Zanzara art series in progress

This fall I started a series on the "zanzara," which is how you pronounce the word "mosquito" in italian. In keeping with my upcoming trip to the Arctic Circle next June, this series discusses the role of the mosquito in this region and its impact on the environment due to the increase in rising temperatures. Warmer seasons are coming earlier and lasting longer, and large amounts of mosquitos are rampant in the lower Arctic areas. Entire swarms have been observed surrounding one caribou and sucking enough blood out of it in one day to kill it. THAT is power in numbers.

I started off with these charcoal/pastel sketches below.....

I then moved on to oil paintings on wood, 50 cm x 70 cm in size. Pietro Manzo is a fabulous and outstanding painter here in Firenze, and he was my professor/mentor while creating these paintings.
(You can check out his wonderful work here:  www.pietromanzo.net)

Playing around with the concept of mosquitos as sculptures, I wanted to use materials from

the earth to exhibit how these tiny, fragile creatures have such a strong presence to cause huge damage to our eco system.  Below are three pieces symbolizing this idea.

zanzara #1: travertine, fresh flowers

zanzara #2: marble, fur, tree branch

zanzara #3: travertine, caribou antlers

Dario Arcamone is a super skilled sculptor living in Toscana who mentored me with these pieces. I broke a rock or two while carving and he was always there to walk me through everything and find solutions. 

Daria Filardo (http://www.celesteprize.com/dariafilardo) is a mind blowing curator and art historian who has taught me crazy amounts of information this fall. She really helped me cess out concept issues with this sculpture series.  

I also worked closely with John Taylor - an exceptional person/academic/sculptor and will continue to do so this spring in prepping for the Arctic residency. 

Again, this series is in progress, so I will post more next spring as additional pieces come together.

Thanks for checking it out! 

:)

London / The Frieze Art Fair

Quick trip to London last week for the Frieze Art Fair - it was fantastic seeing the top galleries in their field representing artists from regions worldwide: Antwerp, Berlin, San Paulo, Shanghai, Romania, Istanbul, and many more.....here are a few photos from the fair below. Also to note: I  trecked to the National Gallery and viewed "Rembrandt, The Late Works", the National Portrait Gallery for the "The Real Tudors: Kings and Queens Rediscovered," and the Tate Modern to see the Sigmar Polke and Kazimir Malevich exhibitions. I highly recommend the Malovich! I saved my favorite for last: Nicola Samori's solo show at the Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery - the work was outstanding. 

New Art Studio in Firenze.........

Here are some quick photos of my new art studio - I am just moving in and I think Frida digs it as much as I do - check out the gorgeous ceiling! Doesn't get much better :)

It was 85 degrees in the morning and I left the apt in a tank top and jeans....and then this happened....

Freak storm today in Florence- sending this out to all you Californians bearing the heat wave over there...

Walking around Firenze

There is so much to see! I got up early and trecked a bit around the south side of the Arno before getting down to work - here are a few pics as the day was beautiful!

We made it !!!

After trains, planes, buses and taxi's we finally made it! The only thing we did not get on was a boat...and a bicycle......very jet lagged and groggy, but happy.  The best thing so far is hearing the church bells chime every hour. Fantastico. Here are a few photos of the city I took while walking around trying to find a grocery store.

Up and Moving to Italy

Frida and I are now en route to Florence, Italy! She is the biggest trooper ever- going on 29 hours of traveling due to flight delays- still stuck in the airport in Frankfurt.....we press on......here are a few pics from the various airport terminals that we spent 6-8 hours in each.

Note to self: dogs throw up when accidentally given fizzy water instead of flat....

Not sure who's luggage this is but it's kinda cool.

Doggie relief station in the Washington DC airport - she wasn't having it.