Ciao Firenze

I can't believe how time has flown (no pun intended for those of you who might know what my thesis is about: flight, time and space).
The eight months I have been here have gone by so quickly. I can't believe I am leaving in two days. Critiques are over.. my thesis is published and handed in, final exam is tomorrow, spring is finally here...
It has not hit me yet.. It's all happened so quickly I keep denying that my time here is coming to an end.
It's been an amazing experience. For the Florence students coming here next year (I know youall get your acceptance letters soon) enjoy it. It is going to be the most influential, life changing experience you've been given the opportinuty to be part of.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog and keeping up with all the things I've gotten to see and do. It truly has been an amazing experience. I'm off to Berlin for their Biennale, Holland, Denmark and Sweden before I head home.
Then It's back to Canada for the scholarship and Graduation exhibitions.
...and That's It Folks. Thanks for tuning in, but it's time to say goodbye. Keep in touch.
Over and out -- Shannon

Pic: Class of 2006, OCAD, Florence, Italy.

Critiques and End of Year Show

Ah yes. Critique week was this week gone.
It went very well. The Dean came from Toronto to be part of the panel. He had some great input for everyone.
No one cried, no one was voted off the island.. we all had amazing bodies of work to show for our year here.
The 4/5 critiques were of course a little tougher, but everyhone handled themselves well, and had good thesis/ research defenses to present.
That night some of us stayed at the studio until 12-1am hanging the show for the opening the next day.

Opening night was a big success. Lots of people attended the opening, we shot some video for the website (www.ocad.ca/florenceprogram) and had a band play. We closed around 10:30-11 and went to our professors house for dinner.

Pics: Prof. Michele White and our Dean of Art Blake Fitzpatrick; Shannon, Marco, Katie and Greame; and dinner by Michele (that's our Dean serving us wine in that pic).

Ireland

Ok so after slaving over my computer for the last week writing my thesis, I decided to make a "visitation" to Dublin. (By the way, if you're ever writing a thesis or any academic piece of work upwards of forty-fifty pages, don't trust your MAC to save it.. and instead of having a nervous breakdown when you realise it's not the paint fumes or cold medication you're on that caused you to just not save the thing properly,..walk out of your 14th century apartment and take a stroll down to Ponte Vecchio, and then visit the friendly waiters at Gilis for some gelato --oh right, then schedule a flight out of the country for a weekend to recover).

So the trip ! It was amazing. Ireland is so beautiful. I stayed by a friend who did a great job showing me around Dublin. We went down the Grafton strip and Templebar. There was also the Ireland Art Fair on this weekend for me to go and see (not so impressive after seeing the one in London), and of course I made a trip to the National Gallery there as well. I was impressed with their permanent collection (Caravaggio, el Greco, Rembrandt, Vermeer..) but did not get to spend enough time there (sounds like another trip...).

Anyhow I am now back in Florence for critiques. Things are okay here. I am sick AGAIN, but all is well. I am still trying to figure out when I am coming home. (You'll know as soon as I do. Promise.)

Pics: Ireland Art Fair, National Gallery, & Grafton street.

Those Who Go, Those Who Stay

Hi all. I know my posts have been shorter, and less frequent recently. I have been working hard as it is the end of the school year now, and this week is critique week. My thesis defense is on Thursday. I don't know where the eight months went.

The end of year exhibition opening at the studio, "Those Who Go, Those Who Stay", is on Friday and will be webcast. Those of you in Trinidad, Toronto and various other parts of the world that cannot be here with us, go to www.ocad.ca on Friday 7th (1pm Toronto time, 12pm Trini time) to see the show here Live in Florence.

Also there is an online catalogue of the exhibition already up: www.ocad.ca/florenceprogram
On that site there are pictures of the work in the show and short statements or punctums from each artist on their work.

Studio work

Sometimes people ask me what I do in the studio. I'm not sure how to answer that other than to say that I paint..? In fact, mostly it's a big lime of artists that bounce ideas off of one another.. and Sometimes we paint. ..Sometimes.

Anyhow the semester is coming to a close, the end of year show is coming up, and believe it or not, we have all produced amazing, cohesive bodies of work.
Here's one for my thesis.

