I Love School!

Today was very cold in Florence. As I was walking to and from my classes today, bundled up in my black coat that I wear everyday, I was looking around wondering how I was so blessed to be given a semester to live in Florence. Although my fingers were numb from carrying my sketchpad, I could not have imagined a place that I would rather be at that moment than exactly where I was. I think I could live here. Being in Florence has fulfilled so many of my dreams as well as revive other ambitions that I have laid aside over the past few years.

One of my favorite things to do here is go running. It is one of my favorite things to do almost anywhere but running in Florence has been one of the little joys in my life. It is such a neat way to see the city. My roommate Meg and I found that Florence has a half marathon in April, and so we decided to try to train for it. I always say I am going to train for one and then never actually do, so we will see if I actually follow through. It is funny running in a city though. First of all I do not think many Italians work out, so when I come out in my Nike shorts and Newbalace shoes I get so many looks. Meg and I have found some really cool running trails along the river and up the side of this mountain but to get to those places I have to run through the city area. I am positive I look so stupid. Meg and I laugh because many times we have to pass tour groups. It is so awkward because they take up the whole sidewalk. They are all foreign people, taking pictures and we run strait through their group. It is such a weird experience for me because I am so use to just running the Bear Trail at Baylor or trails at Cameron Park.

I have turned part vegetarian in my time here in Italy. First of all their food is so good, but it is mostly breads and pastas. If I eat at out, I will not order anything with meat because their vegetables are so fresh and low priced and their bread and cheese is absolutely divine. I love Balsamic Vinegar! I saturate my bread in it, um… so good! Another reason, I have had trouble eating meat is because I had a bad meat experience. During my first week here I thought it would be fun to eat a Panini from a street vendor. The only people eating at this stand were men. I should have taken that as my first warning sign. I just ordered what everyone else was getting. It was this orange meat. It was so gross but I did not want to waste money so I ate it. It was so gross, please let me repeat it was not good. Recently I found out that I had eaten the inside of a cow stomach. I was eating a cow’s stomach lining! O this is funny too. The other day for my shoe design class we went to observe this woman who makes her own shoes and she had made this designer high heel shoe. It was obviously not made out of leather because it had an interesting orange color and an unusual texture. Then she said it was made out of the same thing I had eaten! I wanted to throw up looking at the shoe.

I love my classes. I am taking an Advanced Painting class, a Beginning Italian course, a Art History course, an Advanced Printmaking, and a Shoe Design course. At first I felt extremely intimidated in my advance studio courses because on the first day of class there was a placement test and then I had to present my portfolio. First of all, I have never needed a portfolio and never taken photos of my work, so when all my classmates whipped out their flash drives with their portfolios I felt completely out of place. For my painting class there was a drawing, painting, and art history test. I have not drawn a picture or painted in six months and my knowledge of art history is very limited, so it is easy to imagine how intimidated I felt. Then in my printmaking course I had to do a dry etch test, except for I had no idea what a dry etch was. So I had to talk with my teachers and they had to speak with the dean of the art department, but I am still in the classes. I am really enjoying them now. I have learned so much already. I love my homework because it is usually to write a paper about art, to paint a picture, to sketch ideas, to prepare printing plates, or design shoes. I love school.

I love it so much I want to quickly describe each of my classes. First of all, I would like to talk about my shoe design course. It is incredible. In one of my art education classes at Baylor, I was suppose to come up with an unit of lesson plans that I could teach in a high school level classroom. I choose to do a unit on wearable art. I ended up becoming so interested in shoes that I tried to make my own shoes. If you where my friend during this point in my life, you would know how hard I tried to make shoes. I went to talk to cobblers, researched online, cut up basketballs, and dug tires out of the rivers all in effort to make shoes. I was completely unsuccessful. Being in this class has opened a door to opportunities. In the class we do not actually make shoes but I have learned so much about the components of the shoes and about their designs. My mind is going crazy with the ideas of shoes I want to design. This week my class went to observe this lady who makes homemade shoes. Creating shoes is such a complicated and intricate art. The United States has completely lost this art. The shoes in the United States are manufactured and the funniest part is that they are manufactured to look handmade. This lady would make a pair of shoes that would last a person a lifetime if the owners took proper care of them. She sizes each shoes to fit her costumer. I asked her if I could come back while she was working to watch and learn from her. I took her business card and I need to work up the courage to call her and stop by her shop. Next week my class is visiting a leather factory and leather market, which should be interesting. A few blocks away from our school is a shoe museum and our homework this week is to go to the museum and sketch some shoe designs. I am really enjoying learning about shoes and I love the hands on learning experience. Why is school not normally like this?



This is a picture of a last that we put masking tape around to create a pattern for a shoe. The last is what a shoe is made around to give it the correct shape.

Then I want to tell you about my Printmaking course. First of all, the Baylor art department would only approve an advanced printmaking course to count for my major. So when I show up for this class with no previous knowledge about printmaking I looked so foolish being in advanced. Baylor’s art department constantly frustrates me with their inflexibility but my teacher here has been kind enough to change the advance course curriculum so I can still get credit. Pretty much I just have to do twice the amount of assignments as the peers in my class. But I have really enjoyed have extra assignments and I enjoy being on my own schedule. I also enjoy being different than everyone else in my class. The printmaking studio where the class is taught is across the River from where I live. I love everything across the river because it has more locals and less tourist attractions. The studio is made out of an old barn. The barn use to be owned by a rich family but was turned into a printing studio right soon after the war here. It is still very obvious that it is a barn, with the wooden stalls with the horses’ names still on them. We share the studio with another school. The students that attend the other school go there everyday for a year to learn the skills and talents of printmaking. I love walking by their area because their work is so neat. They also seem so cool smoking in the courtyards with their artsy Italian style. This studio was opened by the first printmaker in Italy. I love just being there because everything is old and dirty. After class my hands are black with ink for a couple of days. O and one of my favorite parts about this place is the door. It has this huge door with a smaller hobbit door in it. We usually use the hobbit door, which makes me feel like I am in Lord of the Rings. Really great.

Here are a few pictures from the printing studio:








In my Painting class, we are working on paintings with a circle theme. An upscale restaurant, that is associated with the school, wants us to paint circle themed pictures to be hung in their gallery. The art director for the restaurant chooses pieces from all the art classes to display. I am trying to come up with a good idea for a circle themed painting but I am struggling to come up with one good enough. It would be such a neat opportunity to have my art displayed in a restaurant in Italy, but I do not know if my work will be good enough to be chosen. I guess I will just have to wait see.

My Italian class is even enjoyable. My teacher is crazy. He dresses like an Italian with funky shoes and glasses. He always plays music in the classroom and runs around the room. He makes learning a language a fun experience where it is okay to pronounce things wrong and it is okay to mess up. I am not very good and I have been practicing Rosetta Stone on Lizard’s computer. I was also given the name of this Italian woman who wants to practice her English and we are going to start meeting on Monday’s to work on speaking to each other. I hope it works out.

Then I am also in an Art History class. This week we toured Santa Croce, which is the beautiful church next to our apartment. During the tour I realized that Michelangelo and Galileo are buried there. Who would have known that I lived next to their graves? Art History is so much more interesting when you are in the midst of it.

I love living here!