Artist Statement

My work responds to identity construction, societal roles, and the dynamics of social power as they relate to the human body.  

By focusing on the way we present ourselves, I question the way we are expected to live our lives.  We begin our lives as a lump of clay, soft and malleable, and our experiences change us.  The process of becoming who we are is what I am interested in.  This definition of personality happens as we internalize our experiences and the societal expectations that are imposed on us.   Personality is constantly concealed and revealed through social exchanges and action of the individual. I study these masks, coverings, and costumes, as barriers to seeing the real woman inside.  I remove all barriers from the forms I study and present them side by side.  The simple, beautiful nudes present these personas as options, not as necessity.  They examine their own world and various cultures to find what they are looking for, not what society imposes on them.  

Society has become obsessed with beauty, and the old saying of "you are what you eat" is now "you are what you see."  Our days are saturated with images, everything is centered around visual stimuli, every image we consume has been engineered for our seasoned visual palette. American pop culture has shaped the world, we are the dominant stimuli.  Are we aware of what we are seeing?  We need to ask ourselves: "what is right for me?" not what we are expected to be.

The development of all women is linked, our cycles in rhythm with nature and the eternal continuation of all life.  As we realize how special our own place is in the world, we realize that we share our experiences with all women, throughout history, all over the world.   In my life, this maturation was not readily understood or accepted.  Through my life, I have resisted the development of my identity as a woman, wanting to hold on to the simplicity of childhood.  I am still puzzled by some of the things expected of me as a woman, the way I am supposed to act, the double-standards of morality and the implied inferiority of my capabilities.

October Update

Brett and I have been looking at designs for the wedding, and we have settled on a celtic tree of life design. I am going to create a cake topper of this in ceramics, which should be a great keepsake.

Wedding! 355 days to go

So, an update is in order now that so many things have happened. This past spring, I found a dress so perfect, so on sale, and so alluring on I had to get it. An ivory mermaid halter style at David's Bridal, one that I had admired online for a few weeks before the sale. Brett actually told me about the fantastic sale and we went together-- oh no! for the superstitious, oh yes! for the practical-- and found the exact dress I had been pining for. I must say, I look great in it and can't wait to start designing accessories with my mentor, Toysa soon.

I had not to think but a minute where I wanted our wedding ceremony to take place, and that's Silver Creek United Methodist Church. I have been a member here since 2005, and love the little white country church and it's cozy feeling. The only hang-up might be is that it's so cozy it only holds 148. That, unfortunately, means some guests will be receiving "reception only" invitations.

We have also booked our reception for The North Forty Golf Club. This is a great location because, well, it's big enough and air conditioned. These two factors, along with it's proximity to Kalamazoo (a larger selection of hotels and weekend things to do there) and that the North Forty is north of Dowagiac, bringing Brett's family closer to home as the night progresses. I found no other match so perfect within the local of the church. The reception hall is truly a classy joint to throw a party in!

Brett, Sue and Mike Mason and I traveled to Indianapolis, IN recently to taste wines for the reception. We (of course) wanted to use Easley Winery, seeing as this is owned and operated by my cousin Meridith and Mark Easley. I have "grown up" with their wines-- that being they were the first to educate me about wine when I was coming of age, and love the variety that they offer and their family owned atmosphere. We all had a great time together, even though we only had a short visit. I was able to ask my cousin Madeline to be my junior bridesmaid (finally!) and care for the guest book and gift table. She and I had such a nice visit, and she helped us taste the wines while we were at the winery. It has been too long since I visited Indianapolis! Also, my cousins Molly Butters and Aaron Hale have been settling into their first home after being quite a traveling couple (but that's expected of newlyweds) now have settled into their first home in Indianapolis. They were exuberant in their hostess and host responsibilities-- showing us a great German restaurant and taking us for a tour of the city. Brett and I went out with them after the "old folks" hit the hay.

In conclusion, we all loved the wines and decided we will be providing a champagne toast, and a selection of one dry red, one dry white, one sweet red and one sweet white for our guests. There will also be beer selections, but those are yet to come. Any liquor will be a cash bar.

Brett and I have also chosen a caterer, that being Pistachios Catering of Kalamazoo. We went for our meeting, then tasting, and can't wait to try their cakes now!

