Bouganvillae Vaporose | Fuori dal Borgo Acquerello su carta Arches 31cm x 41cm
Billowing Bouganvillae | Outside the Hill town Watercolor on Arches paper 12.2 x 16.14 inches Il Palazzo dei Sogni Acquarello su carta 100%cotone a grano medio. Carta Amatruda – La Carta di Amalfi 20.5 x 29.5 cm
The Dream Palace Watercolor on paper made of 100% cotton medium grain. Amatruda paper- Made in Amalfi 8 x 12.5 inchesLago di Montagna | Mountain Lake
Acquarello su carta 100%cotone a grano medio. Carta Amatruda – La Carta di Amalfi 20.5 x 29.5 cm
Watercolor on paper made of 100% cotton medium grain. Amatruda paper- Made in Amalfi 8 x 12.5 inchesVenti di Lavanda in Aix-en-Provence Carta per Acquerello Arches 18cm x 26cm
Lavender winds in Âix-en-Provence 7×10 inches Arches Watercolor Paper Equilibrio Instabile| Unstable Equilibrium
Acquarello su carta 100% cotone a grano grosso. 31cmx41cm
Watercolor on paper made of 100%cotton rough grain. 12.2 x 16.14 inches
Colors of the Fall…Birches. Watercolor. September 19, 2020.
Happy Fall!
Is it “oh my God” or “Finally?”
How has your summer been?
Mine was a summer that wasn’t, between the lockdown on international flights and non-stop fulltime teaching plus fulltime academic duties. More work, adjustments, screentime and zoomed/voiced out feelings than i care to admit.
Still, there is gratitude for being able to work, pride in the results achieved with colleagues this summer, and beautiful moments of connections with my students, as we thankfully learn, adapt and evolve to communicate solely through these new media. It was a summer of intense learning, yet the curve was gentler than in the terrible Spring.
The closeness of the human voice substitutes the immediacy of vision – and this whole business of teaching and working remotely is getting a little less painful/ more bearable.
Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy.
Saadi of Shiraz, Persian Poet, 1210
We are learning, fast, multiple new ways to transmit knowledge, of being there for someone, new ways to stay present, engaging and caring. We are growing and expanding- and this growth will stay with us even when “things return to normal”…whenever and whatever that is. I’m thankful for the enormous adaptability we possess as human beings.
Voyages – Collage June 2020
With more Covid-related uncertainty, rightful continued political protests and unrest against police brutality and killings in the U.S, waves of closures and reopenings here in San Diego, the California/ West Coast fires, alarming news from Lebanon, immense trepidation for the upcoming U.S elections –and these are just the top things that come to mind – the summer of 2020 continued the general trend of this year’s suckiness (yes I just used that term) and moments of poignant glory.
(just added, since drafting this on the first day of Fall, the passing of the indomitable US Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a tremendous loss and the terrifying prospect of trump nominating a third judge to the highest court of the land, with multigenerational repercussions)
—- b. r. e. a. t. h. e. —
Protesting in the streets of San Diego after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the state. Black Lives Matter ✊🏿 – and that’s just a start. June 2020
Personally, there was heartbreak and loss, hope, and gentle local travel in my beautiful state of California and the West Coast.
Endings and beginnings.
Graphite and Derwent Inktense pencils on paper. August 2020
As ever, the lovely friends and helpful spirits, old and new, God /Universe put in my path —along with a renewed spiritual practice— saved the day.
San Clemente Pier, California. August 2020.
I hope you were able to find moments of peace and beauty in the storms of your life, the nation.. the world. I hope you my readers found oases of joy in nature, friends, loved ones, cooking, yoga, joyful movement….art and spiritual practices. Time for yourself, to learn from solitude and silence. I hope, more than ever, you are taking better care of yourselves physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally – for we are asked to function normally- and, some of us, to work even more, while there is a war going on.
The Surface and the Deep. Watercolor. July 2020.
