Last Project Pictures at Last

Here is a Picture of the first big project that we worked on for about a week or week and a half. It was a study on Sixtus V's urban plan for Rome and our interpretation a certain point of interest. The church in the center is Santa Maria Maggiore, and we focused on 2 Axis that came off of it as our thesis. We used a variety of techniques like hand drawing and water color, as well as acetone ink transfer.

Venice on the Water Bus

Here is a video of Venice when we were heading
to the train station on our way out!

Long Weekend!

Phew! We had a 5 day weekend, and we took advantage of by hitting the road!

We left Wed. after we got back from Ostia, and headed on a train to Florence. From Florence we took day trips to Pisa and Sienna. We stayed in a hostel in Florence that was really nice, and very much enjoyed our stay.

Day 1 Pisa!
We traveled to Pisa on a local train that was about 6 dollars from Florence, and spent about a half of a day there. We visited the Chapel, Baptistery, and famous leaning tower of Pisa. We had lunch and gellato to finish off the visit.
ps. it was warm and cozy this day

Day 2 Sienna!
Friday we took the local train out to a hill town south of Florence, Sienna. It was so cold when we got there, and the wind never stops blowing! We didnt stay there too long because we were miserable and cold when not inside the buses, but we did go to piazza del Campo and the Cathedral/Baptistery before making our way back to Florence enjoying the Tuscan countryside.

Day 3 Florence!
After traveling to the train station and spending our nights in Florence, we thought it was befitting to see the city a little more in depth. We got up early to visit the statue of the David, which was amazing! We all stopped in there to sketch him, but sculptures are really hard to draw we found.... We went to the Duomo of Florence and climbed about 5000 stairs to the top to see the view. This was incredible and well worth the 2 following days of soreness.

Day 4 Venice!
We capped off our trip with a night and half day in Venice. We again stayed in a hostel here, but was not quite as lucky with the nicety. There was about 10 people per room, 30-40 people in the hostel, and 2 bathrooms amongst us. Drunken people wandering in at all hours of the night ended in a few light hours of sleep at best, haha. We got up early and waited in line with 8 people in front of us to take showers, but then finally got out to see the city. We took the water bus to the Doja Palace and went to across the channel to the glass furnaces, and watched a demonstration of how to blow glass. We then made our way back to the station to ride the train 5 hours back to Rome. Home sweet home, our own beds felt good after that.

Ostia Antica

On Wed. last week we took a class trip to the coast, where there is one of the best preserved cities from Roman antiquity along with Pompeii. Ostia was the port in which all the goods came into, and were then transported to the center of Rome via horse or boat by river. All the marble that comes into Rome that covered so many famous buildings came through this port.

First Project = Finished

This is a space saver for when I get the pictures back for the last project we completed.

We took the Sixtus V urban plan, and analyzed it, forming different hypotheses about more localized portions of the map.

We chose to focus on two roads leading up to the main center point of the plan: Santa Maria Maggiore. We formed our theory based on one of the two major axes in particular: Via Panisperna and how Sixtus aligns the dome of his chapel on axis with the street he created, that connects the political and economical centers of medieval Rome: the Forum, to the center of his new urban plan; and when more closely examined, himself as well.

We used a variety of hand drawing techniques including water color, inking, and acetone transfer to create this piece.

Studying Santa Maria Maggiore

Here are a few pictures and a video of when We got to go up to the top of S. Maria Maggiore.

Here is a short video of the view we had!


Front of S. Maria Maggiore

On the Move

Hello everyone!

Sorry it has been a few days since my last post, but it has been a busy week! We are just now getting into the core of our first project with visiting professor Karen Rogers, and she has been cracking the whip!

We have been looking more in depth at the "first urban plan" for Rome done by Pope Sixtus V. In particular the area around Santa Maria Maggiore, which is the center point for the plan. Allen, Evie, and I walked the straightened streets of Sixtus and formed our theories as to his intentions. After all that was done, we got lost on the transit system going home and it took us almost 2 hours to get back. =*(

Since then we have been working on a presentation board to display all of our research! We have been doing everything by hand, using water color and acetone transfers. Yes, even I helped water color, and had fun with it. Hopefully I can get a post of the finished product to put up here soon.

We went to the zoo that other day as well, which was very fun! The animals there all looked pretty sad though.... They had sections for injured animals in recovery as well. I thought it was funny that they had a cow there, haha.

The Class at the base of the Spanish Steps.