[Note: I’m in the midst of moving from Italy to the US right now, so instead of letting my blog sit idle I’m sharing some of my favorite images from the last two years of living in Italy and traveling in Europe. If you like them, you can vote for my portfolio in the One Life 2011 photography contest.]
I hope you enjoy my little trip down photographic memory lane over the next week. I’ll start my favorites off this weekend with a Venice theme, since that’s where we are right now.
I’ll pop in with new stuff when I can. Have a great weekend!
Imagine my joy: On Saturday, while wandering the streets of Milan for a last time, I found another image for my market/wheels series. And not only that, but the scooter is my “power color” – Orange! What luck! I find orange to be an energetic color, full of life. For some reason, when I use the color orange, in my art, on my blog or in my clothes, it gives me courage. Courage to be different, to stand out, to be myself. Courage to share the “Kat Eye View.” This discovery has sort of happened organically over the last year, and now I love anything orange. So I couldn’t help but enjoy this scene immensely. Thank you, Italy, for another wonderful gift.
How about you? Do you have a power color? How did it come about? I would love to hear your story too!
We had a beautiful weekend spent doing a few last, favorite things around our home in Italy before the dismantling of our lives this week. It’s a weird feeling, this dismantling. Taking apart piece by piece the life we’ve built here. What seemed so exotic a couple of years ago has become so normal. When did that happen? There was no exact moment in time, I know, but a gradual adjustment that just now becomes obvious as we shake things up again.
Beyond my move, there is quite a bit going on around here, I want to share with you too…
– I am featured today in Beth Nicholl’s “Shared Stories” on the Do What You Love blog. Please come by and say hi! There are also lots of wonderful stories in Beth’s archive, if you want to look around a bit.
– Exploring with a Camera: From a Flower’s Point of View continues for another day, link up by the end of the day tomorrow if you are participating. I am loving the entries for this theme!
– Will you share what interesting new sites you have found in the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap? Yesterday I shared the link list and asked you to share your favorites in the comments. There are so many wonderful artists participating! Please come by and let us know who you’ve found by leaving a comment on yesterday’s post.
– I did something crazy this weekend and entered a photo contest, my first ever. I’ve looked at a number of contests over time, but for some reason this one felt like it “fit.” Would you come by and vote for me for the “people’s choice” award? (This is an example of me feeling the fear – both of putting myself out there in a new place and asking people to vote for me – and moving ahead anyway.)
Whew. And I’m moving internationally in the midst of all of this. Doesn’t that sound a bit crazy? But for some reason, it’s all working out just fine.
I hope you have a wonderful, creative Monday! I am linking in to Creative Every Day and The Creative Exchange today.
This is my cat, Stevie, and the view I see of him on my lap and the living room from my “spot” on the couch. This picture is a fun little memory to take home with me in Italy, of all of the times I sat in this spot and journaled or read books, with a purring cat on my lap. It’s funny, Stevie will only sit on my lap if I’m in this spot, with a comforter on and my legs up on footstool. Sometimes, after a vacation when he’s very needy, I have to go sit there with the comforter on (even if it’s hot, and I have a gazillion things to do) because he just wants to be petted but won’t allow it anywhere else. Picky cat! I love him though, and am glad we brought him with us to Italy, even with all of the hassles of paperwork and transport.
So while I’m looking around my apartment and my neighborhood for the last few times, how about looking around some more at the links from fellow participants in the swap? I’m so excited about how many people are participating, and I really want to encourage new connections. I had wanted to do a Scavenger Hunt amongst the links, with prizes and everything, but have run out of time with all that I need to do to get ready to move.
I thought maybe you could help me! Can you visit a link or two and then come back and comment here with what you found at your links? Maybe you found someone participating across the world, or who has an art form you haven’t seen before. Maybe you found someone who loves the same medium you do. Let’s look around together and find something new! Share the link and what you discovered in the comments below.
Links added since the last blog update:
I’ve always love the number of bicycles you see here in Italy. I love seeing old ladies in their skirts on bicycles, with the basket full of groceries. I love seeing people riding in the rain, holding their umbrellas. I see people riding while talking on cell phones every day. Bicycles are a normal form of transport here. Just another way to get around the busy streets.
And, on summer time weekends, wow. Bicycles galore. I captured this last summer in Milan, on a summer Saturday when the bicycles were out in force. We see a lot of bicycles by our house on the weekend, since we live right near Parco di Monza. Without much green space in the greater Milan area, a day spent biking and picniking in Parco di Monza is a nice treat. The park is packed on summer weekends, the paths clogged with bicycles and strollers and rented carrozellas (a multi-person pedal-powered cart sort of vehicle/bicycle that a family can fit in – I’m not sure what they are called in English).
This weekend we are going to visit a few haunts a last time. Brave the crowds and rent a carrozella in Parco di Monza, pick up some of the chicken strips that Brandon loves at the Saturday market, head into Milan to climb the Duomo and explore the countryside by Lake Como. One last look around, close to our home for the last two years, before the movers come on Wednesday to pack up our household goods.
And next weekend, our last weekend as residents of Italy, what will we do? Visit Venice. I can’t leave Italy without a last trip to my beloved Venetian lagoon. There are two places on earth so far that never fail to inspire me photographically: Venice and the Oregon Coast. (Well, maybe I should add Parco di Monza too, given how often I share photos of the park here.) It’s amazing how completely different these places are and yet they are so inspiring to me. Thankfully, I’m headed back to one of my photographic loves as I move. I have no doubt I will find more places too.
How about you, do you have a favorite place? One that never fails to inspire you in your art?