Goodbye Rome

Rome, I am going to miss you.

Almost 4 months there and I feel like we've gotten to know each other quite well.

Things I will miss about you:

- The people I met; Corrado, Gianfranco, Sandro and the Phillie girls.

- The nice man down the street who gives us free appetizers and beer when we ate there.

- Pizza shops at every corner.

- Gelato (Italian ice cream).

- The Tiber river and my walk across it daily.

- Randomly stumbling upon the Pantheon.

- Nights out with Italian friends watching soccer games.

- The old buildings and the crowded streets.

- Cheap, easy traveling.

- Graffiti... really cool graffiti.

Things I will NOT miss about you:

- One way streets, everywhere, with no sidewalks.

- People that walk two feet an hour.

- Mopeds that nearly take off your arms.

- 30 Euro haircuts, and getting a fo-hawk-rat-tail every time. 

- Homeless people asking me for change, and me giving in way too much.

- The smell of really strong cheese.

- Dog poop.

It has been fun Rome. I think I've grown up a bit because of you. Thanks for a great 4 months and a trip I will never forget. I owe you a lot and hope to see you again someday.

__________________________________________________________

I am safely back home after almost a day of traveling. 

This will be the last post so I want to thank you all for keeping up to date with me and taking an interest in my travels. Your e-mails have been great.

Thanks again, take care and hope to see each and every one of you soon.

Ciao.

While you were sleeping

While you were sleeping I was watching the sunrise over the North Atlantic on my flight back home.

A 9 hour flight over the ocean and I sat next to a drunk Russian named Reggie. It was an interesting flight home.

Final Charcoal Sketch

My Final Charcoal Sketch

Charcoal Sketch

One of my favorite and one of my best pieces I have created over here is my charcoal sketch of Apollo and Daphne. 

Just a quick reminder, this is what I was going off of.

This is my final sketch. Tomorrow I put fixative on the people so they don't smear and then I coat the entire rest of the page with a charcoal background. 

Close up of the faces. Daphne turned out GREAT, I don't know why Apollo seems to be winking in this photo, it doesn't look like that on the sketch.

The ground where you can see Apollo's shoe and Daphne's feet turning into roots.

My exhibition starts tomorrow at 6 and I have a few friends that I made here coming to it, along with all of our professors. I turn in my final photography slideshow and am printing off some of the pictures to mount and hang next to my stuff. It's finally all coming together!!!

Only 6 more days left here, I leave on Sunday, it's coming up so fast, cannot wait to get back and take a break with the fam. See you ALL SOON!

Mixed Media Mosaic

What we were attempting to make.

What we made.

My Piece.

My piece around other pieces. You can tell who talked to each

other and who just did there own thing : )

Deadmau5

So I have officially lived. Last night I went to the Deadmau5 (pronounced Dead Mouse) concert at a club here in Rome called Brancaleone. One of the best experiences of my life.

It was on the outskirts of Rome and took an hour to get to. We took a bus, metro, then a train and still had to walk 20 minutes to get to the place, but it was worth it.

I didn't even know of this artist until I was over here and downloaded one of his remixes of another song I really liked. After that I looked him up a bit and got a few more tracks and then a week ago I saw a poster advertising for him, in Italian of course, so I had to do some translating but it turned out he was coming to Rome. I was excited this entire week waiting to go to this concert. 

I went with two of my roommates, Alex and Joe, and we didn't get to the club until around midnight, so I thought I had missed some of it. Turns out he wasn't going on until 2AM, we waited the 2 hours in a room watching the projector and random people dancing out in the middle of the floor.

Around 1:30 the place was packed and a little before 2 he came out and just started playing. His music is house which is considered techno and trance.

His logo is a mouse head and durning a few of his songs he put on this costume hat.

He remixed two of my favorite songs, "Adiago for Strings" by my favorite techno artist DJ Tiesto, and "Harder, better, faster, stronger" by Daft Punk, another amazing band. It was cool to hear these songs remixed live and by another artist. 

Here is him DJ-ing.

Up close shot of him.

The concert didn't end till 6 and on our walk back home we found a bus that took us straight to a major stop by our house, so a lot easier to get home than getting there.

This place was huge, the room was packed, it was crazy loud, pretty sure my hearing is still a little muffled, and it was an awesome experience to be at this concert, in Rome with now one of my favorite techno artists. 

Soccer Pictures

I said I'd put the soccer pictures up at some point, here they are. I finally got a hold of my roommate Alex's camera to snag some of these.

Walking into the stadium. 

Olympic sized stadium.

The soccer players protecting their junk, I laughed every time they did this.

Injury! Bring out the golf cart.

