bit more and satisfy my concert withdrawal. Grizzly Bear are going to be playing there next weekend, but I won't be able to go on account of the fact that it happens to be the weekend that I'm in Venice.

Other than Venice, I don't have much up my sleeves at the moment. I went to Prato yesterday afternoon and went to the contemporary art museum there and was impressed by the space, the scale of the feature exhibition, and the resource center where you can find exhibition catalogues from all over the world and a huge selection of periodicals from around the globe about art, architecture, and design. You can lose yourself for a day there, and I'm pretty stoked that it's only a fifteen-minute bus ride from the studio.

We're having an exhibition at a local bar called Mayday that's opening up in a few weeks and I'm working on a small piece on that where I want to incorporate some screenprinting onto one of my drawings. I'm thinking that I'll give myself Saturday afternoon off and go and explore the south side of the Arno. I'm still in a bit of disbelief that we're already a quarter of the way through the year. It's amazing how time flies.

I should get back to working (after I clean up my space a notch). Now just might be the perfect time to get that drawing blog started. Maybe the fact that we have the internet back up and running in the studio is what's brought this massive distraction. So, instead of doing more on the computer, I should just turn it off and get back to the drawing board.

2006-10-19T11:03:00.000+02:00

The twenty-five percent mark has been hit, and with that has come times of laughter, frustration, confusion, enlightenment, and madness. Last weekend saw a lot of the people around me go mad in anticipation of our mid-term evaluations. A fort was built underneath my table in the studio and it's entrance is made with broken and found canvas stretchers, and is adorned with tissue paper camouflage, leaves and branches. It even has it's own gnocci/basketball net. My studio-mate Dan decided that he needed shelter, and it turned out that our apartment was too far away to hide from the stresses of his drawings. I have my own entrance to the fort on my end of the table and it's turned into a good place to have a nap (if needed), and to flop out with big headphones on and read without any distractions. People don't tend to notice others hiding under there. Officially, after six weeks or so, we've all managed to make ourselves at home. I think that the realisation that being here was actually a reality hit me last Wednesday in Anghiari.

Anghiari is this little medieval village perched on top of a mountain about two and a half hours south-east of Firenze. We had gone on a day-long art history mission (starting at 7am) to go around Arezzo and the surrounding region to look at Piero della Francesca's frescos. Arezzo is well-known and proud for being the place where "La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful)" was filmed, and everywhere you go there are little placards explaining how sites in this little town were used in the film. Head another half hour south through the mountains on windy highways and up above the tree line you hit Anghiari. The main road is on a hill that goes on for miles and is at a grade around 20 degrees: great to walk down, but a little effort to walk up. The town itself is contained within old walls, and is a maze of tiny little roads and paths. There's a spotlight for the armament tower, and most shops close in the afternoon to recognise the afternoon siesta. It was sleepy, stunning, and probably the most beautiful place that I've laid eyes on here in Italy. We had three hours to explore, have lunch, and get away from the rest of the group. Travelling in a throng of twenty-seven people can be a bit exhausting sometimes. My friend Carolyn and I found a little hole in a wall of a cafe away from where my entire class decided to invade a pizzeria where the waiter was excited about serving canadians because he had just finished reading a book that was set in Montreal and was planning on travelling there next summer and wanted to brush up on his english.

It was a great roadtrip and it was great to see the Italian countryside fly by on a road as opposed to a railway. Tuscany is stunning to say the least, and to have the opportunity to watch it at sunrise when the fog was still sleeping in the valleys reminded me of driving through areas of the Waikato in fall when the clouds were low and the light was dim and the clouds had this oddly human presence. For some reason, it isn't nearly as satisfying when the clouds are trying to get cozy with skyscrapers.

