CHRISTINABEE

BOYS ARE STUPID AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT

2011-09-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

Since I'd had no studio and had been moving around a lot, what I've worked on since working pre-college is some illustrations for two zines. Quickie Volume II, edited by Rebecca Mock, debuted at Baltimore Comicon this August. I think my pages really stood out, I was happy with the results and I think the zine came out really good over all.

the opening page was one of mine:

then a short comic by Melody Often:

two spreads by Michael Clayton:

a spread by Aimee Fleck:

another of mine:

and another of mine opposite a short Archie fan-art comic by Rebecca Mock:

This last piece is actually supposed to be horizontal like this:

and I think it looks a lot better that way. The original drawing is in color and is also, I think, a lot better. I may post it soon, although it gets a bit personal at that point.

The second zine was just published today for Small Press Expo in Bethesda which is a super great event! It's titled Siempre Solo (forever alone) and the two main contributors were myself and my good friend and wonderful illustrator Abby Boeh (check out her work!) The front cover was hand lettered by none other than the hand lettering king Dai Foldes and the adorable and endearing back cover illustration was contributed by Ricardo Contreras.

I did the end paper design and the opener,

then, Abby's hilarious five steps to getting over a break-up,

lastly, my super downer of a mini-comic.

Last I checked they were selling well! I'm very excited to have had the opportunity to put this together and as my first quick and dirty zine I'm pretty proud of it. If you'd like one, shoot me an email and let me know!

I also got two zines from an awesome dude and illustrator, Nick Iluzada, and this awesome poster by Domitille Collardey which I super love and am going to frame and put in my room because I love it. It's a house in space! also she signed it which is always so cool.

I'm really into how zines can be a way to think about things that are important to me but that never quite make it into my work because they're not over-archingly important. They seem to be functioning for me as a simple way to get out ideas in a quick, easy, colloquial way, which I really, really like, so I'll definitely be putting together more on my own and with others. Look out for Letters to Ghosts coming out in a future near you!

TOO BUSY FOR YOU, TOO COOL

2011-09-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm just now beginning to return to some semblance of normality! Since I last seriously posted I graduated:

Had my thesis show Cultivating A Presence:

my mom took many requisite photos of me standing in front of my work, here is but one of them :

I went home for a couple of weeks to run my summer camp with my mom, came back to Baltimore to work pre-college, during pre-college moved out of my old apartment and into the commons (where pre-college happens), decided to stay in Baltimore instead of moving back home, found an apartment, signed a lease, moved into my new apartment, went back home for two weeks to house sit my house, help my mom buy a car, help my sister sell an entire apartment's worth of furniture and go through a break up. I came back to Baltimore for what should have been a fresh start to end up with a ton of drama, a broken heart (in every direction), and oddly enough a job out of the blue.
I now paint murals four days a week with a small company called NS studios, although I am hoping to start as an artist's studio assistant soon in addition to that. I've just finished setting up my studio so I've started a new set of drawings and I was recently involved in some illustration projects that I'm going to post soon. I'm back now, and I'm all yours Baltimore.

UP IN THE AIR

2011-07-14T21:19:00.001-07:00

These are some new small things that I made the other day sitting in my pre-college class that I'm TA-ing. They're collaged from 4 x5 contact prints.

Ricardo and I totally changed our minds in a whirlwind decision to stay in Baltimore instead of going home for a year to live with our parents. It's a little scary but also totally elating.

MICHAEL SAYS THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME

2011-05-06T07:20:00.001-07:00

TEENAGE DREAM

2011-05-03T11:50:00.001-07:00

scanning in old negatives and missing my bedroom.

GAWKING

2011-04-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

I just became a Gawker Artist! check me out!

10% TALENT, AM I RIGHT?

2011-04-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

you see that little white edge where I cut a sliver out of my drawing? distracting, isn't it? I now spend about 90% of my studio time painting these stupid tiny edges so that they're not white. That's seriously how my art is made.

CUTTING CLASS

2011-04-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

playing around with some 4x5 contact prints of Ricardo's yesterday.

the thesis show fast approaches.

JUST GIVING IT AWAY

2011-04-22T07:48:00.001-07:00

I'm selling these pieces for REE-DIC-U-LOUS cheap because I'm moving and don't want to take them with me. I'll ship them, send me an email at christinabarre@gmail.com if you want one!

WHY DON'T THEY JUST DRAW THEMSELVES?

2011-04-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

craptastic photos of some things I started today. I'm excited about them!

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

2011-04-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

new work from this weekend! medium sized cyanotypes.

THE IMPERMANENCE OF EVERYTHING

2011-04-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

I started in a few new directions this semester and only a few have endured until now, not because I didn't want to continue them but because I did feel a little bit of pressure at having my thesis show come graduation time and I didn't want a kind of ramshackled together sampling of "things I tried this semester" This is a detail from something that I just started not too long ago and was originally planned as my kind of coup de grace that would take a pretty central place in my show. I've decided to stop working on it and scale back, not in terms of size or ambition or anything like that, just in terms of living life too fast.

I was getting a lot of conflicting critique about all the new work I was making, that it was new and exciting and risky, but still safe, that it was somehow academic, that I should take out the figure, that I didn't need real spaces, that I work in a predictable way and yet I was taking a lot of risks and changing at a very rapid pace. I'm still not sure what exactly I was thinking when I started these new pieces, I was excited about them for sure, but I think there was also a part of me that was kind of sticking it to 'em. I went completely abstract on a huge collaged together built, woven, painted but not a painting, half 3-d, half 2-d business and I kind of hated it. What everyone asked me was if I enjoyed doing it, and I didn't even know, I mean I did because it was just painting color and pattern and it was pretty free. But I didn't like it, I didn't even like the idea of it. The point is I was probably headed in this direction on my own and I would have arrived there at the appropriate time, but I jumped the gun because I feeling all this pressure to change and change NOW. There were some weird hybrids along the way that I liked but nobody thinks are successful like this.

and now I'm turning back the clock. I'm going to focus solely on what I want my thesis show to look like and how I want to represent myself and putting myself back on track with myself. It's been a really frustrating time riding along at someone else's frequency. So these cyanotypes are what's in the works and some new charcoal drawings that I'll post soon.

I also realized that this has a striking similarity to these ceramic sketches I made and cyanotyped a while back.

I'm nervous about how little time i have left to pull together a show that I'm happy with, but first the first time in a long time, I'm feeling really great about what's happening in the studio instead of feeling really anxious about where things are going and I think that alone will get me through to the end feeling good and in the right place.

THOSE THINGS THAT WERE COMING

2011-03-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've been working on these on and off for a while, and I think they're finally at a stopping point. I'm not convinced that they're finished, but they're close and in any case I'm going to wait until things settle down after graduation to re-asses them because I'm working on a few new big things.

Steffashion

2011-03-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

My wonderful and talented cousin, Stephanie Wagner, has started a fashion blog and it's AWESOME! go check it out at steffashion.blogspot.com!

SOMETHING IS COMING

2011-02-27T17:52:00.001-08:00

I'm working on things, they're just taking a bit, I'll be back with you.

PINK

2011-02-21T16:20:00.000-08:00

A CONTINUUM

2011-02-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

small, less than 12 x 12, a circle.

TINY EVEN IN DEATH

2011-02-07T17:46:00.001-08:00

SUPERB OWL

2011-02-06T17:24:00.000-08:00

some small things to kick off the semester, which has now actually been going on for a while, more to come soon of the other work I've started!

SO MANY DAYS AND NIGHTS

2010-12-10T17:29:00.001-08:00

it's coming along really nicely.

terrible photo though.

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ORANGE THING

2010-12-01T16:36:00.000-08:00

WHOA GUYS. let me tell you that an orange thing came and took over this painting. This painting has gone to crazy town and it's NEVER COMING BACK. It's a good time. (in progress)

I'm also super into the sketch for the "creature" (it's not a creature) as Mimi Gross calls it.

SMOKE AND HORSES

2010-11-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

I did some ink sketches the other day partially from some images of World War II soldiers. I'm really into the ink on tracing paper and am definitely going to make more, I got a LIFE book on Evolution that I'm excited to break out.

HI MOM

2010-11-17T18:37:00.001-08:00

check these out.

UNDER REVIEW

2010-11-08T19:39:00.000-08:00

my review boards were today. I think it went very well over all, although I have noticed that the longer ago a critique happened the more I focus on the negatives, because they're the most important and therefore the worse I feel about it as time goes on. However, that said, it does mean that I will have a little more time for a week or so (I'm going to luxuriate with a tiny break from the studio, by which I mean I'm not going to go in every single day this week) and that means I can document some work that I haven't had a chance to and overhaul and reorganize my website which is a mess!

Most important news, I'm going to start a very large canvas based on the small lavender painting with the shadow in the last post, I'm not blowing up that image, it was just the spark for another image.

sorry no pictures today.

