Goals

When I started college as an art major, I knew next to nothing about what was out there and the possibilities. One of my first art teachers at BYU was Wulf Barsch, who I've written about recently. From Wulf I learned about an awesome opportunity for an artist, the Rome Prize. The Rome Prize is and was a wonderful opportunity to live and work in Rome at the American Academy there. Wulf knew all about the prize because he'd won it.
Since that time I've been wanting to win the Rome Prize. It's something that's been in the back of my mind, shifting from a pipe dream to a possibility, to a great desire. I love Italy, I loved my trip there, I loved the art there and the rich history there. Almost a year living and working in Italy, so much opportunity to learn, grow and improve.
Next year I want to be ready to apply for the Rome Prize and then go to Rome.

Remembering Italy

A year ago I was getting ready to go on my first trip to Europe, to Italy. It was a dream come true and I keep thinking about the trip and plotting/planning my next trip there. I was over the moon getting  to see so many beautiful paintings, sculptures, and buildings.

We went to the Vatican Museum, the National Museum in Rome, famous sites like the Pantheon and St. Peters and saw the most amazing and beautiful things.

This will be a long post of pictures even trying to limit myself to a few really awesome ones.

So far we haven't even made it out of Rome, we also went to Florence, Lucca, and Pisa.

These next photos are from Florence. There are significantly less pictures than there could have been because the Academia and Uffizi don't allow you to take pictures. Through the google art project you can visit some of the Uffizi though.

Back to Rome.

These places are so full of beauty, it's an incredible experience. I don't know that modern and contemporary art will be quite as worth of such pilgrimages hundreds of years down the road.

Piece of the Week

I was really excited about this piece when I was making it and then didn't love it so much when it was done. I was really excited by the possibilities to the pattern and really I suppose it's more of a pattern study than a finished piece. After giving it some time I've decided I do like it and I'm still really excited about the pattern and how it sort of changes depending on what you focus on.

 Watercolor and Sumi ink
9x9in
2011
Series: Hex

I was going through older posts and found this picture from the National Museum in Rome and I think I'll be making my own version of the design in this mosaic.

One of the greatest things about the trip I just took to Italy, was getting to see iconic pieces of art, the stuff that art history classes are made of. The Uffizi was a mind blowing dream come true and seeing Michelangelo's David was amazing.
I can't explain how exciting it is to actually see a piece of art that you've revered and loved for years.

The National Museum in Rome

I wasn't expecting very much from this museum but I was blown away by it. By the end of this trip I was a little overloaded on marble busts and statues (they're just everywhere in Italy) but we went to the National Museum early on in our trip and it was just amazing. I highly recommend going there. The pictures here are only a small fraction of the ones I took there, which is a small fraction of what was there.