This weekend, I'm heading on a bit of a mission to Bologna to celebrate the end of mid-term critiques (and to let myself have a day off), and to spend some time with people outside the studio. The contemporary art scene there is pretty healthy and I'm hoping to check out something fresh as opposed to Renaissance-everything. If I'm still feeling up for a vacation, I think that I might rent a bike and make a mission out to Fiesole, which is an 8 km bike ride out of town into the hills to check out the old Entruscan ampitheatre there. We'll see how ambitious I feel.

In other news, massive change has come around to the studios above the old abandoned Apollo theatre on Via Nazionale, where we have been disconnected from the outside world by having our umbilical cords cut to the information highway. It's a bit complicated, but in the meantime my internet time will be limited to the little cafe around the corner from my apartment which hosts free wireless internet and lets me sit over a capuccino or two while I tap away. It will be interesting to see how everybody in the studio copes without the web. It's invaluable for research, and many rely on it to make impulsive travel plans, communicate with loved ones back home, and to kill time. I think that it will be somewhat liberating. We'll see how it goes in a week's time.

2006-10-05T20:29:00.000+02:00

This is what happens where you start to lag on writing in these things: it becomes difficult to remember what's been happening and knowing where to start is always a bit of an issue.

Needless to say, things are going well on this side of the world. The studio has been treating me well, despite the fact that it's been holding me late many nights. To give you an idea, it's 23:40 and I just got here after my first bike ride through the streets of this crazy pedestrian city. Cars generally aren't allowed to come into the centre of the city unless they are taxis, do deliveries (and these are generally small tiki-trucks with three weeks that come up to my shoulder), or have permits to do so. People on mopeds generally ride through the city with one foot close to the ground in case they have to stop really quickly (almost like watching people on seadoos maneuvering around buoys). I'm thankful, however, at how organic the movement of bicycles in the city is. You generally have to ride slowly (no motoring around for me), but people move for you. I did almost have a run-in with pedestrians tonight when I pulled off my street and into Piazza Vechhio when two Americans jumped off the stairs directly in front of me. One apologised in English and the other simultaneously in really bad Italian... I had a bit of a giggle and told them that it was all good (in English) and rode off. Riding a bike in this city is a lot of fun, and I'm going to have to take advantage of borrowing my housemate's bike and the bikeshare that we've got going here in the studio more often. Yay to cobblestones.

Otherwise, things have been pretty low-key. The pace of things here is pretty relaxed: after getting ready in the morning we move downstairs to our little coffee shop (called Latteria) to visit our new adopted coffee guy Matteo who knows our order (cinque cappucini), gifts us with splashes of chocolate powder between the pouring of the espresso and the pouring of foam (all for the cost of 1 euro), and taunts if we show up anytime after noon. After that, there might be a stop at the Marcato Centrale where I've found cheap dry goods (a.k.a. trail mix) and off to the studio to get to work for the day. I'm at the printing studio three days a week (one day making books, and the other screenprinting), which takes up a lot of my time and provides me with 7 west flashbacks every time I wrap up and have to sweep up the jewelry studios (thankfully there is no windex involved). The printmaking thing is a bit of a game for me, but I'm having the most fun drawing. I'm pretty happy about what I've been making here. I have five projects on the go, which is a bit of a record, I think. Most nights, I'll run home and cook up a bit of a meal and then come back and work for a few hours. Sleep. Repeat. I'm reading again. Some might find this a bit monotonous, but it's actually pretty amazing. The amusement comes with the things that come in-between.

Last weekend, for example, an in-between happened. Saturday was Jon's birthday, and he decided that he wanted to have a champagne breakfast to celebrate. He completely outdid himself and made everybody in our apartment french toast with chocolate drizzle, berries, and a fresh fruit salad followed by eggs florentine. We eventually made our way to the studio, managed to get some work done, and then for some reason a pile of people showed up with bottles of wine (the group of us had slowly been working our way through the supply that we'd bought in case jon's idea of a champagne breakfast was akin to long-weekend cottage drinking: slow-paced, but enjoyable) and a bit of a party ended up happening. It was a lot of fun, and we eventually made our way to a little pub around the corner from our apartment for one last pint and a game of stackable scrabble.