THERE MAY BE A STABBING

2010-11-04T20:08:00.000-07:00

I did this little painting last night and I'm really in love with it. I immediately considered making some more of them, but now I'm not so sure. I'm thinking about it.

In other news this painting was going awesomely last night, when I worked on it for the first time in weeks, up until right after this point and now it's a fiasco. I guess I'm going to spend all weekend not only working on everything else I have to do, but also fixing this even though it should already be presentable for review boards on Monday. ALSO these images are being totally de saturated by blogger for some reason, they look a lot better IRL.

DAWN

2010-10-27T06:18:00.001-07:00

Just finished this drawing, it has a counterpart which will be coming soon. Also some photographic counterparts where my head is not on fire and I hope they work out (I haven't developed the sheet negatives yet). In other news, my art work from my semester abroad in Italy FINALLY arrived this week! I've finally documented most of the work and it should be up on my website by the end of this week!

Up an' Out

2010-10-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

framing it up, shipping it out.
(it's not actually shipping anywhere, they're picking it up)

A FLAME, A LIGHT

2010-10-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Will from rare books and manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum, where I worked this summer, showed me these crazy Durer wood blocks of some scenes from Revelations; one of them had an angel with a sword that has a cloud body, a head made of the rays of the sun and columns of fire for legs. I doodled this during a meeting later that day and then it became a small painting. I'm sorry tat I'm just showing you these small pieces that I make to go in different directions every now and then, but the larger works are taking their time and I'm not really ready to show them yet. I'm working on them and will post them soon.

HOLY MOLY

2010-10-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

siamese twins at the Comme des Garcons SS2011 collection have me pretty excited.

BUZZING

2010-10-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

I feel like there's a lot of energy buzzing around and this is what it looks like.

SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS

2010-10-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

I've been working on paintings lately. This is a small one I did last week, I've been feeling the tightrope walker lately.

So that means, the moon must be like really far away

2010-09-16T13:49:00.001-07:00

I started working on some digital collages yesterday, here's one of my first tests.

Ricardo doesn't know where he's going

2010-09-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

We got up to some shenanigans yesterday doing our large format photography assignment for this week. The assignment is pretty basic, centering around photographing architecture, so I decided we should go down the Jones Falls Expressway because there are a lot of abandoned warehouses with a lot of machinery still inside and some lovely 19th century details. HOWEVER, the boys took over and decided that we should go to the Lebow Coat factory which shut down some twenty years ago and has been abandoned ever since. A lot of kids from MICA go there to do projects or to scavenge fabric and buttons. There are racks upon rack still filled with finished or half finished coats and the floors are covered in buttons in some parts. Anyway, Ricardo said he knew where it was and he definitely didn't, so instead we stumbled upon this building which we thought was it for sure, so we went inside. When we got inside it was clear that it wasn't the coat factory but by some leftover filing cabinets with paper work still in them and some large glass coverings for lights that were around we've surmised that the company that owned the building used to manufacture and also maybe rent out lighting for the city and for city events. We've dubbed it Baltimore Light and Electric.

These shots are not our photo homework by the way, just some documentation of
our exploration since large format is not really a large quantity kind of process.

We still have to take more shots, so we'll probably get to the coat factory or the Jones Falls warehouses next week. Also! I'm wearing my new Annie Wu shirt that I got at SPX this weekend with her illustration for the made up western "Poison in her Well". I'm in love with it.

That Night a Forest Grew

2010-09-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

I'll be posting new works from my thesis as often as possible. This is a study for a much larger painting which I should be starting by the end of the week.

2010-09-07T06:54:00.000-07:00

Mingoedale farm, MD

2010-09-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

There will be updates soon. I haven't even begun to work really because the first two weeks have been full of road trips to weddings in North Carolina and engagement parties for friends. Here are some lovely shots of our road trip wedding by my boy friend Ricardo Contreras. Our friend and room mate Michael Clayton, offered his car and driving and was a doll in general. Some more photographs coming and then some work.

crossed my mind

2010-08-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

I just saw this cover for the movie Doubt for the first time and it BLOWS MY MIND with its awesomeness. The movie was really great, the cover is just as good.

Sometimes I actually make artwork

2010-06-10T18:54:00.001-07:00

Normally I make a lot of art work, but ever since going away to Italy for what was supposed to be school and was totally not, and then summer and my internship at the Walters I'm not really doing much these days other than working for Will Noel in our Hogwarts-like room full of manuscripts and hanging out with my friends who are in Baltimore for the summer (Abby, John, Kat,Michael, Rebecca) HOWEVER, I did do this one thing this week because I found two new tubes of pink acrylic in my garage in Florida so I brought them with me and futzed around.

I'm super into pink and pastels lately.

First Day

2010-06-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hello internets,

As you may or may not know dear readers, I am interning at the Walters Art Museum for two months this summer in the rare books and manuscripts department and today is my first day! A big part of my job is going to be to tweet about all the beautiful Islamic manuscripts in the museum's collection such as:

so follow me on my twitter account Christinabee to see them in the coming weeks! They'll be a lot bigger than this because we send out the original files so you can see all the intricate detail. It's a great way to see some art everyday!

Wrap up

2010-04-22T03:01:00.000-07:00

So the semester in Italy finished up a week ago or so and since then Ricardo and I have been on the move, and we will be for a while, so this is the formal wrap up and announcement of a hiatus which will end on May 11th when I’m back in the states. The MICA show at SACI had a good turn out and marked the end of our semester nicely with only our finals for our SACI classes left. My etching critique was quick and painless and my Helen Watterson art history class was well, easy, but far from painless. Anway, we’ve left SACI behind to hit up Venice, Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and Amsterdam so here’s an overview of our final show and I’ll be back on May 11th!

my watercolors

my watercolors with Ricardo’s larger light drawings

Ricardo Contreras

James Eads looking at Visual Journals nex to Jeff TImlin’s paintings

Kate Robinson with her work

Samara Rosen

my final pieces - Dawn and Dusk with Scrolls

Myth

2010-02-25T02:20:00.001-08:00

These are my latest pieces for my MICA class in Florence for Ken Tisa. We were challenged to make a piece about myth, although that was clearly not a stretch for me or my work in particular, I really liked the pieces that came out of it, I think it's a new good direction I'll be going in. These are some of the smaller pieces (4 in x 4 in or so), there's one slightly larger piece (25 in x 25 in or so) which is basically the same. I'm really excited about these colors.

this one doesn't really fit in with the rest:

Time/ Infinity

2010-02-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

This was my first piece of the semester. Our assignment was to make a piece dealing with time because Ken had us read Einstein's Dreams which was really lovely and I highly recommend. Anyway, because of the structure of the book, which briefly described many many different universes with different perceptions of time, or rather with a time continuum that flowed in a way different from ours I had this idea of universes or ovals or circles or spheres and from that came the Moebius Strip which is a mathematical phenomenon. The Moebius strip has many curious properties but basically if an ant were to crawl along the length of this strip, it would return to its starting point having traversed every part of the strip without ever crossing an edge. Because of these properties the Moebius strip has been used probably since ancient times as a symbol of infinity, which is why I chose it.

The design that's drawn and cut out of the strip is this greek meander, which I drew from this postcard that I bought in Ravenna. The meander is from the mausoleum of Galla Placidia and is even more enchanting when you can see it shimmering along the whole edge of the inside arches. I really fell in love with the patterning in the mausoleum of Galla Placidia and San Vitale and on top of that the meander as the pattern that endlessly constructs itself in a ribbon of pattern without having separate elements was perfect for the Moebius Strip concept.

I finally got around to documenting it today and I rather like the photos I came out with. I wasn't ever originally planning on having one of the final products be photographs, but during my critque I was wearing this sweater and I really loved how they looked together and how everyone's first reaction in the class was to stick their head through it! So I think the final products are both the sculpture and these photographs. I have quite a few though, which is/are you favorites? I'm going to need to pick one to be the main image for portfolios and my website and such, let me know what you think!

I'm actually here to do things

2010-02-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

So, do you remember the part where I'm actually studying abroad in Italy and not just on the longest vacation ever? yeah, I didn't remember either don't worry about it. Here's what I've been doing other than blogging, vacationing, museuming and traveling it up! Here's some odds and ends to begin with:

This is the same print, printed two different ways which is pretty nifty.

These two plates are in progress, just the first and second states or so.

I just finished editioning these two. We have to edition everything in my printmaking class, which is upsetting because none of my plates are meant to editioned, but to printed as one of a kind artist's proofs, so for me especially it's a huge waste of time and paper. boo.

two drawings I did on the side, one in preparation for an assignment in my class with MICA professor Ken Tisa who is here with us and the other from a plaster cast of a Renaissance bust which I found around the studio and have been keeping in my studio.