Opening Night

My opening night at Colle Bereto.
pics: the OCA gang at the star table, and Carmine, April and I outside.

Dolce Zucchero

Friday --Aprils night at Dolce Zucchero.

MayDay

Caitlyns show "Absolent" last Thursday at MayDay

Jens B'day

We were invited by Jen and Kelsie for aperitivo for Jens Birthday before Kaits opening at Mayday. Celebration was re-commenced at 11. We all went out for a late dinner. Everyone was smashed. It was hilarious.

Film Festival !

Yesterday the Florence off-campus program hosted its first Film Festival. Shannon B, Eva and I organized the night. It was a great success. There was lots of food, and lots of laughs. Eva did a great job of editing everyones videos together. The drunken moments caught on tape made for some good entertainment, together with some music and fitting captions. These will no doubt screen well back at the Toronto campus (heads up guys, that's where they're getting screened next -- orders came from the den mother herself). Collectively the videos were nostalgic, and will be something we look back on in years to come with teary eyes and say ...."remember when Xenia tried to do a push up?"

Shameless Self Promotion

ALSO,
I am having solo exhibition
"Travel: Transience in Space and Time"
at Cole Beretto in Piazza Strozzi, Florence.
Florence friends, the opening night is on Saturday 25th with Apeirtivo at 7:30pm.
the exhibition runs from the 24th - 31st of March, 2006.

For those who are abroad, I will post pictures next week. ;)

Toronto Juried Exhibition Prize winner !

I had a conversation with my father about a week ago that went something like this "I hope I don't win anything.. I won't be in Toronto to collect the prizes they have, and I'm not living there anymore... and what am I going to do with a big fancy bike in Canada?" (first prize is a bike and some money-- it's environment week people!)
A few days ago I got two e-mails from one of the organizers of the exhibition. One titled "A big thank you to the artists" .. the other "Congratulations!"
haha
I love my life. Too funny !

Things are going well here in Florence. It's been a bit stressful (a BIT), as my thesis and body of work are due next week, and there are more exhibitions coming up to start preparing for.. but the weather is getting better, and I'm still enjoying myself amongst the myriad of papers and deadlines, and with the uncertainty regular Florentine life. Things are great. I'm already looking for excuses to stay.

[A]lternative [R] [T]ransportation Exhibition

Toronto friends! You're invited to a big opening party for the exhibition [A]lternative [R] [T]ransportation as part of Enviro-week in Canada.
The show includes artists of all disciplines and works that include traditional painting, mixed media, video, sculpture and installation and photography.
There is a juried art exhibition at 8:30 (go and check out my work!), Junkyard races at 10:30, and of course great food and wine at Sylvesters on the U of T ccampus!

Opening: 10th March @ 7:30 pm

If you cannot make the party, the art will be on exhibit March 7th-March 17th at Sylvesters for your enjoyment.

Festa della Donna

It's Womens Month !

Festa della Donna (festival of the woman) was yesterday in Italy. March the 8th marks the anniversary of the day hundreds of Italian women died in a fire in a factory in New York in 1911. It is a day of remembering the tragedy of the past and equally celebrates the women of today.
It was nice to be greeted with smiles and given handfuls of yellow Mimosa flowers yesterday from people on the streets, and in the markets.
In true art school style (and with a feminist prof from the 60's) we celebrated the day with a big dinner at the studio; and as with all affairs here, this was a night to remember... lots of food, artfully decorated cake and cookies of biological parts, wine, and a video screening.

Ladies, don't forget to celebrate International Womens Day on the 10th of this month !

