Street Painting Australia

Dear Art Loving Friend,
I have been working Down Under these days, but it is not all hard times!  My hosts Ron and Janice Ailwood have been showing me some of the local sights… which tend to be of the natural sort (my favorite kind).  They have wallabies in their backyard; birds, too, and lots and lots of stars!  We have also been traveling around a bit through this sugarcane farming country.  And the image of the three of us was taken shortly before we spotted the resident platypus in the creek/stream behind us.

This past Tuesday, Janice and I created a small street painting on the sidewalk of an outdoor shopping mall to promote the upcoming arts festival this weekend. (The weather here is wonderful!)  Here are the results of our “joyous adventure on our knees and bums” – er… !  People loved it and stopped in the middle of their busy shopping to chat us up and take photos.

Yesterday I judged hundreds of entries in an arts competition that is open to all Australians.  Up until yesterday, I was a virgin judge.   I rarely do well in competitions myself [I see myself as only competitive with myself and loathe these sorts of situations] and I find myself disappointed by how unfair I think most competitions are. My biggest pet peeve is artists who enter professional competitions with student work ... in my book that means anything done while under supervision of a paid or consistent instructor.

I REALLY looked at each of hundreds of artworks and tried to choose pieces that showed honesty, thought, skill, and creativity. I was happy that I am in a community in which I know so few people and would not be swayed by any emotional or self-promoting motives, such as voting for my own students. Tonight (soon, in fact), the awards will be presented and then Saturday morning, the artists will ask me for feedback on specific pieces and why I made such-and-such decisions.  In the end, the choices are simply one girl's opinion on a certain day, but I hope that most will see the kindness and love I put into the effort (and the written feedback I gave) and that I took their work into serious consideration.

I have already done some teaching and consulting in local high schools and the workshops (adult and children) start on aturday, different ones on different days.  I hope to share something of what I have learned over the years and have some more fun with these kind people!

Sarina Arts Australia

Dear Art Loving Friend,
I recently stepped foot in Oz, for the very first time.  It took four separate airplanes for me to reach my destination and I am still filled with the awe of flight!  Thus far, Australia was just what the doctor ordered.  I have put my toes in the sand, drank the purest collected rain water, soaked up fresh air and seen a spattering of stars in the night sky, and taken a gander at some interesting critters.  It is so lovely to be away from the city!

I hope you enjoy these images, especially the “fireworks” on Sarina Beach made by small sand crabs.  They make SPHERES of sand and push them out of their holes into these lovely patterns.  How festive!  From my hosts’ home, I can see a very red Mars and the Southern Cross (a constellation not seen in the Northern Hemisphere) dominating very starry nights.

I have been hired to work the 25th anniversary edition of the Sarina Arts Extravaganza, in northeast Australia.  Our first morning of activities were wet… and this little copy of a Marilyn Monroe in Andy Warhol style was just me goofing around to check the wetness of the sidewalk.  I later got the kids to street paint their version of Early Renaissance artist Botticelli’s “Primavera” (cropped).  We got some gorgeous sunshine and again later, it poured rain.  However, the kids loved it and really enjoyed the vibrant colors of the pastels. 

I will be creating another street painting soon.  In addition to that, I will be judging the art competitions here next week, teaching a workshop in sight size drawing and painting to adults, several children’s workshops, and working with a local high school on a mural project.  The people here have been absolutely lovely.  It is going to be a great week.

Portrait Oil Painting

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I was amused recently when one of my close friends, a painter, said (as he has on more than one occasion over the past year) that he thinks that I am a strong enough artist that Angel [Academy of Art here in Florence, Italy] will not beat out of me what is so good about my art. It is funny how some of us have this discussion about the four major classical art schools here in Firenze and how they differ, as well as how they do not. And most of us strive for our own independence.

Educating myself on the work of others is something that I have changed my opinion about over the years. I did not receive the traditional art education and before coming to Firenze, I knew very little about art history. I sometimes choose NOT to see the work, being curious about what kinds of images I would create without much influence of much anyone else. Other times I feel that looking at the work of others helps me hone on my own taste and grow faster. Much in the same way as my picture taking, each time I see an image, I refine my own sense of composition. It is helpful to analyze my emotional response to try to find that elusive quality that makes me FEEL something in one artwork, and feel too little in a similar effort.

