Taken on my first night in Paris
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Paris: People and Places
Perfect Paris Picnic
Yesterday I signed up for the Velib bike share program here in Paris.
After a bumpy start (literally, the first bike I took out had a flat tire and I made a wrong turn onto the very unbike-friendly Champs-Elysees and had to bump my way tout-suite over to another bike station to switch) it was exhilarating, and I am now a new woman.
I rode down to Invalides for a picnic with Ryan. We hung out on the open lawn for a bit then headed to Les Jardins Luxembourg ensemble.
There we were greeted by a carpet of beautiful healthy happy people picnicing, sitting, kissing, reading, laughing, and living.
Ryan and I plopped ourselves down on the beautiful people carpet and just hung out for a couple hours reading and people watching. When we got up the sun was setting but there were still people everywhere. It was a "C'est la Vie!" day. Not in the apathetic negative connotation, but rather the positive affirmative. This is the life.
Today I am going out again for a picnic at Trocadero (Eiffle Tower) with a dish inspired by my recent trip to Sicily. Fennel, blood orange, heirloom tomatoes, olive oil, and lemon salad. One of my favorite recipes from La Cucina de Mimi!
yum!
After a bumpy start (literally, the first bike I took out had a flat tire and I made a wrong turn onto the very unbike-friendly Champs-Elysees and had to bump my way tout-suite over to another bike station to switch) it was exhilarating, and I am now a new woman.
I rode down to Invalides for a picnic with Ryan. We hung out on the open lawn for a bit then headed to Les Jardins Luxembourg ensemble.
There we were greeted by a carpet of beautiful healthy happy people picnicing, sitting, kissing, reading, laughing, and living.
Ryan and I plopped ourselves down on the beautiful people carpet and just hung out for a couple hours reading and people watching. When we got up the sun was setting but there were still people everywhere. It was a "C'est la Vie!" day. Not in the apathetic negative connotation, but rather the positive affirmative. This is the life.
Today I am going out again for a picnic at Trocadero (Eiffle Tower) with a dish inspired by my recent trip to Sicily. Fennel, blood orange, heirloom tomatoes, olive oil, and lemon salad. One of my favorite recipes from La Cucina de Mimi!
yum!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
I am Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge
Remember when I predicted a few things that I was certain would happen to me while I was in Paris? Well, here's a little secret... I was using this great and relatively unknown writing tool called "sarcasm" and didn't actually really truly literally think any of that was going to happen.... Oh.. you got the joke? .. oh, okay so I didn't have to explain it again..k cool. Just making sure..
Well I have big surprising news! Most of those things have actually really truly happened! Specifically the one about waking up every morning like the opening scene of Moulin Rouge in a baby turret apartment.
I have been living on the 6th floor of an old building on Ave de Friedland but my original apartment faced the interior of the building. My lovely neighbor decided she was over Paris and needed to move back to Rome so I have moved one door down from my apartment into hers and here is the grand tour!
Other things on the list that have happened:
I have had the Amelie soundtrack emanate through the city- I play it sometimes when I run... and I wake up to it in the morning.. and I hum it in my sleep..
I did find a Louis Vuitton suitcase at a vintage market.. but it was closer to a million euro than 40
I did have a brief and imaginary love affair with a really beautiful parisian man who lived above me.. and by love affair I mean.. my land lord told me to use the parisian upstairs' shower when mine was broken and after we chatted in French over a glass of wine and watched a Wes Anderson movie dubbed in French and then said good night and never heard from him again.. until I bumped into him on the stairwell and he introduced me to his girlfriend. On Valentine's day. C'est la Vie!
This wasn't on the original list, but it's something that I've always wanted to happen.. to find a really cool peice of original and authentic street art for relatively cheap and by an interesting artist.. Today I was walking past a metro stop and a poster taped to the stop caught my eye. I back tracked and saw that it was infact an original ink and water color signed by the artist "liox" (www.lioxart.com) so I looked over my left shoulder, looked over my right shoulder saw that no one was really looking and snagged the piece off the pole and kidnapped it back to my apartment. Turns out that is exactly what the artist wants you to do.. take his art for free.
Unfortunately I have not maintained a perfect figure on the diet of bread, cheese, and wine.. but F it. I will continue to eat bread and cheese and all that good stuff.. I can torture myself with a diet when i get back to Nyc.
Other things to mention:
I traveled to Berlin last weekend and had an AMAZING time. I will write a separate post about that.
My dad and step-mom just arrived today from NYC and I had a lovely day walking around with them.