TheKnot

TheKnot

This is where I will be hosting my wedding website！

GVSU

This blog is all about GVSU's Ceramic Department.  Please check it out!

http://gvsuceramics.blogspot.com/

flickr images

check out my flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norajaneart/

Summary of my Korea Trip

This is the paper that I wrote summarizing the highlights of my trip to Korea, so if you do not feel like reading all my posts, this will give you a good sense of what happened this spring!

The workshop that I attended during my faculty-let study abroad program consisted of a workshop with the International Society for Ceramic Art Education (ISCAEE) in conjunction with the World Ceramic Art Jamboree (WOCEF).   Both organizations hold a conference every two years and this year teamed up for the “Adventures of the Fire” theme in the cities of Yeoju and Icheon.  ISCAEE provided housing for the participants, of whom were international students, Korean students and all respective professors accompanying the various schools.  The booths that were assigned to the different schools showcased students demonstrating techniques in the ceramic arts as well as their professors and master potters.  The workshops were five days, the first two days were all the participating Korean schools, the middle Wednesday was for professor demonstrations, and the final two days were for international student workshops. 

The different techniques ranged from traditional throwing (on a potter’s wheel) to contemporary performance art involving the concept of making and working with clay. The various schools were genuinely interested in the goings on of other schools, students and professors from all over the world were given a venue to share and learn about one another.  During the Korean student workshops, I had the opportunity to browse and experience some of these new and old techniques.  One technique I found very relevant to my own artwork was that of Kim Sun, a student at Seoul Women’s University.  The women there were demonstrating the technique of weaving fibers into pottery.  I met the girls and they invited me to help them drill holes in the leather-dry pottery.  After the holes are drilled, the pots are fired and glazed, and then the fibers are woven into them as the last step of the process.  During their demonstration, I was able to inquire about the concept of this artwork.  The artist who was utilizing this technique was named Kim Sun, and she explained to me that the fiber made the pots warmer, more welcoming.  Kim Sun said pottery can be cold and rigid, but when fibers are woven in, they soften the feeling of the piece and you might be more attracted to it.  I was very excited about this concept, and explained that I worked in almost the opposite way, by taking qualities of fabrics and imitating them with clay so they are less welcoming, making the clothing we wear into almost a kind of armor that protects us from the world.  The women at Seoul National University became good friends of the Grand Valley State University students, and our friendship was made stronger throughout the duration of our trip.  The play between fiber and ceramic is something I have been interested in all through my ceramic artwork, and I have been in contact with Kim Sun since we left.  Another student that I was so fortunate to meet was Gin, a student attending Seoul National University of Technology.  We had  a deep converstation about the basic concepts that drive our artwork and found that we have a lot in common.  We both deal with the social pressures on males and females to be gender specific, to adhere to the social norms of society becomes a huge stress.  By making artwork that expresses our frustration with this pressure, we are allowed an outlet.  Our mutual interest led us to exchange favorite artists' names and ideas for future art projects.  Gin has become a great contact both personally and professionally.

I and the rest of the Grand Valley State University students decided to base our workshop in the central characteristic traits that make clay so unique to all other mediums, and that is the malleability, memory, and human touch required with clay to create a work of art.  Our focus lay in the touch that clay can capture; the spontaneous can be recorded with it.  We decided to build three structures by squeezing and essentially touching the clay once.  With one squeeze we make a small unit, with that unit we build a space to live in.  Our spaces ended up becoming our “temporary homes” symbolic of our time in Korea, and the small units became symbolic of all the experiences we had that made up that time.  As the workshop progressed, we had many interested bystanders, who soon became participants in the building of our temporary homes.  The original intention was a reaction and interaction with the space we were given, but our product produced something a little unexpected.  By allowing the viewers to become engaged in such a direct way by touching and building alongside us, we produced a meaningful and lasting impression that had almost nothing to do with any product that we might keep. By making a temporary structure, we enriched the preciousness of the experience, which was our goal from the beginning—the experience was the concept, the clay was the medium, and our humanity was the tool. 

