Keeping in touch

Think manually in a digital world to keep your sanity. -on a postcard from my father

Be excited for a summer full of physical mail, stamps and care packages.

Someone in Denmark loves us. Barrett sent us this package but it arrived two days after we left... this is the shot she took of it before sending it. I look forward to seeing the real thing in the fall. Thanks, Barrett!

Final Show

Imagine a humid summer evening in Italy and that was the setting for our final show. We all knew this was coming but the ‘Final’ show was relaxing. It was about celebrating our work and time in Rome rather than defining our semester. The catering was again magnificent thanks to Alison, Emily, Emily, Heather, Katie, Louie, Zak and everyone else who contributed. Thank you, Aki, for being the photographer during the night. Waves of people attended and it was successful!

Open windows to let the air and Rome in

Patrick G. (Painting major) taught me about conversing by making art. This piece his reaction to a movement.

Alex B. in his studio with his drawings (Painting major, too)
He drew incessantly and is one of the people, along with Dorion, who taught me that to improve your drawing you need endurance.

Coming from a highly technical major like textiles, all Erin wanted to do this semester was draw and this piece says it all

Katie's (Illustration) patient line work

Patrick A. (Painting)

Max and Mike in front of Dorion's (Illustration) beautiful stop-motion animation of a fresco

Looking through the digital world: Max (Graphic Design) sat a laptop on a spinning record player. The laptop has a camera above the screen. If you turn the camera on, you would see yourself. What if the camera was on the other side? He reprogrammed it so that it looked like the video you were looking at was in front of you. It looked like you could see through the screen. It was entertaining for so many of us including these kids.

Katie L. (Painting)

Myles and Dorion enjoying catered food

Those were intaglio etchings that really moved me, by Myles (Printmaking). He worked consistently and diligently throughout the semester.

Emily's (Painting) collage of objects above and watercolour below

Aki, my sister, and Dan, the man

Dan's spray painting

Con Marlene (Illustration)!

Sam and Katie

Grant's (Illustration) drawing

Travelling sketchbook

Lois (Printmaking) meticulously put moments of Rome in books. Here you see delicate cut-outs of cityscapes and even a 3D arch that unfolded out of books. Her books, too, were handmade and hand bound using recycled materials. Some of her sketchbooks had space for drawing materials or specific cutting materials built-in to dictate the content inside.

Zak's (Graphic Design) paintings

Zak with Liam's table

Liam restored this old desk top with found materials keeping its cantilever. He limited his material pallette by only using what was available in the Cenci.

What can you do with what's lying around? Look around.

This same way of thinking is what drove him to reorganize the Cenci's tool room with minimal damage to the programme's pocket. He also made a work bench out of the scrap and plywood supply. It is now a functional and accessible space for future EHPers.

Liam and I next to

Heather's ink drawings

Work like this takes time but also gives time
to think and reflect.
The idea of the tree entered both Heather's and my mind outside a cafe in Matera during the Southern Tour. After that we shared forests of ideas and throughout the semester. Thanks to her there is this:

Alberi means trees in Italian

Open publication - Free publishing - More book

You can click this to see it in full-screen view and flip through the pages

This digital book is what I put for the show. It is a collage of drawings, photographs, writing, and ideas inspired by trees. Where would we be without trees? How can we cultivate all the wisdom they quietly carry? It is digtal because it can contain raw images from existing sketchbooks like the ones in the pile above. By being online, the book can always be added to later and grow.

Alison lookin at trees

Here we have Yusa on an arm chair reading Alison's (Illustration) version of the EHP handbook. Upon being accepted to the programme we all received comprehensive handbooks. The contents included what to expect, bring, maps and tips. Sometimes I find myself in situations where I wish Alison was with me because I know she would find a way to capture a funny moment perfectly in a drawing. The handbook she made rich with wit and had better tips like where to get the best pastries.

Welcome to Persky's Plastic Pneumatic Pantheon

The Pantheon's dome inspired Ben (Architecture) to build this pneumatic structure out of everyone's plastic bags. Constant air flow maintains its structure but when put in a room it creates an entirely different feeling.

Liam going in

Emily and Mike welcome you!

Yusa and Aki!

Being inside was literally cool and to me it foreshadowed packing. Everything was wrapped.

Mike's (Painting) paintings taught me a lot about colour. After seeing how he lays bold colours like teal as his ground it inspired me to try to work like that. How would the colours you lay on that ground react? How will your eyes react to that?

Yusa with Mike's paintings

Louie's (Industrial Design) work was about luxurious objects made out of unexpectedly organic material. He hand made these beautiful shoes out of burlap sacks, with leather soles and a cushioned, silk lining. The martini glasses below are made of formed leather.

Sam (Illustration) portrayed people from the programme with or as their totem animals.
Click here to see the website she made this semester.

Check out this detail! How she sees light and colour planes is past me. I wish I could oil paint like her. I've only been painted twice, both by friends on EHP, and I tell you it's such a privilege.

Emily (Painting) worked for charcoal on this large format. She combined familiar places like the Cenci kitchen, the floor patterns she has fallen in love with, the Romescape and placed the five people that she spent the most time with either cooking or travelling into this composition. Her perspective style constructs a space that is unlike any other I've seen and is so refreshing.

Today was also Patrick's 21st birthday!

Throughout the semester Ben also collected rubbings.

He would place paper over an interesting texture and rub graphite or wax on
or
tape paper on the ground and it gets stepped on like this

and the paper gains more dimension like this.

Sometimes I see things and think Ben would totally want to capture that in a rubbing. Other times I wish Alison were with me, like I mentioned before, to draw a funny scenario. I could try drawing patiently like Katie with a delicate pen. Drawing excerises with Alex and Alex would really get me sharper. It would be interesting to see how Lois would go on about cutting out the Manila skyline that I have here. I have a feeling that the last five months and twenty five + people will serve as a reservoir or jar of inspiration for years to come.