“When under, remember the surface. When on the surface, remember the deep”. When our days are turbulent and troubled, our challenge is to remember the wave is not the sea. Though it pounds us, the pounding will pass. Though it tosses us about, the tossing will pass, if we don’t fight it. Often our fear misleads us to stay in close to shore, when the safest place is in the deep, if we can get there. Any swimmer knows: stay too close to shore and you will be battered by the surf and undertow. We must swim out past the breakers if we are to know the hammock of the deep. Stay on the land or make it to the deep. It is the in-between that kills.”
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening.
I, ever the optimist, even started a running list of “silver linings” which resulted from this uncertain 2020.
Art will save us. Setup for my watercolor classes. One of the good things to come out of this year is my return to art, in form of art classes, and now I can join anywhere in the world, since everything is online! My first watercolor with Escuela Alda con Limón in Madrid. My teacher was Ana Grasset. An attempt at a monochromatic studies when I still could not tell the difference in my Kuretake Japanese watercolor pans.Second watercolor with Escuela Alda con Limón in Madrid – Ana Grasset’s workshop.
Six months into the new reality, and with a full collection of artful masks to wear each day before I step outside —and to remind me of our strange time —these are things I know for sure:
Image from lolomercadito.com
I know right now the good is even better because we all stopped taking things for granted months ago.
Rumi
I know the Global Pause ( as a colleague called it) is a chance for all of us to reassess the “ busyness” a lot of us identified with — and perhaps were distracted by. I know this is a chance for all of us to go deeper, to interiorize, and find the center of calm and stillness inside of us. This is life changing.
Watercolor of my favorite tree and remnants of my “Drawing with scissors: Matisse” workshop with the London Drawing Group. September 29, 2020. Watercolor class with Juan Saturio {take 1} from Escuela Alda con Limón in Madrid. I want to try this again as my street got too dark/muddy ( a danger with watercolors). I think even my imperfect children need to be shown.
I know that the work of lightworkers is needed more than ever, and these times ask each of us to lighten the load of our fellow human beings, in however capacity we can do this. Be a light and help to a neighbor, an elderly acquaintance, a friend you lost track of. We can take this time and insulate ourselves or we can greet our better selves at the end of this surreal journey.
Watercolor experiments in light. September 29, 2020.
Finally, I know and can vouch for the healing power of movement and Nature. Move that body! Move that body everyday, walk or run among trees or by the ocean. Exercise in the fresh air to revive your mind and minimize the dreaded screen time. Open your windows wide ( if there are no fires around that is ..) Make sure you move everyday at least one hour to combat fatigue, depression and what in Italian we call abbrutimento ( degradation, brutalization) which comes from never leaving your home. Challenge yourself to go to different nature spots, to give your eyes something new to look at, and revive your spirit. Rumi also said the soul needs to travel as much as the feet. Daily loving movement, as the FlyLady calls it, is the foremost way we can help our body feel better- and when we feel better we can be better to those around us. Do anything you can not to go default.
The pier in San Clemente beach, which has been my refuge in this strange summer 2020. August 2020.
This summer I managed to steal moments of beauty and time for mini-art and writing retreats in long weekends spent in the beautiful “Spanish village by the Sea” San Clemente, California.
Drawing Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. June 2020.
In June I ran away to Santa Monica.
The Music Experience Project by Frank Gehry, Seattle. Graphite and watercolor. July 2020.
There was a brief visit, right before the 4th of July weekend, to a subdued Seattle. The architecture was galvanizing.. and it was so healing for me to give my eyes different views to see, after months of lockdown in San Diego. I visited the Autonomous Zone there and stood in front of menacing police in riot gears . Of course I will share my photo-dossiers of these escapes of mine. All in good time.
This summer I took A LOT of art classes online to stay sane and “force” myself to show up to my art practice. I am on a journey to develop an authentic contribution and I am exploring a lot of techniques and art workshops to find my voice amongst the languages of art. There is a lot of experimenting… right now I’m more sure of what is “ not me” than what is… but the experience is filled with light and play. There is discipline, too.
I hope you are able to follow me and my progress on Instagram, at least unti I develop the practice to post and write here before going for the insta-fix. Below samples of the art exercises I completed and the outcome from the Summer art classes I attended.