The collaboration of our workshop was a huge success for our overall experience of Korea.  We were able to create something without the stress of trying to “finish” the work or have it become something spectacular.  The beauty lay in the experience of working with new people, getting to talk and know who they were, and understand that ceramic professionals everywhere are very similar people.  As we moved onto our next city, Icheon, we were now impressed with the size and public interest of the WOCEF Biennial. Some of the Korean culture that I long for now is the rich history and tradition that Koreans will always possess, especially within the ceramic world.  The development of ceramic technique is essentially Korean, and this honor is evident in the culture.  The public interest and respect was obvious in the numbers of everyday people attending the WOCEF Biennial.  There were children all the time, everywhere excited about ceramics, anxious to get to the front of the workshop lines.  Along with my Bachelor of Fine Arts, I am also pursuing my Bachelors of Arts in Art Education to teach this to our American children, and I hope to inspire such awe and excitement in my own community.

In Icheon, our professor, Hoon Lee was participating in an international professional workshop.  There we were able to watch him work on his performance as well as meet and interact with other professional artists.  The variety of work was great, but some of the most impressionable to me were of Nina Hole.   She is an artist who works on large, (around 20 feet), architectural sculptures built on site and transformed into their own wood kilns because of their immense size.  The project she worked on while at the workshop was spectacular and required teams of people to help build and especially fire this work.  Constantly feeding the fire for three days and monitoring the progression was an experience I was most interested in.  The teamwork required and knowledge of the process was impressive.  While we were assisting part of this process, we were able to interact with other student assistants, mostly graduate levels that were there to assist all the workshop artists.  I learned many things from these students, things like how the Korean school system works and the different kinds of classes required for ceramic students.  We were quite similar in our education, and even though communication was not always easy, it was always worthwhile.  They were able to teach us many things about simple Korean traditions, everyday living and what the Korean words were for certain things.

Our last city was Seoul, and we were hosted in the dormitory on Seoul National University of Technology’s campus.  We were able to see the undergraduate campus of our professor, and meet again with some students we had befriended in Yeoju.  We had individual rooms which ended up being a relief from the constant companionship that we had  been experiencing the entire trip.  I found that the privacy helped my companions and I be more at ease and peaceful when we were together during the day.  Seoul the city was overwhelming at times, and always interesting.  The best way I found to describe Seoul was that everywhere was the same, yet a little different from the large cities of the United States.  This dichotomy was in the way that people were a little friendlier and genuinely hospitable, yet the customs leaned towards conservancy in things that were discussable with new aquaintances.  Another example was the delightful surprise in architecture, with finding traditional Korean homes tucked in among the modern skyscrapers.  

  Living with and working with the people of Korea was an experience I can hardly begin to explain.   I know that I have improved my skills for meeting, relating to and working with people from all over the world. My understanding of the world has deepened; I do not just know about the rich history of Korea by reading about it in books, but rather I have felt it under my own feet, seen it in the contemporary life, tasted it at every meal, and loved it.  I was particularly impressed with this genuine interest and honest hospitality that we were all shown by our hosts.  Working and sharing provided an opportunity to relate and befriend many people in my profession, make lasting memories and begin to build my professional international network.

Meeting people

We met so many people all week that my head is starting to spin. I really enjoy meeting everyone, I just wish that there was an easier way to remember all the names. I started taking pictures of people who I need to remember and Dean had the idea to have them hold up a nametag or business card in the picture. We are sharing pictures and I will hopefully have them up on my Flickr page soon.

We tried to keep track of everyone we met so we could go out the last few nights, we were supposed to meet up with so many different people it was very confusing. Not really being fluent in each others language didn't help either. On one of the first nights, had a dinner with some guys from the Seoul National University of Technology, some Amerians from Tacoma and the English translator. That made things easier! We also hung out at the room and then at the bar with some other people (English student and professor and Turkish students and then met up with more Koreans at the bar we didn't know would be there).  A guy nick-named Chris saw that Dean and I didn't have a table and came and adopted us.  Kajin Lee and her boyfriend were a little worried by Dean's Soju and Beer bombs that the other Korean guys kept having him take over and over and over.... but we all got home, the condominium that we were staying in for the workshops in Yeoju was sharing a parking lot with this bar.  

We have since moved to the Miranda hotel in Ichon (not to be confused with a larger city Inchon-- we have all been corrected at some point for this mistake) and I am going to find some food.  I will have to summarize the workshop and what went on in this past week real fast.

*I sprained my ankle-- I have crutches and a splint and it really sucks a lot

*We got to see many schools from Korea do their demonstrations and workshops for us and the other international students.  This was 2 days and we made a lot of friends and learned some new techniques.