I am where I need to be at the moment, despite my impatience. I find when I paint at Angel that I am trying to piece together many different approaches. Here is a small detail image of a portrait of a model Mauro that I am working on at the moment. This image reminds me of my approach with pastels when I do street painting. I have since gone in and refined the shapes in the face. Shapes are the most important thing and I find myself getting lost in them. But here, I am playing with putting the background color into parts of the face. This follows one idea that every part of a painting is a combination of the same colors. Each part simply varies in how those colors are proportioned. Let us see where this path takes me . . .

Art Anniversary Promotion: Get more art for your buck. Hurry, this one-time offer expires on 15 February 2013.

Mural Frisket Figure Painting Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Mural making is a bit of a different process than my street painting and my fine art painting. Funny how you learn the strengths and process of each system and make it work out all right, even sometimes mixing the things you learn from each different form of art and hopefully making all of your work stronger.

In mural painting, the environment is created first and then the figures are placed inside of it. [In street painting, one usually starts with the face and works out, so as not to step on the art. In my fine art painting, I work the whole composition, bouncing all over to develop the work in a consistent way.] However, speed and efficiency are qualities one strives for when working in the client’s space. It lessens the distraction factor for all lives involved. Thus, most of the work for my mural project here in Italia was done in my own studio in Firenze, Italia, or on the plane, bus, or while walking somewhere. Constantly thinking I am, and compositional “problems” must be solved, as well as keeping to one main idea. Too much of anything usually confuses and tires the audience.

Because of other things going on in my life, my prep time was quite diminished. I did not have time to draw from a live model, always my preference. Thus, I had to work from digital images from a model and her photographer that I hired. Most of the summer, I was not in the same country as she, so logistics meant that I could not even shoot my own images. None-the-less, I work with great people and I cannot believe how easy it all went. Even after I drew the mural on the wall, I discovered that I needed a reshoot of the woman in the pool. I realized why the image I had was not working. It has to do with perspective. But I received a new image the next day, gratefully! Because of the short turn-times, I think these figures look more like photographs than I hope my normal work does.

As in street painting, I gridded out my figures, only this time onto a transparent paper. This is so I can move the paper around on the scene I have created on the wall and see where the figure on the paper looks best before I draw her into the painting. Sure, I know generally where I want each figure, based on my Bozzetto (small drawing), but my bozzetto in this case was one-tenth the size of the wall. No doubt, mathematical errors will be found simply in the enlarging process. My client and I actually had several fun discussions on how we wanted to change things that just did not look or feel right, regardless of the logic we saw in the perspective work. I have to admit that I really enjoyed our dialogues, especially when I reworked the pool a couple of times.

I admit to being lazy at times. So, while I drew in the outlines of the ladies, I decided not to bother with a precise frisket when I drew the woman in the pool. Frisket is basically a masking material with adhesive on one side. It is designed to protect an area from receiving the treatment given to surrounding areas. I used to use a special kind back in the early 1990s when I did restoration work on 4 x 5 inch film transparencies. I am not crazy about using friskets because I do not like the hard edge they always leave. However, this is how it is done and I did not have time to come up with a preferred method. The main point is to not have landscape showing through underneath my figure. Acrylic paint does not have to be opaque, although it does not become less so with time, as oil painting does.

In these next three images, you may see how I tried to minimize the edging by taping INSIDE my figure outline. I must have been drinking too much wine or liquor that night or was simply really tired when I masked the right hand. The rectangular tape shape tells me that I probably just forgot to cut away the tape outside of my line. That slowed me down a bit as I had to paint with extra care the faux stone floor behind the hand. It is so much easier to paint with abandon to get the strokes moving freely right up to an edge, and then remove the tape for a lovely look!

The last image today is a horrible work-in-progress of the third woman in the scene. While my model Anna Rosa posed for me, I had decided to change her face and turn her into a redhead. I also was inventing the clothing and lighting on the torso, since she had posed wearing a short dress. In addition, I used a photo of me taken in San Sebastian, Spain, as a reference for a more horizontal forearm position. I still have work to do on the redhead.

Thanks for reading! My book about my street painting in Italy is now available in Amazon.com in the US, as well as in several European Amazons. Check it out on my home page for an easy link; Amazon even allows you to see some of the inside pages: http://borsheimarts.com/ You may also order a signed copy directly from me (no extra charge for the inscription) and I will get you a shipping quote from Italy. Contact me directly, please.

