My "What Did I Do Wrong" Video

Well, as I said in my last post, I wanted to share my experience of  making a video for the first time and the difficulties (!XQ//%&$))&) I ran into.

It all began during those torrid days in August as I was preparing for the show in Pontremoli (my last post). I innocently thought "Why not give it a try!!!!! "There would be a room especially for video projections that I would be able to use. so....?  Using the VIDEO program that every computer has (I assume) I went straight to my old, and I mean old, computer, hand-down from my son's college days, but so easy for me and where my art pictures are mostly. (A Windows XP, by the way) I began to pick the images. Clean them up, turn them around, etc., etc.The next stage was adding text, a presentation, some notes about my work and then a title page at the end to give credits for music, ecc.

The real challenge was then the music, I hauled out all my CD's and tried to find a suitable soundtrack but there wasn't anything I liked, either too moody, too fast, or too ....just nothing. So I turned to the web. Amazing what can be found there. And finally I hit on a lovely Bach sonata and fugue group that was downloadable. That's what I chose,

But finding the music is just the first step, Then you have to make sure it fits into your storyboard time frame. It can't begin after your title page and can't end before your credits' page. AT one point, trying to stretch it out, the whole sonata disappeared!  PANIC! I don't know how, but I managed to fish it out again and start over.

As you can immagine, this took time. . . hours, days, and weeks and I thought all was well, until.....
finally ready, that is I didn't have anything more to add, I decided to save and copy the video on a CD that I could bring to the show. To make sure that all had been copied correctly I took it to my newer laptop and tried to open it there. This was the first disaster! It wasn't compatable. " no video to be found" was the message.

Complete dispair!! What do you do now? Start over again I cried, couldn't  give in at this point. There was still time. All my art photos were copied and inserted into my laptop. I had to learn how to use  the video making program of Windows 8, Movie Maker. And so I thought this was the answer. Again I waited until there was nothing more to add, correct, and made a copy to be taken to the show.

Another surprise was in store for me.  The video, that is, the storyboard, appeared on the disk, but, for some unknown reason, not the music. Why??? I had no idea but what I did know was that I couldn't solve the problem by myself at this point.  There was less than a week left before the opening at Pontremoli. So I rushed over to my computer store, sure that it was something simple and stupid and that I could rely on them to find the way out.

That was the Wednesday before the show. I hoped beyond hope that by Saturday I could pick it up before leaving for Pontremoli.  It just wasn't in the cards I guess. No video. AND, as I write this, I am trying to upload the same  video, now converted into 4 different versions at the computer store, onto this blog but not even this is working!!!!??? Guess I'' have to try the other 3 versions to see if at least one of them will work..................!

PS. Blogger tells me that the video has been processed.  I am about to publish this post and will see if this is true or just another . . . . . . . . . .

PPS.  EUREKA!! It's working! . . . hope you enjoy. . . . Please let me know!

Three rooms, Three themes. . . .

room 1-"Measuring Space"- Pontremoli

On Saturday my show premium opened in Pontremoli bringing to a close months of planning, preparations, and even a video that , unfortunately, never saw the light (but I will tell you about that later.)

I was given three rooms in this beautiful undercroft with its walls of stone that must have many  stories to tell.  I gave each room a theme as a way of organizing my work and also a clarification of my use of the human body,  my main source of inspiration.

The first room, Measuring Space, is a series begun as a gift to my son when he recieved his degree in engineering. I used one of his technical drawings, part of an exam, as the basis for a painting and on that superimposed a figure. From that point on, I began to consider the figure as an object having the proportions, measurements and weight that are similar to an  architectural structure. The body lives in symbiosis with the architectural spaces it inhabits giving them breath and vitality. The energy given off by each being makes space live.

room 1 - "Measuring Space"

room 1 - "Measuring Space"

 In the second room I hung paintings from the series, "Connections",  my most recent work.
My idea here is that the human body exists in relationship to other beings and to the entire universe, that it has a balance of energy that is  physical as well as mental, emotional and spiritual. Man has a particular place in the world that is part of and relative to the entire universe. Here the spinal column is the form that embodies the energetic force and the connectivity that the human body exerts upon the universe. It is the physical and spiritual hinge that creates a relationship between the individual and all that surrounds him.

