Paintings

Old Drawings

Online Art Portfolio

In an attempt to keep this blog somewhat still functional now that I'm back stateside, I'm going to keep it going as a sort of art journal. Though my rigorous academic schedule keeps my busy, I have been really trying to keep up with personal art projects this semester as well. Who knows...maybe someone will want to buy a piece someday!

Here goes...

Melting in Sorrento

Much like being in Arkansas in August, the temperature here in Sorrento is a lovely 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. It feels like home, just with a few more beaches, better Italian food, and a much more efficient public transport system. Oh and ancient ruins. :) Like Rome but much better (and no, I'm not biased at all).

I took the fam to Pompei and gave them an abbreviated tour of the massive city. As per usual our only major run-in with tourists was at the brothel, which we quickly viewed before moving on to the much more interesting and sensational sights. We had a fabulous Bar Sgambati lunch and I got the chance to say final goodbyes to all of our friends. In typical Bower power vacation fashion, we woke up yesterday for a hike up Monte Fiato (still my favorite place) before hitting up the beach in the late afternoon. Luckily I managed to navigate the small Sorrentine neighborhoods to find one of our favorite restaurants in the water with some of the best seafood in the world.

We're currently sitting on a ferry about to set off across the Bay of Naples from the Isle of Capri. Capri, the legendary tourist destination of immaculate beauty and world class shopping. I say eh. It was about as alright as last time. The boat ride to and from the island is what you should really visit for. I can see a Gucci store anywhere. The water here is an unbelievable blue color and the marina is fantastic. Again in typical bower fashion, Dad, Michael, and I found a bunch of rocks to climb on out to the water. Best part of the day!

Sadly we head back to Rome tomorrow so we can fly home on the 15th. Its been a fantastic summer and I'll do my best to share more pictures soon. I will hopefully be compiling my photos for my photography portfolio as well as putting together a tour guide of Italy as a memento of the summer. Should be exciting! Catch you all on the flip side.

When in Rome...

After my first difficult Italian experience in Pisa, I finally met up with the family in Roma!! Pisa was beautiful and definitely worth the day trip just to see the main square. Unfortunately I ran into a bit of trouble with the trains and getting a place to stay in Rome, so I ended up staying a night in Pisa! I found a quaint little hotel and nearly missed my train the next day, but all is well in Italia!

Rome has been wonderful so far! Once our family all met up we went on a long walk to see some of the major sites: the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and Piazza Navona. We even found a few obscure places that I was really interested in seeing like Santa Maria sopra Minerva with Michelangelo's Risen Christ! Today was our first full day. We spent the morning exploring and had a fantastic tour of ancient Rome this afternoon. Our tour guide was an incredibly knowledgeable little Italian man with so much love for his country. He knew everything about ancient Rome and just as much about later works that I had questions about. Visiting the Circus Maximus, Colosseum, and Forum was fascinating, especially with a guide who could teach us a lot of things you don't normally hear about. After the tour he took me to Santa Maria della Vittoria to see the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa! It was even better in person!

We are going to the Vatican tomorrow, which I'm stoked about. Give me loads of Michelangelo, Bernini, and Raphael any day! It'll be great to see if St. Peters and the Sistine Chapel are still as fantastic the second time around. I have a feeling they will be. Regardless, having a reunion with my all time favorite, the pieta, will be worth the visit for sure!

Michael and I just found the Empire Strikes Back in Italian. I haven't watched TV in over 2 months except for World Cup games, and this is the perfect reunion. "Ti amo. No so." Its ridiculously entertaining.

The next adventure!

Sadly Tuesday was my last day in Pompei. The group hiked up the Porta Marina for the last time together to go on one last exploration that fittingly lead us to the brothel (our group was predominantly female leading to a plethora of brothel fever jokes while we were working). The VCP felt so much like home, it was hard leaving and the guys at the station bar making me promise to come back just added to the difficulty. I did eventually force myself to catch a train to...........FLORENCE!!!!