Delicate. Five minute collage, following the method of Crystal Marie Neubauer. Mixed Media. May 2020. The Road Home. Five minute collage. Mixed Media. May 2020. Ombre watercolor class with Jennifer Evans, of Periwinkle Studio. July 2020.Abstract watercolor class with Jennifer Evans of Periwinkle Studio. July 2020Gaillardia watercolor class with Jennifer Evans of Periwinkle Studio.Fall Bouquet watercolor workshop with Jennifer Evans of Periwinkle Studio.She Rests. Five minute collage. Mixed Media. August 2020.Letters to Love. Five minute collage. Mixed Media. August 2020.Love is Fragile. Five minute collage. Mixed Media. August 2020. Abstract watercolor class with Jennifer Evans of Periwinkle studio. September 2020
What else? I finally started a morning journaling practice centered on my art development, and came up with with my approach to life and art, in the form of the French word “doucement”- softly, sweetly. How to bring a quality of luminosity to everything I am, everything I do?
“Drawing with Scissors: Matisse” course with London Drawing Group. August 2020. This involved cutting figures and shapes freehand on sheets of tissue papers( no drawing beforehand).“Drawing with Scissors: Matisse” class with London Drawing Group. August 2020. “Drawing with Scissors: Matisse” class with London Drawing Group. August 2020.
I watched a film that still echoes, Bright Star, on the Romantic Poet John Keats, started rereading Art & Fear and am finally, systematically, going through my possessions and purging with Marie Kondo’s book.
I know I have said this for years but it took been grounded for a whole summer to finally tackle this.
Postcards from Japan. A collage inspired by the Vintage Collage class by Jennifer Evans of Periwinkle Studio.
On Sunday I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon at my friend Jana Freeman’s Way Art Yonder Studio for one of her monthly open studio days. I met Jana at my school, first we were friendly colleagues then mischievous friends, and now she is living the Dream running her own art studio and hosting incredible workshops with Mixed Media artists the world over…
Here is a sample of the work I was “curiousing” on on Sunday ( yes, I am making up this word). Most of the vibrant work I photographed is by Suanne Summers, then there is the dreamy stitch/ fabric art of Shelley Watkins and the layered collages of Krista Jarrard. Jana, the studio owner, can be seen completing one of her exquisite pieces. This is my Art tribe, comprising of Carla Bange who could not make it this time.
Paintings by Suanne Summers
Collage in progress by Krista Jarrard
Jana in the process of assembling one of her captivating mixed media works on small square canvases, painted black.
This cool collage is by a sweet lady from Minnesota (!) . I will find out her name 🤔[[[[[[
Fabric/stitch art by Shelley Watkins. She dyes her own fabric 😮
Above, Jana and her regal ring touching one of Shelley’s distressed samples of fabric. She uses a process involving peroxide to “ eat through” the fabric. We named this “ Dickensian Orphanage, or the street urchins.”
Here is more of Suanne’s work:
What can I say, these ladies have been at this a long time and I need to up my game and get back to my collages instead of collecting drawerfuls of materials (but if I say so my self I have lots of exciting materia prima from my travels).
But first I want to finish my “flower portrait”- here is the work-in-progress ( which will include poetry and mixed media). The
The original was GORGEOUS, made for me by a very special person who ” painted” my portrait with handpicked flowers. {swoon}
Work in progress, acrylic on canvas.
Jana and I at Way Art Yonder, my happy place!
Thank you Jana!
I will soon be back under the portico with my bags 😉
This is one place where I don’t feel bad lugging all my stuff with me- as all the other tribe members do the same. I think I found my people.
Mission Beach, San Diego, California. 19th of June, 2016
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.
You might remember this drawing from November.
I finally finished at the beginning of January, on a cold (for San Diego) night, sitting in front of this 100-yearY building, under a portico.
Balboa Park always takes me back home. This entire drawing was done plen air and took me few sessions over several months to complete.
It will be on its way to San José, Costa Rica soon.
This is a quick photo, but i have a piecemeal scanned version ( sheet too large for my scanner, and the wide format at work is not very kind to graphite).I will try to compose the image and sub for it soon – but it has already been a whole week since this post languished in the draft purgatory and i want to get to my next night photography post.