WHAT A JERK

2010-02-09T01:42:00.000-08:00

So after the Borghese gallery we took a bus to Tivoli to see the Villa d'Este obvs belonging to the d'Este family. The gardens were SO AMAZING which is why most of the photos are of them and not the interior which had nicely painted walls and ceiling but was empty and nothing super spectacular. I'm going to be a jerk and not explain everything, so here's pictures of the gardens at Tivoli and sorry all these pictures are of me, but Ricardo was goofing off a lot and not in the picture taking mood.

This tile floor MARKS THE END of the photos of Tivoli. We got on the bus and went to Hadrian's Villa where all of my wildest dreams came true. There is a particular spot in Hadrian's villa that I've been wanting to go to for ever (since I was seventeen, geez, the wait of a lifetime) I'll alert you to its presence when the time comes. To explain a tad about Hadrian, he was the Roman emperor who came just after Trajan, so he had it good. He built Hadrian's wall (WITH HIS OWN BARE HANDS, that's totally not true) all the way out in Great Britain where Rome was at the height of its expansion. The people generally loved him, he didn't get a long with his wife, mostly because he was homosexual which presented a bit of a problem and he built this bitchin' villa even though he was never there. i.e Rome was mega rich at this point and this villa is a small town, and is amazingly beautiful even now when it's half dead and all the decoration is gone.

HERE IT IS:

and now it's gone.

TA DA! and if you wanted more words to go with these pictures, relax, I'm sure Ricardo will FREAK OUT that I haven't explained every tiny detail and he'll come and edit this for you!

Rome Days 2 and 3 so many days ago...

2010-02-07T08:35:00.001-08:00

So I know that this is terrible of me, but I've been putting off the Rome posts for so long that we're just going to finish them off in a bit of a hurry so we can all get on with our lives. Sorry for the quality of this post compared to the one you would have gotten if I had sucked it up earlier and done it sooner. But since you'll never know the delight of that post that exists only in my head, deal with this one. So we woke up super early to Rome's regular charming self and walked all the way up one of Rome seven hills to see Bramante's Tempietto! It's one of my favorite pieces of clacissicizing architecture and I was not disappointed. It's just as lovely and balanced and tiny and darling as it looks.

The Tempietto was built by Spanish monarchs on the supposed spot that st. Peter was crucified. Thus he is supposedly buried in this chamber underneath.

Did I mention Rome was charming? Ricardo and I decided that if we were ever to live in Italy it would be near Rome. (based on this photograph alone, of course.)

That photo is on our way to a villa that would have originally been on the outskirts of Rome, but is now very much in the city. The first thing we ran into was Raphael's oh so lovely Galatea. It's a Fresco, Galatea is sexy and topless because that's what you want on your wall if you're a rich Renaissance guy!

and lots and lots of beautiful ceiling paintings and large airy rooms.

and some ancient graffiti from when Rome was sacked in the 1500's!

but we weren't really allowed to take photos so this is all we got. We got to rest a bit while EVERYONE went to the bathroom, but we were SO PUMPED for the Vatican which was next.

Ricardo was obviously way more into these pre-staged shots "for the blog!" Ricardo likes to plan our blog posts as we're living in the real world. It's pretty darling. Anyway we got to the Vatican and we stood in front of St. Peter's and took a picture! here it is.

The first thing we did in the Vatican was go into the Pinacoteca, which is the painting gallery.
This is the oldest painting in the Vatican's collection. It's got awesome sea monsters and business.

AND A GIOTTO! sing song sing song. It's a very early Giotto. So he isn't THE FATHER OF THE RENAISSANCE yet.

And Raphaels! This room had three of Raphael's most famous paintings stood up like they were on easels, just chillin. This is the Transfiguration, where god acknowledges Jesus as his son on earth.

And Veronese! I thought the fabric in this was so beautiful and rich. I really loved it.

Caravaggio! entombing Christ and all.

As we left the Pinacoteca we went in to a giant courtyard where there was this enormous niche in this beautiful building with this pine cone (which was about double my size) from Roman antiquity.

then we went into the building with the Sistine Chapel and on the way we saw...

The Lysippos! Lysippos was a Greek sculptor who used a canon of perfect proportions for this sculpture known as the Apoxymenos or the scraper because he's an athelete scraping off the oil they used to rub on themselves during competitions.

The Laocoon! Ricardo's wildest dreams have come true! (even the scary ones? YES.)

The Belvedere Torso! A fragment from antiquity that seriously inspired Michelangelo.

Pericles whose head is too big!

A fertility goddess!

A LLLLLOOOOONNNNNGGGGGG hallway full of painted maps!

and four hundred rooms painted on EVERY INCH!

Finally, The School of Athens by Raphael in la camera della Signatura, where the Pope sat to sign his documents and conducted serious business. hmmmmm. It depicts a bunch of super famous mathematicians, artists, philosophers etc. from antiquity to the Renaissance all hanging out talking and discussing. There are portraits of Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, and Raphael himself in there.

The other side is less famous, but just as awesome.

and FINALLY the Sistine Chapel! whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa.

Ricardo is a mo'fo'ing genius so he got us some VERY ILLEGAL pictures. heh heh heh.

From there you go onto NEW ST. PETER'S which must always be written in all caps because it is SO BIG.

with a BIG BALDACHINO made of bronze by Bernini.

and GIANT BABIES.

and... and... giantness.

and best of all Michelangelo's small and most beautiful Pieta. Not giant except in impact. It was more mesmerizing than I remembered, and Ricardo was so taken with it that he took triple the amount of photos that was needed.

The Swiss Guard uniforms are SO COOL. SO COOL.

St. Peter's looked so beautiful as the sun was leaving. Blue and orange is one of my favorite color combinations.

After the Vatican (as if you should ever do anything after you've been to the Vatican) we went to see some more Caravaggios! The crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul are together in this small chapel and and I got sneaky photos which I think are pretty good.

Then we dragged ourselves up the Spanish steps...nothin' to see there. Thanks Helen.

We stopped briefly at this very early Bernini fountain.

AND LASTLY

There are no words for the Ecstasy of St. Theresa.

On the third day we weren't actually in Rome. Our first stop was just outside Rome at the Borghese Villa which now houses their extensive collection, which includes many Caravaggios because Scipione Borghese was one of his greatest patrons and also a Cardinal, so he pretty much got whatever he wanted.

The Madonna of the Pilgrims

Judith and Holofernes

Scipione Borghese himself
by Bernini

The Denial of St. Peter

David and Goliath

Caravaggio painted Goliath in his own image because he felt that he was so sinful and awful. He wasn't completely wrong seeing as he murdered at least one person for sure and was a bit of a jerk.

This is a famous sculpture from antiquity known at the thorn puller. It tells the story of a young boy who ran for miles and miles to warn is people of an oncoming army (I forgot who was invading who) and he didn't stop to pull out the thorn in his foot until he had reached the town and sounded the alarm.

St. John the Baptist by Bronzino

The Deposition by Raphael

The Rape of the Sabine Women by Bernini

Apollo and Daphne by Bernini

La Canova

This is a portrait of Napoleon's sister who married into the Borghese family, as Venus. She was very...friendly shall we say, and the Borgheses were a bit embarrassed that she would put her...forwardness out there so publicly. SO they hid it in the basement while she was alive!

Bernini's David

A testament to badassery.

We also went to the Gardens at Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa but they're coming in a post of their own.

HIGH-larius

2010-02-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Sorry this post is a little late in coming but it was SO DAUNTING! pity us. Also right now I'm a little sick and by that I mean REALLY REALLY sneezy and snuffly and my nose is unbearably itchy on the inside. In other words. gross. Anyway let's do it to it! yes I am aware that NOBODY says that.

Here are some more pretty pictures that we took at the ASS CRACK OF DAWN. Ricardo really likes them. We took the fast train to Rome at 6:30 am! One plus: we got to see the sun rise. When we arrived in Rome we took a bus to our hotel to leave our bags and then immediatly headed out to our first stop which was Borromini's WHAT IS THE NAME OF THIS CHAPEL?!!

For those of you who don't know who Borromini is (i.e everyone who is cooler than art history geeks) he was a super cool but sad and touchy artsy type guy in the Baroque period who made amazing buildings and was Bernini's biggest rival. He is pretty much a very cool baroque dude.
Unfortunately you can't go in this church because they don't have the funds to hire people to look after it and keep it open. So we moved on to THAT CHURCH that has the Contarelli chapel in it! OMGZ EXCITEMENT.

This is what the interior of the church looked like, but it's not important because the Contarelli chapel is in the far left corner.

Sooooo the Contarelli chapel is so great and cool because there are a million Caravaggios in it! (there are three Caravaggios) It's also kind of a fun name game because it's called the Contarelli chapel because the patron was a french dude name Mattieu Cointrel and Italian people can't pronounce that apparently AND because Caravaggio is not a name but a place! and his real name was Michelangelo Merisi (da Carvaggio). ALSO there are all these paintings of St. Mathew presumably because the patron's name was Mattieu. HA. CLEVER GIRL. and no one thinks any of this is cool but me.

