Life, etc.

Hello Loves! Sorry I haven't written in a while..I was gone from the apartment over the weekend and the internet wasn't working too well last week. I'll try to make up for it.

Things are going amazingly well in all areas of my life currently. Especially with my work. I feel that this is the first time in my life that I have consistently produced good work the majority of the time. I feel that I have really begun to "streamline" mu process in a way. Perhaps this is because the studio where I'm doing my residency is only open 5 hours a day (welcome to Italy), so when I'm in the studio, I'm pushing myself very hard to get as much out and as good of stuff out as possible. Normally when Im doing my little emotion landscapes I have to do a few ugly ones to get to the emotion, get to the root of what I'm feeling, to then make good ones that are straightforward in their emotional intensity. Yeah that all sounds super gallery speak, I know. But in all seriousness, I feel that right now I am able to "get there" so quickly (perhaps because I'm alone and don't have friends/family/people who speak my language around me at all distracting me, or maybe because being in florence again is helping me get in touch with myself....who knows?).

I'm also seeing the landscape transcending a small painting, I can see and am working to make it go beyond that, which is very exciting (speaking of which..photo friends...if any of you know anything about printing photos on canvas please talk to me, I'm interested in it). And in addition to that, I'm doing so much drawing/sketching/photo-ing of the Duomo facade and interior, that I literally cannot wait to get back in Batik about 400 scarves. I look at the Duomo every day, for a long time, and EVERY SINGLE TIME I notice something new that intrigues, excited and mystifies me.

Okay enough about art. Now about life. Life is going well. I'm having a nice time with my roommate, Cesar, and it doesn't hurt that he's always playing guitar so there is always music in the apartment. I'm eating tons of amazing food but have still managed to lose a ton of weight (this, in fact, is a very BAD thing because none of my pants or skirts fit). I'm doing a lot of reading, this last week inside the Duomo actually, because it was dreadfully rainy out. I'm also having a blast sort of helping travellers out. People frequently ask me for directions or help or something (which makes me feel pretty good, like I actually look like I belong here or something, even if I'm not feeling that way), and are always so relieved when I answer them in English.

Oh and Matt was here this weekend. Thats sort of like all the sugar in the caffe latte, or the icing on the cake, so to speak. More on his trip later, though.

xoxox