Clouds make nocturnal old San Diego heartbreakingly beautiful.
By the way, i hope you all had a fantastic Holiday Break.
I just got back from another trip to México, and i have Mayan pyramids,cenotes, colonial towns and caribbean waters to share. I cannot believe i haven’t had the chance to share my two trips to Ciudad de México D.F from last July and November (¡Frida!) ..yet.
So next there will be a series of posts on México “lindo y querido”.
[ Updated, more crisp scans.
I hereby promise not to post phone photos when I can provide scans. ]
On the evening before the Winter Solstice, I rejoined the group that meets in the lower level of the San Diego Arts Institute {The Museum of the Living Artists} in Balboa Park, for “One Last Hurray”– tonight was the last night Live Modeling will be hosted in the Gallery . These rendez-vouz became scarcer with the passing of the last few months, from every other Monday, to one Monday a month, to a late summer hiatus, to this…the end.
Once more I am reminded that the only constant in life is change. I will miss these evenings of art, self-paced, the bodies of the models always surprising once translated into the page. The outcomes always tell me more about myself than them. I had not attended these Live Modeling sessions since October, when the school year resumed and I found myself teaching First Year again on Mondays and Wednesday evening (which was exciting, and cyclical at the same time…because as things change they do, occasionally, repeat).
It was nice to say goodbye tonight. I pushed colored water with brushes, with no expectations, reminding myself that I am a painter more than a drawer, and reciting my farewell to painting/drawing nudes. My interest lies in making (collages and pantings that do not involve bodies) and these ‘art therapy’ sessions did much good in helping me find time for art, but it is time to move on and find the discipline within me.
Watercolor on the wrong paper- Strathmore Bristol. San Diego, December 21, 2015
Speaking of discipline, this time physical, this Fall I was also pining for my old Wednesday night zumba/dance class, taught by one of the best teachers in town and, lo and behold, that class is also no more. Everything is telling me to let go and let myself be unmoored because routines, and certainties, are only illusions of the mind and of time.
I am reminded at least few times a day that, since I became Assistant Professor, a title that I longed for and a milestone for me, the time that I used to have for Art and SketchBloom has vanished, leaving me with scraps, and occasional posts during school breaks. It is bittersweet, because when I had more time, I also had different challenges. On the plus side, I feel that my classes are getting stronger and that all the energy put into what I do is bearing beautiful fruit, and my travels a re translating into lectures, thoughts, incipits of papers. My students have been blossoming , and what I offer them, though intangible, is perhaps my greatest art…the words and the stories shared in the intimacy of the classroom. My favorite part of this Fall was new lectures on Native American Architecture and the Empires of the Sun (Aztec, Maya, Inca), along with those for Hindu and Buddhist Architecture. It was wonderful to share my travels to Teotihuacan and Mexico City, DF (July and November) and various museum visits. All these will be documented here in the coming days.
I am going to visit new Mayan sites soon 🙂 and I feel blessed that what I love to do (travel) also makes me better at what I do. One of my students wrote me that what I shared from my travels was her favorite part of the History of Architecture and Urban Design course, and that made me smile inside. Another told me that I am, indeed, a ‘collector of legends’, what I knew I wanted to be at 6 years old as I was put in charge of our classroom’s bookshelf.
I have been reading a lot on Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and there is a whole section of advice on, basically, doing your best, and letting go. Letting go of what you think is the idea of perfection, because life is already perfect, in secret ways that we will only understand in time. SO many ways to convey a message that I run into again and again.
I swear at least once a day in the past few months I have encountered and recorded places, people, feelings, stories, books, quotes, readings, images that I wanted to share here but pressing obligations and life prevented me. I trust that what I have been collecting (the speed and quantity of memories accumulated akin to hoarding for its sheer size) will be shared and enfolded in time. The thought of living hard and traveling harder to make memories for my old age has crossed my mind. One thing I did not do is draw or paint, but I believe, now, there are other ways to make art.
Photography is one. Or writing.