The Martyrdom of St. Mathew

The Calling of st. Mathew

The Inspiration of St. Mathew

From there we high tailed it to the Pantheon. Ricardo was SO EXCITED. I was pretty pumped as well. There was this pretty sweet ancient Egyptian obelisk outside which Ricardo tried to read because he was in Ancient Egyptian art and architecture last semester and knows some hieroglyphs. PRETTY COOL GUYS.

Here's the Pantheon!

Here's us AND the pantheon for the parents! Two for one deal! Limited time only! Because you know we can't do this all day!

The doors to get inside are REAL BIG and covered in Barberini Bees! The Barberini were mega prominent family in Rome (as in SEVERAL popes prominent) and their family crest had three bees on it so now there are a lot of bees all over artworks in Rome! They're pretty cute.

and this is the only shot we have of the inside.

Totally kidding. this is what it looks like!

and Raphael was buried here! Here's his tomb! (it's weirdly small) unfortunately poor Annibale Caracci (founder of the Bologna school of painting along with his brother and painter of the Farnese ceiling, which you can't see except with an appointment MADE A MONTH OR MORE IN ADVANCE because that building is now the French Embassy (???!?!?!) and the French apparently SUCK)

ANYWAY, this is one of Bernini's earliest pieces in front of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. Frankly, it's allright. Nothing spectacular. Gotta cool obelisk that was stolen from the Egyptians and all.

We went into the church behind the elephant. Its called Santa Maria Sopra Minerva because it was built over an old pagan temple to the goddess of wisdom, Minerva. It had a smattering of styles and was pretty nice.

BUT WAIT, WHAT'S THIS?!? A Michelangelo sculpture that NO ONE ever mentions? BLASPHEMY!Christo della Minerva by Michelangelo Buonarotti

WHOA so totally awesome and unexpected! That little loincloth bit was added on later during the counter-reformation, because the Christians became way prude.

After leaving through the back door, we walked to Sant'Ignazio which for reason I forgot to take a picture of the outside of. Not that that's the important part because the important part is this amazing quadratura (when there' fake architecture on the ceiling making it look like there's no ceiling) by Andrea Pozzo which illustrates the triumphs of the Jesuits over the four corners of the Earth! So there are A LOT of angels with a Jesuit monk rising to heaven in the center and the four continents are shown underneath, Africa, Europe, America, and Asia. Ambitiousness of the crazy visionary and artistic kind is apparently rewarded in heaven. This is (of course) a FRESCO if you please. (Which means they painted this in sections as the plaster was wet, which means they had VERY limited time to get it right.)

Also pretty funny and charming (I think) is this painted trompe l'oeil dome! it looks just right if you stand in the perfect spot (same with the ceiling) but once you move it's totally obvious that it's just a flat surface. It was painted on canvas and stretched across the blank space on the ceiling. They did it because they couldn't afford a real dome. sad face.

So! That was all fun and games but Helen never-stops Waterson thinks that Baroque works are impressive but basically distracting and obnoxious so we went to see some ancient stuff instead. Thu we ended up in front of Trajan's column! Trajan ruled from 98 B.C.E to 117 B.C.E and the Roman Empire was extended to its greatest extent during his reign. The column once stood in the middle of Trajan's forum and commemorates Trajan's victory over the Dacians (Dacia is around the area of modern Romania)

Ricardo here now! Christina is sick and fell asleep so its up to me to finish posting! As you can see this is me in front of Marcus "Badass" Traianus (aka Trajan)'s column.

Christina in front of what's left of Trajan's Forum

A forum was essentially a long plaza of super important buildings like civic centers and markets. Forums were essentially the center of Roman life. Well, after that we WALKED FOREVER until we reached that oh so famous of Roman landmarks...

THE COLOSSEUM (featuring Christina and Ricardo!)

The Colosseum is a really cool place with a pretty sweet story. Alright so this total douchey Mcdouche pants Emperor Nero takes a bunch of public land for his own private Neverland Ranch. However, nobody likes him, so as soon as he's dead it gets totaled and the area lies in ruins for a bit, until this hoopy frood called Emperor Vespasian said 'Hey guys, I know this used to be yours and all, so I'm going to build a bitchin' amphitheater where you can watch guys kill animals and each other.' And the Roman people, being a rather violent lot, thought this was the greatest idea since the toga, and watched over 9.000 (I'm European now) animals get killed during the inaugural games, which lasted 100 days. On the very first day they held a mock naval battle by flooding the arena. THEY MADE A FAKE OCEAN.

Here you can see some of the intense underground tunnels that allowed them to summon animals and slaves at will!

ANYWHO, after that we ran off to get lunch. That was uneventful, but then after lunch we saw THIS:

That's right mofo' The triumphal arch of Constantine (with a bunch of stolen parts from other people's triumphal arches) and Christina being an Asian tourist.

And now, even though Christina has been asleep for two days and perhaps her legs are beginning to atrophy from not leaving the bed, she is now back and narrating. AKA This is Christina typing right now. AND here's the Roman forum right now.

The arch of Septimius Severus. NOT a name from Harry Potter.

Here's Ricardo showing how baby tiny he is in comparison to the Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine also known as the Basilica of Peace. This is only one third of the building. Because Romans are crazy and have concrete.

The arch of Trajan, because he's so badass that he gets a column and an arch and an equestrian monument in the middle of his forum. After we left the forum, learning what all the buildings were and what they were used for and what not we went to yet another church where there was nothing of importance except the piddling remains of what was once going to be one of Michelangelo's most incredible works. Julius II contracted Michelangelo to design him an incredible tomb as soon as he was named pope. The original design had 40 figures on it andwas completely in the round. Most scholars speculate that the reason Old St. Peter's was rebuilt and remodeled was to fit Julius' II tomb because it wouldn't have fit in Old St. Peter's. What was eventually made has something like ten figures on it, only three of which are by Michelangelo and the most exciting is the Moses, which I personally don't even find that inspiring but everyone else ever seems to think it's the shit. So here you go!

After we left there we walked some, passed some more ruins and walked all the way up the palatine hill to see the equestrian monument of Marcus Aurelius which is the only equestrian monument that comes down to us from antiquity.

This one survived because those who had been destroying images of those crazy pagan Romans thought this was an image of Constantine the first Christian emperor. ACCEPTABLE. So thank god for that.

the view from the Capitoline Hill

From there we walked to down THE BEST PART. Or thethingIhadbeenwaitingforallday. Il Gesu.
As you may have guessed by the name Il Gesu s a Jesuit church and as you may have guessed by the obscene amounts of gold, it's a baroque church. The ceiling painting by Gaulli is INCREDIBLE. Some things you may not really be able to tell upon first glance are that the gilding is in fact real and in three dimensions BUT Gaulli had parts stuccoed over so that he could paint figures on top of the gilding thereby making it look like the figures were coming out of the sky that comes through the "open" part of the ceiling and into the building where they would overlap the gilding. AND he painted fake shadows on to the gilding to make it look like the central light source (which is the glowing name of god "IHS" in the center of the composition) was casting shadows in real space. WOAH. MIND FUCK.

ALSO there's a Caravaggio, Madonna of the Pilgrims in one of the chapels. It wasn't actually there because it was in a show at the Borghese gallery because this is the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's unfortunate death, but we saw it on the last day and the reproduction in the chapel was very good. Supposedly the pilgrims that are adoring Mary on their knees are the patrons of the paintings, although that's not totally documented. Totes documented is that that's a prostitute posing for the Virgin Mary. SURPRISE! Caravaggio is SHOCKING and BRUTAL!

yeah, yeah, yadda yadda. A Bernini fountain?! much more exciting.

The Trevi Fountain!? the most exciting of all. We mos'def threw in our useless American coins and made wishes. BUT YOU CAN'T KNOW WHAT FOR.

LASTLY we were SO HUNGRY that we didn't even go back to the hotel even though it was twenty steps away from this restaurant called Le Masquere WHICH WAS SO GOOD. It totally merits all those caps even though what I normally write totally doesn't. Ricardo had pasta a la carbonara which was AMAZING and I had asparagus risotto which was also good but was outshone by Ricardo's past fo' sho. We also split some bottle of wine with about seven people so it didn't come out too expensive and there were live opera singers and candles and one giant cobalt blue wall and waiters that could only understand half of what we said and plants hanging from... EVERYWHERE... and it was amazing.

look! we have friends! here's some people we like from left to right: Amelia from Indiana, Galen from California/New York and Anne from Connecticut (?)/ New York, who is also our room mate.

and so ends the saga of the first day. saying that makes me realize that there are still two days of Rome left to blog about and I suddenly feel much less accomplished.

In case you were wondering no we are not making basically any art work. I do intend to remedy this...eventually.

RHIZOME

2010-01-26T03:22:00.000-08:00

A repost of a repost. please forgive stealing.

I found this on Rhizome. It's very exciting.

