Gallery Show Opens

Today we had the opening for the gallery show for all the pieces, which all look amazing. They will stay on display in Pietrasanta until September, when mine and the rest of the ones from ASU will be freight shipped back to Phoenix, where we will hopefully have another exhibition to show them at the university.

View upon entering gallery (my piece is the first on the right)


Details of my piece












View from back of gallery


Food line at stand outside of gallery. We were all able to hang out and talk for several hours, which ended when the big Italy-Germany game started, since it seems like everyone in the whole town was determined to watch it!


I am going to miss everyone so much, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to travel to Italy to carve marble.

Pietrasanta

Today we arrived in Pietrasanta, a small town near the Mediterranean Sea where our sculptures will be put on display. When we got here (after our bus got a flat tire on the freeway), we were able to see the gallery space where our pieces will be set up. Afterwards, we toured a foundry where they make bronze sculptures. We then had some free time to wander around the center of Pietrasanta before heading to the monastery where some of us are staying. It has been refurbished to be more like a hostel, but much of the original architecture is still in place. We each get our own little room, but we all share a bathroom. After staying at the hotel for a bit, we were able to go see a business that creates marble sculptures based on both contemporary and ancient designs.

Tomorrow I will get to see what my sculpture looks like when it's installed in the gallery. I am very excited.

My sculpture set outside gallery


Outside the foundry


Working with wax at the foundry


Center square in Pietrasanta


Hallway in monastery


Stairwell in monastery


My room at monastery


Work in progress at marble sculpting business


Plaster casts that are used as references for marble sculptures

Finished

Today was the last day of working. My sculpture is all polished, wrapped up, and placed on the moving truck. Tomorrow morning we will be leaving for Pietrasanta, where we will be staying in a monastery for two nights while the gallery display for our pieces is set up. In case someone wants to purchase one of the pieces, we have to start thinking about how we should price them.

Finished!


Wrapped up for safety


Transporting


Even more wrapping for safety


Waiting for pick-up with other sculptures


Loaded onto truck

Florence

We got to take a day trip to Florence, which has some of the best art in Italy. We mostly looked at outdoor sculptures, since the lines to get into the museums were very long and we didn't have a lot of time there. There were also a lot of outdoor markets that were fun to walk through.

Florence streets


Cathedral


Door


Interior


Contemporary art installation


Bridge


Italy themed artwork painted on wall of Disney store
(sadly, they had no special Italy themed merchandise)

Picture Day!

We still have a little under a week to go, but today was picture day for the brochure that will be put out to advertise the show at the end of our time here. Mine isn't quite done yet, but it looks very nice.

Transporting piece to take photograph



pictures I took while the professional photographer was taking pics

Stone Update

Halfway through our time here. I've made a lot of progress on my sculpture, but stone carving is very slow going compared to the computer programming that I am used to. From here, I just have to keep sanding everything down to get it all scratch-free and shiny.

The Past Few Days

The past few days we have been doing a lot of stone carving (obviously). We also went out for special dinners the last two nights. The first night was a large sit-down meal followed by chestnut-nutella pancakes and karaoke / interpretive dance. This most recent night has been a small meal of assorted snacks and games of pool.

Tomorrow there is supposed to be a town music festival near where we are stone carving, so that should be interesting.

More notes:
We keep hearing this one super catchy song everywhere we go. It’s in Italian, but I’m pretty sure the chorus is “Queen Sophia” repeated several times.

Italians really like thinly sliced salted meats. Like… a LOT.

Everyone is getting along very well. There has been no major arguments or interpersonal drama.

There was a storm so bad last night that several of the tents that are set up over the stone-carving area blew over. In addition, the umbrella on our balcony snapped, so the hotel manager had to come and replace it.

broken umbrella on balcony


After we did laundry (this was the day before yesterday), we had to hang our stuff outside to dry. One of my shirts fell onto the balcony below us (yellow blob is my shirt). Fortunately, the cleaning lady was able to retrieve it for us the next day.


pretty sky


first dinner out



town where we had second dinner out

Rain and Thunder

It rains a lot here. At least for a few hours every day. The rain isn't super heavy, but it isn't light either and it is very cold. The past few days there has been a lot of lightening and thunder. Sometimes, when the lightening hits, the lights flicker in the hotel.

In general, it's been getting cooler the past few days. I've been sleeping with an extra blanket.

Pictures from Lucca

Here are some pictures from the day trip to Lucca.

Wall surrounding Lucca (that has a lovely paved path for biking / walking on top)


One of the Cathedrals in Lucca


Lots of tucked-away buildings


Roman colosseum that was turned into medieval houses and is now a open area for restaurants with apartments above


Carved cat candle that reminded me of Candle (my cat)


new robin egg earrings