*Professors had their workshops for one day.  Still no Hoon-- much confusion on this day because we thought we were starting our project, but found out it was the next day.  We wandered into town a way with the French girls from the Swiss school and bought some ceramic tools, went drinking and I sprained my ankle while dancing (not drunk!  there was a hole my ankle went in) at the BBQ and later Dean carried me all the way to the Karaoke bar and then home.  Hoon showed up and wanted to sing Karaoke with us... I have video proof he knows how to have fun!

*We had our workshop for two days and met new people yet by having them work collaboratively on our little clay huts.  I will explain the concept later-- it has to do with making a temporary home in Korea for us...

*Workshops were finished and we went to Icheon for the remaining two days for lectures.  They were kind of dry with images in Power Point, but we learned some new things.  Said goodbye to new friends and into the Miranda Hotel now, not much has happened, I really needed sleep!

I will blog more.  Mom, my ankle is fine, and Dean helps with everything I need.  NO WORRIES!

What we have done so far

We have been busy little clay heads! What we have done:

Korean breakfast with Hoon on the first day-- SO much to eat and they even brought us more. There was seaweed soup and Kimchi (picked spiced things) and eggs and fried zucchini and seafood and hot water (no tea?) and seaweed... and... things I don't recognize.

ISCAEE was a blast-- the first day we walk into an exhibit with a bunch of important clay heads that Hoon (our professor) knows, and find all our art work hanging up! I got introduced to a great bunch of girls from the Seoul Women's University because Hoon knew the head professor. He had taken a class with her when she was a visiting professor at his school (Seoul National University of Technology) and he was her first male student. He said that at the retirement party for her he was the only male in the room. I said that she must have not wanted to teach another boy after him. He grinned, but I never know if he thinks I'm funny or not... The girls were all impressed with my work and asked if I was a professor! (plus Europeans look older anyway) but really it was because our work was in with the other professors (and a few students from the Swiss school that we met later). They showed me their work in the student section (a tent near the workshop/demonstration tents for all the Universities) and I LOVED IT! We exchanged emails-- these girls had made a business card with their picture, artwork and email, waaay more professional than me scribbling my name and email on scrap paper. I will email them the link to my blog and artwork. OH YEAH here is the link to my website with some of the artwork I have made: http://www2.gvsu.edu/~hipshean (the web page sucks, but I have never made one before)

We made lots of new friends, including some girls from the Swiss school, but two of them were origionally from France. I had introduced myself to them because I wanted to meet their professor... I LOVED his artwork, it was in the same building as ours and I walked right up and introduced myself and he talked to me for so long all about how he works and thinks about clay. He really enjoys working backwards-- finding a material that pleases him then thinks of a form that would be appropriate for such a material. I introduced him to Hoon and he said it was great that Hoon had such outgoing students; I blushed. Everyone we met had really great accents, and there artwork was great-- I think Dean really took a shine to the French girls. I floated between Dean and the girls then our girls and some Korean boys, then back to Dean and the girls. We hung out at the workshop area for a long time, also bought some really great wood fired cups, then came back and tried out the (naked!) sauna in the lower level of the condominium we are staying in (like a dorm room with a kitchen and quick mart near the lobby, special for the conference with tons of students staying here... we only have bed rolls, no actual beds though). We then met up again with Dean (the men's side was separate of course) and went to dinner. I forgot my dinner ticket and went back, then met some Japanese girls, and we found the dinner place together and met up with EVERYONE. We had to throw darts to get a "yes" or "no" to get into dinner, which was good and had a buffet-style so we could try everything. Always Kimchi, or pickeled cabbage and spices, at every food place we went so far.

I have been made fun of because at dinner I fell asleep propped up and then came home, laid down, and fell asleep last night at 8pm and woke up with everyone at 6:30am-- we have been getting up early because of the jet lag. We got up this morning and really have the hang of it-- the rice cake things we got yesterday were a good breakfast and we were off to the conference again. All the universities were doing their workshops and WOW WE MADE A LOT OF FRIENDS!! I have tons of business cards and pictures and we even ate LARVAE!! All of us tried silk worm larvae from a street vendor. Gross.
Other things:
Meghan had her palm read and he gave her long life.
Becky keeps describing everything as "that's so Asian" tee hee
Everyone loves Dean's shiny head and red beard.
I was randomly called beautiful.
I can haggle pretty well.
I bought a teapot and cup set! Only $20
I bought a frog incense burner! Only $4
I bought a Korean stlye shirt! Only $30... that wasn't haggle-able
Meghan got called a cow 2X because she has a nose ring.

