Wednesday, January 23, 2008

mommy i procrastinated. and it felt good.

Book making gives me ants in my pants and all I want to do is sing Frank Sinatra at the top of my lungs ands make journals/books all day long.  I started to make my first 30 paged journal and I will hopefully finish it this week (and yes, a picture of this one will be coming soon!) As I mentioned earlier this week, I am truly sticking to a non-stressful, go with the flow lifestyle while I am here, so after my morning class I went around town with the Gorilla to start and finish our photo assignment that was due today.  Some people in our class started 5 days ago but my inner photog vibes were not radiating until 2 hours and 20 min before it was to be done.  I only admit this because never in my entire obsessive compulsive, high anxiety life have I EVER done a photo project 2 hours before it was due! and DAMN it felt gooood! The assignment was "symbolism" (zzzz snore) and there was no way in h-e-double hockey sticks that I was going to go around this city and take pictures of all the religious symbols or of the thousands of penises this city has to offer (it would take years) nor was I going to do what my other roommate did (no not the Gorilla..the one that is not good at the "camera game") and take pictures of graffiti (snore snore what a bore). So I defined my own form of artistic symbolism and decided that anything that had a frame around it (that being a picture frame) was symbolic.  At home we hang art work on the walls, put pictures of our family on our grand pianos, and proudly post our diplomas from college (as if they are worth much) in pretty shiny frames.  They are symbolic because they have value and they are of the utmost importance. (this is what happens when you go to art school where all they teach you is to pull down your pants, bend over and make a nice warm poop...basically thats what I just did with this project, expect I like how they turned out) I went around with a big wooden frame and either made the Gorilla hold it up in the air ( if a scenic view was interesting) or approach people on the street if I thought they were worthy of becoming the new face for high art.  Along my journey, I met the most beautiful old woman, probably 90 years old.  The Gorilla and I asked to take her picture and she invited us into her apartment.  She lived in a ritzy apartment with a large courtyard, with a rather large collection of nice cars (I am not sure if those belonged to her or not...but wooo!) Her name was Anmanula. She wanted to do all of these different poses and wanted to find the perfect spot where the sun hit beautifully on her face to insure the photo was going to be top notch.  She was just wonderful.  The Gorilla and I are going to go back over there after we develop our film to bring her a copy and bake something for her (and by bake I mean, possibly buy a nice treat. we haven't tried to make sweets yet...so we shall see) We just want to befriend her because she seemed a little lonely and was excited that we wanted to take her photograph. We made it to photography on time, with a divine roll of film in hand. Anna's for dinner..typical. 

the aura.


t e x t



he.had.this.aura.around.him.but.no.one.knew.why.he.had.it.or.where.he.got.it. he.didn't.even. know.where.he.got.it. the.only.person.who.knew.was.now.lying.in.his.grave.dead. 





i know. -->

new week. new niche.

A new week. I still love Florence but this week even more.  My art history class met at Santa Croce today and we got a tour of the church where Dante's and Michelangelo's memorial graves stand.  I was also able to see the original crocefisso by Cimabue.  I am not into the religious aspect of any of these works but their history from an artistic perspective is fascinating. I am just on a little Jesus overload right now but is still incredible (when you are used to 8 nights of Hanukah and barc ata adoni is all that you know, Jesus on every corner, in every city can become a little overwhelming for a challah back girl.) Each day I find myself adapting more and more to the culture here and I am really going to try to learn the language because that is the one thing I should of actually considered studying before coming here (stupid american!) All I want to do is walk into a cafe and have some man say "Come potrei aiutarla? (how may I help you)" not "Yes yes, hello hello, what you like?" (in a butchered english accent) and then I would be able to respond in Italian. I have only been here for 2 weeks and have only had 3 full days of Italian class, so I think I can do it before I leave (like the little engine that could...I think I can...I think I can) On to my day. In painting class, we painted our hands and I will take a picture of it next class so you can see my masterpiece. I love to paint and I forgot that I knew how to. After painting the Gorilla and I still had to pick up supplies for our book making class so by the time we were done with everything we opted out of cooking and went a cafe on our street called Anna's. We love the sandwiches there and the barista slash owner loves us. We wave hello to him everyday even if we don't stop in. Tuna, mozzarella and tomato on a warm flat bread is the perfect dinner. Tonight I think Mr. Barista had a little too much to drink because he was quite the jokester.  It didn't end up being a bad thing though because some how the exact same sandwich and a diet coke we bought last week was 3 euros less this time. 4 euro for a large sandwich and a diet coke might be a solution to never having to cook again! (I like, I like) Right now I am sitting at the magical coffee bar I discovered yesterday.  I am high on life. I am sipping a hot latte on the second level of the shop that over looks fabulous art that is sporadically placed on the walls and I am observing the worlds most interesting people. Surrounded by shelves of books, intelligent men with Johnny Depp glasses, facing the Gorilla as I write my blog and watching her make art with colored pencils (an artists most prized tool) Wowza..what more could you want. I may never return to the other side of the Arno. (aka to my apartment) Right now a band is setting up to play a little diddly.  I am over looking a huge cello, a bar piano and four scruffy men preparing to play me some jazz. I used to want to live on top of Lake Louise in Canada and bake the worlds most delicious pie but now I am thinking I might want to own a bookstore-coffee shop-non-smoking bar on the other side of the Arno that invites local artists to display their work and bands to bring the towns spirits alive at night. I just can't decide. 

Oh and I am starting a journal (book) company with the Gorilla. It will be called Eanj + Fata. If you want a handmade, one of a kind journal please e-mail me at aji@umich.edu. Forget moleskin journals, Eanj + Fata is the new way to draw, write, think and be happy. 

Ciao!
P.S. (p.s.ihateyou should becoming soon. so excited. woot woot)