Friday is my 21st birthday and we are going to Versailles with a few of my friends for a picnic and tour of the gardens and palace. :)
yay that's all you get for now!
Well I have big surprising news! Most of those things have actually really truly happened! Specifically the one about waking up every morning like the opening scene of Moulin Rouge in a baby turret apartment.
I have been living on the 6th floor of an old building on Ave de Friedland but my original apartment faced the interior of the building. My lovely neighbor decided she was over Paris and needed to move back to Rome so I have moved one door down from my apartment into hers and here is the grand tour!
Other things on the list that have happened:
I have had the Amelie soundtrack emanate through the city- I play it sometimes when I run... and I wake up to it in the morning.. and I hum it in my sleep..
I did find a Louis Vuitton suitcase at a vintage market.. but it was closer to a million euro than 40
I did have a brief and imaginary love affair with a really beautiful parisian man who lived above me.. and by love affair I mean.. my land lord told me to use the parisian upstairs' shower when mine was broken and after we chatted in French over a glass of wine and watched a Wes Anderson movie dubbed in French and then said good night and never heard from him again.. until I bumped into him on the stairwell and he introduced me to his girlfriend. On Valentine's day. C'est la Vie!
This wasn't on the original list, but it's something that I've always wanted to happen.. to find a really cool peice of original and authentic street art for relatively cheap and by an interesting artist.. Today I was walking past a metro stop and a poster taped to the stop caught my eye. I back tracked and saw that it was infact an original ink and water color signed by the artist "liox" (www.lioxart.com) so I looked over my left shoulder, looked over my right shoulder saw that no one was really looking and snagged the piece off the pole and kidnapped it back to my apartment. Turns out that is exactly what the artist wants you to do.. take his art for free.
Unfortunately I have not maintained a perfect figure on the diet of bread, cheese, and wine.. but F it. I will continue to eat bread and cheese and all that good stuff.. I can torture myself with a diet when i get back to Nyc.
Other things to mention:
I traveled to Berlin last weekend and had an AMAZING time. I will write a separate post about that.
My dad and step-mom just arrived today from NYC and I had a lovely day walking around with them.
Friday is my 21st birthday and we are going to Versailles with a few of my friends for a picnic and tour of the gardens and palace. :)
yay that's all you get for now!
Poles of Civilization
I wrote this essay for my "Twice Told Tales" class in response to our reading of Robinson Crusoe and it's modern day retelling by Michel Tournier Friday. ( Which I HIGHLY recommend) I thought I'd share this essay because it's about more than just the books. Enjoy!
“Modern travel literature starts when civilization becomes a critical as well as self-evident notion – that is, when it is no longer so clear who is civilized and who is not”
(Susan Sontag, “Questions of Travel”, p. 275, Xerox Pack)
No one ever thinks of themselves as the barbarian. (Sontag, 274, “Questions of Travel”). Why would we? We know our strengths and our weaknesses and have the barometer of social norms to rationally judge both against; our native civilization. We consider ourselves normal because we understand ourselves. And when we consider the other, that which we do not understand, we often file it (them) into one of two categories, a threat or an inferior- both suggesting incivility. From Sontag’s description, Robinson Crusoe and the English translation of Tournier’s Friday are considered modern travel literature because they analyze this polarized view of civilization, of us vs. them. Further, they question whether or not Western Civilization can even be considered “civilized” at all.
Defoe presents his Robinson Crusoe as the everyman. He embodies characteristics that we find naturally within ourselves and lacks distinctive features that could characterize him as unique. He fears the unknown, self-isolates, suffers from loneliness and drastic mood swings. Such characteristics are universal-or shall we say, universally Western- and “normal”. But Robinson protests that he is, in fact, a better man on the island than the one he was back in England. “I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, not the pride of life.. I had all that I was capable of enjoying… I was a lord of the whole manor… I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country.” (Robinson Crusoe, Pg. 323) Here he simultaneously makes and breaks his point. On the island he possesses all he could ever want and need, but the very examples he sites as objects to be desired and enjoyed are western ideas; the idea of a property owner, or further a king. And even though he has all he needs to sustain himself, he is still discontent. His mood continues to swing like a pendulum and in the end he gets on the first ship back to England.
