Hello everyone. since I've written last, I've found a house with a bunch of Brazilians..which is a lot of fun... school continues to intensify...which is not so much fun a lot of times, but is very interesting...it's harder to find time to update this blog... right now i am working on a painting which dates back to the 1700's, it comes from a church in Pistoia...a city in Tuscany..i will attempt to post some pictures when i have more time on the computer..
the other painting in our conservation class is of San Francesco...i swear there much be about 10 million San francesco paintings in florence alone...that and 'Madonna with Child'... never a shortage.
With all these classes i'm finding it harder to concentrate, and these things take concentration. one little slip of the brush can make or break the painting, or at least the zone that you're working on. Paola, our professoressa, got after me this week for making a little section too dark...What have you done! she said. oops. my italian gets kinda sketchy at times like these. oh well.
at least when i get home theres always my brazilian roomies who are always warm and kind.. our new roommate is a musician, a percussionist..now the house is always filled with music...it makes hard days not seem so hard...

Ah, I finished my first week of school....mamma mia...we have already been assigned to our paintings we will be working on in one of our classes...it has a lot of work to be done.. i feel like a surgeon...a surgeon of art. i-m also taking a biochemestry class and a class of italian law....that should be just a joy. i hope to survive. right now im staying in a hostel...ostello monaca, a very lovely place to stay by the way if someone is planning a trip to florence...although, i-ve found one can stay in a hostel for only so long before you start going crazy, i can only take so much of naked englishmen in the halls and people sealing my milk and olive oil from the fridge, even after i write my name on it...the nerve. i hope to be moving out fairly soon.

florence is as lovely as ever, i will post pictures once i get a chance...

Id like to take a moment to give a shout out to all my fellow wal-mart remodel associates...i wish you all well.

Away!

To Florence!

Music! Art! Hurray!

Ciao Tutti!

I now have a CD I'm really looking forward to sharing with everyone...I was thinking of calling it something along the lines of..."Diana's Corner of Exceptionally Beautiful Sentimental Songs for Lovers, Sleepers and Dreamers".....Yes? It includes the smooth mellow tunes of "Autumn Leaves", "In a sentimental mood" and "You go to my Head" along with others...So If you would like to hear me preform them live, come hear me sing:) I will be at the following:

Blue Moon

saturday, sept. 19th

7:30 - 9:30pm

Red Wing, MN

Burly Coffee

sunday, sept. 20th

1:00 - 3:00

Cannon Falls, MN

I will be showing some of my art as well. There will prints, note cards, bookmarks and other pretty and useful things showing my paintings available as well.

The leaves are now falling from the trees and drift past the window, nature's subtle way of saying summer is going away and fall is closing in. I'm getting ready to leave for Florence once again. I want to finish school so badly! I want to be an art restorer! I'm anxious and excited and kind of nervous, it will be a much more challenging year... but I have my ticket in hand and just waiting for my visa.. so I'm going and I am prepared for the new challenges that lay ahead....

If you'd like to hear more about everything, stop by Saturday or Sunday for a lovely time of art and music and pick up a copy of my CD...

Looking forward to seeing you:)

Thoughts, By Diana.

Hello! I'm back in the States... but I'm already trying to get back...to Italy...I want to finish school! It starts up again in October. So, this summer is Mission: "Return to Italy". Yes. I finished my first year at Il Istituto per l'arte e Restauro, Palazzo Spinelli In Florence. I am studying art restoration of paintings on canvas and wood panels, which I find fascinating, I love it very much....

Art restoration involves different fields and aspects which encompass a good portion of my heart..art history, art and painting, inter-cultural experiences, travel... and imagination and creativity. For me, it is a world of mystery and beauty... there's something so intriguing, something that captivates me. Works of art faded and darkened by time...aged beauty, beauty and stories often hidden under a veil of dust and grime, just waiting. The cracked paint, the tell tale lines of time, covering the surface of a painting like an old woman's aged skin, who is full of stories and secrets from a life gone by, all sealed behind a quiet, thoughtful smile..just waiting, for someone to ask. A restorer's job is not to cover up these marks left by time which would lie about the age and undermine the history - what the painting has to say about the times past or, for that matter, change anything about the painting. The artistic language of the artist, the artistic style of the artist must remain the same. the job of the restorer is to and preserve and to celebrate the spirit of the painting.

Most of all, this is a skill I can contribute to the world, it's something I can do to help preserve the heritage and history of various people and places....and perhaps even learn and about and celebrate different cultures.

I could go on and on when I start thinking about it, but these are a few reasons why I find art restoration so interesting, and why I want to pursue it as a career. I just love Florence and Italy..Europe in general, it's almost overwhelming, the history, the art, the people, the culture...In fact, just walking from the school to my apartment, in that small stretch of road that I traveled everyday, which is a 5 minute walk, it contained so so much history, so much to see, it often took me a lot longer than five minutes to get to school because it always seemed like there was something new to see, something new to take in..something new to experience, to sense...it was a stimulus overload at times...which I loved.. the language, the movement, the colors and people, the smells, the sounds..the grit and grime, the chaos, the beauty, the tastes, the intrigue, wonderment....inspiration.

On returing home, I come back with so many new experiences, and feelings and memories of....taste..of the sea...smells...colors..people...mountains...of everything...and and and.... when I sit down and try to paint, everything turns in to a blur, its hard to remember things clearly, to make out solid images.. so when I start, and all that comes out in a flood of color. Its more of an emotion than anything, an elusive memory...All I can do I capture the feeling in paint. Most of the time, the subject and composition comes to me as I lay down the colors of the background, which you can see in the paintings of my bird series.....