Photography Final Video

Final slideshow for photography, I needed a cover page and worked with the transitions and the music, this is what will be going on for my exhibition next Tuesday. It rocks, didn't know what to name it so I just said photography final, and in the bottom left hand corner are the names of the people that modeled for me, Gianfranco Infantozzi and Heidi Petersen.

Altered Book

Here are some of my background pages in my book for mixed media, it is suppose to represent Rome and Italy and what has inspired us here. Since I am Advertising and Design I have noticed a lot of the ads, whether it be movie posters, graffiti or magazine ads.

One of the first pages, and one of my favorites. This is just a background, I will collage over it later.

This will be the index page. I plan on using spray paint in some places on the left side.

This is going to be my Tiber river page, since I walk across it daily.

This detail is from the Testaccio page, an area of town where a lot of clubs are.

Not sure what page this is going to be yet, possibly Sorento and Capri.

These are just a few pages, I have 56 to fill total and have the mojority of them covered. As you can see I have used a lot of movie posters, my roommate Alex and I go on raids every now and then when new posters come out.

Hopefully I'll get my charcoal sketch up too along with my paintings which I will be working on this weekend.

Hope you all have a good weekend and be good, or be good at it!

Slideshow for Photography

I just found out I could upload videos, so here is a rough draft of what my presentation will be like. Hope you enjoy.

WARNING: This song uses a curse word, please don't be offended.

Photography Final

My Photography Final is tomorrow and these pictures will be paired with the earlier pictures of Gianfranco. I made a slideshow to the tune of a Maroon 5 song, and it fits really well, the slideshow shows them getting closer but the end part of the song sings "I guess this is goodbye" and the last photo is of him walking away (the one where he is walking towards the camera down below.) I hope it goes well.

This is my personal fav.

Heidi rocks at working it!

R.I.P. Addie

I found out today that my cat Addie was hit by a car on Sunday.

I got her in Okoboji two summers ago when I was living by myself and wanted a roommate. When I came back to Ames I had her with me and couldn't bring her with me to my apartment so she lived at home with my parents and our dog at the time Lucy.

Lucy and her didn't hit it off right away and it looked like there were going to be problems, but before long they were chasing each other around the house. Addie was a big fan of lying in the middle of the road, in the summer she would find a nice lit spot in the street and lay on it because it was the warmest part.

She brought a lot of dead animals into the house, and some live ones too. I remember on Easter we came home to a dead rabbit in our kitchen. Once my mom called me home from my apartment to get a chipmunk out of the house. A few mice were brought into the house, a couple of birds and once a FOX, not really, but she could have if she wanted too, she was that good!

I wish I would have known I wouldn't be seeing her again when I left, and I can't remember my last memory with her is but I am sure it was saying goodbye to her before I left the house for the airport.

It was only a matter of time before this happened, and it's probably best that it happened while I was over here.

Rest in Peace Addie, you were a great cat and you will be missed much.

Soccer Game.

Hey there, I hope everyone had a nice weekend.

I finally went to a soccer game which I have wanted to do for some time now. It was labeled as a "high risk" game meaning there were high chances of riots breaking out!!!

It was Milan vs. Lazio (Rome). Milan was ranked #1 and Lazio #4. The game took place in an Olympic sized stadium and we were sat very high up. NOSE BLEED!

I wish I would have known a little more Italian before I went because I would have liked to know some of the chants they sang, although I did know enough to make out a few swear words hear and there.

We lost 0-3, Milan scored right off the batt so it was down hill since the beginning. Not the most interesting game to go to, and no riots happened, but glad I went. My friends took some pictures that I will try to get up here soon. Take care.

Siena, and almost time to leave.

Over Thanksgiving break I made it to Siena for a day and a night with some friends from the program. I didn't bring my good camera since the trip was so short, but I could upload some pictures that my friends took when I get them.

Siena was nice, in the middle of wine country, I had a nice red wine there for lunch. We just walked around a lot, there wasn't too much to see except the old gothic architecture of the city. That night we went out to a club and the next morning we came back to Rome. I'm glad I got to visit Siena, some of the new James Bond movie was filmed there.

It's less than 2 weeks till we are done with class and we have our exhibition here, less than 3 till I leave back to the states and exactly 3 till Christmas, and I'm in Mexico with my mom's side of the family.

It is slowly creeping up on me but I am Almost ready to head back. I'm going to try to make it to a soccer game this Saturday, they verse Milan, and it should be a great game, I've been trying to go with people since I've started this trip and finally we're doing it!

My altered book is coming along great, and all I have left for my self portrait is my jacket and my face. The fruit painting is another story, I have a bit to do on that, I'll be in studio on Saturday before the game and Sunday all day.