Even though he has escaped the “wickedness,” it remains within him. Robinson’s “problems” on the island stem from the values and ideas that Western Civilization has ingrained within him. And if he is the everyman of the western world, then the western world is one defined by extremes, one of hypocrisy. “How strange a chequer-work of providence is the life of man… Today we love what tomorrow we hate; today we seek what tomorrow we shun; today we desire what tomorrow we fear.” (Defoe, Robinson Crusoe) How can we know this of ourselves yet refuse to change it, or worse yet, believe this “chequer-work” life to be the superior one?
Sontag explains that classical and medieval literature customarily embodies the similar polar structure of us vs. them by creatving a villain or monster whenever possible. “A Christian culture could more easily believe in the existence of a monstrous than the perfect or near perfect.” (Sontag, Pg 274 “Questions of Travel”). The Institute of the Christian Church is made up of a network of extremes and opposites- god and the devil, heaven and hell, good and evil. And since one could say Christianity had a strong hand in shaping Western Civilization, a continuous state of cultural whiplash has been set into motion. Life is characterized as a constant struggle between the good and the bad, happiness and misery. So one would assume this logic applies to all walks of life. If I am living, death must be bad. If I am good, they must be bad. Robinson can only imagine the other to be a man-eating cannibal or a perfectly obedient slave. Luckily for him Friday turns out to be the later.
In characterizing Robinson as a unconscious hypocrite Defoe is suggests that Western Civilization is, in fact, the barbarian here, the uncivilized. We are meant to judge Robinson for his irrationality, and blame him for his own unhappiness because he is a manifestation of the Western World. Tournier’s Friday, however, brings this discussion to the present day, where we are seemingly less gullible than we were in the 18th century, but where we still fear, and demonize the other.
In the past two years Arizona and Alabama have passed “Anti-Immigration Laws” that perpetuate racist and inhumane sentiments in the United States. Specifically Alabama’s Law HB-56, which came into effect in October, 2011, denies undocumented immigrants in the state access to water and electricity in their homes, mercilessly tears families apart by authorizing instant deportation and encourages racial profiling. Officially titled the Hammon-Beason Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, the law is Alabama’s version of Robinson’s wall; a self destructive measure, a protection against a non-existent threat. He obsessively defends himself the cannibals (his idea of the other) but when the other finally comes, he doesn’t mind employing it as a slave. Like Robinson, the average American sees the other in two extremes, a murderous drug dealer, or an obedient cleaning lady.
Tournier is under no illusion that time has civilized us since Defoe’s publication of Robinson Crusoe. When Friday appears in Friday, Robinson becomes a monster, enslaving and abusing Friday much more aggressively than Defoe’s Robinson. But in keeping with Defoe’s Crusoe Tournier’s Crusoe is blatantly hypocritical, “He obeys me implicitly in everything, and it is strange that I should still find cause for complaint.” Tournier comments on our own inability to change our perspective even when we can acknowledge a gulf between engrained “truths” and what makes sense. Friday appears in Robinson’s life at the height of Robinson’s civilization on the island so it is fitting that he reacts so vehemently against Friday. His civilization told him to. Robinson does not understand Friday. He understands that a stranger is a savage, and “A savage is not wholly a human being” because that is what his civilization believes.
In the explosion of Robinson’s civilization in Friday, we see echoes of Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (King James Bible, Cambridge Edition) It was from nothing that his civilization was created in the first place and to dust it returned. Civilizations are temporary. They are not based on permanent enduring truths. The explosion brings on the final stage of Robinson’s metamorphosis. He lets go of the western ideas of order, time, and progress and changes his mind (rather suddenly) about Friday. Inspired by Friday’s freedom and life style Robinson begins to live his life how it is meant to be lived, with an unbreakable connection with the earth and understanding of himself.
We idealize just as equally as we demonize. By the end of Friday the reader is ready to sail to a deserted island and let the metamorphosis being. But Robinson’s island is a Utopia, one that doesn’t exist. “China has been a fantasy kingdom since Marco Polo’s visit: and in the eighteenth Century it was widely believed that in China, a land of reason, there was no war, debauchery, ignorance, superstition, or wide spread illness” (Sontag, Questions of Travel pg. 276) . America was equally idealized at it’s inception as the land of “milk and honey.” These perceptions existed because the countries were either new or different. They hadn’t yet been understood by the writers who were observing them. In Friday the reader see’s Friday as an ideal, to say that maybe we could be perpetually happy and content if we lived like him. Perhaps in the novel he can be perfect, but in an actuality he would not be perfect, he would just be different. He only seems perfect because he doesn’t have our set of problems and flaws. But maybe he would a whole other set. Our supposed strengths are his weaknesses and vice versa. But then who is to say which strengths are stronger? Whose to say which ones are more civil?
