prepping for midterms...

My life has been consumed by prepping for midterms. I'm really missing the quarter system about now, because at Western, when you have finals and then a break, you come back to school with a fresh schedule. So it kind of makes studying for finals not as bad, because you know that those are the last tests you will ever have to take for those classes... However, here, I have midterms in oh wait, every class, and then I'll go on fall break, and when I return, it will be right back to the same ol' classes. I shouldn't be complaining though. I'm in Italy. There could definitely be worst things...

All day yesterday and all day today, I have been cooped up inside studying and working on art. In fact, it is 11:30 PM and I'm still in my pajamas from the night before... Yesterday I stayed in my pajamas until I had to shower to go out and the same thing will happen tonight...only I'm not planning on going out.

It's hard to have some midterms that are actual exams and some midterms that are projects. Even though I am a perfectionist when it comes to turning art stuff in and even though I spend hours and hours and hours on each project, I much prefer a project over an exam. I think you learn more with projects because you spread it out over a period of time. Whereas exams are pure regurgitation. You learn the material, memorize it, take the exam, and forget it all right after you finish...

Here is a list of what my midterms are...

• Digital Photography: Exam
• Italian: Exam
• Art History: Exam
• Creative Web Logging: Project
• Graphic Design advanced project development: Project

I'm the most concerned for my art history exam and my italian exam. More so for the art history one. I have a pretty good memory, but it's just so hard for me to memorize a ton of images, the dates, the artists, the backstory, the time period, the symbols, etc. I took AP art history in high school, and looking back on it, I have no idea why. I don't even like art history. Okay mom and david, here is the part you say "told you so..." because back then, you told me that I shouldn't take as many Advanced Placement classes... ah well, you live and learn.

This weekend, Festival della Creativita took place in a 16th century fortress. There were a bunch of booths, food, demonstrations, displays, etc. all centering around art and well, you guessed it, Creativity. I went during class on Friday and walked around for a bit and then I went last night. It was so much different to go during the daytime than to go during the nighttime. During the daytime, all of the buildings with all of the booths and things were open, however at night, most of the buildings are closed and the only booths that were open was the food outside with multiple DJs... Day or night, it was all really fun. I wish the festival didn't take place the weekend before midterms (it's a one weekend kinda deal) because otherwise I would've spent a lot more time there.

I haven't had too much time to put the pictures from my camera onto my computer, so for the pictures for the post, I decided to put up the posters/labels I have been working on for Citta del Vino. I think I've talked about the project before, but just to reiterate, Citta del Vino is an organization that holds a poster contest every year open to anyone and everyone. You don't have to be a student, you don't have to be a resident of Italy, and you don't have to be an artist. Sooo... as you can imagine, there will be A LOT of competition...

CLICK HERE to see the winners from the previous years...

Personally, I only like the posters from 2006 and 2007... the others I could do without.

Anyway, apparently there is no limit as to how many posters you enter in the contest so I have been trying to go for different styles, because I'm not quite sure what the judges are looking for. Here is what I have so far... Oh and if you want to see bigger versions of any of the posters/labels than just click on them and it will enlarge it.

Look closely... there is more than just a wine bottle...

Both the top one and the bottom one are from the same idea... just different ways of executing the idea....

I have already posted this one in a previous post, but I thought it would be helpful to see all of the posters together

Look Closely...

I would suggest clicking on this image to see the bigger version so you can see what is in the spilled wine... and I think this is my favorite so far...

Look at both the positive and the negative space...

Pay attention to the spilled wine...

Any feedback would be great. I love love love constructive criticism when it comes to my art, because how else am I supposed to improve? You can send me an e-mail at misslaurencohen@yahoo.com telling me what you think.

Hope everything is great in the states... Ciao!

Venice and Verona

I got pooped on in Venice. Apparently it's good luck. No big deal. What a way to start a post, huh? Growing up, my teachers always taught me that when starting any composition, you need a fish hook. So there it is my little fishies, the hook.