Also, creating the space and conditions that allow art to emerge: clearing your life and decluttering, physically and emotionally, to make room for art, for the NEW.
Is not prepping the canvas also part of the painting? Then I have weaved that canvas fabric with the threads of days full of wonder, struggle and discovery, primed it with an unshakeable faith, and strengthened with tireless service, resilience and endurance.
Please forgive me, it is the end of the quarter, and the end of a stupendous year …and I am waxing poetic. Time to sum up the past 12 months. I wanted to count all the things I was grateful for in 2015 and I counted 41. How many things are you grateful for? Every difficulty came with a breakthrough and a blessing for me, a strengthening lesson. I hope the same for you, Reader.
I know it is not the end of the year proper yet, but for me it already has come, with the close of another quarter and the time, silent and special, to calculate grades, my students’ and mine. I wish all my readers and visitors a great journey in 2016, untroubled by worldly events and guided only by that ‘light that never goes out’, our own.
Watercolor on the wrong paper- Strathmore Bristol. San Diego, December 21, 2015
Watercolor on the wrong paper- Strathmore Bristol. San Diego, December 21, 2015
Another month of quickening days, of white skies, of scorching heat, of California monsoons has gone by.
The weather in San Diego has been positively schizophrenic. Life has been full (I dislike the word “busy”), heartbreaking and healing at turns, magic, adventurous, challenging and with an overall trend of daily progress towards balance, harmony and mindfullness. Things are good.
I have been blessed to have crossed paths with soulful fellow travelers.
Since the beginning of 2015, the posts here at Sketchbloom have been so sparse…it’s embarassing. I miss my days before my professorship where I had the luxury of being an artist full time. Yet there were, of course, different struggles at the time. I always heard that with privileges come responsibilities, and I felt those, so much, this past school year. Although the school year ended, culminating with Graduation at the end of June, I feel I am only (sort-of) beginning to breath now.
I completed my six-week five-credit Arabic course yesterday. I signed up for the class on what must have been an adrenaline rush from the tough Spring I had. The course started during Finals week at my University, which meant a seamless, yet intense/insane transition! I have some calligraphy to share from the course, and I am happy to say I can finally read and write in Arabic!
This month also saw me in Ciudad de Mexico DF for few days. I will post soon some photographs and recollections from that city of thousand faces. Alas, no drawings. (no time)
How to sum up a whole year? Only through recollection in tranquility. I am finally on break, and I plan to catch up with all the posts from my travels. I have notebooks full of thoughts and words, that might become verses, once distilled. Yet, this is also the time to make. I read that, a year from now, you will wish you had started today. SO I am starting, again, today. Every time I post here it feels like a new beginning. For those of you who have been following this blog (more than a thousand!), thank you for your patience and for the kind forgetfulness, and forgiveness, of promises not (yet) kept. I started running behind in 2013….no comment. My art and this blog can hardly catch up with my life and travels. I guess that is a good problem to have. Maybe you want to wander here, and see why time flies.
Annnyyyyhow…..Here are the rest of this spring’s nudes from Monday nights at the San Diego Arts Institute.
I noticed, going through the various drawings done there, that I tend to experiment with a different medium and paper each time. I guess I really miss my collages. I had the time to scan these drawings (i always feel quick and dirty when I post shots from my phone), and, well, what a difference.
One good piece of news is that I will get back my art studio in the Fall. I was part of the Brokers’ Building Artist Colony from 2003-2008 and I cannot wait to have a special place for my art again.
This summer – this year, really – feels like the long backward run, the gathering momentum
First experiment in Digital nude painting on my Android HTC ONE phone, using the Paint Commander App and the Sensu brush.
Two months to the day of my last post, I return.
Like a lover who walks into the door surreptitiously, I offer no explanations.
Just Kidding.
This quarter saw me teaching three courses with a total of 120 students, so, dear Single Reader, the reason for my hiatus is self-evident. It was a ten-week long journey into different periods of History of Architecture and Urban Design, Urban Issues and so. much. more.