What does it mean to be civilized, anyway? What is civilization but an illusion of order and control? Used in common vernacular, “Civilized” is used in the context of manners and politeness. It’s a description of a certain acceptable inoffensive behaviour. Based on this definition Defoe’s and Tournier’s telling of Robinson Crusoe offer that Western Civilization is, in fact, uncivilized. We can then go further to say the word civilized itself is the monster. Not in the sense that all civilizations are evil and monstrous, but to define the word as only the world in which one lives, or to define the word at all is to perpetuate it’s polarity.
Our instinct to polarize is our resistance to understand something different or as Sontag would say, to translate. Different simply means not yet understood. Defoe’s Robinson goes through a shallow transformation, realizing that there are some inconsistencies between what Western Civilization would tell him is important and what he finds to be important and fulfilling on the island. However, he does not go through a metamorphosis as Tournier’s Robinson does. He returns to Britain, still considers Friday inferior, and professors to pass on his enlightenment to the people he meets in England. But he didn’t really learn anything new on the island, he just has a better understanding of Western Civilization better, something he already knew. Tournier imparts that for us to really change, make progress, it is necessary to take the Cartesian approach of exploring ourselves first and the world second. Only when we understand ourselves fully can we begin to understand the rest of the world- can we begin to translate our language into another. From Defoe and Tournier’s novels we can deduce that to be civilized means to understand a particular system, but not to understand ourselves or others.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
This Blog Post is Dedicated to My Aunts
I'm terribly sorry for my long absence! My classes have started having these bizarre things called midterms that require lots of time and attention. Needless to say I've been pretty busy. But! No excuse. One must take proper care to document and reflect on ones life even in the face of a busy schedule. --which reminds me please forgive me if I start writing in a flowery Victorian fashion, such as the previous sentence, I had to read Jane Eyre in one weekend for my literature class and the rapid intact kind of infiltrated my psyche.
So, whats up? Ah. So much. But most importantly two weekends ago I went to London to visit my two amazing Cousins, Ian and Giuseppe! Both have been studying and working in London for the past year and as soon as I knew I was coming to Paris I made sure I made time to visit them in London. It would be the first time us three were together at the same time probably since we were in diapers tormenting our parents in the Sicilian heat at Uncle Nino's beach house.
My two girl friends Regan and Brittany also decided to some and join in on the family fun because we had been invited to a ball at Oxford by one of my good friends from High School who goes to Oxford.
Thursday night I have a class until 8pm, so I had booked a later flight out of CDG than Regan and Brittany-- Did anyone by any chance find a typo/ mistake in that last sentence? Perhaps the word "Flight" might have peaked your curiosity? Well it sure is peaking my interest now, namely inspiring the question " What the F were we thinking FLYING to London?" My incredulity will become more clear in a second..
Plain (plane) and simple I missed my flight. It was totally my fault. I just didn't leave enough time for myself to get to the airport. To be perfectly honest, I was writing a blog post and didn't think it would take me as long to get to CDG. The next flight was at 10am the next morning. Fearing that if I went back to my apartment that night to wait for the next flight I would miss that one as well, I resolved to sleep at the airport, I had enough reading and work to do to pass the time, right?
Within a couple hours and 3 Susan Sontag essays later I began having a existential musings. Finally Starbucks opened at 5am and I was comforted by a warm cup of good ole American coffee.
Okay Fast forward to London--> (Board my flight, wait on the runway for an hour while the flight attendants bicker, Easyjet sucks, buy a train ticket from the airport to Kings Cross from Easyjet, Land, take the train, get a 20lb fine at Kings Cross because my train ticket wasn't for the correct line, Easyjet Sucks, should have just taken the Eurorail, phone dies, can't find Ian, buy converter, find them, YAY!
Which leads me to IAN. Ian is just about the best cousin in the world. Not only had he planned the most amazing itinerary of places and activities for us to see and do in London, he gave up is bed for us three girls to sleep in, he even agreed to host three girls in the first place ( brave soul), he booked back up reservations at restaurants and bars just so we could decide what kind of mood we were going for. He truly took the word "hospitality" to a new level and I can't thank him enough for everything he did.
While I was at the airport contemplating my existence, Ian took Regan and Brittany out to dinner at a picturesque restaurant in London over looking the river and the London Eye.