Room 2 - "Connections"

"Connections"

"Connections"

  There is a corridor that connects these first two rooms with the others including sculpture by another prize winner, and where, to continue the sequence, I hung other small paintings in the same theme, "Connections".

Scupture, "Le Stele", by Fiorella Noce

countinuing the series "Connections"

"Connections"

part of next series,"Transparency"

The 3rd and last room I  kept for my work with transparency.  "Transparency is a series that developed as I began to use internal forms of the body as elements of abstraction often suggesting internal and universal landscapes. The body's transparency reveals elements of harmony and conflict that are present in the vital process. During this phase of my work I began to experiment with transparent materials to underline my ideas: Plexiglas, glass, resin, fiberglass, wire mesh and wax.

"Transparency"

"Emerging Figures"

"Emerging Figures"

"Emerging Figures"

"Transparency"

small piece on the left is resin and glass . "Icon"

view from the corridor toward connecting rooms.

There were three glass cases in this room which again I divided into my three themes but displayed work on paper; drawings and etchings that pertained to each group.

-day two --Forte Belvedere show

My pictures!!!!! today bought the cable to connect to my PC and . . . VOILA'

hubbie looking out onto Boboli gardens below

the walkway that runs completely around the fort

view of Neptune's pool in Boboli

Pitti Palace in the distance

homes along the wall and in the distance Via S. Leonardo and the little church where I was married......

me there,  part of the line!

the Kaffehouse, one of the constructions in Boboli gardens, now unused.

K

Looking at Firenze!!!!!!!

These you've seen in the videos?
 

Bye for now!!!

18 August - Show HUMAN - Sculptures by Sir Anthony Gormley

 


After weeks of being barricaded in the house in an attempt to escape the heat, we finally went out today!!! Alleluya!!!! The rains have cooled things down so we went to see this fabulous show in the most fabulous setting in Florence...Forte di Belvedere.

www.fortedibelvedere.it (unfortunately I FORGOT my camera but will insert links)  -sorry.

https://youtu.be/MY7AS2RrN1Ahttps://youtu.be/MY7AS2RrN1A

 Gromley himself states:" Rather than choose works able to adapt themselves to the measurements of   the  site, I DECIDED TO PUT IN THE SHOW WORKS THAT ARE THE DIMENSIONS OF MAN, WORKS THAT CONSENT TO THE MASS AND TO THE FORM OF THIS EXTRORDINARY CONSTRUCTION TO EXPRESS ITSELF."

He continues: " My desire is that the visitor reflect on the way in which he presents himself  confronting the space that surrounds him."

Each visit to the Fort is like climbing to the top of the world, the world of Florence anyway, the world of the Renaissance. We are high above Florence with a 360° view of the city: Brunelleschi's dome, the Pitti Palace, Piazza Micheangelo......every monument possible is at our feet, in miniature.

I tried to take pictures with my cell phone (old and not internet connected) so as soon as I can, IF I can, I'll post them....

The heat hasn't been conducive to painting but I have been preparing for my show in September, the show that was part of my being 1st prize winner in the juried exhibition last May. Doing things like checking out paintings I want for the show, preparing titles, re-writing a sort of statement. . .  etc, etc....Lots of  odds and ends.

Hope your summer is going well, (not as HOT as ours).  Will try to be back soon.....

A COOL, COOL, SHOW !!!!

my book hangng  at show in Pontremoli

It was a COOL show in sense of temperature (here we are still gasping under 100° temperatures daily). . . not in the slang sense meaning GREAT, although it was that too.       Judge for yourselves. . . . . .

entrance to the show in the undercroft of City Hall

The suggestive setting of the undercroft of City Hall, ancient stone walls, suggestive arches and niches. . . . We are 28 artists participating with a varied approach to the subject as you see  below. 

And more. . . .

Part of the undercroft still houses ancient stele found in the area but most of this important collection of sculptures, testimony of the ancient culture of this area called Lunigiana, has been moved to a new museum space in the Piangnaro Castle of Pontremoli.

I am happy to say that this will be the setting for my personal show which will be held in September.  More about that later . . .