Saturday I went to Verona with my study abroad program and it rained. I actually don't mind the rain, I really don't. Washington has made me immune to the rain. The only problem with the rain is that it makes it very difficult to take pictures without my camera getting wet. Verona was a lot different than I expected. Not sure exactly why I pictured it the way I did, but I pictured Verona having unpaved roads and just ruin looking buildings... Come to think of it, I probably pictured it that way because it is more or less the way Shakespeare described it. Verona was a nice city to explore, but I wouldn't make a special trip out there to do it again. It was a complete tourist trap. There was a house with a balcony that COULD'VE been Juliet's balcony. If she even existed. It was basically an IF kinda city...IF that took place. IF that happened. IF they existed. My friends and I found a tea/coffee shop and we hung out in there for a bit. A couple of my friends split a spiced ginger something (i think) tea, and I had a dark chocolate mint hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream. SO TASTY. so dangerously tasty. so glad that shop is not in florence, otherwise i would get dangerously close to becoming a diabetic with all of that sugar in that hot chocolate.

After Verona, we went to a wine vineyard and saw the grapes being dried out, and we had a small wine tasting. Before coming to Italy, I really wasn't a wine person, but Italy has definitely made me expand my wine palette. During the wine tasting, we only tasted red wines and I surprised myself by liking all of them; when before Italy, I would only drink white wines... occasionally. Wait. What am I saying? I've never had anything alcoholic to drink ever because I'm under 21, so OF COURSE it would be illegal. Pshh... okay so rewind. Before coming to Italy, if I had to IMAGINE what wine tasted like than I IMAGINED that I wouldn't drink it because of the taste. Alright, who am I kidding? Of course I've had wine before. I'm Jewish. Gotta keep up that tradition. And ladies and gentlemen, this is when it becomes apparent (and a child), that I am clearly not getting enough sleep... hence, the rambling. ANNNND moving forward...

Saturday night, we stayed in the middle of no where. I couldn't even tell you where we were, except we were in the middle of no where in between Venice and Verona. I'm 99.9% sure that the hotel was chosen because it WAS in the middle of no where. And having 130+ of us makes sense to being in the... yep, you've guessed it... middle of no where.

Sunday, bright and early, we departed for Venice. I had been to Venice before, but it was such a different experience. When I was younger, it was more about getting from point A to point B in the most efficient and fastest way possible. However, now it's about going from point A and going through the entire alphabet before getting to point Z. In short terms, I had fun getting lost. I love perusing the stores, the markets, the canals, everything. My friends and I decided to ride in a gondola, which was cool. The last time I was in Venice, we chose not to ride in one, so it was a nice experience.

Anyway, here are some pictures...

As promised, here is a picture of the chocolate chip peanut butter challah I made last week...

Annnnd onto the photos from the weekend...

VERONA:

This COULD'VE been Juliet's balcony where she talked to Romeo.

All the love letters people posted on the wall by the Capulets' home.

I wanted to see what it would feel like to be tall...so I tried on some stilts...

I really like my friends.

WINE VINEYARD:

VENICE:

On the gondola...

On the Realto...

I want a puppy like this...so cute. He looks like a little stuffed animal!

Venice was quite the busy place... shocker, I know.

SUCH a beautiful sunset.

Ciao!

fridayyy...

I just made the thickest chocolate chip peanut butter challah in my entire life... well actually, this is the first challah I have ever made from scratch, so with all things considering, it didn't turn out soooo badly...it just was pretty dense and it was definitely missing the ooey gooey fluff.

I'll post pictures of that later...well, when I get a chance...

Weeks here have just been flying by... it's been so crazy...

On wednesday, I went to my first opera. I never really enjoyed listening to opera music, so I was hesitant to go, buuut my program had already paid for it which meant that I had already paid for it which meant that I should really go... I forgot to read the synopsis ahead of time, so when the opera opened with a naked woman running across the stage, grabbing herself and screeching, I was a bit confused. At the top of the stage, there was a screen with all of the lyrics on there, and because the words go on for such a long period of time in opera, I could actually read the words and understand a lot of them! That was a bonus! In between the 1st and 2nd acts, I read a synopsis so after that, the opera became a lot more enjoyable and of course made a lot more sense... It was a nice experience...

Yesterday, my alarm either did not go off, or it went off and I was so exhausted that I slept through it, or turned it off without realizing it... which in turn made me miss my Italian class. It's really not that big of a deal though... I've learned more Italian outside of class and just talking to people at bars, clubs, piazzas, cafes, and everywhere else than I have in the class... so oh well.

Today in graphic design, I worked on my wine label... I am going to make quite a few because I am never satisfied...but here is the first one...

And here it is without any of the white spots in the center...

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it, because I have never made anything really loose like that... I feel like it looks like a little kid made it...however, when I told my teacher that I thought it looked like a little kid did it, she said that it would've had to have been a really really talented little kid... ah i don't know... i'll mess with it more, think of other things to do to it, etc.