We I arrived he brought us to an awesome open air food market called Bourough Market. It is situated under a train track but goes on forever with tons of sandwiches, bakeries, meat, fish, wine, cheese, jam, honey and basically every other kind of stall. We ate monsterous sandwhiches prepared by very snarky British men. Then went on a lovely walk to West Minster Abbey, Parliament, and through Hyde Park. We say Pick-a-dilly Square and had to go home to get ready to go to an old Wine Bar.
Giuseppe met up with us at the Wine bar. I hadn't seen him in six years since my last time in Sicily. He is now so handsome, so confident, still hysterical and speaks English with a British/ Italian, saying phrases like " Bloody 'ell!" The wine bar was so cool! I don't know the name of it but I will get it from Ian soon. It had 6ft tall rounded ceilings that dripped an indeterminable (probably water) on us and the table every so often from the cracks of the bricks. It was only lit by dim candle light and was packed to the gills with young Wine-o's. We ordered some wine and bought a plate of cheese, baguette, and other noshables and caught up on everything we'd missed in each others lives over the past couple years.
Both Giuseppe and Ian have awesome jobs in the fields of their choice, Shipping and Navigation and Economics respectfully, and I'm so proud of how hard they have been working!
After the wine bar we met up with some of Ian's friend's from London Business School and went to a really cool bar in South Kensington ( a "swish" area of London, as they say).
They next morning Ian and Giuseppe were patient enough to take us girls to Top Shop, the most ridiculous department store in the world. We lost each other it was so big and amazing, but I ended up finding a really great dress for the Oxford ball we were going to that evening. Gowns in hand, suitcases packed, we gathered the troops and headed out to Paddington Station to catch the train to Oxford to meet up with my friend David.
I will write about Oxford and the ball in a separate post. But after Oxford I returned to London Sunday night by myself because I planned on staying in London until Monday night. I met up with Giuseppe at Paddington Station and went back to his Apartment on the outer area of London to cook lasagna with him and Ian. Giuseppe has a fantastic view of all of London and nice big apartment! We cooked a great big dish of Lasagna and Skyped with My beautiful Aunt Cettina and Uncle Giovanni (Guiseppe's parents) and my Dad, Mimi, and Kate.
As my Dad told me after, it was amazing to see his daughter and nephews together on the other side of the world but on his ipad in his apartment in Queens. It felt great to have reunited with my family in a place that is foreign to all of us in someway, but being together with them made me feel completely at home.
All I need to say, now is I love my Cousins! and I'm so glad I got to see them together!
So, whats up? Ah. So much. But most importantly two weekends ago I went to London to visit my two amazing Cousins, Ian and Giuseppe! Both have been studying and working in London for the past year and as soon as I knew I was coming to Paris I made sure I made time to visit them in London. It would be the first time us three were together at the same time probably since we were in diapers tormenting our parents in the Sicilian heat at Uncle Nino's beach house.
My two girl friends Regan and Brittany also decided to some and join in on the family fun because we had been invited to a ball at Oxford by one of my good friends from High School who goes to Oxford.
Thursday night I have a class until 8pm, so I had booked a later flight out of CDG than Regan and Brittany-- Did anyone by any chance find a typo/ mistake in that last sentence? Perhaps the word "Flight" might have peaked your curiosity? Well it sure is peaking my interest now, namely inspiring the question " What the F were we thinking FLYING to London?" My incredulity will become more clear in a second..
Plain (plane) and simple I missed my flight. It was totally my fault. I just didn't leave enough time for myself to get to the airport. To be perfectly honest, I was writing a blog post and didn't think it would take me as long to get to CDG. The next flight was at 10am the next morning. Fearing that if I went back to my apartment that night to wait for the next flight I would miss that one as well, I resolved to sleep at the airport, I had enough reading and work to do to pass the time, right?
Within a couple hours and 3 Susan Sontag essays later I began having a existential musings. Finally Starbucks opened at 5am and I was comforted by a warm cup of good ole American coffee.
Okay Fast forward to London--> (Board my flight, wait on the runway for an hour while the flight attendants bicker, Easyjet sucks, buy a train ticket from the airport to Kings Cross from Easyjet, Land, take the train, get a 20lb fine at Kings Cross because my train ticket wasn't for the correct line, Easyjet Sucks, should have just taken the Eurorail, phone dies, can't find Ian, buy converter, find them, YAY!
Which leads me to IAN. Ian is just about the best cousin in the world. Not only had he planned the most amazing itinerary of places and activities for us to see and do in London, he gave up is bed for us three girls to sleep in, he even agreed to host three girls in the first place ( brave soul), he booked back up reservations at restaurants and bars just so we could decide what kind of mood we were going for. He truly took the word "hospitality" to a new level and I can't thank him enough for everything he did.
