Great news! Stephanie just confirmed that our palazzo in Venice is available for Imagining Venice 2013. We have reserved May 20th through 30th for the Venetian leg of the journey. You will love living there. It is a three-floor building on a canal just for our group. Kitchens on every floor make it easy to cook your own food should you wish to do so. There is a rooftop patio and a balcony for relaxing. Laundry facilities make it perfect for packing light and having clean clothes. Marble floors create a soothing, cool retreat when you need to chill. I am so excited about going back. Can’t wait! Look to the Home in Venice link on the Blogroll. Happy Venetian dreaming tutti!

 

After three months of imagining how my series of paintings from Venice are meant to look, I finally have something that satisfies me. I don’t recommend trying to compete with all your art heroes on a deadline. In any case, “Imagining Venice” 2011 will culminate in a one-woman show in the Kwan Fong gallery at CLU in August-September of 2012. The show is the perfect introduction to advertising “Imagining Venice” 2013! Dr. Dru and I are very excited to bring the course to students who are interested in this city, its symbolism, and its inspiration throughout history. We have added Verona into this trip to accompany our original in-depth look at Venice and 3-day journey to Florence. Stay tuned for more information.

Professor Spehar-Fahey and I have submitted this course, with a few small modifications, to the university curriculum committee and don’t expect any particular problems getting it re-approved for Spring 2013. We have made a few changes, however, based on student comments and our own observations in class and on the trip.

First, we’ll be spending 11 days touring, sketching, and painting in Venice, but we’re dropping the day trips to Padua and Vincenza and instead taking students for two nights to Verona as we move from Venice to Florence. In Verona, we’ll see the Roman ruins and travel to Sirmione by Lake Garda to visit and sketch at Scagliar Castle. Students can go take a look at Juliet’s balcony during their free time in Verona, too.

Second, we’ll be incorporating a more active blogging component to the class, both in-class and on-trip. Students will be writing more and posting more examples of their work here.

Third, we’re making some small assignment adjustments; for example, we’re dropping the research paper but requiring a midterm and final, and we’ll be building in more basic Italian language lessons. Although last time we included some Italian at the beginning of each class, students told us after the trip that they wished they’d spent more time learning it. As a result, we’ll make sure the next set goes to Italy with a bit more comfort with the conversational and information-seeking basics.

If you’re a CLU student interested in taking the course in Spring 2013, keep an eye open for posters going up in Fall 2012 and be sure to attend the Study Abroad sessions when they’re announced! In the meantime, you can always look for me or Professor Spehar-Fahey on campus to ask us about specifics.

Before going to Venice, I read a lot of things that people had said about the city.  Many accounts differed, some extolling Venice’s for its virtues, others denouncing it for its faults.  I really didn’t know what to expect. I was hoping that the place of beauty that I saw in the paintings would not disappoint me.  Venice was a place of magic to me before I went, and I was afraid that it would not live up to my expectations.

Now that I have visited Venice and returned, I can say that it met many of my expectations.  The words written by its previous visitors took life while I was there.  None more so than the words of Henry James, who said that “Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.”

As a visitor myself, I am sad to say that this is true.  Hoards of tourists visit Venice daily.  They crowd the streets, bump into you, block your path, and make getting around the city incredibly frustrating.  They make Venice feel like a cross between Disneyland and Las Vegas, rather than a real city of history and atmosphere.

It took more than a couple days to get over my frustration with the tourists.  I am glad I got to stay in Venice as long as I did because if I had not, I might have missed it.  I would have missed the beauty.  I might have let my frustration with the tourists blind me to the light that glimmered off the water, blind me to the age and history of its buildings.  I might not have had the time to get lost in the outskirts of the city, where I encountered the nicest people and got to see the city that lay beneath the tourists.

“This was Venice, the flattering and suspect beauty this city, half fairy tale and half tourist trap, in whose insalubrious air the arts once rankly and voluptuously blossomed, where composers have been inspired to lulling tones of somniferous eroticism.”
Thomas Mann,  Death in Venice

 

During our class we talked about Venice being a symbol for death and dying. So to explore this idea more we went to the Cemetery Island just outside of Venice. Here we were able to explore, make art, and sort of take in the idea of death and dying.

I found this island to be sad and almost lonely. Every grave had fake flowers and was very plain. I was saddened that either family never came and visited or were unable to. I did not think I could find anything happy or joyful. I then stumbled upon this grave. I am not sure what to say about it, other than it is unique.

I hope you find a bit of joy in this bedazzled grave too.

The group went to the Rialto bridge for the first time! It is a beautiful bridge, and many stairs. If you eve come to Venice you will have to see this bridge. It is on the grand canal, so you can’t miss it.

	The first week of on-site student art from the Imagining Venice travel course has now been uploaded to the web album. Take a look….
Student Art Imagining Venice 2011

This group of students has amazed me with their dedication to painting while on our trip. No time more so than the 6 a.m. trek to Piazza san Marco to catch the sunrise view of San Giorgio Maggiore. I have proof of their diligence that I am showing here. Everyone is getting much better at recognizing and then painting my obsession over the light of Venice. Note the yellow glow on the Chiesa Santa Maria della Salute in the background!

I had to show you this window of sweets. These were the most beautiful on the route from our palazzo to the Rialto. Torrone is a nougat confection that is not too sweet. I had to buy the pistachio.

Terry’s Venice May 19

Other than my goal of getting to Venice with students and no longer just “imagining venice”, I can check off “sitting at Florian’s on Piazza San Marco in the evening.” Dr. Dru and I wandered around the Piazza and the Molo looking for places to stabilize the camera for night shots before sitting to listen to the music until eleven at night. It must be the pace we are keeping that has given Dru a cold. I am sure to follow her lead! We sent the students to Rialto market this morning to buy food for our family style Sunday dinner which I will be cooking with appetizers by Kelsey. I took some shots for future paintings. Every watercolor artist who comes to Venice paints the morning light streaming through the collonade. Those shots are on Dru’s camera and so if this post via iPad works, I will try to update more regularly. The previous days activities may just be out of order and we hope to get a student blog or two.