Student Art

At the end of our program, we had a gala to celebrate our work and to thank everyone at the villa for being so hospitable and wonderful. These are a few of the pieces that were made by student from Rocky Mountain College. The first pictures shows some of Ellen Moak's works, drawn in various mediums on paper, as well as the works of Dana Lomas (from UGF), done in watercolor on paper. The second image is  a shot of Shane McClurg's linoleum print, done in water based inks. The third shot is a charcoal inure drawing that I did, and the fourth photo shows some of Meg Thees' linoleum prints, down in inks and watercolors. I think that we all did great work, and surprised ourselves with our accomplishments.

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

Buildings, Blossoms.

Perugia: gorgeous, intricate, sprawling, new growth, old growth, evolving, bustling. These are just a few words I would use to describe Perugia. It is the perfect mix of a large city and a small town. There are both local shops that have been family run for centuries, and there are large department stores and designer boutiques framing the city piazza. 

This is a stone blossom from the museum in Florence that houses the statues and pieces from the Duomo.  I like the contrast between the soft, delicate nature of a flower and the cold, hard, medium which is used. These flowers are very common in Roman architecture, and are amazingly preserved in many areas around the city.

"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into."  ~Henry Beecher

"Faces" of Italy

There are so many wonderful people that we have meet and seen along our journey. I am regretful that I have not captured as many faces as I could have; however, I have gotten some shots that I really love, and these are a few. The second shot is from a Roman house that we visited. Some of the original paint in the house survived, and this face was one of the best preserved images. It is over 2,000 years old. AWESOME! I only wish that my camera had better focus :( The last image, obviously, is a cat. Now, before coming to Italy I was definitely a dog person. However, Italy has cats everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean there is a cat sanctuary in the middle of Roman Ruins, also in the middle of the city. They seem to be a great deal more agreeable than American felines. This big guy was so fluffy and cute, he purred and rolled over the whole time I was playing with him. Italy, you'll make me a cat lady yet.

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seems to be plenty of kittens." -Abraham Lincoln

These next few photos wrap up my "faces" photography of my time abroad. We met many interesting characters, and some of the most wonderful people on Earth.

Happiness

These photos are just a few of my personal favorites. They may not necessarily be considered good photographs, but they are a few that I just really enjoy looking at, and make me really happy. The first one is from our break on the island of Sardinia, and the second one is at our villa.

"Joy is not in things. It is in us." -Richard Wagner

This, That, These, Those.

These are just a few more photos from The Villa and Assisi. For some reason I just love trying to capture nature; I think because it is beauty in its most simplistic, purest form. It is only altered when humans touch it, it does not try to please anyone or seek an audience; it simply is.

The Universal Language of Love

My dream job involves working with children, especially those who have been abused or suffered during their earliest years. Throughout our travels, we have seen many children, from many different cultures, yet many things have remained universal, and therefore are very heart-warming. It fills my heart with happiness to see children from all around the world living happily, especially interacting with their parents. Parents who travel with their children at a young age are exposing their children to priceless amounts of culture and knowledge, giving them valuable experiences and ideas that will stay with them forever.

Florence Comes to Life

These three shots were taken in one of the main piazzas of Florence. These piazzas are busy during the day, but at night, they truly come alive with the sounds of local musicians and street performers, the tinkle of wine glasses, and the twinkling of lights. The merry-go-round seemed to attract both locals as well as tourists. We worked in our sketchbooks for an hour or so in the piazza, and made many different friends, including a group from the states, servers at a restaurant, and some Moroccan visitors. The merry-go-round provided a sense of nostalgia as well as home for me, and was well worth capturing from several different angles.

Rainy Rome

The Colosseum generally speaks for itself. Just like St. Peter's Basilica, I felt that the only way to come close to showing the size and grandeur of this structure was to utilize the panoramic setting on my camera. While we there, it began to rain. Sitting inside an ancient arch, aging down on the area where thousands were brutally killed, heroes were made, battleships waged war, and history was written, while thunder crashed and the sky turned into a jumble of blues and grays, was an experience that cannot truly be described, but only shared by those who were privileged to experience it.

This photo was taken the same day, on the walk back to our hotel. 