Hoon found us again and got us our food tickets only AFTER we went and bought a ginormous lunch-- but it was soooo delicious!

We're Here!

We are in Korea! Finally I figured out what the heck was going on with the internet, and I need to use a cable to connect, so if someone else is using it, then I have to wait. I forgot my address book in the room, but thought I would email those that I have in my gmail account and then catch everyone up tomorrow. It feels like an eternity since I said goodbye to Brett and the family. I miss you all, but just a little-- more like I wish you all loved ceramics and could come with me!

Our flight schedule went something like this: we left Grand Rapids at 10:30am and then changed planes in Chicago, then again in Toyko and finally we were in Yeojeu at there time around 8:00pm.

I am here and it is 12:30am right now, and I have to get up early. Really, nothing exciting has happened-- we got our ride to the dorm-like place we are residing in right now. We are all together, and I have met two girls from Turkey, they helped me get connected to the internet.

I finished the pojagis on the plane, WHEW! I think that Eunmee and Soon Jung like them! They were the two visiting artists that came to Grand Valley last semester, and we are going to meet up with them later. I bought maple candies which are my favorite things in the world (to put in the pojagis). For those who are completely lost here is a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pojagi

http://www.flickr.com/photos/soozs/98944097/

We start our collaboration workshop tomorrow, so I'm sure I will have more to write then.

Harold Hipshear

Just a side note that my grandfather, Harold Hipshear passed away at his home on Wednesday night. I was with my family for the Easter weekend and his funeral services afterwards. One of the most difficult things is always made easier with a family such as mine. I am so lucky to have them all! I hope they read this and give me some feedback. I am working on this song in memory of him, and this is what I have so far:

And the last breath he took was my father's--
And the last breath he took with a smile on his face
With his wife, in a room that he built with his own two hands.

We remember his name and a story--
We remember his name and the smile on his face
With his kids, on the farm and the whole Hipshear clan.

Whenever we cry it's our shared greif
Whenever we cry it's because we must stay
With his love, in our hearts and our minds always.

Korean Ceramic Biennial

I will be traveling to Seoul, Korea soon for the Ceramic World Biennial.  I have my work in the student show there, it was mailed out last week (hopefully it arrives in one piece!).  The artwork that I just sent is my profile picture, and is on my flickr account.  I will be publishing more of my artwork later today. 

I am going with fellow clayheads Dean, Meghan, MacWhims, Becky, and of course Hoon, our instructor.  Hoon keeps telling us things about Seoul (he grew up there) and we are really excited.  Almost every Monday and Wednesday since last semester we have had a meeting about Korea and what we are doing there.  We are making a collaboration project while we are there for the conference as part of a related event.  We should be experimenting here at home next week with ideas.  

I leave on April 23rd, wish me a peaceful visit.

Flickr works!

I have had problems with getting my pictures off my ipod, and ended up getting my friend Allison to upload my pics to my flickr account.  Here is the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norajaneart/

enjoy!

Siena, San Gimingano and the Boboli gardens

Sorry for the late update, but here is last weekend:

Friday I went to meet up with a girlfriend of mine because we were bored and had nothing better to do than draw sculptures in Piazza della Signoria. She really wanted someone with her because she has made some Italian friends, but didn't want to go alone to meet with them. We had gelato with some of her friends and we bought a deck of cards and played some games back at the apartment with my roommates.

Saturday we got out of bed extremely early (5:30am) to get to the bus on time to go to Siena and San Gimignano.
Both had amazing Duomos (cathedrals) and the one in Siena was supposed to rival Florence's Duomo, but because of the plauge, it was never finished. The view from the top was amazing, and I have lots of pictures, and bought some famous 'panforte' to bring home. It's sort of like fruitcake, so I think it will last until I get home.
San Gimignano is a pretty well preserved medieval town because it was hit by the plague so badly, they made no progress for many years and therefore still have a lot of the "tower houses" in place. We saw some churches and got to do some wine tasting at the end provided by our professor and the school! Also, we got to taste some cheese and wild boar sausage with pistachios in it. I bought a bottle of wine on the way out, but I think that mine is a little cheaper than that which we tasted, but it should be wonderful, none the less.