Tuscan Trees in Mural

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I have got trees now in my mural project! And they are not all bad . . . it is a start, anyway: One foot in front of the other. Well, now that it is behind me, I can confess that on the 14th, I lost my confidence. I am not sure why then, but . . . yes, I am. For all the preparation work that I did with perspective and composition decisions, once I got the enlarged drawing on the wall, it either was not what I thought I had designed or it was simply wrong; it did not work.

It is amazing how similar and yet how very different mural painting is from street painting. When I was street painting, people often asked me if I could do a large painting on canvas. “Sure,” I said, “this is what I do.” But when I quoted a price, many were stunned. Why would it be “so high” and take “so long” when I see you in the street recreating the Mona Lisa large, in one day, working for tips? Well, I do not mean to get off on a rant here, but basically, I was making temporary art on the street and a copy of someone else’s design. And while I always try to do a good job, street painting is more a performance art than it is fine art. I do not mean that in a negative way, by any means. I mean that I have a relatively short deadline and my main goal is to make an impression with a very large image during that time. Impress you. That is the goal of a street painter. Spettacolo!

Yes, of course I want to impress people with all of the art that I make. However, when I have time to design something and make it last, it is a whole other ballgame. There are other ways in which to impress. Yet there I was, standing before my work and not happy. I had redrawn the first figure because she just looked too small. And eventually did the same with the distant figure. And then, two days ago, I realized that the middle figure would not work at any size because the viewpoint to the model was wrong. She is below me (as viewer) and thus, my reference from my model must reproduce that viewing position.

I used to exhibit a terrible temper. But I have worked on that over the years because I did not want to be that person. I now tend to turn my anger inside and I am not too kind when I am angry with myself. Was mine an error in calculations (which I should know better!) or was I simply experiencing my first mural project and learning that theories are one thing, reality quite another? Harumph! Lucky me. Having a better understanding now of myself, I know that this love-hate thing is often a part of each creation. (Whew!) This is because I am trying something new with each artwork, even if it may not look like that to you.

Frustration turns to anger; anger to depression and lost confidence. I know that in this case, I was also feeling overwhelmed by what I wanted to accomplish, with a few voices telling me that I would not be able to do this project by my deadline. First step: breathe. Second: Slow down and take time to think about what needs to be done and in what order. Do not run. Walk. It is a tortoise-and-hare thing and progress is progress. I needed to stop thinking about being “forced” to move fast (not my forte), and get back to thoughts of making something worth seeing, regardless of deadlines.

So, I contacted my model and arranged to redo the pose for the figure I needed. In mural painting, unlike street painting, I must create the background first. I also need to create the scene before adding the figures into that scene. However, their sizes and placements help me determine other compositional elements in the whole work. That is why muralist Victor Goikoetxea told me that one always fully designs the mural before any of actual artwork gets done. There is none of this, “Let’s see where the artwork takes me” kind of thing possible in most other creative endeavors.

Allora, two days ago was a frustrating, but necessary part of this project. Today, the work is stronger; the figures sized into place. Yesterday, I got what I needed from the model, the lovely Anna Rosa. I also painted the first layer of the background. And I painted trees! I have another day at least ahead of me on the landscape, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And as they say, “Let us just hope it is not the train.”

If you have followed my career much, you will remember the name of master sculptor Vasily Fedorouk, who was my friend and mentor. Sadly and suddenly, we lost him just over three years ago. His wife Dilbara and I have remained good friends and now she is prepared to sell a selected few pieces of Vasily’s artwork. I will be announcing these pieces, with their prices, in my next art newsletter, which will come out later this month or early October, once I have finished my mural project. If you would like to be one of the first to receive this information, please sign up for my art newsletter. You may preview past newsletters on the following page, if you like: http://www.borsheimarts.com/newsletter.htm

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I have returned to Firenze, Italia, from my lovely trip to Serbia, only to discover that I have too many friends. Ha.. My life seems to be go-go-go and while it is a lot of fun and I feel a bit spoiled, I am also feeling antsy because my art making has slowed too much. Soon, I go to Spain to study mural making. It was an excellent opportunity too good to pass up and the timing could not have been better: I have a commission to paint my first mural. I am excited and nervous about it since there are many new things for me to attempt.