In other highlights, I got to go to the opening of the Florence international art fair and got to see an original Christo drawing and some contemporary art (which is really refreshing when you live in a city that's so obsessed with its own history). Also, my trip to Venice at the end of the month has been confirmed, which I'm stoked about. The original purpose of the trip was a weekend-long art history lesson, but I've opted to stay an extra day to explore the city that doesn't have a traditional map. I was excited about the trip, but got all the more excited when I learned that the Venice biennial for architecture is going to be at the time that I'm going to be there, and the theme this year is Cities, Architecture, and Society which is totally up my alley (I've been obsessed with space for a little while now). The countdown will probably begin shortly, and for an opportunity like this, I think that it's completely warranted.

Tomorrow I'm off on a short day trip to Prato to check out the contemporary art museum and I'm hoping to take one of the bikes available to me to go on a country side bike ride. Thankfully this place is pretty small and it's possible to get out. I figure it's about time in get out of the crazy city, and if I don't have a car, a bike might be the best way to do it for an afternoon. How else to avoid tourist traffic, aggressive gypsies selling designer bags and sunglasses. It's either that, or hide out in the studio... and well, we all know that I've been doing plenty of that.

2006-09-29T15:53:00.000+02:00

This Saturday if you happen to wandering around Toronto or looking for something to do, the Canadian Collage Enthusiasts will be hosting a collage party at 401 Richmond (on the southeast corner of Spadina and Richmond). These events are always fun, and bring out a really refreshing group of individuals. Normally, I would attend, but being in Italy will sadly prevent this. I will, however, be there in spirit and will have some work hanging on the walls.

I highly recommend participating if you feel the urge to play. Bring some material to collage with, adhesives of any sort, and a strong sense of play. The event starts at 7pm and runs until sunrise. Even if you aren't the sort to make art, this event will be a good opportunity to see what the creative communities in Toronto are up to.

2006-09-23T11:52:00.000+02:00

What a week. On top of mindset mayhem that is associated with being in the studio on a daily basis, it feels like i've been doing an awful lot of running around. I don't have much to show for it (the running around), but it's been a tad bit hectic, even though I feel more relaxed than ever.

This week I unassumedly jumped into the school thing head-first and am coming out every day trying to find my bearings and waffling between ideas. I have work on the go, ideas that I want to bring to life, and distractions galore. I've decided to leave the distractions of freelance travel alone until the semester's over to see how much I can produce... and then I'm going to Spain. Last week I started my bookmaking class and started using the screenprinting studios over at Fuji, which is pretty neat so far. I started to make my first book today, and have started getting my drawings ready so that I can get my screens up and running to print. It's been about a year since I printed last, and I can't wait to get into it again.

Wednesday was ultimately the highlight day. We started the day off by hiking up to San Miniato, which is probably one of the oldest churches in Florence and on top of a massive hill. We learned about the chuch, its' architecture, the monks that live there, and so on and so forth. After that the pile of us hopped on a train to Pistoia and made our way to our exclusive tour of the Gory collection, which is a contemporary sculpture garden that only takes in 6000 visitors a year. The directions weren't incredibly clear, and we got off the bus at the right spot, but went up the wrong laneway.

Now most laneways wouldn't be an issue, but this one was a steep hike up another hill, which was death for the majority of kids in the class who weren't ready for it. After walking up fourty-five minutes to hit a farm house (and not a multi-million dollar estate), we had to turn around and get to the bottom to walk up a road running parallel to that. We almost missed our tour, but were still able to get in. The hike was amazing, and the view from the top was breathtaking. After having only spent time in the middle of a medieval city for the past three weeks, it was great to get out into open air and take in some green scenery. We snacked on grapes on the hike, and got to munch on figs straight off the tree.

