Nude v. Naked

So an interesting combination of things has led me to this title. First off, is that today in drawing class we had to draw a model in the nude using gesture lines with charcoal and chalk and second was that after a comment on the photo of one of my drawings, I started thinking about my last History class (taught by Ingrid Rowland -- be jealous) where Rowland had been talking about the difference between "naked" and "nude" when it came to statues.
Now by definition, they are the same but in the ancient times, being naked was more of a disgrace but being nude as a statue, had a certain dignity to it. When you look at ancient statues and compare them to actual people, you notice several things. One, is that while their body, especially concerning shoulders and hips are proportionate to an adult, some other parts (you can probably think of which) are actually much smaller and their only hair is facial and on their head. The reason for this is because of the message that they wanted to portray. Their body parts did not define them, they defined their body parts. When it came to statues, the head was as is, for they believed that your facial looks were your personality but their bodies were typically what they defined as "perfect". That's why with some statues you get some really old heads on young looking bodies. So all of that basically defines what "nude" is.
"Naked", on the other hand, has more of a vulnerability to it. Things are as is, not as you would like them to be. And because of that things are not perfect, even though they are proportionate. It's strange but really interesting to think about.

Ok. So now that that is out of the way, about my drawing class. It was GREAT. I had really been looking forward to this class since it has literally been years since I last worked with charcoal and I have never had the opportunity to have an actual model come in for me to draw from. I was really eager and so I sat in front (also because I'm really short and can barely ever see). We did gestural drawings, meaning the goal was movement rather than lines. We were to draw from the inside out. I had a little trouble for a while, since I first drew from up to down rather than from gesture to refinement but my Professor made no hesitation in literally grabbing my hand and moving it up and down the page to get the gesture. At one point he even just came over and rubbed my drawing off to show me the right way. Some people might be embarrassed by that but I was wayyyy to eager to learn to mind. Sometimes you just gotta start over to learn better.
The model did several different, energetic poses which required the contraction and elongation of muscles. This gave us many wonderfully varied gestures which we did our best to bring to life. Her poses ran from 30 seconds to 5 minutes, which gave us different kinds of refinements depending on what we could fit in.
For as long as I could remember I have been obsessed with the human form, the way muscles contract and elongate, the way life can lie within a series of curves. I have always felt that the strongest shape is the human form. There is nothing quite like it. My professor is an artist, not an architect and so in school he actually took anatomy classes as a requirement to learn how the body works and is put together. I'm highly considering taking an anatomy class just for that. So many things are based off of the human form and architecture is just one of those major things. He also mentioned that we could higher the model on our own time since we only get to do this for one class. I think I'm going to do that too with a bunch of people.
It was really great working with a model. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My two favorites.

Frascati - The Land of Pork and Cookies

After a bit of a long night (stayed up til three talking to the guys at the reception desk about randomness) I awoke at 7:15 for what was to be one of my nicest days abroad here in Rome.

The destination for the day was Frascati. A name constantly forgotten and messed up by all members of the group except for the two organizing it.
After getting off of the train, the first thing we noticed was the silence. We walked up the steps and looked around. Barely anybody. It was nine a.m. and there was literally just a few people walking. Quite different from the hustle and bustle of the inner city where by 8 a.m. the streets are filled with people trying to get to work, tourists and hobos.
Walking up the stairs, we took in the wonderful view. Palazzo Aldobrandini sits on a hill and on axis (yes, I'm going to talk like an arkie right now) is a fountain which I pictured here below. Gorgeous isn't it?

For about two hours we walked around and eventually made it to an incredible medieval tower... of which we were yelled at by some crazy lady through her window :s. It got a bit uncomfortable after about 5 minutes because a) she was yelling at us in Italian and b) her window was closed the whole time and she looked like what you imagine a witch looks like. I almost feel like she was trying to put a curse on us. Anyways, we left and walked around some more, Karen picked some illegal pomegranate and then we ended up having to pass the tower AGAIN. And as we expected, the lady was still waiting. Glaring at us. I don't think she moved in the 45 mins that we were gone. It was freaky as you can imagine. I really do think she was trying to put a curse on us.

Well enough about witches.

It was only 11 and none of the food stalls had opened yet, or more specifically the one I read up on and reallyyyy wanted to try so we explored some more and came upon a dog park. The dog park had a fountain with a statue of just legs. Seriously. Twas pretty funny. There were also lots of cute dogs.

