Weekend in the Adirondacks!

So I just got back from spending a short weekend in the Adirondacks with 50 members from the co-ed service fraternity (Alpha Phi Omega) that I am in here in Syracuse. I planned the trip with the help of one other person, and it was a lot of work but a great experience in organization and coordination for a large group of people. We stayed at the ESF ecological center in Newcomb, NY (which is smack in the center of the 'daks).

The first thing we did when we got there was to work together to drag ten 55 pound batteries 2 miles up a steep mountain (Goodnow) to establish some kind of wireless power station for the ecological center. We put the batteries on sleds and changed people out every so often- it was really hard, physical work! When we got to the top, it made the view so much more satisfying! It is an amazing feeling to be rewarded with spectacular views after doing physical service. Below is the picture of the group on top of the mountain!

The next morning, we woke up and a group of us decided to head towards home and stop at another mountain to climb. I was driving, enjoying the scenic drive and suddenly I noticed a bunch of smoke in front of us. We stopped, and realized that a trailer (pulled behind a large pickup truck) was on fire. We pulled ahead of it, and jumped out of the car to see if there was anything we could do. The men who owned the trailer (who were on their way to a snowmobile competition) were throwing snow on the fire so we tried to help them but it was completely useless. After about 30 seconds, I knew we had to get away from it because there were snowmobiles (with gasoline) and propane tanks in the trailer that could explode. Below is the group when we decided to move (I am in the white coat standing close to the fire).

We moved the cars further away and sent someone to get the fire department (there is no cell phone service out in that wilderness!). The men got their truck away but lost $100,000 worth of equipment in the fire. On the bright side, they all had beds to sleep in that night. It could have been a much different story. 

After that, we continued to our mountain climb and had a snowball fight on the top! So much fun!

Now, I am back in Syracuse and realize that I have a massive amount of work to do this week before I can leave for spring break! I have to (almost) finish 3 paintings (they have to be 90% done), take a big midterm in my Baroque Art History course, find sources for a 20 page research paper on secular art in Medieval Italy, and put glass enamel on 40 little metal rectangles for Jewelry and Metalsmithing. 

I love this busy life! I can't imagine living any other way. 

Snowstorm, History and the Adirondacks!

So the other day, we got a huge snowstorm here in Syracuse. We have about a foot and a half of snow now!! I have not seen this much snow since I was a little kid! We actually had our afternoon classes canceled, which was a nice relaxing break. A ton of people built snow forts and snowmen, so a drive around the off campus housing area is really interesting now! It was perfect packing snow too- one igloo was about 10 feet tall!

I am working on a paper proposal for my “HST 201- History of Italian City-States” class right now, which should be pretty interesting. It is going to be a 20 page research paper- EEK! As an art history major, I am allowed to take any regular history courses I want, so I chose to take this one- and so far I am really psyched about it. It is a small class with only 10 people and a fantastic professor who is a gift- I love him! We even take turns bringing food every week J. For my paper, I want to take it in an art history direction (duh!) by researching art that was made in Italy in 1100-1450 (pre-renaissance). We have read a little bit about “Pittura Infamate” or “insulting painting” basically. At this time, people who betrayed their city states would have images made of them that were insulting- some were painted hanging upside down! One specific traitor who had been beheaded was shamed by having his portrait removed from the town hall (and in its place, a statement explaining his traitor status was written)- at the meeting when they made this decision however, one councilman suggested that they cut the canvas of the original painting at the neck so that it hung off just like it had in real life. Gross!

I am also busy tonight planning events for my co-ed service fraternity. Next weekend (March 6-7^th) I am leading a trip to the Adirondacks for 50 people! I am really excited about the trip- we are going to be helping the ESF Ecological Center to establish some kind of communication system on the top of a mountain (think 2 mile hike uphill with tons of equipment!). After we are done volunteering with that, we are going to snowshoe, have a campfire, play snow-ultimate-frisbee and have a fantastically good time! Lets hope it isn’t too cold! 

So I must admit….

I finally visited the Everson Museum of art for the first time ever.

You are probably thinking, well why is it bad that she went to a museum? It is embarrassing that I hadn’t visited yet because the Everson is a very important museum in Syracuse (more important than any other visual art space in Syracuse), and it is extremely easy to visit (ten minute bus ride and FREE admission!). I am shamed to say that I went an entire year as an art history major without visiting this place! I always knew I should, and last weekend I finally did!