Parma and Mantova

I don't know how we manage getting everyone at the Lazzi (bus) station for these early morning art history excursions. That, and how Peter (even if he's sick) manages to have more energy than all of us put together (he keeps talking about these papaya supplements everyone takes here..).
As always, it was a great day.
Parma (birthplace of Parma ham and Parmesan cheese)is a wealthy medieval city with beautiful architecture and surrounding countryside. We spent our time there visiting sites with frescoes by Correggio.
We then visited Mantova in Lombardy where we walked through the post Raphaellian mannerist Plazzo del Te (creation of Guilio Romano, 1535). There we went through the many rooms of the 'pleasure palace' of Frederick II. He dedicated one room to his beloved horses, having portraits of his favourites on all four walls. Another room was dedicated to his lovers and features shocking erotic frescoes including giants animals and nymphs on the north wall.
After leaving the palace, we went to another exhibition then walked through the town into the old city and stopped to have tea in one of the big piazzas before heading home.
Pics: Piazza in Mantova, and Eva and one of the many signs found in all Italian cities with their very thorough illustrations-- mind the medieval castle in the background.

Arrivederci Torino !

I had such a great time on Saturday that I decided to skip Venice carnival and returned to Turin on Sunday for the closing ceremony !
I went to the Olympic stadium early and partied with a bunch of Swedish fans, as they had just won the hockey gold medal.
I met up with the Aussies again and saw them play later in the piazza.
Again I was amazed that with the 50 000 people there to see the ceremony, there were no lines (I tell you --organization was seamless). It took me two minutes to get into the stands and find my seat that was filled with a ton of free stuff! I was in the field and we were given these white dresses to wear that they projected different colours on, we were given a catalogue, cushion, medal, masks, all sorts of things. I met an American girl that sat next to me and the two of us had a ball ! We had a huge party going on in the field during the ceremony and we had different things to do because we were part of the show.
it was a moving experience being there. I can't say I can describe it without getting a little watery-eyed. The show itself was spectacular, the carnival floats and the fireworks.. Andrea Boccelli, Laura Pausini (Italys darling), Ricky Martin, and Avril all sang, the olympians said goodbye to Turin, and the flame was burned out. It was just incredible.
I had a great day!

Turin !

Well, I made it back to Turin last weekend. It was amazing! I was still recovering from the late night painting at Dolce Zucchero, but byt he time I arrived in the Olympic village I had forgotten about being tired. There was so much going on around the city, and in the arenas and piazzas; and of course everything after the event ticket is free. I got to the stadium early where there was a big party going on before the hocket game. The live music was great and had everybody dancing. There were bands from all over. The Australian band was good and the guys were really nice.
The hockey was exciting. The fans are so wild ! haha. (compared to those at curling last week).
Pics: me and a Czech fan, the Aussie band, me with the Olympic mascots, snowball: Neve and ice cube Gliz, and the Russia vs. the Czech republic game.

Live Art Show

Dolce Zucchero (which translates roughly to "sweet sugar") was a great place for the exhibition. There was a live band and lots of people buzzing around us.
There were eight artists that all worked on one canvas as a big collaborative piece. We had a great time dancing and talking to viewers and working together.

Live Art Show

Live Art Show tonight, Friday 24th, at Dolce Zucchero.
10pm - 3am
(let the freak show begin! I've always felt like a bit of a goldfish having people watching me work, though unlike my art store demo job I won't be behind a glass window. Come and enjoy the free wine and cheese!).

For those in Toronto, "We Are Traffic" exhibition opening night, March 7th at 100 McCaul, 4 - 7pm.

The Winter Games

I had a Ball!
A few of us decided that we deserved a bit of a break after mid-terms, and so we planned a trip to Turin... and by 'we' I mean David.
We got onto a train at midnight via Pisa; I could have flown home in the amount of time I spent on this train, but we all curled up like a litter of pups in a small sleeper, and when we woke up an eternity later, we were in Turin.
I was impressed with how organized everything was (you know me well enough to know I would say that). Everything was seamless. There were no lines, and people everywhere to help you and tell you how to get to where you needed to go in fifty different languages.
We got to Pinerolo Palaghiaccio just after mid-day, and watched curling. Now, I have lived in Canada for the last five years and I have never been able to get into curling, but it was so exciting being there! It's a bit like cricket that way.
The USA vs. UK, and Italy vs. Germany games were particularly interesting to watch.
After curling, we hopped on a train and a couple of busses up to Sauze d'Oulx to see the freestyle skiing, stopping off at Prangelato for lunch where we saw a few athletes warming up. It was so beautiful in the mountains; it reminded me of Switzerland. There was a thick blanket of snow over everything. It had been snowing all day.
We reached the top of the mountain around seven to find out that the skiing had been cancelled. Admittedly, the snowfall was still heavy and visibility was low,.. okay we were in a full on blizzard. Also, the buses that had brought us up were now stuck in all the ice and snow, so our group: team OCAD, and the rest of the crowd there to see the event were stranded outside. It was actually quite funny, particularly because the snow just wouldn't let up.
After hanging around and having fun and being rowdy with a few American and Canadian tourists, I found some warmth in a ticket outlet nearby (frostbite a few Birthdays ago and fear of getting it again has haunted me for life).
An hour or so later, we decided join the crowds and make the treck down the mountain. By that time the snow had stopped and it ended up being a really pretty walk/slide down. We slept the rest of the night in a train station with at least sixty others to catch our 6am train back to Florence.
All in all it was quite an adventure.
I'm going back next weekend for sure !