After spending a little time there it was finally time for lunch (yessss). When I looked up Frascati the first link that popped up was a blog; and literally half the blog was about eating a pork sandwich from this place called Lena La Regina Della Porchetta or in English, "Lena the Queen of Pork." Of course, as the diligent youths that we are, we arrived promptly at 12 where Lena herself (or I'm guessing that was her from going off the blog) was setting up shop. We kept looking around for the pork because the Queen of Pork has to have a pig right? We waited awkwardly for about ten minutes before asking if they served pork there. Seems silly I know but hey, sometimes you gotta ask. Apparently, she was just about to bring out the pig and so as we waited another five minutes, I bought another thing that Frascati is apparently known for. Wine Cookies. Or just cookies made with wine. They are pretty good. Taste familiar... but I don't know like what.

As we munched on the wine cookies, the porker was brought out. And my O my, was she a beaut. Since we were there first, Lena of course gave us first dibs and we ordered a round of her famous pork sandwiches. I'm just going to put the pictures here at this point, because they speak louder than any of my poorly written sentences could. And you probably could smell it better if I did that. Ya I said smell it.

The inside of the pig was lined/stuff with an array of wonderful spices that just left sparks of yumminess bursting in your mouth with every bite. Being part Filipino of course, I must mention it's delectable skin. That was the part I looked forward to the most. It was nice, crisp and absolutely delicious. I'm glad I read up on her.

To walk off the food that we just consumed we decided to just go exploring some more. We walked up another hill and found ourselves in a lovely, green park. On the right end of the park there was an extremely large fountain which actually was built all the way up the hill. It was pretty nifty. The repetition of the arcades and it's flatness of the bottom facade just made the whole thing seem to fit in perfectly.

And just to the left of that fountain is a park. The most wonderful, relaxing, fun park that I've been to. The first thing that I did was jump on this jungle, spinny, climby thing (which is pictured below) and spin it. It was really cool. I'd never seen on of those before. I also went on the see-saw with Karen and the swings which I was just a little too big for. It was lots of fun and really relaxing. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

After playing in the park, we climbed the hill more to get to the top of the fountain. Walking up I found some pretty interesting purple flowers. They have a ring as the base and the petals grow upwards. I pressed a few of them in one of my journals.

All in all it was an excellent day. The weather was great, chilly, but very sunny and the vistas at several points were wonderful, especially since Frascati is on a hill so you can see the surrounding city which is really cool and jawdropping.


P.S.: We were supposed to scan our train tickets before boarding and yup, we didn't do that so my friends and I still have a free ride to Frascati up until Dec 7th. We're definitely going to put that 1.90 Euro tickets to good use.

Ostia Antica, St. Peter's and Other Places (Quick Catch Up Post)

Ok, so it's been a few weeks since my last post but hey, no worries, I got you ;)

This past Friday we had our first day trip in Rome. And what better place than Ostia Antica? Well, actually, I can name a few, like Cinque Terre but whatever. Ostia Anitca is basically an abandoned town on the outskirts or Rome, about 40 minutes from the center where I'm at. Many of its ruins are well preserved and there are actually quite a few mosaics in their entirety left there. All in all it was a pretty neat place. I was tempted to run up and down taking pictures climbing on top of ruins but I couldn't find any camera person. I'm going back though, I feel it's a necessity (plus there's apparently a really cool tiny town right outside the gates that my Prof banged his head against the wall for because we didn't see it while we were there).

The following day (Saturday) we went to Vatican City and visited St. Peter's. St. Peter's piazza and basilica are AMAZING. They are gigantic. I just can't get over the size of it. It's beautiful too no doubt. I went with a few friends and we ended up waiting this line to get in the basilica that basically snaked around one arm around to the other. It didn't take long though. It was pretty much like walking slowly up to it. Inside, we ended up getting split up because I just couldn't keep still. I walked all around and took tons of photos of just about everything. I didn't go up into the cupola nor below into what I'm guessing to be the crypt. I have to go back.

Kate and I just amazed.

Also, I think I found a statue of my Saint there (yay), St. Agnes of Rome. I'm pretty sure it's her. A girl with a lamb. I wonder who the other lady is...

Next on my list is I went shopping. And yes, I had to be dragged out of the store because I buy too much. I have a bit of a problem. I regret nothing however. Sunday, I went to the flea market too where I bought my awesomely mint colored nail polish for a euro. Best. Deal. Ever.

AND:

Before I forget I also made a wish at the Trevi fountain (sooo many peopleee) and I went to the Spanish steps that night.