The Gory collection was something in itself. Getting to see some beautiful sight-specific sculpture and look at environmental sculpture is always refreshing for the mindset (especially if you tend to look at mostly two-dimensional work) and forces you to think about space in a completely different way. We wandered back down the "hill" and made our way back to Pistoia. Alice, Fish, Jon, Lauren, and I decided to stick around for dinner (since the majority of us didn't get time to grab lunch on the way). We stumbled onto piles of people dumping themselves off busses with bottles of liquor in hand. They were singing, laughing, shouting and we had no idea what we had just managed to walk into. We turned around the corner and discovered that the gypsies had traded in their gucci sunglasses for Pearl Jam t-shirts and scalped concert tickets. I should have asked how much tickets would have cost, but food was much more important. We found a tiny restaurant just off the beaten path that wasn't packed, and sat down to incredible wine, beautiful food. We made it back to Florence in time for cheap gelato down the road from our house and then ultimately crashed out.

On a completely different note from bogans in streets and hiking up hills, I'm negotiating this lack of building plan issue that I've run into here. If anybody is interested in donating some plans that I can use in my drawings, please contact me via email, or place a comment with your email address and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

I'm going to run outside and celebrate this bit of fall weather that we've been gifted today by walking home in my sandals along rainy cobblestone lanes. My feet are going to be super-dirty by the time I get home.

2006-09-17T20:06:00.000+02:00

I'm losing track of time already, and if I count correctly this has been my second weekend in Florence. The tourist traffic has started to die down here a bit, and I didn't notice until my walk to the studio on Friday morning when the hordes of tourists had already descended upon Piazza Vecchio and I had to navigate through cameras, large groups of people who were being led by umbrellas and ladies trying to sell me scarfs.

This weekend I went on a day trip to a small town called Lucca (which is en-route to Pisa from here). The gang (Alice, Dan, Jon, Fish, Lauren, and I) hopped on a 9am train to Lucca to meet up with the rest of the kids from our class (who caught a bus at 8). Every third Saturday of the month, the streets in old Lucca (within the city walls) fill up with a junk market where you can find just about anything. There was some fantastic old furniture ranging from traditional and ornamental to simple, sleek, and modern; some vintage clothing (I struck gold), old war toys (Jon picked up an old straight-edged razor), and random junk. Our bootie included old postcards, loafer covers, a campstove lighter shaped like a goose in flight with a built-in compass, and some old wooden boxes.

This was the first weekend that we really had rain, and I've been enjoying it to a certain degree. The thing with rain in an old city like this is that it bounces off cobblestone and manages to get you when it bounces off the stone... so if you've been walking with an umbrella your shoulders stay dry, but your pants (even if they're rolled) get soaked. One thing that I noticed today, though, was that during a heavy downpour in Florence, people all stand up next to buildings and don't really walk. People who were hawking off "designer" sunglasses and prints congregate and (maybe) talk about their business for the day or how many cops they got to flee. Others stand and watch the people who choose to walk - there weren't many, but I was one of them- go by. I guess that tourist traffic doesn't stop for the weather.

I also noticed that the poor weather doesn't keep all people in... today the gypsies seemed to be out in more numbers than I had noticed before... and they were wearing neon.

2006-09-14T18:40:00.000+02:00

I remember this conversation that I had with my friend Nigel back in New Zealand shortly after I moved back to Canada. I had mistakenly called him at an ungodly hour in the morning there, and he kindly continued to talk with me, which in retrospect was really sweet. Before moving home to Toronto, I had found myself in a situation where I had a few jobs: I was tutoring at the local university, waitressing, doing volunteer work at the local artist-run space, organising exhibitions and showing work in exhibitions, and doing sign work for my friend Stace's cafe. Somewhere in between I was still managing to have a riot of a time hanging out with friends, doing little roadtrips, and just living. It was great.

I feel a bit the same way about how things were when I left Toronto this time around. After leaving my job, I decided to add on more ultimate relaxation time before I embarked on my planned vacation to Cape Croker. Now this sounds incredibly idyllic to many, I would think, but at the same time surrounding all of this there was still work to be done, and I managed to cram all of it into the last week of August after I got back... before the parties, and all of the farewells. I know that there was plenty that was probably forgotten, but I'm sure that I'll get to encounter those when I return.