Define Me

Critiques have rolled around again.
This Valentines day we gathered around my paintings and let things progress into a critique of my life.
It went well. I've gotten used to the "are you an artist or a pilot?" question.
I just can't be compartmentalized I'm afraid.

Studio Pics

La Verna

Our bus broke down while in Assisi, and so during the windy ride through the mountains to La Verna all I was wishing was for the bus to get us to the monastery -- because we were in the middle of nowhere.
La Verna is an isolated mountain situated in the Tuscan Alpines overlooking the valley Casentino. La Verna vas given to St. Francis in 1213 where a monastery was built for him and for his followers. Its name (Alverna in Latin) comes from the Italian verb 'vernare': to freeze (and that was no lie). St. Francis recieved stigmata here during meditation.
We had dinner at the monastery and headed home later that night.
Shown: picture form the bus, and a group of us step outside to check out where St. Francis slept.

Assisi

After visiting Porziuncola we drove up the mountain to Assisi. There we visited the church of Santa Chiara, who was St. Francis' former lover and the founder of the female Francescan order. We walked downstairs into her crypt where she rests under a few layers of wax (this is where painting in encaustic started) and also saw a few relics of St. Francis.
We then hiked to the other side of the little town to the Bascilica of St. Francis where he is buried.
Assisi was gorgeous, and it was just such a nice day. The town was surrounded by olive trees and farms; we could see for miles from the courtyards infront the churches and steep cobblestone paths up the mountain. The architecture and colours were so different from other places we have visited. The stone and marble they used to build their houses were white (in Venice stone was stained with red pigment, in Sienna stone is more yellow, and here in Florence buildings are a warm ochre colour).

Porziuncola

Friday was one of those days where at no point did it feel like it wasn't part of the background of a French romantic painting (in Italy of course).
We woke up early to meet our bus at 7. For two hours we drove through the purple mist and frosted Tuscan countryside and watched the sun rise.
Porziuncola is a little town in Umbria. We visited the Bascilica Santa Maria degli Angeli Assisi built on the site where the Franciscans first settled. This church could be considered the Kennedy Airport of Umbria (according to our prof) --it was huge. Built in the late 1500's around tiny a medieval chapel, it also contains sites specific to St. Francis, such as the rose garden where he asked for the indulgence of forgiveness, and the infirmary where he died.

Exhibition In Toronto

There is a juried exhibition in Toronto held by the City Council for Bike Week. Stay tuned for info on venu and dates.

The Transfiguration of Death -- The Medici Chapel

Today we visited the Medici chapel, just behind San Lorenzo church. It was freezing as we went into the marble crypt for our lecture, but it was beautiful and worth staying for as long as we did.
Michelangelo's reclining figures "Dawn and Twilight" are placed on top of the sarcophagus of Lorenzo dei Medici. Allegory was very much part of the Renaissance intellectual enterprise;these figures are no exception and are symbolic of life and death.
Opposite "Dawn and Twilight" are "Day and Night" on the sarcophagus of Giuliano dei Medici. These figures represent the human soul.
shown: "Day and Night"