Sunday my roommates went to Venice, and some of my other buddies and I went to the Boboli gardens for the day. Beautiful, huge, and I got a bit of a tan. I found a patch of grass and immediatly was overwhelmed with joy, throwing myself onto it and rolling around in what my art history teacher would most likely describe as a holy ecstasy, maybe something like that of Saint Fina who was the anorexic saint from San Gimignano that slowly went paralyzed and allowed rats to nibble on her toes so she could experience suffering like Christ. (I guess like her, I will have to perform miracles after my death... I'll get on that right away.) Then we walked across the lawn to read the sign that said "stay off the grass."

After the gardens we went for some food, and I ate the most delicious creamy sauce in the entire world: tartufli made with truffels... yes, mushrooms! Amazing creamy sauce, and I must go get some more soon.

My batik class is going pretty well, and I have finished only one project, so I have to get busy! I am in the middle of my second, and have two more to go. I think I am getting the hang of it though, and really enjoy working 2-D again for a change of pace from the usual ceramic routine. Also, the studio is only open for those 8 hours on Monday and Wednesday, forcing me to go out and be social, which is also a nice change from the usual late nights in the studio at home.

Cinque Terre, Lucca, and Pisa

I have given up on the pictures for now... maybe sometime next week? (sorry Momeee)
Follow the links to find pictures and other extensive unnecessary details to the things I have seen. I won't bore you with details that I enjoy unless you want to know them!

Working backward from today, we went to Cinque Terre , more specifically Monterosso al Mare vand got some relaxing sun. I can't say that we were the most peppy group today (my roommates Alison, Alyson, and Sari) but we did have a lovely day! It was a sorry outlook when I woke up with a sore throat, and then we couldn't find our terminal at the train station. Thankfully Alison speaks enough Italian to help us out at the information desk, and I slept most of the way. I got some Ibuprophin in me and when we arrived at Cinque Terre (after changing trains in Pisa) it started to rain. We were ok with it though when we found a restaurant with five euro margaritas. After our lunch and refreshment, things started looking better... and the sun literally came out for us! We walked around a bit, enjoyed the mountainous view and the rocky beach. It had some kitty litter type sand and the water was salty and cold. We basked in the sun and just relaxed.

Yesterday we went to Pisa and Lucca for our art history class. We are always a whirlwind when we go with Helen Waterson, our professor! She is amazingly smart, she got her doctorate at Yale and expects a lot out of us (15 page research paper is looming at the end of the semester!) We trod around Italy with her sprinting ahead, talking nonstop the whole way! She is like a textbook, pointing out all the details of the art work covering each facade, altarpiece, and pulpit, telling (unnecessary?) details about saints and their slightly creepy reliquaries. At the Duomo in Lucca we got to see a complete saint, petrified, and without the usual wax face covering! Her name is Saint Zita, saint of maids and domestic servants, and she is represented by flowers.

The weekend was in short... packed! I was super lazy on Friday, sleeping until 11am and piddling around the apartment until noon. My roommates came home from school then and we had lunch together, homemade concoction of eggplant, basil, rosemary, pasta, asparagus, tomatoes. I was proud, and thought it was tasty, but I don't know how much they liked it, really!

Friday we ended up hanging out with our other SACI buddy, J, and he wanted to get dinner across the river so we wandered over there and found a really great place. They have this great cured ham, sliced so thin, served with cantelope called proscuitto a Tuscan tradition. I would have never put ham and melon together, but it was great! (I had soup, but we all tried everyone else's food)

I guess that a good update for now, without the help of pictures, there is not much else to say! Hope to get them up soon... ;)

Pictures, try again

So, I found a Mac computer!! That means I am loading photos and trying to catch up with blogging...

This is the view from my apartment, on the top of a five story building, right downtown Florence. I am kitty-corner from the center of town, where the statue David (actually a remake in it's original location) is. I can see the dome of the Duomo from my kitchen window/balcony.


These pictures are all from 5-18-08, when my roommates and I went out to explore yet again the city of Florence.

There are some bad pictures of the town square and a wild hog sculpture that you put a coin in it's mouth (it is a dripping fountain, so he drools on your hand) and make a wish and rub it's nose.