While I was at the airport contemplating my existence, Ian took Regan and Brittany out to dinner at a picturesque restaurant in London over looking the river and the London Eye.
We I arrived he brought us to an awesome open air food market called Bourough Market. It is situated under a train track but goes on forever with tons of sandwiches, bakeries, meat, fish, wine, cheese, jam, honey and basically every other kind of stall. We ate monsterous sandwhiches prepared by very snarky British men. Then went on a lovely walk to West Minster Abbey, Parliament, and through Hyde Park. We say Pick-a-dilly Square and had to go home to get ready to go to an old Wine Bar.
Giuseppe met up with us at the Wine bar. I hadn't seen him in six years since my last time in Sicily. He is now so handsome, so confident, still hysterical and speaks English with a British/ Italian, saying phrases like " Bloody 'ell!" The wine bar was so cool! I don't know the name of it but I will get it from Ian soon. It had 6ft tall rounded ceilings that dripped an indeterminable (probably water) on us and the table every so often from the cracks of the bricks. It was only lit by dim candle light and was packed to the gills with young Wine-o's. We ordered some wine and bought a plate of cheese, baguette, and other noshables and caught up on everything we'd missed in each others lives over the past couple years.
Both Giuseppe and Ian have awesome jobs in the fields of their choice, Shipping and Navigation and Economics respectfully, and I'm so proud of how hard they have been working!
After the wine bar we met up with some of Ian's friend's from London Business School and went to a really cool bar in South Kensington ( a "swish" area of London, as they say).
They next morning Ian and Giuseppe were patient enough to take us girls to Top Shop, the most ridiculous department store in the world. We lost each other it was so big and amazing, but I ended up finding a really great dress for the Oxford ball we were going to that evening. Gowns in hand, suitcases packed, we gathered the troops and headed out to Paddington Station to catch the train to Oxford to meet up with my friend David.
I will write about Oxford and the ball in a separate post. But after Oxford I returned to London Sunday night by myself because I planned on staying in London until Monday night. I met up with Giuseppe at Paddington Station and went back to his Apartment on the outer area of London to cook lasagna with him and Ian. Giuseppe has a fantastic view of all of London and nice big apartment! We cooked a great big dish of Lasagna and Skyped with My beautiful Aunt Cettina and Uncle Giovanni (Guiseppe's parents) and my Dad, Mimi, and Kate.
As my Dad told me after, it was amazing to see his daughter and nephews together on the other side of the world but on his ipad in his apartment in Queens. It felt great to have reunited with my family in a place that is foreign to all of us in someway, but being together with them made me feel completely at home.
All I need to say, now is I love my Cousins! and I'm so glad I got to see them together!
Friday, March 2, 2012
New Water Colors/ Week 6/7
For the past couple weeks I've been attending an amazing open figure drawing class at L'Academie Grande Chaumiere in Montparnasse. It's become one of my favorite things to. The Academy has been around since the 1800's and some pretty famous artists used to come sketch and paint there, notably Bourdelle. And after all these years they have maintain the same open atmosphere- anyone can come in with a sketch pad, pencils, charcoal, or paints, ( and 12euro) and make art! The people there are very nice and come from all different backgrounds, levels, and styles. Here's a watercolor I did at the last class...
For some reason I can't get it to rotate.. but you get the idea.
Last weekend I went on an amazing trip to London to visit my two wonderful cousins and my awesome friend from High school who now goes to Oxford. I will dedicate a blog post to that trip soon.. But as a thank you to David for hosting us in Oxford here is a water color I made. I'm currently working on two for Giuseppe and Ian ( my cousins) Stay tuned..
For some reason I can't get it to rotate.. but you get the idea.
Last weekend I went on an amazing trip to London to visit my two wonderful cousins and my awesome friend from High school who now goes to Oxford. I will dedicate a blog post to that trip soon.. But as a thank you to David for hosting us in Oxford here is a water color I made. I'm currently working on two for Giuseppe and Ian ( my cousins) Stay tuned..
Tragedy Stikes!!
For caloric and seismic reasons.. the Croissant Count will be put on hold until after Jesus has risen from the grave ( Easter).
I have given up Croissants for lent.
What was the croissant count prior to this decision you might ask? Umm I'd rather not say. Just trust me it was enough to give croissants up for lent.
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