Blissful Ben

Photographing people for Rocky's Promotion photos has been one of my biggest challenges. BEcause I am new to photography, and do not have the best camera, I prefer to take pictures of stationary objects and scenes, because I can take my time to tinker with the setting, exposure, ISO settings, etc. until I have everything properly adjusted. I also feel that the best shots of people are candid, and learning the right moments to snap a shot is difficult. I am enjoying the challenge, however, and will be posting more photos of people on this trip soon. This shot is of Ben Sherman playing his guitar, a Jack Johnson song I believe, at the Villa Pieve.

Medusa's Misery

These photos are of a sculpture by Bernini. The intricacy of the stature is typical of his perfection, and his ability to portray emotion is excellently displayed in the agony on Medusa's face. The snakes on her head weave through each other, which means that Bernini had to plan every curve and individual cut of the culture before hand. The story of Medusa is an extremely tragic one, and this tragedy as well as her beauty, despite her affliction is represented as well. jealous of Medusas beauty, Aphrodite cursed Medusa by giving her snakes for hair, and causing a gaze from her eyes to kill. She lives the rest of her life in bitter seclusion, and ends up being killed by the demi-god Perseus.

"Pscyho analysts make more out of it, but I think she was a beautiful woman who was cursed by an asshole and so people thought she was a monster so she became one in a fictional story. History won't leave her alone."

Hunting Wabbits and Sunsets

You may have noticed that I am slightly obsessed with taking photos during dusk. There is such a magic in the way that the setting sun transforms every plant, building and piece of scenery in its path, while lighting up the sky in stripes and brushes that cannot be recreated accurately by the best artist. Most if not all of my Personal Choice Photographs will probably be from sunsets around Italy and Sardinia.

Sunset Fires

This was also taken at the Villa Pieve during sunset. The sun caught the plant in such a way that it almost looked as if it was on fire, and the colors were unbelievably vibrant. This photo was taken on the sunset setting of my camera.

/At sunset/ Nature is painting for us... day after day... pictures of infinite beauty. 

-John Ruskiin

Votive Figurines

These are shelves in the Florence Archaeological Museum filled with Votive figures from Etruscan and early Roman times. Votive figures are used during prayer to the Gods, and represent people-family, friends, etc.- that need prayer. These figures are shown in the movie "Gladiator" when the main character is separated from his family. This photo required very little editing. 

Here is the link to this museum. There are also several real mummies in it, completey unrelated to this blog, but still awesome!

http://www.firenzemusei.it/00_english/archeologico/index.html

Sunset Window

This was taken at the Villa Pieve, during sunset. My camera was on the "sunset" setting. This building is where we have our Italian classes and have been making our prints.

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."

-Rabindranath Tagore

St. Peter's Basilica

         St. Peter's Basilica is located inside the Vatican Country, in Rome. It was by far my favorite part of the entire Vatican experience. I feel that to try and capture it's beauty in a photograph is impossible, but we certainly tried anyways. I like this panoramic shot because it captures a larger span of area than a regular shot would, so the viewer is able to have a little better grasp of what the inside of the basilica looks like, as well as the vastness and sheer size of it. This shot was, as all my shots are, taken with my Fujifilm FinePix S1800 digital camera, an SLR camera with 12 megapixels. It was taken with the panoramic setting in the middle of the day.

If you are interested in learning about ST Peter's Basilica, here is the link to the official website of the Vatican:

http://www.vaticanstate.va/EN/Monuments/Saint_Peters_Basilica/

Introduction

I signed up for this photography class without the understanding that it was a higher level, mostly independent study class. I bought a cheap camera the day before we left for Italy, deciding that this trip was the time to finally get into photography, something I have been wanting to do for a long time. With the help of Mark Moak and two of the students on this trip who are already accomplished photographers, Maggie Weber and Ben Sherman, my little camera and I have been able to start capturing some of the beauty that seems to surround us at all times here in Italy. I named my blog after an Italian saying. One day my friend Marina, who is an intern at our villa, looked at my eyes and exclaimed, "You have sunflowers in your eyes!" Apparently here in Italy, when you have hazel/green/yellowish eyes like I do, they say that you have sunflowers in them.
         Because I am brand new to photography, many of my shots are the product of me simply wandering around and shooting whatever I think is interesting or unique, and out of all the shots, one decent one will come out. I am so glad that I have finally been able to get into photography, and I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to learn a new hobby.

"Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph." – Matt Hardy