            I have to say, I was quite impressed with the collection that they had (in “measly” Syracuse). Their collection of modern ceramic work is one of the largest in the US, if I am thinking correctly. Even though I am not a ceramics person, I have spent a lot of time working with clay (as my summer job, and through a few classes) and it made me really appreciate the amount of work that they had on view. I kind of felt like a know-it-all because I was acting like a tour guide to my friend who knows nothing about ceramics! It was fun!

            They also had a Gustav(e) Stickley exhibit on view- If you don’t know who that is, he was a major furniture designer in the (turn of the 20^th c.) American Arts and Crafts movement. Syracuse, oddly enough, was a hotspot for the short-lived (but very important) movement and Stickley furniture was based out of a town just a short drive away from Syracuse. Today, his company survives (with a different name) and is still producing furniture based on the hand-crafted aesthetic that he popularized.

            The Everson was also showing a group of sculptures by the 1960’s artist Tim Scott. Titled “When Color was Sculpture”, the exhibit shows his highly geometric and colorful room sized sculptures. I was amazed that the sculptures were in such great shape, considering their size. When you have pieces that large, the only place to store them is outdoors, or in a permanent museum setting. Sculptures outdoors do not typically fare well after 40 years of being outdoors, but they looked like they were made yesterday! Cool stuff.

           

Also last weekend, I went to a “red carpet” event at the Warehouse. My boyfriend (who is a 5^th year Industrial & Interaction Design student) made a video as part of COLAB’s work with the Syracuse Opera. COLAB is a group that tries to connect art and design at SU to the community and real world art opportunities. Next weekend, Syracuse Opera is performing “The Flying Dutchman” and they decided to work with COLAB to have students make videos to project behind the opera performers. Each student got one song, and was supposed to abstractly express the emotion of the song. The “red carpet event” was a celebration of the collaboration (isn’t that a mouthful!!) and they had champagne and everyone dressed up fancy! All of the students who made videos (and their dates- including me) were at the celebration, mingling with various professors, art critics and the dean of our college (Ann Clarke). Such a good experience! It is also nice to know that SU is really making an effort to have students create art for the ‘real world’- not just inside the hallways of Shaffer art building!  

Back at school, back to reality!

Classes have begun, work is back to normal, and its time to buy books!

Here’s what my schedule looks like:

Monday- History of Italian City States

Tuesday- Accounting, Baroque art of Southern Europe, and Jewelry/Metalsmithing: Color on Metal

Wednesday- Work at the art gallery 12-6

Thursday- Accounting, Baroque art, and Painting: Figure/Portrait

Friday- Gallery 12-6

Tuesday, I went to my jewelry class and felt a little bit intimidated, to be quite honest… Every person in the class has taken at least 3 more jewelry classes than me and most of them are jewelry/metalsmithing majors! EEK! I felt lost in the discussion of what we would be doing this semester, but all of the other students seem genuinely helpful so I am going to take this challenge of working with people who have way more experience than me. I also felt better when we did our first mini-in class project: we melted copper and dropped it violently onto a stainless steel fry pan to make ‘copper splashes’. It was brilliantly unpredictable and fun!!

The current show at the gallery is a visiting artist show (a first for XL Projects, which normally hosts student and faculty work only). Stone Canoe is a group of artists who collaborate to publish a “Journal of Arts and Ideas from Upstate New York” each year. http://www.stonecanoejournal.org/  They also host a show that goes along with the publication of the paperback book. We are hosting three artist receptions this weekend. On both Thursday and Sunday, a few of the artists are coming to talk about their work. On Saturday, I found out that a very exclusive event is happening here: the publishing party! It is a pretty big deal- Chancellor Nancy Cantor (the biggest celebrity in all of Syracuse) and the dean of VPA (Ann Clarke) will be here, as well as some kind of former NY Senator. Normally, I would get the chance to meet all of these people by working at the party but I have to go home for the weekend L . Even still, working at this gallery has provided me a lot of opportunities to get to know important people (I did meet Nancy Cantor here last year) and get more involved with the Syracuse art world. 

Shadowing at a Museum= I am in love!