I thought that getting settled here in Florence would be much the same thing. Sarah Nind corrected me when I naively claimed that I was going to go on an eight month long holiday when I had to tell my Italian instructor what was new my last week of class that this experience was going to be far from it. It turns out that she was in fact, quite correct.

The moral of the story is that I feel that I need to be constantly stimulated... to have something to do. It can be something as simple as reading a book, but now I've decided that learning how to make them would be even better.

This week was a warm-up in the studio... I sketched a bit, read a lot, made a few collages... and now it's about to turn into a full-time job. I want to get three large drawings done in the span of a month. I also just got back from having a wander around Fuji Studios where myself and two other kids in my program have arranged for free screenprinting time as well as book-making instruction for three hours of studio clean-up a week. I can't wait to get playing, and i think that it will be a great way to translate some of my ideas into an easily reproducible form. I'll get to explore my crafty side.

I also get to explore this weekend, which is really exciting. A pile of us are going en-mass to a small town called Lucca on Saturday where we get to go and hunt the old junk markets, potentially rent bikes and ride along the top of the town wall, and get to go and explore a small Italian town. I can't wait. I guess that'll be my way to lie low before attacking... or maybe it's just a means of procrastinating.

2006-09-13T15:45:00.000+02:00

So, Florence 101.

As I mentioned in my last entry, my apartment is pretty awesome. I am sharing it with four of my friends (Alice, Dan, Jon, and Lauren) who are all part of the same directed studies program at OCAD. It's turned into a really relaxed environment where we can eat together, drink together, walk to our studio together, and chill out together. There isn't a lot of space, but we make do with our three bedrooms, two bathrooms, teeny common space, and kitchen. Also, if we travel in a small clan, our combined lack of Italian language skills combine to this group of mumbling canadians struggling for the right word and somehow ending up speaking French and using hand gestures. I'm sure that it's comedic to anybody who watches us, and I hope that our new coffee guy at the shop directly below us endearing when we stumble in en-mass before we head off to the studio to work for the day. He's memorised our collective order, so I figure that's a good sign.

Last weekend we decided to get a handle on the city and make it our own. Our first mission had us meet up with some of the girls who are also part of the Florence program, and going to see the Festival of Lanterns. We started over toward Santa Croce (one of the many historic churches in our neighbourhood), and walked north to the old orphanage where the real festivities were happening. The piazza was full of people of all ages, gorgeous lanterns, and piles of people selling cotton candy, glowing flying discs, and all sorts. We stopped to watch the parade before heading on our mission to find some gelato (which has turned into a daily ritual here). I love the way that the public squares are always crawling with people and the way that you can run into groups of people watching the world go by on the stairs of the Duomo and at Piazza Vecchio on any night of the week, and that if you wander around you can run into a girl playing a banjo and singing her heart out on one corner then walk five minutes further and discover a drumming circle where people are dancing to the music.

The next night, or perhaps one or two later (last week was a complete blur), my flatmates and I had organised a small feast, and decided to grab our wine and head out to the street to watch the wildlife (crowds of tourists) go by. Unfortunately our apartment doesn't have a terrace, but we adopted the stoop across the way from our apartment as one.

We've been discovering the local markets, art supply shops, and recycling piles. There isn't a central garbage pick-up system in the traditional way that there is in North America where your garbage is picked up from your doorstep on a given day of the week. Instead, you get to walk your garbage to a set of dumpsters (normally around the corner). If you're really lucky, your set of dumspters will also be paired with a recycling bin (ours is a little bit further). Anyway, yesterday, Dan, Jon, and I came across a hefty stack of magazines from around 1975 which ended up being a great source of material for collaging yesterday afternoon. I'm hoping to find more garbage to play around with, but unfortunately this central collection system makes it a bit difficult, and I don't think that I'm quite ready to do some dumpster diving.