Here are snapshots of my bimonthly art dates. I have quite a few drawings, but could not conjure up the time and mental space to scan and post them. Ideally, these will be scanned version soon..but here they are.
I embarked on an Arabic adventure as of Monday, and this will be a spectacular summer, I feel and know.
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
In January I collided with two splendid creatures in Balboa Park, Lila’Angelique and Thoth, which together form Tribal Baroque.
I wanted to share some portraits I took of them, in order to share some of the magic of their presence and music.
Nothing prepares you for the beauty that is Tribal Baroque, but here is a taste of what’s in store if you can make it to one of their prayformances in the park.
This is the Facebook page of Tribal Baroque, so you can catch these fairies who are here in San Diego for a limited time.
{more to come…see below} …….
Four days ago, I spent two hours crafting the perfect posts on my muses, full of links and perfectly ( to me) worded prose.
When I went to publish the post, I LOST everything. It is the first time that this has happened on WordPress, which is usually excellent at saving drafts in progress.
I have been too heartbroken to come back and re-craft my post, but I have new art from Saturday and tonight – yes i started sketching and painting again (!) – and new photographs that I want to share, and life must go on.
Enjoy this images for now.. I will come back in the morning, refreshed, and tell you its stories…
…….
Thank you for bringing the *triple* rainbow and pink sky 😉 :
I can feel poetry
rise out of silence
like an undeniable tide,
a Polaroid floats to the surface.
The words appear Oh honey, just take out your lighter,
they are written in lemon juice
Loving you was like
carrying a cardboard suitcase
in the rain
In the absence of
I collect mugs by my bedside
Ride in empty buses
-straw bale leggings-
and always get to the theather
after the movie ended
I walk among the Saturday night revelers huddled around a screen
-the miniskirts march in lockstep
It’s date night in San Diego
a cold one too
knights in shirt sleeves have donated their coats
and presents are opened inside cars.
I steal glances and compose poems
that don’t help anyone tonight.
The lines start to sound
like a Gillian Welch song.
If you have a mind like a diamond,
expect it to cut.
I was in love with the dream of you
And now I am shackled to a ghost.
Some kinds of pain never die;
they can only ease a little,
and not every day.
Another month rushed by, seemingly accelerating towards the end, as though sprinting to the finish line. The year’s end. Another year.
This past month brought also new beginnings and renewals. Just like accountants, professors measure years differently from the general public.
So this, other, new year that starts with the fall -the harvest- brought Spring in October : experimental mixed media and history courses, new energy, enthusiastic and curious students, expanded involvement, new projects and many welcome social occasions…and always, the company and camaraderie of my gentle and wise kin.
I love my job and feel so blessed. (I have just been given a Service Award for Five Years of outstanding contribution to the school, celebrate good times..)
I hosted my very first reception for my Graduate students’ work in the History of Architecture course this last week. The title of the exhibition was
‘ History of Architecture: Analysis and Synthesis through Visual Notes’.
My past students’ critical, and sometimes lyrical and poetic work –their beautifully rendered drawings, sketches and diagrams–have been gracing the halls of my school and received much acclaim. This body of work and research into this alternative method for teaching history is the topic of a forthcoming paper, which I will present in the Spring.
I am also launching a project called Builtculture, which I will be editing. This is something I have been working on for few months along with a stellar Graduate student of mine, Samar Sepehri. Builtculture is a repository for lectures and cultural events happening in San Diego and the So-Cal region, for the architecture and urban design discriminating aficionados. It exists in form of a facebook page for now, but will soon morph into a simple yet useful calendar site–as soon as I can catch my breath.
Planning to post photos of the Visual Notes Exhibit next week -need to scan few more examples and ‘teasers’- and to share Builtculture when it is ready too. I am thinking about adding an Academic section to my work site, Archistdesign, for such endeavors.
All of this to say, really, is that my full-time job and volunteering [ for community build and garden build projects , I have learned to build a deck and plaster, aka architecture for social purpose … yes!] have taken ahold of my heart and days lately, and my art has had to wait.
I also (also!) will have my poetry published. New poems have been brewing and blooming, maybe I will share one later tonight.