Tomorrow I'm headed to VENICE AND VERONAAAA!!! I'm so excited! I love to travel!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

hmmmm

sooo i don't really have anything to say in the blog today because let's face it, the 'study' part of 'study abroad' should be illegal and sucks... sooo my life for the most part has been consumed with school. Oh well, I could think of worst things...

My digital photography teacher said that he really liked my photos yesterday but he wasn't sure if they exactly fit the assignment of "landscapes"... to be completely honest i was a bit confused with what he meant by that... I always thought landscapes had to do with nature, or really amazing views... but then in class last week, he showed us some examples, so it made me believe that landscapes were anything that did not fit under the category of macro photography, abstract photography, or portraits... guess i was wrong...? Uncle Ron, maybe you could help me understand this... especially because you don't have a thick Italian accent... at least you didn't last time I checked... but who knows, things change.

Okay time to admit something... I'm a complete graphic design nerd who loves fonts, advertisements, logos, slogans, web site design, being creative, and having fun. There, I said it. I'm a nerd. Some of my classes here aren't challenging me the way I like to be challenged, so because I'm a nerd, I created an assignment for myself... I decided to take a picture that I've taken recently and some how turn it into an advertisement... here is what I came up with...

I feel like it could be improved, because really any piece of art can always be improved and every piece of art isn't ever really 'finished'... but I'm not exactly sure what I want to change about it quite yet, so I'm going to wait a few months, review it, and then by that point it will be fairly apparent to me what needs to be worked on....

We'll see how that goes... anyway goodnight all! I'm off to land of dreams aka my bed aka heaven on earth right about now with the costco sized grocery bags under my eyes...

Caution: Lots of photos included...

wow this weekend was busy...

well, fairly busy..

On Saturday I went to Bologna with my program. We all started off split into different tour groups, but that didn't last too long for my friends and myself... we ditched the tour group to walk around by ourselves...

We ended up seeing a market, some stores, a few cathedrals, the leaning towers, and a bunch of other stuff... I didn't know there were leaning towers in Bologna, so it was a pleasant surprise to see them... A couple of my friends and I decided to climb up the tallest tower... it was an intense climb but totally worth it... AMAZING VIEW OF BOLOGNA AT THE TOP...

After Bologna, we headed to a family owned balsamic vinegar farm... We tasted the "traditional" form of balsamic vinegar and I will be the first to tell you how much better it tasted compared to balsamic vinegar that most of us use from the grocery store...We tasted the balsamic vinegar base, 7 year old, 17 year old, and 30 year old final products of the balsamic vinegar... SO GOOD

After the mini tour of the farm, the family prepared a meal for all of us with a series of different foods that are meant to be eaten with balsamic vinegar... Some of the foods they prepared for us were pastries, bruschetta, fruit, pound cake, and brace yourself for this one... brownies. Yes, brownies. Which were surprisingly delicious with the balsamic vinegar... I wonder what kind of looks I would get if I go back home and order a brownie for a dessert in a restaurant and then ask for some balsamic vinegar to go with it...

Today I planned to do another day trip, however I was far too lazy and far too tired to go anywhere... so I spent the day at home in Firenze... and i'm not complaining at all. I love love love love this city!

So a couple of weeks ago, my digital photography teacher told me that my pictures were good, however not consistent. Apparently I don't have a style. He wants to be able to look at a photo and say "Oh, Lauren did that!" So I've been trying to brainstorm some ideas of things I could photograph that would all fit under a common theme. Since I haven't worked too much with using a slow shutter speed, I decided that it would be a good challenge for me. So this semester I am going to focus the most on movement and action...

Here are the photos that I think I'm going to turn in tomorrow for class...

these were the stairs we had to climb up in the tower... and it was like this the entire way up...

And yes, I do realize that I have posted these two photos in a previous post... I just figured I would post them again in the group with what I'm going to turn in for class...

And here are some other photos...

A leaning tower of Bologna that we climbed up...

BOLOGNA!!! This is the view from the top of the tower...

Lunch was SOOOO tasty. ohhhh my goodness...

Some of the dishes that were prepared for us on the Balsamic Vinegar Farm...

And this last photo is specifically for Jeremy because I know with your 10 year old mind, you especially will love this... And yes, it is what you think it looks like... your mind is not in the gutter... and only italy would create pasta looking like this....

hahahahahaha.... and with that note I bid farewell...hah