Apr 5th – 16th
So, it’s been awhile since I have been on here. I apologize for the lack of posts, but drawing has consumed my life lately. Last week was full of drawing until Wednesday, and then we left for Rome early Thursday morning and stayed three nights and came back Sunday evening. It was an amazing experience!
For starters we stayed in apartments all within about a 3-5 minute walk from the Pantheon in the heart of Rome. I fell in love with the city. The old and new, the street and the sky, the colors and sounds, and much more blended together to create a wonderful city unlike any I have ever been to before. I saw sculptures, paintings, buildings, and piazzas created and designed by masterminds such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Bernini, Borromini, Raphael, and many more. I absolutely loved every minute of Rome whether it was enjoying the most delicious gelato in the world from Giolitti (con panna – with cream on top…yeah be jealous) and walking to the Pantheon with it, standing in awe in front of a Caravaggio, looking out across the city from the top of St. Peter’s Basilica, taking a night walk (aka photo-walk) to the Coliseum, throwing a coin in the Trevi Fountain, eating at the best pizzeria ever, pondering how the baroque architects managed to make stone look so wavy and fluid, gazing at the hand of God in the Sistine chapel, or any other numerous adventures/sights/sounds/tastes.
My eyes watered up for the first time ever over a piece of artwork. I was looking at Peter being crucified upside down in a Caravaggio and it moved me. Am I that much in love with Christ that I would be crucified, let alone request to crucified upside down? I gained a new appreciation for sculpture and architecture this past weekend. I might come back and give you some more details on Rome at some point if I get the chance, but that was just a brief overview.
From this past Monday until today I have logged over 50 hours of drawing with conte and eraser in hand. At times it has been frustrating and at times I have been tired of drawing, but it definitely stretched me and I was able to see myself improve drastically just from day to day within this past week. I now understand more fully what it means to get lost in your work and to look up and realize that 3 hours had past when you thought it had only been 20-30 minutes. After a super busy week with lots of late nights drawing (1230, 1, 130, and 3am last night) I am ready for a more relaxing weekend here in Orvieto. I am getting ready to go to a concert this evening in the Duomo and then have plans to go work on a farm Sunday afternoon to help plant in return for a free farm-fresh lunch. Also this weekend there is something called Choclando in town which is like a traveling chocolate festival. Supposedly the top ten chocolate masters from all over Italy will be there so I’m excited about checking that out. I’ll try my best to get a couple Rome pictures up soon and maybe add a little more to the blog about the past 10 days.
So, the concert in the Duomo was pretty amazing. They had it all lit up with professional lighting that changed colors throughout the concert, which was pretty sweet. It was a requiem with an orchestra and full choir performing it. Today I went to Choclando (the chocolate festival I mentioned earlier) and got some really delicious stuff. I had a green tea and raspberry dark chocolate truffle, some little balls of chocolate filled with straight espresso, some pistachio cookies, a chocolaty frozen drink, and numerous samples of yummy chocolate treats. They had some sweet chocolate creations like wrenches and floppy disks made of chocolate that actually looked metallic.
I wondered around town looking for a spot for my final drawing that is due by the end of the week and just finished choir practice with Eduardo for the special Easter service.
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