I know that there are few of you who follow these ramblings of mine , who gently coax me when I have not posted for a while, and wanted to reach out and declare that I do not want this to be a ‘ travel blog’ , a dalliance…but that I also have to make peace with the fact that I am nor cannot be a a full-time writer, poet or artist, (although I would embrace these lives and crafts in a heartbeat, teaching is my calling) and that I cannot post or work on my art everyday. Life itself needs to be explored, precious work completed, books need to be read, and body, soul, and spirit nurtured daily. Perhaps, I have been given too many passions for just one life. These are heavy gifts and Chet Baker sings ‘I fall in love too easily’…
Before biding my hopefully brief adieu, here is a poem that I recently found among old correspondence.
It is nice to be old enough to have that.. Speaking of correspondence, see ‘ Young Goethe in Love’. I died.
The Undertaking
The darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime .
The darkness lifts, imagine, in your lifetime .
There you are — cased in clean bark you drift through weaving rushes, fields flooded with cotton.
You are free.
The river films with lilies, shrubs appear, shoots thicken into palm.
And now all fear gives way: the light looks after you, you feel the waves’ goodwill as arms widen over the water;
Love, the key is turned.
Extend yourself —it is the Nile, the sun is shining, everywhere you turn is luck.
Louise Glück
In the winter, Venice is like an abandoned theatre. The play is finished, but the echoes remain.
Arbit Blatas
To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.
Alexander Herzen
There is something so different in Venice from any other place in the world, that you leave at once all accustomed habits and everyday sights to enter an enchanted garden.
Mary Shelley
It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.
Erica Jong
I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs;
A palace and a prison on each hand.
Lord Byron
…
A train-ride takes you from Milano to Venice..whose real name is Venezia, the Most Serene city and splendid, golden Republic. On the train you think about Byron, his letters written on trains, his Venetian Countess.
Through frozen fields and dormant earth, through fog and long-gone rice paddies , you deboard to the Sublime.
At dusk the lights from bars and cafes shimmer on the dark waters, and you start thinking in cliches, such as temporarily inhabiting an Impressionist painting.
Yet the feeling is fresh and true: each visit to this surrealists’ dream had its poignant moment of suspension of disbelief.
Each time the city grabs you and takes you away with her.
…
Here’s a taste of today’s acts of flanerie in La Serenissima.
Crocheting Cathedrals. Il Duomo with parasitic architecture (stage for New Year's festivities). Ink and watercolor on hand.book paper. December 31, 2011.
Aperol and Spritz. Most of the older ladies in my neighborhood are incredibly fashionable, decked in the latest trend winter coat. Here's two enjoying a mildly alcoholic aperitivo at 11 AM. Ink on hand.book paper. December 31, 2011.
Santa Maria Presso San Satiro. The obligatory pilgrimage to the second Bramante's church. Last year I drew Santa Maria Delle Grazie, which is near to my place. I am always amazed by the playfulness and modernity of the oculi (round windows) on the Northern Romanesque facade. I found out that the space in front of the church is called 'Largo Jorge Luis Borges'. Can it get better than this?
Ink on hand.book paper. December 31, 2011.
Window of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio. In an act of Flanerie, I got lost trying to reach the Roseto, and found these whimsical, almost Gaudi-like windows on a palazzo I had not seen since my childhood, painted in the typical warm 'Milanese Yellow' (think saffron rice and add a patina of melancholy, smog and time). Ink on hand.book paper. January 1, 2012.
Wire Crochet ring. This is a cocktail ring that can have a rounded or flattened look. November 20, 2011.
Wire Crochet and Ring. November 20, 2011.
I have been busy conjuring up objects from wire.
As architects, jewelry is the smallest realized design we can create. Next of course there are the futuristic 3D printers, but I like the analog character of crochet, using my hands, painting with metal and ending up with wearable art. I have been crocheting since the age of eleven (thank you, Salesian Sisters!) but this is the first time i produced jewelry. I remember at 14 using pliers, crazy glue and metal wire to create very small butterfly earrings. My parents must not have been impressed, because i was not immediately pulled out of my Linguistic Lycaeum and redirected to the Fine Arts and Jewelry institute.