This is a video my roommates on the only original Medieval bridge in Florence, the Ponte Veccio. There is a guy playing guitar, then you hear an ambulance in the background. There are shops all along the bridge.



It was really late for dinner when we finally decided to eat out that night, and couldn't find anywhere except somewhere really schmancy called "Golden View Open Bar." They had amazing food, I had tortellini with wild boar in the sauce. OH!! and my friend Allison had something with truffle sauce, and I loved it! Amazing, a mushroom I actually liked.

Pictures!! (FAILED)

OK... so there are no pictures because these PCs only have INTERNET EXPLORER on them. In other words, IE is too lame to allow me to upload pictures to my blog. I will have to go to the pay per minute place downtown and upload them there.

Internet and phone

I now have a phone (finally) and it makes me feel a lot safer. We went to some bars last night, again, and it was great. Although the Italian men get kinda pushy even at random times, we were a group and watched out for each other. Trying to speak with someone who knows as much English as you do Italian is really fun! We are getting the hang of just ignoring most of the pushy guys, and having fun getting to know all the restaurants and house wines. The wine of the region is Chianti (kee-aan-tea), and the house wine is always local and wonderful (and cheap), but not big-name.

My roommates are great, Allison is from New York state and getting her masters in Drawing at Kendall. She was studying in Florence with another school in 2005 and lived here for four months, so she is the official tour guide. That makes us all feel a lot safer and gets us going pretty quick. We don"t waste a lot of time picking our noses... except when we are around the Duomo, but that is an inside story you have to ask about!!

There are two Allisons, and the other is a Kendall student who is studying graphic design. She is a great roommate and really outgoing. Sari is also from Kendall and studying graphic design, and through her we added a guy friend, Jeremy (J) who is also Kendall graphic design!

We now have our last roommate, Nebihe, who is from Turkey, but is getting her masters in interior design in New York. She just flew in this morning, and seems like she is here to have fun also.

Pictures are yet to be uploaded... but coming in the next few days for sure!

Orientation

Orientation was almost all day today! We got a tour of the city (although I have been adopted by the Kendall students and had a tour yesterday night with them and their professor...).

I am getting along with my roommates, and there have been some "house rules" set, but we are waiting for our final roommate to come on Sunday and then we will have a formal meeting to get everything straight. We bought food today at a large market (don't touch the fruit! they will serve you!! and in the self-serve supermercados you have to wear gloves, weight the fruit, and print out a sticker for the bag)... and we all split the bill, and I taught them all how to make "illy" esspresso with the STOVE TOP espresso maker (thanks for the kitchen education, mom!). We even are furnished with a very very very small clotheswasher and we will hang our clothing out to dry over the back balcony with a pulley! I am so excited, and I hate laundry! I feel so European, it's ridiculous.

We are going out tonight to hopefully hear the monks chant at sunset, then to a nightclub!

I do apologize for the spelling errors, the spellcheck thinks I'm Italian and highlights most everything I type anyway!

If anyone is interested in sending me snail mail this is my address:

Nora Hipshear
Studio Art Centers International University
Palazzo dei Cartelloni
Via Sant'Antonino 11
50123 Florence, Italy

please email me your home addresses if you would like a postcard;

hipshean@student.gvsu.edu

SACI Studio Art Centers International

Hello all!

I am here at SACI headquarters, and I don't have much time before a big group dinner outing, so this will be quick. I am so excited to be here in Florence, Italy (Firenze), but this keyboard is tripping me up! My roommates seem really great, they are adventurous and outgoing, all you would hope for international students.

My apartment is right in the heart of Florence and I am on the top floor with a nice view. The weather is fair, and all I need is a skirt with a light sweater. I am rooming with three Kendall students and a few others from various locations, (Kendall is the art college is Grand Rapids), and we are all getting along great. Two bathrooms for the five of us total (rooms are 2, 2, 1) and we have a small kitchen. There are outdoor markets is around and I plan on making a lot of meals, so I can spend my money on the feild trips to come! Hopefully we get around to some adventures this weekend before classes start on Monday.

Official Orientation is tomorrow at 10am (it is 6pm now if the American blog says otherwise). I will then know how to get a cell phone, about the busses, and general important places (drug store, doctor, police, post office).

I wish all of you could see this, so I am posting pictures as soon as I figure out how to upload them here!