VSSTV - Very Slow Scan Television (2006) - Gebhard Sengmüller

By Ceci Moss on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

Very Slow Scan Television (VSSTV) is a new television format that we have developed building upon Slow Scan Television (SSTV), an image transmission system used by Ham Radio amateurs. VSSTV uses broadcasts from this historic public domain television system and regular bubble wrap to construct an analogous system: Just as a Cathode Ray Tube mixes the three primary colors to create various hues, VSSTV utilizes a plotter-like machine to fill the individual bubbles with one of the three primary CRT colors, turning them into pixels on the VSSTV “screen”. Large television images with a frame rate of one per day are the result, images that take the idea of slow scan to the extreme.

-- FROM THE ARTIST'S STATEMENT

YOU SHOULD BUY A LEATHER JACKET (please go watch the second newest episode of 30Rock)

2010-01-26T03:13:00.000-08:00

This is an interview of Rei Kawakubo, the founder and head designer of Comme des Garcons, from Interview magazine by Ronnie Kooke Newhouse from a while ago that I really liked.

Rei Kawakubo went to university and studied art and literature, like a lot of bright girls do. But then she taught herself how to design, set up shop, and soon started to change the fashion world. Maybe design came over her like a dream, or maybe she was possessed by genius. Wherever that force majeure came from, suddenly this small, mild-mannered woman who had worked in textiles and as a stylist for a bit began to create startlingly original clothes that made the world take notice. She started making clothes under the label Comme des Garçons in 1969 (later incorporating it as a company in 1973). It quickly established an aesthetic that caught on with the art crowd and chic bohemians, and influenced all of fashion. By turns conservative (think black-and-white) and radical (think asymmetry and unfinished), Comme des Garçons became the preferred label of the avant-garde and the highly independent. But it never settled into a set style, and as black gave way to color, near normality would sometimes disguise subtle subversions. Kawakubo designed clothes with a modus operandi more familiar to conceptual art than to fashion. Despite her radical approach, or maybe because of it, Comme des Garçons is today a great success, commercially as well as artistically. Forty years later, she's still at the forefront of fashion, doing her very own thing with the same uncompromising ideals and method. Although she's very much in control of all aspects of her operation, she is hardly focused on herself-Comme des Garçons now also offers lines created by staffers Junya Watanabe and Tao Kurihara. And recently the company extended its reach (and price range) with a collaboration with the huge retailer H&M. Rei Kawakubo was interviewed in Paris by Ronnie Cooke-Newhouse, a longtime friend and creative director who has created advertising for Comme des Garçons among others.

RONNIE COOKE-NEWHOUSE: Journalists sometimes describe you as intellectual, ascribing to you a kind of rigorous, cerebral approach to fashion. Is there another way you would describe yourself?

REI KAWAKUBO: I am not conscious of any intellectual approach as such. My approach is simple. It is nothing other than what I am thinking at the time I make each piece of clothing, whether I think it is strong and beautiful. The result is something that other people decide.

RCN: Next year the company will be 40 years old. When you started, you did so to be a free and independent woman in Japan. How do you remain free?

RK: In terms of creation, I have never thought of suiting any system or abiding by any rules-either a long time ago or right now. In this respect I have remained free. The necessity has grown, as we have gotten bigger, to think about commercial aspects of the business more and more, because of the responsibility we have toward our staff and our factories.

RCN: Does the deadline of having to show a collection a few times a year help or hinder your creative process?

RK: Since we are in the business of fashion, deadlines are normal. I can't say if they help or hinder me.

RCN: What is so important about being new? Does creation have to be new?

RK: Creation takes things forward. Without anything new there is no progress. Creation equals new.

RCN: Why do you always go back to black?

RK: I have always liked black. However, recently black has become as habitual as denim, so I wanted to find tomorrow's black.

RCN: How do you balance art and commerce and still remain free.

RK: Feeling free inside oneself is being free.

RCN: Is there something hopelessly bourgeois about being an artist? Do you escape that by making something utilitarian, even if it is described as art?

RK: It is not in order to escape. There is surely worth in making simple things, and there is worth when utility is the concept. But art need not be bourgeois, necessarily. There is nothing bourgeois, for example, about hair artist Julien d'Ys great creation for this collection, where hair, hat, and makeup become one.

RCN: Fashion has become a big business, dominated by large corporate enterprises, like LVMH and the Gucci Group. You collaborate with this world, as you recently did with Louis Vuitton, but you also hold yourself completely apart from it. What is your attitude toward the dominance of fashion by these corporate entities?

RK: There's no deep meaning. It's just business. But even with business methods and ideas, it is necessary to have something new.

RCN: Is fashion purely a practical and aesthetic activity, or does it possess a moral dimension?

RK: What you wear can largely govern your feelings and your emotions, and how you look influences the way people regard you. So fashion plays an important role on both the practical level and the aesthetic level.

RCN: Do you care about critics and commentators?

RK: It would have more meaning for me to hear what critics have to say if their values and their ways of living were deeper and more serious.

RCN: Comme des Garçons has one eye-from fabric, form, shape, shops, and communication to the way you run your company. That is obviously very important to you.

RK: For me this goes without saying, given the -nature of the company I decided to create. It is primordial.

RCN: You say you are a fashion designer, but many people call you an artist. Why do you think they see you as one?

RK: I guess it's because I endeavor to make clothes that didn't exist before.

RCN: Does creating around the human form put limitations on your work?

RK: There are no limits.

RCN: How does it work with Junya and Tao? At what point do you see their collections?

RK: They are members of the Comme des Garçons company, and I see their collections at the rehearsal just before the shows.

RCN: Have you ever been tempted to sell the company?

RK: I have wondered what it would mean for us and a buyer to join together.

RCN: You don't seem to want to be defined or aligned. How would you define yourself?

RK: I don't think of myself as anyone special, and I would not know how to define myself.

RCN: An artist friend defined the difference between art and fashion this way: What an artist makes and sees stays as is; what a designer makes is like two objects-one is what is perceived in a shop and the other is how it looks in the mirror.

RK: Is finding a difference so important, really? Fashion is not art. The aims of fashion and art are different and there is no need to compare them.

RCN: Does the economic downturn affect the way you approach designing a collection. Do you think you have to design easier pieces?

RK: Comme des Garçons has always traveled at its own pace and will continue to do so. In good times and bad times the company is more or less the same.

RCN: You don't use real fur. You won't work with real fur?

RK: I love all animals.

Breakfast at Justinian and Theodora's

2010-01-21T10:59:00.001-08:00

Starring Audrey Hepburn. UGH. I really need to put more thought into these blog post titles. Anyway I probably can't because I'm SO TIRED FROM SEEING EVERY PIECE OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART THAT IS EVEN REMOTELY IMPORTANT. What's that, Christina and Ricardo? I hate you because you've seen everything EVER? that's right.

So we woke up ass early to get on a bus with our prof. Helen, who was very chipper on the bus PA. When we were more awake a little later Ricardo was very taken with the country side and took 3 gazillion pictures. Here are a few of them:

Mausoleum of Theodoric

Our first stop was the Mausoleum of Theodoric which was a little outside Ravenna. It was mega cold out, because it was still a little early and the mausoleum was not very cozy as it's made of bare rock. However we bought some ROCKIN' Ravenna postcards at the gist shop which picture the major sights of Ravenna surrounding the central image of two kittens labeled "Ravenna" in wavy rainbow script. THE FUTURE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN.

Helen Waterson with her CRAZY warbly voice

Residual debris from the archeological dig of the
cemetery that once surrounded the mausoleum

The crazy part is that the dome was made of a SINGLE PIECE of stone, which, since it's not local they brought here on a ship and presumably built an earth ramp up the building to get it to the top. Apparently it got damaged during one of these processes because it has a giant crack on one side. The legend goes that Theodoric was convinced that he would die by lightening strike, so he would come to the mausoleum because he thought it was safe and then one day during a storm a bolt of lightening struck him dead THROUGH THE CRACK. He actually died of a heart problem.

Well well, what is this?? I guess Christina left this unfinished.... Well, Ricardo's here now (sounding like a badly written villain)! After the mausoleum we got back on the bus, which drove us into central Ravenna. There we walked to the first church Empress Galla Placidia built when she arrived in Ravenna. It was dedicated to St. John, because she prayed to him on the sea voyage from Constantinople during a really bad storm and she told him that she would build him a glorius church if he spared her and her family. They arrived safely and now we have this church.

Me in front of the church, under this cool lookin' arch.

They had a bunch of old awesome Mosaics that used to be the floor. Because of the soggy ground in Ravenna, all the really heavy buildings sink slowly over time, so a lot of the churches we saw were actually rebuilt on higher foundations, and some of them even had little squares of the old floor left, so you could see how much the building had sunk. SCIENCE!

Crazy fighting dudes

I was born a Unicorn (and thus I was a symbol for incorruptabilty)

aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnddddddddd we're back (Christina). In case you didn't know, when you are in Europe you must take an artsy picture of a bike. Don't leave Europe without one!