The bracelet, a simple tubular structure, and the ring (my design), can be made using pure silver , copper, gold or various wire colors. I used No. 2 Crochet Hook and 34 gauge wire.
Cannot wait to experiment further, the Amazon fairy shall visit again soon (she brought me really good books on wire and hook jewelry this time).
Merry Christmas to me and here is to more jewelry and sculpture with a hook!
Wire crochet ring- Rounded position. November 20, 2011.
Wire Crochet Ring - Flattened look. November 20, 2011
Wire Crochet Bracelet and Ring. November 20, 2011.
Various Graphite Media, depicting 'Dwelling for Imaginary Civilization of Little People,1998' by Charles Simonds. Made in clay, adobe, paint and housed in the New Mexico Museum of Art. August 2011.
Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.
Photo via minecaching.tumblr.com. Click for source.
Charles Simonds began building clay villages, ruins and what he termed ” dwellings for imaginary civilizations of little people” in the 70’s, in New York.
His microscopic urban interventions at one point could be found, among others, in Paris, Venice, Shangai, Dublin.
They are now housed as prestigious artifacts in art collectors’ homes and museums (like the Whitney in NYC).
Favorite drawings, paintings, collages and handwork on SketchBloom
Baggalini Red.
Ink on Paper. September 2009
July 27, San Diego Museum Of Art. The Age of Enlightenment – Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breuteuil, Marquise du Chatelet by Yinka Shonibare- Ink on hand.book paper
Casa Del Fascio, contrast corrected thru Photoshop, Como, 2007
our very own coffee cart @ NewSchool: Cafe’ A la Carte
Graphite on paper and magazine cutouts. December 27, 2010. Miti and Gianni Aiello.
Pilot Pen on Paper. November 2009
Mare Mosso Act II. Graphite drawing by Gianni Aiello. Collage. March 18,2011
Earth Henna, Eucalyptus Oil. May 2, 2010.
Platonic Solid Exercise. Graphite on Paper. 2007
Watercolor on paper. June 3, 2010
Pencil and Watercolor on canvas
Ink on Paper. December 2010.
Barcelona Chairs by Mies Van De Rohe, 1929 @ the CED Library in Berkeley
Coffee Carrier (delle). Graphite on paper. Kuwait. January 2010
Twomoons Wax Proof-modeled after concept sketch
Ink and watercolor on paper and tracing paper. A bit of digital manipulation. Feb. 09,2011.
Queen Califia’s Garden, Totem/Sculpture. Ink, color pencils and markers. 2009
Earth and Water. Beads and yarn. June 24, 2011
Dr. Gregory House. Watercolor on Paper. June 3, 2010
Collage, Pilot Pen on Paper
Watercolor and Graphite. November 12, 2009
Felt tip on paper. March 22, 2011.
The Sun, the Moon, and on there being no abstracts in life. Pencil, ink, watercolor on 4″X5″ canvas.2009
The funambulist. Ink drawing + digital collage. August 2011.
Waiting for Godot | Static Head. Digital Collage. May 5th, 2010
Ink on Paper. December 2010.
Miniature Pomegranate. Watercolor on chocolate wrap. Kuwait. January 2010
Ink on hand.book paper. Paris, 2011.
Mare Mosso Act III. Graphite and pen drawing by Gianni Aiello. Collag and pastel. March 19, 2011.
Ink on tracing paper. Kuwait, January 2010. The scene at the bottom is what I saw-or decided to see- at The Avenues, the most popular malla in Kuwait City. There is nothing like seeing photography and drawings from a trip abroad to make you realize all reality is subjective, and we choose to see what we want to. We just don’t realize it in our own backyard.
Persimmon- very quick pastel rendering. November 12, 2009.
Final Twomoons Piece, Summer 2008
Ink on Paper. Calabria, Italia. September 29, 2011.
The Fortress of Lost Time. Graphite on paper and magazine cutouts. December 27, 2010. Miti and Gianni Aiello.
The Surface and the Deep. Watercolor. July 2020.
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