Laura

mmm... another week.
So I'm completely in love with the piazza San Marco, part of my space. It's such an interesting and lively place (during the day when people have to catch buses at least). What I didn't realize is that the Accademia is RIGHT THERE, so I could just wander in and see the David which I haven't done yet. My favorite thing is eating lunch there - last week on Tuesday I walked over there, ate a caprese bruschetta, and just drew people for an hour. And then I walked back. And then I went back after class on Wednesday and just sat in the piazza and drew more people for two hours. One of the guys who I was drawing noticed I was drawing him, and came up to me and started talking to me in English which was a bit of a relief. So now I know that drawing people is a good way to meet them.
But both times I've been back there the church has been closed, which strikes me as completely odd because I was under the impression that churches were all open all the time during the day. But no, San Marco is only apparently open for masses. Well, whatever. I went in last Snday and drew for a while, I think I may have already talked about that in my last post.
What really interests me about the church, that I'm working into my subjective-view project, is the multitude of different perspectives coming into the church. There's the obvious difference between the tourists and the faithful, and the faithful and the clergy. but what I hadn't really considered are the subtle degrees of variation from one person's religion to another's. After all, everyone has a different life experience. And while some people may have similar lives, they're not the same people. I always have thought of Catholicism as a very unified, cut-and-dried, one-size-fits-all religion where there are certain rules set out and if you don't believe in them, then you're not really Catholic. But in considering the difference in lifestyles of the Catholics i know in America, and those I know even in California versus the ones I know in Missouri, descriptions of those i don't know, and what I have observed in Italy, I've come to the conclusion that it's more of a personal thing than I first imagined.
i've also come to the conclusion that i love mind maps.
so in my subjective-view drawing, i'm focusing on the personal associations i have with various things inside the church, like the statue of the madonna and such.
I'm also interested in the habituality of action inside the church, which I may focus on in the future.
On a completely different note, I had the most amazing birthday EVER during Carnevale in Venice. I love it there. But it's so creepy, because it seems like there is nothing there that doesn't cater to tourists. The only shops sell masks, glass, artwork, or designer clothes, and there don't appear to be any legitimate regular inhabited neighborhoods. It's kind of like a real-life Disneyland,