This is St. Apollinare Nuovo, which was built as Theodoric's (the mausoleum guy) palatine chapel. As a typical Early Christian Basilica it's pretty plain on the outside, made of brick and freakin' fantastic on the inside. MOSIACS EVERYWHERE, just like the Duomo baptistery.

The port of Classe (10 minutes away) where Galla Placidia would have landed safely and a row of female early Christian martyrs.

The ceiling is a later Baroque addition as is the apse (high altar area) which is even a little Rococo. They're pretty sweet.

There's the Port again

JUSTINIAN. chillin' out, maxin', relaxin'

evidence of figures that were stricken from the
visual record for political reasons (floating arms)

St. Christina!

Madonna and Child

The three magi

After this we walked a bit to this tiny baptistery which was for the Arian sect of Christians which could not accept that Christ was 100% divine, but believed in his humanity and mortality.

THUS JESUS IS VERY VERY HUMAN and classicly portrayed in the nudie!
note the river god has crab legs on it's head

We passed a protest on our way to San Vitale which is the mega highlight of....the world.
When you walk in you see this:

and this:

and this:

and it's cool and all, but it seems pretty standard, you know, Baroque shit's everywhere. what you really came to see is much older, more mystical and awe inducing.

THIS SHIT JUST GOT REAL:

BA BA BA BAA BAA BA BA BUH BUH BA.

Justinian and his court (posse)

Theodora and her court (entourage)

SO UMM YEAH. San Vitale was Justinian and Theodora's (The Holy Roman Emperor and Wife) palatine chapel, even though they never even came to Ravenna. It was meant to imitate the Hagia Sophia which was their palatine chapel in Constantinople. The star of the show however is Theodora who is a BAD ASS. Theodora was born a circus performer, the daughter of a bear tamer, which is below the dregs of society on the social scale at the time. Since she was incredibly beautiful and a god damn smarty pants, her mother encouraged her to become an actress/entertainer. Eventually she worked her way up the social ladder to become a very high level and desirable companion, or courtesan. She caught the emperor's eye and eventually he married her. Daughter of bear tamer to basically Holy Roman Empress and Co-Regent. She was ery influential to Justinian and had a lot of input in law writing.

Back to our other heroine, this is Galla Placidia's mausoleum right outside San Vitale. Her mausoleum is another art historical heavy hitter for it's crazy awesome mosaics.

Beautiful pattern work

This was one of my (Christina) favorite things I'd seen all day. That meander next to that blue pattern makes me swoon. I'm cutting that exact meander out of paper in my current KenTisa project. FUN TIMES.

A dome made of Heaven and the symbols of the four evangelists

one of them martyrs gettin' grilled and shit
(he's got his flippie floppies)

a classicising Christ as young shepherd.

This single mosaic in the inner tympanum (that half circle shape above a door) is own of the most famous of all early christian mosiacs. oh wait hold on GEEKING OUT. sorry about that.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha no caption necessary but here's one anyways.

After Galla Placidia we headed over to the non-Arian baptistery that was a lot bigger and had more naked Christ getting baptized (exciting because it's rare in art history). We saw JFK on the way. (he was hanging out with Elvis)

THIS IS SO EXCITING GUYS. Not in the way the other things were exciting but still AWESOME. THIS CRYPT IS CONSTANTLY FLOODED SO THEY FILLED IT WITH GOLD FISH. THERE ARE GOLD FISH SWIMMING IN A BUILDING. my apologies, you can't see them in this photo cause they were moving around a lot. BUT THEY'RE THERE.

Lastly we bussed it over to Classe, our last stop, (were Galla Placidia would have landed) which had another church with a mega famous apse which we'd seen many many times projected on the wall of a dark classroom. It's a beautiful example of early Christian mosaics moving away from the naturalism of Greco-Roman artistic ideals and moving towards a more Byzantine, Medieval style, which is more stylized, more schematic, flatter, and weirdly awesome.

we were so god freaking tired. We did NOTHING on Sunday, except at night about 15 people showed up at our house and we cooked delicious delicious beans with onions and sausage. And a boy named Galen spent all day making us fresh pasta, and we drank wine, and it was a nice time. This week has been pretty standard so far.
Ricardo is drawing a tree branch pattern for his first Lithography stone! he really likes it so far and it's really intense to scrape the stone down and everything so he feels very accomplished. I just proofed two of my etching plates today and I'm very pleased. ALSO we worked it out so that we can audit and Italian class, which means we get to sit in, but we don't have to do anything like participate, or do homework if you don't want to but we can of course. It's a little bit of a tight fit, but we think it's worth it. We're learning a lot and fast!
Tonight we're getting ready to go to Rome for three days FOR FREE. (woot on sight Art History) but we have to be up at 6:00 am to get to the train station on time, so good night and Ciao!

YOU wear a coat

2010-01-21T02:12:00.001-08:00

Hey Internet! how's it going? I have an exciting proposition for you! If you're smart, in college, and write pretty cool papers my friend Liana Ogden at Brown University is starting a bi-annual undergraduate scholarly journal. If you're interested check out this flier for the details and start emailing your papers to undergrowthjournal@gmail.com. I may be a blinded peer reviewer in the future so I hope to come across some creative scholarly work!

THIS HAPPENED IN REAL LIFE DEAR READERS

2010-01-20T09:13:00.001-08:00

THAT IS ALL.

I AM 12 AND WHAT IS THIS?

2010-01-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

Just had to keep the theme of terrible terribly internet related blog post titles going, sorry. I blame the fact that Ricardo is squishing me and draining all my oxygen. ANYWAY. ANYWAY.

hey guys, what's up? how's life? how's your week so far? how was your weekend? uh huh... uh huh..uh huh ... GOOD STORY, GUESS WHAT? Ricardo and I went to Ravenna on Saturday and on Friday we went to San Miniato and heard monks chant! ISN'T THAT COOL GUYS? don't answer that unless you're going to confirm. SO AS PER USUAL, we started off at the Duomo because that was where we were meeting our teacher. The weather was a lot nicer in a way because it was sunny, but it was so ridiculously windy. This was very upsetting. Anyway, we started at the Duomo because we were going to go into the baptistry, which unfortunately it seems we forgot to photograph from the outside...

The Duomo, in good light, on its good side...

This is the Baptistry's dome, dating from the early 1,100's to 1,200's, and made completely of 1 in. x 1 in. tesserae, or mosaic pieces of stone or glass that's been colored or backed with gold leaf.

This view shows the lower registers of the dome and the upper registers of the interior, those arches form a gallery which may have been for the women.

This is the high alter, with some relics in it! Although it didn't say whose body parts they were, it's pretty safe to assume that they claim that they're John the Baptist's relics as this is a baptistry and John the Baptist is the patron saint of Florence.

This is the AWESOME last judgment scene in which the centuries dead people rise from their graves in order to receive their verdict and these suckers get eaten by the devil's many mouths.
note that the devil is blue.
(I imagine this is somewhat what this would look like)

One last shot of the Duomo because the sky is oh so blue.

From the Baptistry we walked about twenty minutes to the original Medieval wall of Florence, whose doors they STILL close at night. After we left the original city gates it was a steady up hill climb for another ten minutes or so in order to reach the Romanesque church that was all the way at the top of a hill overlooking the city.

red nose. cold. My mom's super rad scarf!

A lovely view of Florence on the way up!

This is San Miniato's bell tower which Michelangelo apparently covered in wool and mattresses in order to save it from canon ball fire and installed a canon at the top when he worked as an engineer for the Republic of Florence while they were fighting against Charles the fifth of Spain who had allied himself with the Medici who were trying to regain their political hold of Florence after they had been exiled for the third time. How'd you like that run on sentence? All in all, I'd say I'd give it about a B (Kenneth.cookie jars. start watching at 17:52)

A monk in front of San Miniato

This is the facade in the afternoon light, very Romanesque.

San Miniato was beheaded in the Roman Colosseum in town and as legend has it, he picked up his head and trekked it up here because this was were he had prayed in nature when he went to become a hermit and it was his favorite place, so he wanted to be buried here. Then of course since he was martyred they had to build a church on top of his death site dedicated to him. duh.

one of the side chapels...

The leftover sinopia (under drawing) of a fresco which they never finished

The demi-dome is an early Christian mosaic

This is one of the walls and the ceiling of the sacristy, which showed all the miracles Saint Benedict performed, since this is a Benedictine church. He cured a blind man and some other stuff I can't remember. The devil hung out EVERYWHERE back then.

The gregorian chants are every Friday before the mass and they were SO BEAUTIFUL. The mass was at a tiny altar in the crypt, which only sat about twenty people and was all made of bare stone. The acoustics were amazing so it was like you were being enveloped in these deep intertwining melodies. It was a time warp that took us back to the 11th century. WOAH. INTENSE. DEEP. On a less time traveling note, the monks also make crafts, and more importantly honey! which you can buy at their little gift shop.