What an incredible city! Que bellisimo! The first day a rounded a corner and the duomo was right in front of me. You don't get those kinds of art historical culture shocks in the US. I've taken power traveling to a whole new level here to see everything. The Accademia, Bargello, Uffizi, Santa Maria Novella, San Lorenzo, Duomo, Baptistry, Ponte Vecchio, Synagogue, San Marco, Piazza Vecchio/Nuova, Piazza Michelangelo...the list goes on! One of the coolest things today was just a random lucky find. I went to the grocery to buy peaches and decided to walk into a random church on the way back to my hostel. The church itself was a beautiful Renaissance building with a fully frescoed ceiling and gilded decoration everywhere. Just seeing that would have been great, but when I walked in, they were just starting the blessing of the bread and wine for communion, so I got to sit and watch the ceremony and slightly participate when I could figure out the Latin. It was sooo majestic and serene and surreal and a fantastic send off from lovely Firenze. There are still many many things that I haven't seen and done, but I'm headed out for my next destination in the morning, wherever that may be.

I'm very excited to meet the family in Rome on Saturday! It can't come soon enough! Its going to be so wonderful sharing everything from this summer with them. Come sooner!!

You know you're an archaeologist when...

We visited Herculaneum today. It was a nice comparative trip for all of the work we've done in Pompei. The city is much smaller but much better preserved in some ways. Many of the original stairs, roofs, and doorways are still standing because of the way it was buried after the eruption (it was covered differently than Pompei keeping a lot of the wood from decaying or burning like it did at our site). I was proud to say that I couldn't help identifying and phasing a lot of the wall constructions when we were walking around. "You know you're an archaeologist when...." Unfortunately, the site this morning was plagued by some very obnoxious tourists climbing and jumping off of the walls and columns. We had to keep asking them to stop, which finally ended in the father of the group telling me to mind my own business. I like to think it is my business when his kids are breaking my research...I don't go climbing on his desk at work. GRRRRR. Some people are very inconsiderate. If you ever visit an archaeological site, pleeeeeease do not climb on the ruins! Especially with Pompei and Herculaneum struggling to find the funding to maintain and preserve the sites as they are. On a happier note, I bought a book on the Farnese sculptures to entertain myself on the train ride to Florence. :D

Tomorrow is my last day to work on the site. This summer has gone by so incredibly quickly. We finished writing up most of our season report this afternoon and just have some categorizing and logistical things to take care of before we are finished. I'm very sad thinking about tomorrow being my last time to walk up the Porta Marina before the site opens, but this has been an incredible experience. I've met more amazing people and developed and improved so many more skill sets than I thought possible in five weeks, and I couldn't have asked for more!

Winding down the work

We're on our last few days working on the site. I can't believe how fast it's gone! We finished drawing all of our pottery yesterday and started on drawing walls in the insula this morning. We have been working pretty long hours this past week, so we got the afternoon off today. Stephanie and I went hiking up Monte Faito to the top of the Molare. It was absolutely incredible, both to be out of the tiny drawing room and out in the sun, but also to get such a beautiful view of the southern coast. We could see all the way to Capri, Vesuvius, and more. It may be my new "most beautiful place I've ever been."

We have been interacting with some of the Spanish archaeologists who work close to our insula a lot recently. They are doing some really neat work in the Alstadt. Spanish was a great break from Italian, though both still kind of make my brain hurt after a while.

We went to the Naples Archaeological Museum the other day. We got to see the Weary Hercules and the Doryphoros (two of my favorites sculptures) and some of the more beautifully preserved Pompeian wall paintings. It was a very cool place to visit. The Farnese Gallery collection is there, so of course the art historian me was very happy.

On a less Pompeian note, I booked my Hostel for Florence and received notice from the Mother Unit about meeting them in Rome afterward!! This experience has been incredible beyond words, but I'm very excited about getting to do some more traveling!! I really can't wait to show the fam around where I've been the past five weeks! There so many amazing things just around Pompei and Sorrento, though, I'm not sure how we'll fit it all int!

Some pictures!

Life here has been busy!

We have almost finished phasing our insula, which is pretty exciting. We have spent a lot of time staring at rocks and walls, but it has been completely worth it. You know you're with a group of archaeologists when everyone gets excited about the construction materials in walls instead of paintings when walking around on a day off.

Our specialists have been giving us lessons on things like sorting ancient glass, drawing diagnostic pottery, and bones. As much as I love to draw, drawing pottery is a very tedious and monotonous task that I will not miss when we finish. Right now, I might even take flot over pot, its a toss up.

