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.

Wow, sorry

Sorry I have not been updating this thing as much as I could be.

But let me tell you I have some very good posts coming up... this list includes:

The Pope, Rome riots, GQ Mag dude, Florence, Milan, and Venice. So you'll have plenty to read in the upcoming couple days.

Hope all is going well, I have a nasty cold in Rome right now and have been in my bed all day drinking multivitamin juice and a bucket of water. I feel like death.

Hope you enjoy reading the future posts, later dudes.