Florence at night, from the church

Everyone from our class left like ASAP after the mass began, so we felt really bad and stayed a little longer. Almost to the end actually, but we were so hungry and we knew it was so cold outside that we couldn't take it any longer and we BOOKED. On our way across the bridge we noticed these locks chained to the bridge and later someone told us they're "lover's locks." Couples come to a bridge over the Arno river to lock their lock to the bridge and throw the key into the river to signify their commitment to one another and their being " locked" together.
*~*~KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII~*~*

AND TO CONCLUDE, obligatory artsy photograph is obligatory.

HEY GUYS, WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS THREAD?

2010-01-18T12:23:00.000-08:00

please ignore my totally dumb post title. (This blog is courtesy of Christina, your friendly neighborhood dysfunctional geek, despite it being under Ricardo's name) (Ricardo is helping.)

ANYWAY (IGNORE MEEEEE!)*

here's some fun pictures of some things that are in Florence! yay, fun! LET'S DO THIS.

After it was rainy and gross for SO MANY DAYS (too many days), it was finally dry and not even that cold, so it was *~*~* ADVENTURE TIME *~*~* we had a geometric, algebraic time of it! **

IL DUOMO in all its glory (the Duomo is bigger than Christina)

We started at il Duomo because it's at the end of our street and because we hadn't really given it the full once over on the outside, we had just looked at it from the front.

also SIDE NOTE: the first time I (Christina) went to Europe and my mom hadn't seen the Duomo in twenty four years, she said it looked like it was wearing ugly pyjamas. For these kinds of reasons KenTisa says my mom is a doll (also because she sent him chocolate from Colombia. FABULOUS CHOCOLATE)

Ricardo and the Gates of Paradise being best friends.

the doors of Il Duomo, in case you were wondering how small it is...

after we left the Duomo we just picked a street that went in the general direction of the Ponte Vechio (which was our ultimate goal) and started wandering

A baby door! on a street! it's medieval fo sho.

d'aaaawwwwwhhhhh

also side note: I bought this scarf before I left. SOOOO cute, right?

These people permanently restore the Duomo because they are BADASSES.

on the way I saw a cool looking building, so I was like "OOOOO let's go see that!" and then it turned out to be Orsanmichele which has a BUNCH of crazy awesome sculptures ALL OVER IT.

Ricardo in front of Donatello's St. George...

and not Ricardo in front of Nani di Banco's Four Crowned Saints. These tabernacles were each commissioned by a different worker's guild of Florence, who were majorly influential in the politics of Florence during the medieval period and the early Renaissance. This is pretty cool and what's also cool (which is where I'm going with this) is that in this tabernacle you can see that it was commissioned by the carpenter's guild because it shows them working in the block beneath the tabernacle, which is mega cool.

after that we literally stumbled upon the palazzo vechio in the piazza della signoria, which is the main central piazza now and forever ago. The palazzo vecchio (old palace) which is that square medieval building is like the town hall, or the civic center. The David used to be set up outside the palazzo vecchio, but now it's in a museum and there's a copy outside.

here I am in front of it, because it can't be ignored.

This was the view from la piazza della Signoria looking towards what we think is Santa Croce (the church) but we're not sure...

from there it was just a short walk to the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge) and there it was!

Ponte Vechio being all awesome.

we didn't go onto the bridge, because we were tired but this is what it looks like, and it's full of expensive shops and nice restaurants, bu also touristy shops and carts and things.

on our way back we got mildly lost and ran into this cool looking intersection...

and this awesome little Baroque church (it was closed and didn't have a sign so we don't know what it's called)

we found a cute dog outside of the bakery around he corner from our house!

and we got home to a lovely sunset outside our window, which was welcome because our whole week was very very grey.

we tried this chocolate bar from the alimenteri (small super market) IT WAS SO GOOD. It had whole hazelnuts in it and the chocolate was super smooth. deli! (spanish slang for Delicioso (delicious) for those of you greengos)

lastly and of interest to very few people, this is what I wore a few days ago and I was proud of it, then it got cold and now I'm back to jeans, sweaters, docs and my little black hat that makes me look like a liverpudlian boy from the 60's. *glimmer*glimmer*gleam*gleam*

ciao amori!

*Venture Bros. quote... mom, dad, and Lina

** look up "adventure time" on you tube if you find yourself with further questions as to WHAT THE F is she talking about?

CATCH UP

2010-01-14T02:35:00.001-08:00

We've been in Florence for almost a week now and for what was only a few days but seemed like forever we had no internet, so here's what's happened in the mean time! Ricardo was mega excited on the plane and couldn't sleep AT ALL. We watched "the Informant" which was really good, less funny and more sad than I thought it would be. On an unrelated note though Matt Damon looks AWESOME as a totally dorky 90's era man.

We knew we were in Italy when we saw the mountain range that cuts across it (we still don't know what they're called)

we were mega tired, with only half of our bags having arrived in Florence and we had to go to the school first (because they refuse to tell you where you live before hand) and then walk home. Luckily neither the locale nor the apartment were at all disappointing. We live on Via Ricasoli (ree CA zoli)which if you look at a map is across a very small street from la Galleria della Accademia WHICH HOUSES THE DAVID and ends at the piazza of il Duomo, which we can see from our FRONT DOOR. (yeeeeessssssssssssssss)

This is our living room, it's cute but a little awkward so we don't spend much time in here...

This is the beautiful part. It's really just the big hallway that has all the rooms on the left, but our room is down a tiny staircase at the end of his hall and is all by itself one floor down (and by a floor, I mean just our room)

there's also a little staircase that goes up and has this tiny room on the way!

that staircase actually goes up to our baby tiny terrace, where we can dry our clothes because there's a washer but no dryer.

we'll do a full tour of the apartment later, because it has lots of nooks and crannies and bussiness but for now there's the highlights.

I COME FROM OUT OF THE DEPTHS

2010-01-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

Hey!

So I'm back from Colombia, where instead of finding myself with plenty of free time to post and many awesome things to post about I found myself in the countryside with no internet access whatsoever, sorry about the unfulfilled dreams. In other news I am now studying abroad in Florence! although the internet situation here is only a small improvement, I'll be posting very often about all the amazing things to see and do as well as my other nonsense like ramblings about things that I like and things that I see and things that I make and so on. I just got here a few days ago, so for now please just indulge in these beautiful garments:
I've been obsessed with this Christian Dior dress since I saw it on the last cover of Vogue on Rachel Mcadams, I plan on copying the top when I get back home.

I just really love the top and belt in this look. (Rochas)

last, but most certainly not least, if I were a matador (which I totally could be) this is what I would wear. AND EVERYTHING WOULD BE WONDEROUS.
(Anna Sui, who Rubino went to school with)

ciao!

something about being a heathen

2009-12-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas happened early for me since I'm going to Colombia to spend it with other family, so here's some cool things that were bestowed upon me that I think you should know about!
Everyone's been in a tizzy about Rob Ryan lately since he's been doing work for EVERYONE (starbucks, Target, etc.) so I found out that this laser cut print that I got at an art fair in High School was actually his! I'd totally forgotten his name in the mean time. Luckily he has a book and it's super cheap and my mom got me a used copy WHICH IS AWESOME.

And my dad outdid himself and gave me a really personal and creative gift. Part one was this postcard that he bought in London at Portobello Rd. when he and my mom lived there for three years right before they got married. It has Queen Victoria and the rest of the royal family on it! SO GOOD.

and part two was his old 4x5 negative large format camera. ALL MY WILDEST DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE. Ricardo almost peed himself over this one. I can't wait to use it! too bad it'll have to wait until after I study abroad and come back to MICA.

It'll be 2010 when I come back from Colombia. And I will be turning 21 in 2010, how weird is that?

I may be a hipster

2009-12-17T19:55:00.001-08:00

But I really need new glasses and what's wrong with these?! NOTHING, THAT'S WHAT. yeah that's what I thought.

Finals have come and gone and now I have time for you

2009-12-17T09:24:00.001-08:00

not to make you feel unappreciated or anything. I've basically decided that I'm going to post onmy blog as though there were actually people who read it, and then maybe they will come? YEAH I THINK THAT'S HOW IT'S GOING TO WORK. So just to recap:

-I finished that costume! and it was met with roaring success. Pictures with a hand painted solar system back drop to come soon.

-I wrote two stupid papers (the seond one is being turned in today, finals are not technically over)

-my final crits for drawing and junior independent told me NOTHING about my actual artwork. which was fun, if by fun I mean unrewarding and a little useless. not totes useless, just mostly.

the big news is of course that I go home to Florida tomorrow because of winter break, where I will spend all of 72 hours and then go spend Christmas and New Year's with my family in Colombia! I am so mega ridiculous excited. I miss my cool Colombian cousins and Christmas Colombian style (please refer all you questions to what a Colombian style Christmas is to the latest Modern Family episode: http://abc.go.com/watch/modern-family/235331/243912/undeck-the-halls) and then the real big news is that I'll be spending my spring semester in Florence! There will be a lot of travel blog posts, street style posts, food posts, art posts, random posts, outfit posts etc. it will just be excellence all around. I'll post my little heart during the break because there's so much I want to share! I've been looking at so much fashion, and watching a lot of movies and amassing a lot of inspiration pictures. you will see them soon. I leave you with some Sally Mann, who I have rediscovered my everlasting love for while rewatching Art21 while I should have been writing papers:

Also, I want to wear this outfit.
also I wish that I am this bad ass in the future.

toodles!

