visiting family and friends

Its been a lovely day of meeting friends and family. We collected Francesco's mother from the hospital where she had stayed overnight with one of his aunts who had an operation the day before. Getting back to Monterotondo took about 20 min, yesterday the same stretch of road from the hospital had taken over two hours to pass because of bad traffic... can you imagine!!!
Then we went to a supermarket to buy Pandoro and wine for gifts, and then to two of his really good friends. The last stop was his Nonna's house. She showed us all he family photos and a stack of postcards from all over Italy. Back to his home, ate some dinner with his mom...and that's it, a lovely day. I really want to learn Italian now, it would be lovely to be able to understand what everone is saying. I pick up the subject of the conversation but that's about it. Well, it will take some time! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I'm looking forward to learning all about how its done here! Love to my dear family!

lights and ancient buildings

It was really good to be out of foggy london, since monday, west london has be coverd in dense fog. Arrived yesterday and went around the city today. It was really beautiful seeing all the lights and the old cobbled streets which wind and criss-cross in every direction. It was truely breathe-taking and awesome seeing the ancient buildings like the colosium and the ruins and all the fountains and churches. I want to write more in detail but i am exhausted, enjoy the photos!

louise bourgeois

I don't have any images of my own today again, but i have been scanning some picture from a Louise Boursgeois book i borrowed from the library. Its all part of getting into the workbook process again, so its good. Tomorrow i will add a page from my workbook instead. I was also checked out some animation sites and am adding to my links steadily.

I always seem to be leaving this as the last thing of the day and then i am too tired to put anything more in. Well, have a good day!

on second thoughts, the server seems to be slow now and i really need some sleep...so just one pic!

really cool pavement art

this is the work of Julian Beever, someone sent this pic to me. I think it is really amazing... click on his name for more.

have a good day!

christmas cake - continued

So this is how it turned out... all good, i am surprised i have not baked to a recipe in ages. normally when i bake cakes, i just mix in whatever comes to mind or is available in the fridge or cupboard. i never fully expect them to be a succes and there is nothing to really measure their success against. they are experiments. however this cake had to be right and fit in with the tradition. it had to be mixed by hand because i don't have an electric beater, so i was doubly worried. I am taking it a christmas gift for francesco's family, that is whay it really had to be right...and breathe!

christmas cake

Frances, my dear sister always makes the Christmas cakes in our family, she is good at it and she loves it and she is more organised (and it quite a process so this is helpful). i decided to make one this year since i won't be home. my mom sent me the recipe the week before last and i made it this evening, well actually it is still in the oven, but the house smells like Christmas so that is something to warm us on this bitter eve... the temp has dropped from 7 to 0 C.

I watched a DVD of animations that go with an animation book. It was really inspiring to see everything again. Francesco and i really want to work on something together. I still want to do some drawing tonight, but its really late now and i am feeling quite tired.

Some new drawings

I have been working or playing on some drawings, they are sketches or doodles really. I took out some books from the college library... one on Rodin, i suppose the idea was to prepare myself visually for seeing the exhibition. And i am still minus life drawing classes, so i thought it could not harm. Anyway, without over discussing them, these are images of states of mind and states of being and hybrids, inspired by various images that i like. something like that, anyway i like them.

also, some little symbols which i thought could be buttons or an alphabet or something, started with doodling something that reminded me of a part of my fourth year exhibition, but now i am playing with them. everyday object, sayings, emotions, shapes that give the idea of things but don't quite represent them. (thought of willem boshoff's blind alphabet) This process seems to be working because, i am getting all excited about the symbolism of things and the stories that link in, basically i am biting into what i love again. reading Tori Amos' biography, she's got some interesting ideas.

any of you at home.... can you tell me other names for what the americans call sand dollars... those flat sea urchin skeletons.

No picture today

I don't have any pictures to add today because i am not working from my computer. It does not work if you try and add pictures via email. Anyway London is cold and miserable today and even the hardened Londoners seem to be depressed by it. today was quite and flat in almost every way. I feel like ripping some one's head off but maybe that's just my way of dealing with this weather... don't know.

Anyway at this point i will explain my name, i wanted to go for crimson sky, but that was not available, then i thought of mixing the languages a bit and having crimson and sky in Italian, (this is what i thought i was getting) but i was working on how it sounded to me and Francesco thought, that i meant cello so there was no further question about it. I also had to change crimson to krimson, now that the matter is cleared up... it should be crimsoncielo... so i am going to try for that now.

old postal map of london

this is really a test if i can email pictures to my blog.

lodz

I was in Poland in July this year and I promised to send off some pics to Nicole so here are a few.

battersea park

If I don't have time to write much i will just add a picture for the day, this one is from Battersea park taken about a month ago. i liked the colours and the patterns.

painting in progress

I am working on with the idea of embedding images into pattern like forms...like the drawing, where the pattern is created by the reflections and this section is of a painting i have been working on which was inspired by a little box that i received a gift in.

patterns in reflections

Okay so I've skipped a day, still better than nothing. I am really enjoying my drawing and i keep on seeing new forms emerging from the reflections. I was looking through some of my old photos the other day and i noticed that i have quite a number of reflections and water. the drawing is big (height 1.5m). It is so wonderful to be working on this scale again, it as been such a long time, i did not realise how cramped i was really feeling. I am working in acrylic washes and charcoal as a start... we'll see how it goes.

third post - a bitty start

the key to this thing is to keep adding to it and not leave it hanging. Its a bit like morning pages. I want to try to add something every day. And write something every day. even if it is rubbish. This photo was taken in Wales, its from the top of the Sugar loaf in the Brecon Beacons. I was lucky to choose a sunny day for my walk and spent the whole day on my own, walking. Beautiful quite time.

So today was Saturday and I got together the last few things to send home for Christmas. Some days are not meant for shopping, but its off now and i am pleased with everything. I really wish i could minimise myself into that package!

I bought a big board last week, for a drawing easel and eventually Francesco and i managed to fetch it from the hardware store. Last night and i started on a large drawing that i have been wanting to do for ages. I am really excited about it and have been working on it for the better part of this evening too. I will include an photo of my progress in tomorrow's post.

day two

Anyway back to some images... on tuesdays i get to work in a creative skills lesson and for the last few weeks the lecturer has been drawing some basic shapes for the students to complete as characters of their own. I have never really tried to draw like this before, but stole the chance to draw some of my own

a start

Over the past 18 months or more i have made less objects and have less material evidence of the time that i have spent than at any other time. this is probably why i have been feeling depressed or perhaps it is the other way round. either way i would like to try something like this to get me going. I'm fighting winter in the northern hemisphere after (un)appreciatively basking in African sun all my life. Anyway, sometimes when i am feeling down and sometimes when i need inspiration i surf the net and sometimes it seems to find me(this is not always the case...sometimes it has the opposite affect). - but when it does which i have discovered is generally related to what i want to see i.e if i want to be find something cool it is there. plus there are the old favourites to return. well, a start. I'll start with some images...because they make me happy and leave it at that for today.