I am currently trying to seclude myself for this week to finish the bozzetto (Italian for “sketch,” in this case similar to maquette or a small model of an intended larger work). Like most artists, I find inspiration from my colleagues of the past, as well as my contemporaries and my own imagination. Most of my work happens in my head long before anyone else will even see one mark of it. I was delighted last weekend when I visited my clients and showed them my charcoal sketch. It was very loose and I commend them and their friends for catching on to what I was trying to express.

To find inspiration for this project, I turned to one of my favorite romantic artists, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema [Born: Dronryp, Netherlands on 8 January 1836; Died: Wiesbaden, Germany on 25 June 1912]. He is often thought to be British (and lived in England for many years), but his interests and life were much broader than one country could hold.

I am including four images here of some of Alma-Tadema’s paintings that helped me with my composition. I also include here an image that I took in Serbia, which is also playing a role in my future mural.

Basically, I was told by the client what elements he wanted in what started out as a painting for a wall. But I had envisioned something larger and next thing you know he was preparing the wall with the latest technology in Italia: cork insulation with aluminum foil to keep out moisture and then covered in fresco-type material and sealed. You might imagine the laugh we had when I told him what I had envisioned as he sent me progress reports on the wall each day that I was in Serbia! [The foil threw me, but is laminated on a sheet of cork… whereas I had envisioned a home-made job of sheets of foil being pushed into the wall and lots of wine drinking going on to get corks available. Ha. My vision no doubt is also a memory of my friend Andrew Corke who is creating art with real wine corks. But, I digress . . . as I do.]

I made a list of all of the elements my client wanted (three curvaceous, long-haired scantily clothed female figures, Roman ruins, arched window(s), a pool for the ladies, etc.). I then mapped out the proportions of the wall and included various architectural elements (such as an awkwardly placed “window” in the wall) and furniture that would block some of the view of the mural.

My first disegno did not make me happy. It felt cluttered and lacked the impact that a mural should have (as a good street painting does). However, it was a necessary part of my process because my reaction to it led to a much better second attempt. So, I now have approval and need to solidify the drawing and hire the models. Stay tuned for progress images, although there will be a trip to Spain here before the mural begins.

Book Street Painting Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),
I head to Italy soon and wanted to make a shameless plug for my new book “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy” and it looks great! There are over 330 images in the book and while I did try to focus on the art, there are images of the artists who create the paintings. I also wrote about various issues that street artists face, including our struggles with taxes and government and the joys of sharing the street with other performers and artists and vendors.

I have had a couple of repeat buyers – several art lovers who bought the book for themselves and after reading it decided to order more for holiday gifts. One of my favorite comments was that I really portrayed what it feels like to work in the street all day making art… the ambiance of it all. [Street painters in Florence, Italy, tend to start around 10 a.m. and work until midnight creating one artwork in chalk and pastel.]

I have some books here in the USA with me that I have no room to take to Italia. They will stay with my mom for a bit, but I would love to be able to ship a copy or two out to you before I go. If you enjoy art and people and travel, or any of those, please consider this book for you or a loved one. Do not forget to include the name(s) you would like me to write into the book signing.
To order, please visit my contact page: http://www.borsheimarts.com/contact.htm and you may pay safely with PayPal.

Thank you so much and Buon Natale.
My next post will most likely come from Italy!

Straccetto Toto de Angelis

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Toto de Angelis (aka Straccetto) breathed his last breath this evening in Italy. Or, as his niece Anna Innocenzi wrote, “Il cielo da questo momento non solo sarà profumato di lavanda...ma sarà pieno di tanti colori...ZIO TOTO STRACCETTO CI HA LASCIATO.............” ["The sky in this moment is no longer perfumed with lavender, but it will be full of many colors. Uncle Toto "Stracetto" has left us."]

Toto was born on 31 March 1948 in Rome. At an early age, he was stricken with polio, which left him with a permanent limp. He had a difficult childhood in a ghetto in Roma, with a father who was in and out of prison. As he got older, Toto sold lavender from a cart that rarely left him. He often admired the work of the madonnari, who created devotional paintings on the street, but it was not until 1982 that he began to try his untrained hand in art. He painted consistently once he got going, teaching himself mostly, and in 2003, he began to receive recognition from such events as the street painting competition in Grazie di Curtatone in northern Italy.