On January 12^th, I got the chance to go shadow a family friend of my parents, Paul D’Ambrosio, who is the chief curator at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY. I got a private tour of the museum and spent the day meeting with people in all of the different departments there. I found out that HR is pretty paperwork-filled, “Development” is getting money for the museum by working with donors and grants, and that an “exhibitions curator” is like the sheep-herder to make sure that all of the displays in the museum look great. I also finally got a pinpointed definition of what a chief curator really is. Paul spends the day planning upcoming exhibits and choosing what pieces to put in a show. He also researches the artists, and works with other museums to borrow their art pieces. One other really important thing that a curator does is ‘schmooze’ the donors. He joked that the museum might make more use of him as a socialite than as an exhibitions researcher! Paul also writes a fabulous blog about American folk art- check it out at    http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/

I also kind of figured out that very few people have high positions in a museum that do not have their PhD. I had always planned on getting only my Bachelor’s degree, but recently discovered that a Bachelor’s is nothing in the museum world so I decided I will try to pursue a masters (in Museum Studies, most likely). But now, after my visit I am wondering if I will end up getting my PhD one day… It’s a scary thought!! I would be in school forever, but then maybe I could wear a fancy hat and drink wine and go to intellectual parties.

On the bright side, I discovered that the Fenimore Art Museum shares its campus with a graduate program for Museum Studies (how perfect). Cooperstown Graduate Program is one of only two museum studies programs in the country that operates out of a real museum campus! They also have some fantastically helpful and brilliant seeming professors, four of whom took time out of their busy day to make me fall in love with the program. Is it bad that grad school is 2.5 years away? I want to be out of art history and get into museum studies already!! (although I love Syracuse, I wish we had a museum studies program for undergraduate study because I am more interested in that than writing art history research papers for the rest of my life. I would rather spend my time writing grant applications or hanging artwork!).

Since the museum is in Cooperstown, NY, the home of the national Baseball Hall of Fame I decided I had to stop. I’m not a huge baseball person, but now I can say I have been there! I spent some time with a life size sculpture of Lou Gehrig, which was a little bit moving because close friend of mine has a mother with Lou Gehrig’s disease (more technically known as ALS), which is a terrible illness that slowly deteriorates one’s body. Lou Gehrig was a young, healthy baseball star until he was diagnosed with ALS, and died just a few years later. 

Christmas break

So I have missed you, Blog!

For Christmas, my family visited a zillion of my relatives in Florida. It was a blast! We swam with manatees, went to an awesome aquarium (the MOTE in Sarasota, FL), rode segways (even my 80 year old grandfather did it!), and went to the Ringling Circus Museum and Museum of Art. Oh yeah, we spent some time on the beach too! It was a busy vacation!

(Jan de Heem- Still Life with Parrots, 1640. 

A really cool piece of art! Learned about it in my baroque art class last semester, then found it at the museum in Florida!)

When I got back home (Bath, NY), I went right to work with the artist who I work with in the summer. Alan Bennett (and his wife Rosemary) make ceramic fish and sell them at prestigious art fairs throughout the country. Made some $$ and had some fun! Below is a yellow tang- my favorite fish that they make!

bizzy lizzy

Ah! So I'm taking a break between two finals to write this. More to come later, when all this stuff is out of the way and I am in the car on my way to Florida for family vacation :)

Just got my first grade back for this semester- an A for intro painting. yay! Sometimes you really cannot predict how you will do in a class, and it is nice to see that your hard work has paid off.

And, had my first final of three. Silly me though screwed up the exam times and did not study for the one exam (Baroque art history) that I could have gotten an A on with an hour of studying! (thought it was later in the afternoon, and turns out it was at 10AM when I thought another one was...)

Now I am in the library going over my 300 flashcards for Design history of the 20th century... EEK! I also am noticing a smell coming from my armpits. Maybe I should shower during finals week instead of studying constantly...

In news other than finals, I got elected to be the VP of Fellowship for my service fraternity (on Saturday). It is really a pretty big position- I will be in charge of planning all of the fun things that our 200 members will do as a group. Ideas I have in mind are a ski/snowboard trip, laser tag, sledding, and maybe an camping trip to the Adirondacks. So hopefully my class schedule will leave me enough time to do a good job planning all of these things :)