That's all for now, it's been a while since I updated this so thought I'd give you something, sorry no pictures, but they'll be some of my artwork soon.

PEACE!

My Art History Professor... Johnny Depp

The guy waving his hand on the left is my art history teacher. Some of us think he looks like Johnny Depp from Secret window. He is a really nice guy, sometimes anti-America, who knows everything about Renaissance art, I have learned a lot from him.

The Ice Bar

Saturday night some girls made breakfast for dinner for some of us dudes and then we watched the office. After that we went to an Ice bar here in Rome. The entire inside is made of Ice.

Here is where you got your drinks, the ice bar top.

Even the glasses were made out of ice, I almost ate my whole glass.

We got to wear spacesuits. They were thermal ponchos that kept us warm. This is my friend Hilary and I all decked out in our gloves and suits.

Instead of tables there were some huts made out of ice with sheep skin seats. We made a toast to eskimos later.

It was a pretty tiny bar and cost 15 euro to get in but that included a free drink. The bar was a one time thing to do, but glad I did it.

Photography Project

We had an assignment (Finally) for photography. Here are my pictures for the class of my friend Gianfranco who I met in Rome. 

You can click on the pictures and make them larger. We had to have some inspiration, mine I got from a clothing store here in Rome, I liked the advertisements in their catalogue. I tried pulling off pictures from the site to show you but it won't let me take 'em. Here is the sight if you want to have a look, click on the new collection button and view the slide show.

http://www.davidmayernaman.com/

Take care peeps.

Charcoal Sketch

Working on a Charcoal sketch for Mixed Media, here is what I'm trying to go for...

It's the chase between Apollo and Daphne by Bernini. The legend goes that Eros got mad at Apollo for some odd reason and cast two arrows. One tipped in Gold and the other lead, the gold arrow struck Apollo and made him fall in love with whoever the lead arrow struck, which was Daphne. The lead arrow made Daphne loath Apollo and so a chase begun. In the end Daphne fell tired of running and asked her father, the river god, to end the chase. Her father turned her into a Loral tree, and so you can see her turning into the tree in Bernini's sculpture.

It's a really sweet piece, the more you walk around the sculpture, the more of a tree she is turning into. It's hard to see but her hands and hair are turning into branches and leaves, her legs are turning into the trunk and her feet are growing roots.

Apollo is by far my favorite greek God, it was Neptune, GOD OF THE SEA, but now it's Apollo, he is the God of the arts, medicine and the sun.

Here is the beginning of my charcoal sketch, don't know why it's sideways or how to turn it. So just tilt your head or the computer if you want a better look.

Take care.

-Rob

Florence and Milan

Our first stop on our Northern trip was Florence, which I had to navigate and get us to our museums on time. I did a Great job if I say so myself.

This is the Madonna and Child at the Uffizi museum by Fillipo Lippi. Probably one of my favorite paintings, and one that more detail went into Mary than Jesus. No pictures were allowed so again I went all cognito and this is the best one I snapped of it.

I did my best imitating David. If I could have taken off my clothes and brought a slingshot into the museum without getting arrested I would have.

This is a giant needle sticking out of the ground. Can't remember who this artist is but he also did the big umbrella outside of the Principle building in Des Moines.

The cathedral in Milan. The third largest church in the world next to the Vatican and one in Paris.

I'm feeding the birds in the square. I gave the dude two euro for corn which I guess wasn't enough so we argued for a bit and I left.

Well I hope you are all happy that I've finally updated this thing with stories and photos. I have Venice left and might split it into two different blogs because I have a lot of photos from it. I'll also put pictures of my artwork up here soon. 5 weeks left, Rome is going to be hard to leave.

Have a good weekend everyone and take care.

Love,

Rob

GQ Mag Dude

I was out on my birthday in Campo Di Fiori, celebrating with some friends I have met from other schools here. We were making our rounds, getting some free shots. I get to talking to a random couple who is on their honeymoon. We talk more and it turns out they are from New York.

I asked if they had ever heard of Conde Nast, as one day I would like to work for the company, and the guys response is "I'm a staff writer for GQ."

GQ is a magazine I have been getting monthly for the past few years. I eventually want to work on the creative team for this magazine. Pretty much my dream job.

He jotted his e-mail down on a used bus ticket and his wife told me to e-mail her as she started out in Chicago working for Time-Out, and she could hook me up with an internship.

Best birthday present by far this year.

Obama is already changing the world, and getting me free food!