Straccetto was arguably the most famous of all of the contemporary madonnari in Italy. Even in my relatively short time street painting in Italy, it was not long before I met Toto. I was introduced to him on May 15, 2009, in Nocera Superiore, a small town in southern Italy that hosts an annual street painting competition each May. I noticed him at another table before I understood that he was also an artist. His face caught my attention and I remember thinking that he would make a tremendous portrait subject – what a sculptural face! It struck me as classically Italian and reminded me of the many Dante sculptures I have seen in that country.

He was always friendly to everyone and the night after we all finished our paintings that year, my colleague Johnny McGrogan and I got to share a drink with Toto and another true madonnaro Pino Vommaro (also from Roma). That was a pretty cool evening!

Toto was never far from his cart and in August 2010 at the competition in northern Italy, I saw that his dogs Mara and Valeria were with him as well. His art would be considered folk art, but like any true artist, he walked his own path and spoke with his own symbols in his work.

This blog post was intended to be about my new book “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy.” In it, I shared a few of the images I have of Toto. But on the eve of his death, it feels wrong to try to sell anything to you in my tribute post to him.

That said, there is another situation that I was made aware of by my contacts on Facebook. The Sarasota Chalk Festival in Florida recently experienced something quite unpleasant. The City’s Art Funding program just changed the rules on current applicants for those events happening this year. My understanding is that the Chalk Festival no longer is eligible because they are not “old enough” yet as a non-profit organization. However, this event is not new and they appear to have had an understanding that they had properly followed all of the rules and application guidelines (until they changed). They thought that they would be receiving a serious chunk of change to fund the many artists who have bought airplane tickets to arrive in Florida for the event, which is scheduled for 1-7 November. And it is a little late for them to be having this kind of funding surprise.

Check out their Web site and if you like what you see and would like to support them, whether or not you can attend this year, buy a catalog of the art, or make a donation in the name of Toto de Angelis. Maybe they can even create an award in his name for the artist who shows the most creative or story telling work. That would be a good way to honor Toto, as well as the history of street painters. Toto de Angelis was part of making street art into something more than a few small voices in one country.
http://www.chalkfestival.com

Madonnari - Street Painters in Italy

Thanks to Simone Di Santi, who interviewed me last year in Florence, Italy, while I was streetpainting. Simone and her partner create a travel video Web series called "A Road Retraveled".

Please note that near the end of the video when they are scanning the young nude Giovanni (St. John) by Caravaggio: This part of the video clip was taken AFTER the street cleaners (vehicle) passed over it the morning after it was drawn.

Streetpainting Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Last week I visited Vatican City and so this Thursday chose to recreate in the streets of Florence one of the Sybils on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. I hope you like my self-portrait in this “work-in-progress” shot. I did not realize I did that until I saw the images later.

I was delighted later that afternoon as a class of Italian children came to watch me work. I offered one a pastel stick, but she shied away. Instead, her classmate asked if she could try and next thing I knew, I was passing out various orange colors and pointing to the sections of the Sybil’s skirt in which each child should color.

The kids and I had a blast together. I wanted a photo of all of our orange hands and one of the teachers offered to take it for us. I asked the kids if they wanted to be on my blog and the idea seemed to be fun to them. I handed out the last of my wet baby wipes to clean their hands a bit and then they were off to catch a train. What a delightful day and great experience for us all.





Later that evening, the capo of our group of madonnari (street painters), Claudio, arrived to see my colleague Johnny and me. [Johnny is not in most of these images because he had another job and joined me for only parts of the day.] Since he had another commission to work on with our colleague Tomo, he offered to let Johnny and me draw that next day (their normal day).

So, around midnight that first night, I wrote on the street in Italian, “Please do not clean” and we set cardboard boxes around our drawing in hopes that the street cleaning truck would pass us by the next morning. It worked this time, although when I arrived on Friday, an older Italian woman complained to me that it was bruttissima that I left such ugly boxes in the street overnight. And while protected from cars, I noticed that someone rode a bike and/or stroller through the drawing and there were lots of footprints in different directions, implying that at least one person was dancing on our work overnight!

Also, the next morning I arrived to see a man erecting scaffolding close to my work area. I am starting to wonder if the city really does own the scaffolding company as one friend told me. Florence has an abundance of this and I have yet to see the famous Duomo without it!