Galleria dell'Accademia

Good ol' David. 500 years old and with 1.2 million visitors a year, he's still standing, pensive waiting for Golliath. The cleaning he had last year has left him a bit pale (with the removal of a bit too much of his original bees wax applied to buff the marble in 1504), and despite the corrosion through the microscopic holes in the marble, he's not looking too bad.
He has weak ankles now, and has a computer attached to him to measure movement in the horizontal and vertical threshold of his base.
David was one of 12 statues commissioned by the Operai to be placed in the buttress of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Michelangelo received this commission in 1501. He was given a piece of marble that had already been worked on by two other artists (Agostino di Duccio and Antonio Rossellino), and was under contract to finish the work they had started. He was 26 years old at the time.
In January of 1504 a committee of Florentine artists (including Leonardo daVinci and Sandro Botticelli) decided that Michelangelos sculpture was so impressive that it should be displayed in the public square instead; and so in September 1504, with 40 men, and taking 5 days, David was placed infront of Plazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria, replacing Donatellos Judith and Holofernes bronze cast.
In 1527 his arm was broken in three places during an uprising against the Medici family. It was Vasario, at 15, that saved the pieces of marble that are now re-attached (he would later become Michelangelos biographer).
1843 -he recieved his forst major cleaning (causing damage).
1873 -he was moved to the Accademia for protection from the elements.
1991 -a vandal attacked the statue with a hammer damaging the toes on his left foot.

David was created based on the artistic discipline of Disegno, which is built on the "knowledge of the male human form, mimicing divine creation."

Height- 17' / 5.17m
Carrara marble

Bologna Arte Fiera welcomes the return of figurative painting

I went to Bologna yesterday to see the big Art Fair there. There was a great mix of European galleries and their best artists. I'm happy about the strong return to painting, and figurative work seemed to be the direction for a lot of contemporaries. Now, figurative work, and the artistic nude does not offend me in the least, and I love contemporary work that comments on the human condition, but there was a disturbing tilt toward the fetishization of young girls and sexual brutality this year. In some cases it was clear that the work was a simulacra of societies perversions (which is fine by me), but in most work it wasn't so clear and so the pieces simply became another medium through which to perpetuate these ideologies. Artists need to be more conscious of work they produce and take responsibility for their images.
Apart from the above trend, the fair was wonderful. The direction art is going now is exciting.

Shown: my favourite piece by Guitamacci, and a painting by figurative artist Manuele Cerutti.

Berlin

Berlin is a big city, and the buildings are monumental. The architecture there is very 'modern' (as opposed to post-modern); buildings are boxy and brightly coloured. It is a very cosmopolitan city, and I can see why so many artists are moving there.

I visited the Gemaldegalerie that had a wonderful collection of Renaissance and Baroque paintings including some impressive works by Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Fra. Angelico, Holbein, Van Dyck, Rubens, Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Caravaggio, Baglioni, de la Tour, Boticelli...
Next door, at the MoMA, there was a Joerg Immendorf show that transformed the gallery space into a little red village filled with Immendorffs large paintings and sculptures. Downstairs there was a Picasso exhibition of his favourite works. I don't really like Picasso, but I love that he had a pet goat named Esmerelda.

At the Martin-Gropius-Bau there was a moving Bernhard Heisig exhibition. He was a he was a state artist of the GDR. His paintings are large scale impastoed images of war. By looking at his paintings it would seem that he was working with a historical narrative, but he acutally painted many of his pieces before events they depicted happened (such as the fall of the Berlin wall).

The Berlinische Gallery also had a great show on while I was there featuring artists such as Hannah Hoch, Otto Dix, Naum Gabo, Rebecca Horn, and Kurschner.

I also visited the Museum of Travel and Technology there and the Bauhaus Archive.

Of course I saw the rest of Berlin.. Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin wall, Brandenberg gate, Potsdamer and Alexanderplatz. The history is moving and there is still very much a divide between the east and west. It is a city that everyone should see at least once. It was different to anywhere I have ever been in ways that words fail me in describing the experience.

Shown: works by Hannah Hoch, Bernhard Heisig, Caravaggio, the Berlin wall, and one of the five remaining watch towers in the city.