Home

Ah, home. After nearly 24 hours of traveling, 12 hours of sleeping, and a chocolate chip pancake breakfast, I am back in the land of the internet (which is so speedy now) for one final blog post. Now this whole time, I don't really know who all has been reading this - family, friends, professors, strangers - whoever you all are, thanks for sticking around to read about my time on EHP.

The European Honors Program was truly the best and most profound months of my life, and I wouldn't change any moment. I will miss Rome dearly, and though I'm happy to be home and looking forward to summer, it's hard not to be sad about leaving such an incredible place, people, and program. There wasn't a dry eye yesterday morning as we all boarded the bus to the airport, and for a good reason. Rome changed me in many ways, some that will take time being back in the U.S. to see. For any younger RISD students reading this, I recommend EHP with all my heart. Mi mancherai, Italia. Arrivederci.

"Graduation"

Last night, in true RISD fashion, we all donned our bedsheets and paraded down the Appia Antica in our make-shift togas. It was a rekindling of an old EHP graduation tradition. Starting from the Cenci, with our fearless leader Nick in his Senatorial get-up and Burger King crown, we walked through the Jewish ghetto, the theater of Marcello, the Circus Maximus, and to a park on the Appian way for our little ceremony. We stood in a circle around Nick and Ezio, and Ezio read a Latin incantation as we received our diplomas (lovingly hand printed by Eda) from Nick. Then we filled a tiny restaurant for our last dinner together as a group, ending the night with a toga bus ride and one final picture in front of the Pantheon (where people actually started offering us money for pictures!) Though it was embarrassing at times as people paparazzi-ed us on the street, it was the best way to celebrate our second to last night in Rome.

Final Show

On Thursday, the RISD EHP Spring 2012 group had our final show. All day Wednesday and Thursday was spent re-painting the walls white, cleaning, hanging lights, installing, preparing food, and generally stressing about every little detail. Then from 6-9pm Thursday night, we all anxiously watched as quite a lot of people perused the show. I wasn't expecting anyone to show up so soon, but there were already about 20 people there right at 6 o'clock. All of them seemed impressed by the work we put out. It was a satisfying night, eavesdropping as I heard one person comment my watercolor books were her favorite thing in the show, watching as one child stood in front of my puppet video on repeat for 15 minutes, then dragged his parents over to watch, and hearing all the other comments about everyone's work...all our effort was truly worth it, and the show was a great success. 

My set-up

Katy's pen & ink drawings

Andrew's string installation in the courtyard 

Ben's leather lamp

Table for sketchbooks

People!

Hamed's Nazoni Investigations

Little boy watching my video 

Ben inside Michael's music box

Alanna in her gelato spoon dress and Susie in Youbin's Artemides dress 

Me, Susie, Astrid, Jamie, and Jess

Maddy and Alanna on Maddy's cushion

Everybody! 

One last time :)

May 27

Here are the last of my watercolors. And with that, I have finished both of my big projects that were planned for the six-week concentration period. I'll still be working in my sketchbook of course, but the two main projects are done. It's relieving, but bittersweet as always. This week: all day critiques on Monday and Tuesday, installing the show on Wednesday, final show on Thursday, "graduation" and final group dinner on Friday, clean-up and packing on Saturday, and Sunday...flying home. Here we go.

May 24

Here are my final darkroom prints and some more watercolors.