To know that this is just the beginning is great. There are places to explore (this weekend we're going to Lucca), objects to discover, and a studio to fully break in. We just set ourselves up into our final formation (we had a new addition to our space this afternoon), and I can't wait to start taking over the walls.

2006-09-11T19:16:00.000+02:00

Well, a massive change has managed to come my yet again, and I've found myself in Italy this time (Florence, to be exact). I left Toronto two Sundays ago (with the potential of missing my flight) after a few tearful goodbyes, a rush dinner with the family, and the usual underlying stress that comes with taking off for nearly a year. The didipackeverythingthati'llneed worries accompanied by thestressofflying and wowthisisreallyhappening throw everything into perspective and make things all the more exciting.

My last week in Toronto was mind-boggingly busy and filled with paperwork and what seemed like random running around. This was a bit of a shock to the system after spending a week camping in the Bruce peninsula where responsibility was only what you made for yourself and i was actually able to stop and enjoy some amazing company, beautiful scenery, and take things in. upon returning to the city, I kept feeling like time was running through my hands,. I managed to get everything done to be able to sit back and enjoy my last few days in Toronto. Things wrapped up well with a small series of parties where on one night a small group of us took over the white orchid and listened to dj's Demian and Ryan McLaren, and the other where f!ghtf!ghtf!ght, the diamond sea, and the postage stamps played for a pile of special guests. I owe Demian and Keith millions of thanks for helping to organize everything, and was stoked to see everybody out that did. I had an amazing time, and i hope that everybody who came out did as well.

I flew into London on Monday morning after an overnight flight and a three-hour nap. I woke up to whale rider, and had to leapfrog over the incredibly large man sitting next to me anytime i wanted to stretch my legs or use the toilet. Arriving in the U.K. was less stressful than i expected, and getting to my host Rory's house was even easier. For me, London seemed to be a pile of lineups... but it was still pretty efficient. I explored east London and brick street after meeting Rory and grabbing lunch taking in the arty kids, the arty stores, and the pop-up fashion clearance sales. I grabbed a much-needed nap and later went out with Rory for a few pints at a pub called the big chill. I had to leave for the airport at 3am, and ended up staying up to ensure that i caught my flight on time. I was flying out from Stansted, where it seemed that the majority of travelers sleep, and had a hard time not following suit.

I then flew from Stansted to Bergamo, just north of Milan. The flight was relatively short, but absolutely stunning. The airport authorities in the UK are still pretty stringent about rules pertaining to carry-on luggage so i only brought my Italian tour book, i pod and passport on board and cringed when i realized that I'd made a massive mistake leaving my camera and sketchbook underneath when we started flying over small towns lining the rivers in France and the alps. I've sketched out some memory aids that will hopefully come in handy for my drawings.

The rest was just a whirlwind: a bus to Milan, followed by a train from Milan to Florence. I was surprised at the temperatures (30 degrees and not a cloud in the sky). I made my way from the train station in Florence to my hostel in the center of town. I spent the night on a mission to find food, minding my own business, and taking in the sights before i went back to the hostel to meet my dorm mate – a kid from Mexico city named Giovanni whose here to learn Italian for the year.

Finally, i got set up with my new home on Wednesday morning. I met up with my friend Alice at the rental agency's office, and then made our way to the apartment. I was incredibly thankful that I'd packed light as i couldn't imagine walking through the streets of Florence dragging suitcases. Two backpacks was much more negotiable.

Anyway, my apartment is gorgeous. I'm in the middle of tourist-land, and right around the corner from Palazzo Vecchio which is full of copies of massive renaissance sculptures (including a copy of Michaelangelo's David). Our place is pretty awesome, and surrounded by great little shops (a little espresso bar with €1 gaffe lattes, and the cheapest gelato in town to our knowledge). The bonus of being central is that we're a ten minute walk from our studio, the central market, and anything else that could come in handy for us.

This is just a taste, but more will come shortly.