Pisa Leaning Tower Illusion

Dear Art lover,

     I have a hard time removing images I enjoy from my laptop until I have shared them.  So, please indulge me today if I have a flashback post.  I have been to Pisa several times in my years in Italia, but not for very long on any visit.  I am usually with other people who are just passing through to see the famous Leaning Tower, which in fact, is the bell tower for the Duomo (cattedrale) in Pisa.  

     It is all part of a complex called the Piazza dei Miracoli.  The Duomo, the Baptistry, and the tower are just a few of the buildings you will find here.  And, of course, you will find tourists posing some distance away from the tower, with fingers positioned so that the resulting photo of them looks as if they are either pushing up or pulling down the tower.  I personally have never had a strong desire to go up into the Leaning Tower.

     But she has QUITE the lean, doesn’t she?  Last fall I was there on a beautiful November day.  I saw something that I had never noticed before.  It is not a trick of the camera because the images look the same in the camera as the tower did in real life.  I checked because I was having a hard time believing what was there right in front of me!

     The tower has a definite lean to the right when one views it while standing in the Baptistry or beside the Duomo.  However, as one moves towards the tower, almost a 90-degree change of view, the tower starts to lean left!  I expected it to look physically straight up and down when I got where I was when I took the image.  And I expected the shadows / lighting to explain to me that the tower was leaning towards me.  But, the way the light hits on the right and the shadows go back and down, the tower appears to not only lean left, but also away from me!

     So, that was fun.  After our little group left the complex, we wandered not too far away and found this church.  Sadly, not being a tour guide, I did not catch the name of this church, but it is perhaps easy to find on the Internet.  One of the more darkly decorated places of worship that I have seen. 

I also leave you with some of the lovely artwork in Pisa… and some humor.

On March 1, I hope to launch my Kickstarter program, “Casting Call:  I’m Melting!  Melting!  . . . Into Bronze”  I will keep you posted.  I am a bit nervous about this, but I think, as if often the case with me, that curiosity is the stronger emotion.

Please share this with anyone you think might bust a gut over it-ha!  Thank you.

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Still Life Paintings on a Shelf

Dear Art-loving friend,

I am out the door for another guest this weekend, but I wanted to share two new paintings with you.  And also invite you to read my latest Art Newsletter, this one about the Baptistery in Pisa.  Nicola Pisano’s pulpit changed the art world and I show you why.

http://www.borsheimarts.com/news/2014_11_ArtNews-PisaBaptisteryNicolaPisano.htm

In the same way that I saw my recently sold painting "Tuscan Table" as "comfort art.," I created the "shelf paintings" with a similar emotion.

So, I hope that you enjoy "Sitting on a Shelf" a 68 x 68 cm (26.8 x 26.8 inches) oil on canvas painting featuring old books and a headless puppet (is that comfort? ha!).

The other work is an oil painting on a primed wooden panel (gesso vero) that measures 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 inches). "Queen of the Shelf" depicts another collection of old books with other goodies in the composition, including a patina-ed lop-sided plaster sculpture of a woman's head with crown.

Please contact me if you would like pricing information for your own collection or to buy as a gift. Also, please visit one of the galleries that carry my artworks. You may find those here: www.borsheimarts.com/galleries.htm

Thank you. 

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If you are enjoying this blog, the writing and/or the images, it would help me continue if you could send a donation my way.  Just go to the blog online and on the right column there are PayPal links for making a donation.  Choose any amount you desire, even five bucks helps! 

Or further down the page, you will see a more indirect way to help:  Go shopping online via the search window under “Support This Blog Via Amazon”  Your author is an affiliate and clicking here first sends a donation with each purchase you make on a click-through. 

A third way you may help is to forward this blog to someone you think may appreciate it.  The more readers, the more comments online, and wallah… lovers of art and Italy unite.

http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.com

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

Detail image of "Sitting on a Shelf"  Italy

Pisa Italy Antique Market

Dear Art-loving friend,

As a still-life painter living in Tuscany, I know about most of the big antique markets each weekend in this area.  I did not know that Pisa had a recurring market until recently when stone sculptor Mary Tanner came to visit Firenze and we took a trip together to Pisa, Pietrasanta, and Carrara.

We were in Pisa. Italy, on 9 November, so that will help me remember what one of the exhibiting vendors told me.  The market happens each SECOND Saturday and Sunday of the month.   Mary and I had gone to Pisa to see the famous pulpit by Nicola Pisano, completed in 1260 and which work marks the beginning of the Renaissance.  [More on that in my next artnewsletter.]  

After a good lunch we meandered towards the Arno River and found Palazzo Blu.  There was an exhibition of Amedeo Modigliani and Constantin Brâncuși with other contemporaries that Mary treated us to.  I had heard of it and was curious, but sadly, I walked out thinking less of the Italian painter than I hoped I would.  Still, I am grateful to Mary for having gone to see it.  One never really knows without a real experience?  Palazzo Blu is very easy to find along the river because It is the only obviously blue building in that area.  Incidentally, that sculpture in Palazzo Blu that I include in these images always freaks me out.  That rib cage, wide-spread breasts and uplifted arm stubs together look like some fanciful creature’s head.

 

So, in this post about Pisa, I give you some more dragon sculptures, a very short door (with the lovely Mary there for height comparison), random guitar playing, and some of the sites as we made our way back to the train station and headed north.

You may find other posts on this blog about Pisa by visiting the online version of the blog and using the “Search this Blog” blank in the right-hand column.

 

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If you are enjoying this blog, the writing and/or the images, it would help me continue if you could send a donation my way.  Just go to the blog online and on the right column there are PayPal links for making a donation.  Choose any amount you desire, even five bucks helps! 

Or further down the page, you will see a more indirect way to help:  Go shopping online via the search window under “Support This Blog Via Amazon”  Your author is an affiliate and clicking here first sends a donation with each purchase you make on a click-through. 

A third way you may help is to forward this blog to someone you think may appreciate it.  The more readers, the more comments online, and wallah… lovers of art and Italy unite.

http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.com

Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com

All images in this post are copyright 2014 Nov 9 by Kelly Borsheim

Il Montino Pisa Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

In my last blog entry, I shared with you some images from the free exhibition in Pisa, Italy, about the paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi and the costume designs on Anna Anni. Today, I want to show you images of my day trip to Pisa (from Florence). My friend Simone and I did not go into the main piazza where the famous Leaning Tower exists, although we could see the tip of the tower from various points around the city we did visit. I am happy to say that he was able to change my opinion of Pisa in a good way.

After seeing the exhibition at the Palazza Blu, Simone took me to a hidden little gem in which the locals favored. It is called Il Montino and was tasty and affordable. It is tucked away to the left of a short clock tower not too far from the river.

You may see more images of Pisa in my Facebook page, look in the photo album titled “Day Trips.”

Thank you for any amount of appreciation for the time of writing and creating images to share with you. Glad you have you along on this journey!

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