Graffiti Borgo degli Albizi Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

As a continuation of my last blog post on the original form of graffiti, I share with you these images of a gorgeous work in degradation.  It is on Borgo degli Albizi, one of my favorite eye candy streets in Florence, Italy.  I think these designs are beautiful. 

[Click on an image to see it in a larger form.]

Even though the light pigments have eroded away, the ideas are still somewhat visible, “scratched” into the concrete.  True graffiti. 

This fourth image is a bit funny… to repair graffiti, it makes sense that one would have to refill the original incisions or decaying part.  But this grey ball is one blob that is not only a bit thick (protruding from the wall more than the rest of the design), but it seems odd that the new design was not created immediately while the cement was still wet!  Who knows how long this has been this way?

What a fantastical creature s/he is!

And finally, old and new graffiti together.  

Past posts about Italian graffiti:

My previous post with the meaning of “graffiti” :  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2013/08/graffiti-florence-italy.html

The sign of the Medici family (6 balls on the shield):  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2012/10/graffiti-florence-italy.html

Few things last forever, disappearing graffiti:  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2012/10/more-graffiti-florence-italy.html

Today’s form of graffiti:  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2007/09/italian-graffiti.html

****

Interested in street art?  I created a different kind of it in Florence over the course of four years.  I have written a book about the art, the artist, the politics, and the ambiance of working from 10 am to midnight in the streets on Italy.  The book is titled, “My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy” and you may get your copy at a country near you… click on the appropriate Amazon link on the right hand column, under the moon at:

http://www.borsheimarts.com/newsletter.htm

And thank you for joining me on this artistic journey.

Kelly Borsheim, sculptor / painter / muralist

 

Graffiti Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I have written before about graffiti here in Italy before.  I just find it fascinating and beautiful.  I am speaking of the original meaning of graffiti, not so much the graffiti of today.

graf·fi·ti  [gruh-fee-tee] :

Origin:
1850–55;  < Italian,  plural of graffito  incised inscription or design, derivative with -ito -ite²  of graffiare  to scratch, perhaps influenced by presumed Latin *graphīre  to write; both probably derivative of Latin graphium  stylus < Greek grapheîon;  cf. graphic, grapho-, graft¹ 

Coming home recently in Florence, Italy, I turned down a short road on the Oltrarno side of the Arno River, not far from the Trinita bridge.   It was after dark and my lack of ability with Photoshop meant that I was not able to successfully lighten these images… but here goes.

You may see here that the cement was troweled onto the wall and then the designs were scratched into the still-wet mixture.  Just as in sculpting in 3-dimensions, note that the artistan keeps the line at 90 degrees and crisp when he wants a dark line [note the raised edges on the straight lines near the top of the image], while he opens up the incision a bit if he was a lighter effect [grey vs. black, curved lines in the bottom part of the image].  In something flatter than a proper bas relief sculpture, these subtleties are about the only control the artisan has to play with tone, other than using actual color later.

This third image shows how this material ages… the wall becomes highly textured (and in my view, gorgeous) in the process of erosion.  

This next series illustrates a couple of things.  I have noticed here in Italy (and maybe in other countries) that great art is one thing and decoration quite another.  However, it is amazing what a simple design (technically speaking) can do for a space.  Many times I have seen palaces and homes decorated to the point of feeling almost too much on the wall patterns.  But when you look at the design, it is simple and repeated… not difficult per se, but it certainly gives a wondrous effect!

These last three images confuse and amuse me a bit.  I cannot tell if the faces in the patterns are by the original artisan or if a different person came along and added something closer to what we call “graffiti” today… the faces.  I am amused because you will note that the simple shape drawn for each head and the very simple faces drawn still result in what seems to me to be unique personalities.

A man…

A woman…

A work of art by Edvard Munch (author of “The Scream”).  What do you see?

I hope that you enjoy my little examinations of traditional Italian graffiti:   More in the next post.

Past posts about Italian graffiti:

The sign of the Medici family (6 balls on the shield):  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2012/10/graffiti-florence-italy.html

Few things last forever, disappearing graffiti:  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2012/10/more-graffiti-florence-italy.html

Today’s form of graffiti:  http://artbyborsheim.blogspot.it/2007/09/italian-graffiti.html

Landscape Painting Florence Italy

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

I will write more about the wonderful stone carving symposium in Castelvecchio di Pescia in northern Tuscany as I get my thousands of images organized.  (Should we still call digital images ‘photographs’?  hmmm, I have always had a problem with labels and categories.)  In the meantime, I am spending part of my day away from the computer and getting back to my adored charcoal drawings.  

Before I took off for my stone adventure, I went landscape painting with a couple of friends around Florence.  I have always been a bit intimated by landscapes… Nature offers us so much information that she can sometimes shut me down and I mentally wander off on some obscure path.  However, in my recent attempts with pastel in the gardens around Firenze, it became apparent to me that my first hurdle would be to get enough DARKS into the composition.  

Artists often hear about how the light of day is bouncing around and shadows are just not as dark as one might think.  (Perhaps this is more a conversation that emerged from painting from photographs since the human eye sees nuance more than a machine can decipher.)  But I need more dark.  So, I put away my pastels for the time being and decided to create tonal studies in charcoal.  I am a bit biased towards monochrome images anyway.

Isn’t my friend pretty, sitting there enticing all of the zanzare (mosquitos)?  I should have painted her in the grasses… In any event, this was during the time that I was not living in a home of my own, with most of my belongings packed up in boxes waiting for my new flat to become available.  Alas, I had no access to my tall easels.  I have a short torso and thus, once I sat down for the view I wanted, everything changed.  Haha.  

I decided that the light foreground grasses would become my subject instead of the obvious Florentine scene along the famous Arno River.  However, I first wanted to put in the darker background objects.  So, I sat up as straight as I could, wiggled around to get the information I needed, … and did I mention “going off on a tangent.”  ???  I got totally absorbed in drawing the land across the river!  Next thing I was aware of was the sun encroaching on our lovely patch of shade.  I have always liked the idea of sunshine, but not often the reality.  Or at least my being directly under her gaze.  

So, the grasses never got drawn.  However, I had a lovely nap.  It is what summers are for, right?

Happy birthday, Aunt Sue!