THE GIRL WHO IS THE SUN

2009-12-03T19:35:00.001-08:00

Here's my finished costume design for my final costume. I hope I don't die. Happy December to everyone!

SOMETIMES I POSE QUERIES

2009-11-25T06:04:00.001-08:00

SO I have a decision to make. I have two costume designs for the same final; one is infinitely more fun, however both are equal in being good options to create. I wanted to make a costume for a girl that is the sun, they would both be overwhelmingly red with gold or yellow detailing. The top design is simpler and probably less expensive to make, it would be made of a heavy silk or satin and the lines would be a wide top stitch. I think it's pretty classy. The bottom design would be a light silk maybe with an organza overlay, I also thought maybe taffeta, the head cap would for sure be organza and the necklace would be knit. obviously way more time consuming... but sooooo awesome! I imagine her fitting into the Katamari universe. Of course this means much more work, stress and continuing to cop out on my other classes a little. I. don.t know. what. to. do. with. myself.

A BOY AND A GIRL

2009-11-24T19:38:00.000-08:00

more questing
obviously in progress

QUESTING

2009-11-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

two small paintings and one large one
in progress

FALLING/FLYING

2009-11-24T19:32:00.000-08:00

12 x 12 in oil on panel still in progress

PHASING

2009-11-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

into different dimensions maybe

SMALL DRAWINGS

2009-11-24T19:26:00.000-08:00

2009-11-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

tiny tiny baby sketches

FOR FUN TIMES

2009-11-24T19:08:00.000-08:00

some random sketches that have very little to do with anything

Find Me Here

2009-11-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

www.cargocollective.com/christinabee
www.christinabee.tumblr.com

OH Friends

2009-11-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

PLEASE BELIEVE ME

2009-11-07T03:58:00.001-08:00

MODERN GENEOLOGY

2009-11-03T12:47:00.001-08:00

I love these family trees by Vermont designer Jen O'neill

DEAR THE WORLD,

2009-10-31T18:02:00.000-07:00

you are awesome. Keep up the good work. Happy Halloween.

WASP WAISTS, OH MY

2009-10-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

Speaking of my Costume class, I'm working on designing a set of costumes for Ethan Cohen's play Waiting from the collection of short plays Almost and Evening. My particular assignment is to set it in the 1870's American South-East and the costumes are to be inspired by the Crinoline period. My first thoughts were "this is going to be awful and hard to make" and now after looking at so much Gone with the Wind and Little Women movie stills (and more accurate sources I promise) I think it'll probably be a lot of fun, although still really hard to make. The images from the top are: an altered photograph meant to inspire women to ideal proportions, a crinoline cage worn over the shift and under one petticoat and skirt (from the Victoria and Albert Museum), a cartoon from Punch magazine making fun of this new-fangled bustle business, and of course pre-civil war Scarlet O'Hara.

NANCY DREW MEETS THE HARDY BOYS IN AN ALLEY

2009-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

they make the first move, but she can handle them. A distressed garment for my Costume class.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME...

2009-10-06T12:44:00.000-07:00

...you appreciated a natural wonder? I'm finding these images very amazing right now.

AN INDOOR GARDEN

2009-10-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

I love these gravity-defying plants (courtesy of the boskke sky planter) and succulents (in case you were wondering) are beautiful and super easy to care for. These aren't mine, but I just got one, which is why I'm so excited.

SOMETHING EXCITING

2009-09-21T16:48:00.000-07:00

photograph's by Ryan McGinley and
book cover design for Lolita by Annie Wu (http://anniematronic.blogspot.com/)

A NEW THING

2009-09-15T13:13:00.001-07:00

So I've found myself working on this exhibit titled Warren Selig: Textile per se which will be opening at the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries at the Maryland Institute College of Art on December 4th. I'll be designing, curating and writing the literature for display cases in the library that will showcases rare books from Warren Selig's personal collection. I saw a few of them yesterday and was totally floored. They're all about textile, dying, weaving, you name it having to do with cloth and they are gorgeous. I'm really excited to be working on this project with the prodigious head of the MICA fiber department and if you live in the area you should come to the show in December! This is some of Warren's work for future reference.

I BELIEVE INTRODUCTIONS ARE IN ORDER

2009-08-27T19:52:00.001-07:00

I suppose it's obligatory to introduce myself, to the internet as it were. So, my factuals are these:

My name is Christina Barrera. I am a junior at the Maryland Institute College of Art, which means that I currently live in Baltimore. I am originally from West Palm Beach Florida and originally originally from Colombia. At MICA I am a General Fine Arts major, which should really be called Interdisciplinary Arts, with a minor in Art History and a concentration in Curatorial Studies. Aside from working in the studio almost constantly, I like to knit and garden and cook and be generally crafty. I love fresh foods, sunshine, silence, open windows, bright colors and cleaning my house. these are all spur of the moment ramblings.

It is my intention with this blog to:

-blog often, I hate it when people to update forever.
-try to have at least one picture in every post. it's better that way isn't it?
-post about things that excite me. This is not entirely a blog about my work.
-post news about events and goings on.

to keep to my promise:

this week I'm inspired by the paper plants of Yuko Yamamoto

happy hurricane season.

STATEMENT

2008-01-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

SOMETHING IS HAPPENING or A STORY I DO NOT KNOW

In Harriet the Spy, there is a scene where Harriet and her friends, Janie and Sport, visit a fantastic garden that belongs to an artist in New York City. Harriet’s nanny Ole Gully produces a bottle of sparkling cider and proposes a toast: “ Shake it up! Take a sip! and wish for what you want most in the world.” Janie and Sport wish for ambitious life goals in the spirit of “what I want to be when I grow up” and then the bottle comes to Harriet. She shakes the bottle intensely as she shouts “I want to see the whole World, and I want to write down Everything! I want to know Everything!” Janie, Sport, and Ole Gully stare as she chugs the rest of the bottle in a single stroke. Her intensity and excessiveness is striking to an audience no older than ten. I remember thinking to my eight-year-old self that no one, not even the great Harriet the Spy, could know everything. That is impossible.
And yet there are so many things that are deemed impossible for ages and ages until somebody does it. It is always curious when someone breaks a record that the world thought could never be broken, and then all of a sudden, everyone is achieving that previous record, because it is no longer labeled as impossible in the general consciousness of human beings. If we assume that there is this general consciousness that connects all human beings then we must assume that all the information of the world-- from someone’s favorite color to what the Dalai Lama feels when he meditates-- is in this consciousness, and available to the rest of us, if only one knew how to access it.
Maybe this connection is what is called intuition, passion, faith, a hunch, fate, or that feeling of doing something in a daze, in which you barely recognize your decisions until after you’ve made them. It is hard to pinpoint those things with words because it is not a kind knowledge that is learned, but rather a kind of knowledge that is born with, or maybe comes for a certain reason which you may or may not be aware of. In either case, if that state of mind, feeling, moment of genius, or whatever names there are for these occurrences is actually the manifestation of this collective consciousness, then that is what my work as a whole is about.
Perhaps it is true that no one can know everything, and perhaps Socrates was right when he said (roughly) that: wise is the man who knows he knows nothing. But even if this is true I feel like you can feel the existence of everything and intuitively know of its existence. So, I make work that both is and depicts the process of connecting to everything; known and unknown. The wandering girl vanishes and reappears in spaces that are meant to convey a sense of being in between. In between worlds, in between consciousness and unconsciousness, in between unaware and aware, in between the inner and the outer. This body of work in particular has begun to unfold as a narrative that is not yet entirely clear. The images that arise in me lately, all seem to be of moments in which something is about to happen, but I’m not sure what, or something has just happened and the viewer has not only missed it but there is only a vague sense of the event that has just taken place. Despite the incredibly narrative qualities of these images, there is really no plot, no unfolding story and very little connectivity, so for me they are singular moments of something like a dream or meditation that come to me in flashes as though they’ve been remembered but at the same time it’s like they are from some outside source and are simply gifted to me.
There is a way to tap into the collective energy of the universe and my work strives to achieve the feeling of that connection in the viewer by presenting images that are solitary, in transition, silent, mysterious, mythic and unexplained. The girl rushes through landscapes seeking out her life and hopefully finding her way of connecting with the collective unconscious. Every line is a time line, every stroke is a channel of information, every mark a testament to the energy that we create and that keeps us together. This work is about everything at once, everyone at once, and tapping into that infinite resource that is humanity and the human consciousness.