He was breaking off some of the metal “T”s that were used to adjust the height of each leg, telling me that it was for public safety. I photographed this one young boy who was fascinated by the process and kept telling his father to wait a moment more since he did not want to leave. He was quite cute. We finished up around 5:30 pm. People were out and complimentary, but I had dinner plans and needed to get home to wash up. Enjoy these images.

And if you are interested in learning pastels in a fun and beautiful environment that allows you to focus on art and nature, please check out my pastel workshop in Hawaii in September. http://borsheimarts.com/art-workshops/hawaii-pastels.htm

Street Painting Festival Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I recently returned from the annual street painting competition in southern Italy. Nocera Superiore is a small city up the mountain from Salerno and the Amalfi Coast. I wrote about some of my experiences last year at this concorso dei madonnari (madonnari = street painters in Italian). This year was a bit different.

There was still the long train ride down, meaning that although I was up until 2 am, as is my usual, I rose (but I am pretty sure that I did not shine) around 5 am to finish packing and get to the stazione. Dozing off occasionally on the train was not enough and so I took a little nap shortly after arriving in Nocera Superiore. This year, there were over 100 artists - street painters from Mexico, Holland, Italy, and more.

The streets of this Italian town have glass embedded in them. Pastels and chalk do not stick to glass and thus, we must prepare the street to “give it some tooth.” This is not unlike a fine art painter preparing the surface of a canvas or board. Some of the real pros get quite elaborate with this, even coloring their surfaces like a campitura. Like many others, I used Coca-Cola: the kind with sugar. I cannot think of a better use of this soda water than pouring it out on the street!

The weather had cleared up and most of us, with the exception of my eager colleague Wilson, got started after the dinner provided by the festival organizers. In order, the images I include here are of madonnari: Toto, a famous streetpainter of over 50 years with a very Dante- or Leonardo da Vinci-style profile; Tomo, a Japanese streetpainter who resides in Florence; Wilson from Columbia; yours truly; and Taka, another Japanese madonnaro. There were many more artists in my group from Florence, Italy, but these were the artists who worked in spaces closest to mine.









Taka’s shoes made funny noises as they ripped away from a very tacky surface and we had some laughs in the middle of the night about that. I was so tired that I called it a night around 3 am, thinking that I might be more efficient after about 3 more hours of sleep. On my way to my provided bed, I photographed this bronze figurative sculpture of a priest holding glow-in-the-dark rosaries and sporting a neon halo. Fresh lilies were put at his feet daily, at least while I was in Nocera.


When my alarm went off around 6 am, it was pouring rain outside. Quite frankly, I was happy to have a reason to stay in bed. However, it had stopped by about 7:30 am and many of my colleagues had gotten up to see what was the situation. Not so good: many artists lost their protective plastic sheets in the strong winds. And on the other hand, those who had thoroughly taped all edges of their plastic to the street still had water underneath the plastic. Many drawings were ruined and some became beautifully ghostlike. As with the case of the black and white design of an image of Christ, I actually felt that the crinkles of air in the plastic resembled cracks and were an interesting addition to the artwork underneath.







The weather alternated between short bouts of dumping rain and wee bits of sunshine, but ultimately once our deadline of noon passed, it was apparent that even if we waited to finish on Sunday, it would all be in vain. I took another snapshot of part of the church as we all checked out, then asked a friend to take this image of fellow street painters Giovanna and Angela with me where we hung out for breakfast.



After another nap and a wonderfully warm lunch of ravioli with gnocchi followed by slices of meat, peas (which I left on the plate as I have done since babyhood), and French fries, it was time to head to Rome. On the way to the stazione, I took this image of some high school kids using their plastic as a “fort” and under it they were drawing, socializing, and talking on their cell phones in the drizzly weather. Pretty cool, these budding artists!


I wanted to see the Caravaggio exhibit in Roma, but having changed my plans at the last minute after Nocera’s event and having no reservations (and arriving in Roma just before midnight), I could not find ANY available beds. It was a Saturday night, which turned out to be Rome’s “Notte Bianca” and packed with tourists. The wet weather made a “park visit” (homeless-style sleeping) impossible. So, I amused myself in some bar with dancing and a bizarre movie until I could get on the 5:57 a.m. train back to Florence. What a weekend! It was sad that the rain destroyed this year’s streetpainting festival, but that is the way it goes sometimes.