We went to Caserta on our day off Wednesday. The villa was the home of Charles VII in the 16th century and is home to some of the most incredible Baroque painting I have ever seen. Every room was even more beautiful and exciting than the one before it. It's known as the Versailles of Italy and completely lives up to its reputation. Even the gardens were magnificent. There is a half mile (estimated) fountain that runs along a path leading to a giant sculptural fountain/waterfall at the top. And the English gardens were inspired by Pompeian architecture, so everyone got a kick out of that. Today, we visited Capodimonte where we got to walk through some fantastic Renaissance and Baroque galleries (saw Titian's Danae, Gentilleschi, Ribera, Carracci, etc) Of course that made me a very happy panda. I LOVE BAROQUE PAINTING!!!!! Afterward, we explored Naples and had drinks on the coast.

We had a very exciting pick pocket experience on the Naples bus though. We are always on the look out for pick pocketers, and Steph, being the best people watcher that she is, spotted a group get on while we were on our way back to the train station. They get on at both entrances and work together to choose people. Steph caught one reaching in a guys pocket and tried to tell him what they were up to. Unfortunately they made off when a guys wallet when they got off the bus after they were called out, but it was quite an experience. If you are ever in Naples, watch out!

I had another run in with the ants this week. I woke up to a colony in one of the corners of my tent that had a super ant highway running to the other corners. It was disgusting. Luckily they are all out for the time being, but my tolerance for ants is shot.

Thursday night we got to go to a local football match!! The guys who work at the bar/cafe we eat at everyday invited us to the final match for their team, and they won!! It was a memorial tournament for one of the guys sons, so everyone got a medal and celebrated. It was very cool. The guys gave me a jersey for their team for the memorial tournament, which just about made me cry. They felt bad that I didn't have a jersey from last year. They are all too incredibly nice and generous. We are all becoming a fun sort of family.

Update on my life

I just lost miserably in 3 rounds of Scopa. It was horribly depressing, but I'm getting the hang of the game. It's a traditional Italian card game that can get pretty intense when people really get into it. Get ready...I'm bringing it to America!

We had the day off on Wednesday, so we took half of the day to utilize our "backstage" passes to get into some of the houses on site that are off limits to the public. We made it through three houses in about three hours...yes, they were worth that much attention. The first house was incredible and my favorite. It has an underground crypt system with beautifully preserved wall paintings. One of the back rooms actually has one of the most important paintings for transition to Third Style Roman wall paintings in the country. It was beautiful, and naturally, I took about 50 pictures in just that room. I almost feel like I'm in an Art History theme park walking through the buildings here. There is something new and exciting every time you turn the corner.

Our team spent some time in the Pompei library the other day doing research for VCP publication. The "library" has an inordinate amount of literature on Pompeian history, including primary documents from the earliest recorded excavations. I found images of excavations on our site from before World War 2. Our southern most region was one of the sites most heavily damaged during the bombings in WWII, so a lot of our site suffered a lot of damage and is not in the best condition anymore. Finding images of what it look like before it was bombed, when the walls were all still standing, was really helpful and just plain cool.

The past few days we have been analyzing walls in our insula to try to sort the phases of construction. It's been somewhat tiring but really interesting. After spending forever setting phases for a few of the plots, we spent a lot of time today working on the walls of a water tower and came up with a plausible argument for a water source. It was like solving a historical puzzle! We spent a few hours working in the Forum with John Dobbins yesterday. He is a specialist on Pompeian archaeology in the Forum, so he had us analyze a few of the construction and art historical issues he has been working on to compare arguments. I didn't agree with some of his analyses of one of the altars, which was kind of cool. Disagreeing with one of the top Pompeian specialists probably isn't a great idea, but I felt like I was finally understanding the material better. My group successfully identified a lot of the construction changes in the area leading to the forum too, so overall, it was an extremely beneficial morning. Now I just have to finish reading his book...

I had a bunch of ants in my tent last night, which was not so fun.

The air has been especially clear the past few days, so Vesuvius and Capri are completely visible. I wish everyone was here to see it! I miss you all and love you!

That's the whole team at Castellammare.

The time here so far has been going by very quickly until today. Today was flot. Flot is not fun and is not fast. It is just flot.

We sorted ecofacts all day today, picking out the tiny deposits of bone, shell, fish scales, charcoal, etc. for further analysis by specialists. It was interesting and kind of fun, but after staring at a plate of tiny gravel for four hours you get very tired of it. All in all, it was interesting.