    On the night of November 4th I could not sleep. I was on CNN.com constantly refreshing the electoral map page, making my own predictions, changing states from red to blue, giving Florida to McCain and seeing how close this race could be. But around 4 am CNN predicted that Ohio was going to go to Obama. That's all I needed to know. A tear rolled down my check and I went to bed. Finally, America gets it right.

     If you did or did not vote for Obama, we all know he is going to do a great deal for our nation. I remember reading something similar to "Your 2 cents worth" in a London paper, and one reader wrote "Wouldn't it be a shame if Obama didn't win with the entire world pulling for him?" Barack Obama is not just going to lead our nation, he has the ability to lead the world.

     I did not realize how America affected people outside of the country. I did not know how people looked TO us for guidance. While on our Northern trip my professor, Brenda Jones, gathered every newspaper possible with any relation to the election or photo of Obama. One article stuck out to all of us on the trip. It reads:

"From far away, this is how it looks:  There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim.  There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens.

Tristram Hunt, a British historian, put it this way:  Obama “brings the narrative that everyone wants to return to — that America is the land of extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen.”

But wonder is almost overwhelmed by relief.  Obama’s election offers most non-Americans a sense that the imperial power capable of doing such good and such harm — a country that, they complain, preached justice but tortured its captives, initiated a disastrous war in Iraq, turned its back on the environment and greedily dragged the world into economic chaos — saw the errors of its ways over the past eight years and shifted course.” 

     While on our trip we ate dinner at a restaurant in Milan. It didn't take more than a second for the waiter to realize we were American and asked us if we were happy about Obama. We all said yes and this man, if possible, was more excited than us. Later 2 free appetizers were brought out for us to enjoy. 

     Later in Venice we had trouble getting into a museum. We could get in free if we were students, Italian students. It looked like we were going to have to pay a lot to get in. I shouted out that we voted for Obama. The man grinned, took our paper work and let us in for free.

     I have never felt uncomfortable being an American over here in Italy. The people here have always been friendly, however I have always felt judged. But now, no more. I think a burden has been lifted off the perception of America.

     I think the world is going to view us different. I think they have seen that we as a people were sick of corrupt politics and poor decisions. There is a new respect for America. America is now again, after so long, the nation of "extraordinary opportunity and possibility, where miracles happen." 

I saw this...

r o  w h e n  m e

Can you figure it out?

The answer is in the comments page.

Rome Riots

There were riots in Rome for a little over a week. They were all over Italy, but things got a little out of hand one night in Piazza Novana (Mom, Dad, that's where you took my friends and I out to eat) and things wound up on CNN. Chairs were thrown, whistles were blown, mace was Not used because they don't believe in that.

The riots happened because cutbacks were approved for the education system. It's nice to see youth getting together and standing against a common force, especially something as vital as eduacation (I spelled that wrong on purpose). 

These pictures are actually from my Florence trip with my parents, but it shows you what I had to weave through on my way to class one day.

The mob had taken over the Tiber island bridge and had stopped traffic on three intersecting streets. People started to get out of their cars and ditch their buses to grab a coffee on a side street.

Pooed on

I got pooed on by a bird today.

I was one of the lucky dozen on the trip who had not been hit yet, who had not been used as target practice, but I did not knock on wood soon enough and today... my shoulder got hit. In my sweatshirt that reads "Italia" none-the-less.

Now I have had a true Italian experience. 

I guess they kicked the birds out of Venice, San Marco Square, and now they have all come to Rome. They sit up in the trees and mock you. Literally thousands are above me on my walk home, and a lot of the time I can hear splats around me. There is no way to avoid them, unless you have an umbrella, which I only thought was for rain, and so I got pooed on.

Thought you guys would get a kick out of that. 

Viva La Popa

Alright, so the Wednesday that my parents were here we had our priest set up a meeting with the pope. After la popa drove around in his Popa mobila, he sat down and read to everyone in six languages and blessed everybody.

Then we got to go on a tour of the Vatican.

Be aware these pictures are not mine, I forgot to charge my camera, but thank the Pope for Heidi and her handy cam, cuz now I have pictures to show all of you.

Me and the rents outside the Vatican.

Michealangelo's "La Pieta." The ribbon draped across Mary's garments says "Michealangelo did this" or something like that. This sculpture was not signed at first so a lot of people took credit for it until Michealangelo grew tired of people taking credit for his work and so he signed it. It is the only piece he ever signed. 

Cool statue.

Here is the Pope Giving a shout out to his peeps.

La Papa, La Popa, The Pope, the big man, the big cheese, the head of the Christian church, the guy who is not wearing the cool hat that usually comes with the job.

Yea, totally got blessed by the Pope.

It was a fun trip with the parents, we had a good time. This was one of the last days they were here. After that they took off to London town.