We spent the 4th working most of the day. I had my last day of surveying for a while, but we finally finished the fountain we had been working on! After work, we went to the symphony in the ancient amphitheater in Pompei. It was incredible. The music was fantastic, and the theater is beautiful! The night was capped off by some late fire works over the ruins (Italians are insane with their fireworks). I hope everyone at home had fun with their barbecue and the lake, but I wouldn't trade our day for anything!

Italy basically rocks!

We had the day off on Wednesday, so we went to Sorrento for the day. The team has a favorite beach spot that may be my new favorite place ever. We went to the ruins of an ancient villa that are perfect for lounging out by the water. You can explore the ruins themselves to find different ways into the water. The most beautiful grotto is just a quick walk down from the main villa ruins, and you can swim out into the sea. It's incredible!!!! Pictures to come!

Other than that, working at Pompei is going well! I've been learning to survey the sites to make a digital 3D replica of the ruins. It's very cool.

Brazil lost today. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! I would love to see a Spain vs. Netherlands final! VIVA LA ESPANA!!

Buongiorno!!

Hello from Italia! The trip has been fantastic so far. After an extremely loooong day of traveling, I finally arrived at Camping Zeus. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but out camp grounds are literally a 2 minute walk from the entrance to Pompei. Our tents are set up in an orange grove, which is beautiful but makes for lots of ants everywhere. It's an experience.
I'm starting to settle into the routine of the group. We wake up and leave at 730 every morning to get an espresso or cappuccino and the cafe up the street. Then we walk up the hill to the different sites we are working on. We work all morning, have lunch, clean pottery or sort ecofacts, and then leave at around 6 to go make dinner and hang out in the camp. And it is all done in the actual ruins of the city. Its a long, but wonderful day! I'm still not over the awe of looking up to see Vesuvius or Capri or the remains of a set of stairs or a 2000 year old piece of pottery.
Other than me and the other intern, everyone else on the team has been working on this project for at least 3 years. They are all extremely helpful and great about showing us the ropes. I've been memorizing different types of construction build for walls, how to identify ancient vs modern reconstructions of edifices, how to analyze and document structures and pottery, how to identify ecofacts in flot, and on and on. I learned how to survey an area using a total station yesterday to make a digital 3D model of the sites we are working on. You have to learn quickly and hope that you can retain everything.
Our director gave us a lengthy tour of the city on the first day. We walked around for about 9 hours, and I still don't feel like I saw everything. There are so many houses to see and paintings to gawk over. Maybe I'll get around to everything in 5 weeks. We shall see!
The people here are really nice too. Everyone on the project has been here for so long that the people living in Pompei know the VCP very well. It makes living here and learning Italian much easier and more interesting.



I remembered the city being beautiful, but the longer I'm here the more I love it.

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

"All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin' it's early morn
The taxi's waitin' he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go..."

I'm sitting in the airport about to board my first flight out of Little Rock! All of my bags are packed, and I really am ready to go! Stupid me forgot to take my laptop out of my backpack going through security, so I've already had a minor run-in with the law...bodes well for the trip haha. On to Charlotte then Paris then Naples then Pompei...it's going to be a long day, but here goes nothing!!!

___

In Charlotte! I'm the only one at my gate, but it happens to be directly next to a stocked bar with both World Cup games on. Win? I think so! Hello Corona Light and GO NETHERLANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughts and Such

Leaving tomorrow!! I talked to our Project Coordinator today! She is already at Pompeii waiting for everyone to arrive! I'm still a little shocked to be actually going, but I guess it's time. If you want to know more about the project I'll be working on, here's the site. Read away!

Via Consolare Project:
http://www.sfsu.edu/~pompeii/

My first blog

I'll be heading off to Italy in less than a month for my internship at Pompeii!

Until then, here's an update on my life! I've spent the last two weeks working on an excavation in Fayette County, Tennessee at what is now the Ames Plantation. Last summer our crew uncovered what we believe to be the foundation of an Antebellum Plantation home owned by Beverly Holcombe. Our dig this year has primarily focused on solidifying our belief in finding the homestead of a pre-Civil War family, but we have mostly found artifacts rather than architectural remains. We have one more week to dig before closing up for the season and beginning the publication process. Ames itself is incredibly beautiful. Many pictures to come!