John Witty - map explorations

It has been a busy week of many lessons.

One of the best lessons was encountered in critique. The further I progress in art, I am shocked over and over again by how pervasive some of my high school teachers rules and mantras can be. I look back on my high school art education favorably, so I am frequently surprised how much these principles can hold me back. This week's lesson: breaking the concept of "filling up the page." No, it isn't always necessary as you might have thought, and it can often push the drawing very far in the wrong direction. A positive lesson learned.

The lesson was reinforced in Ambrogio Lorenzetti's murals in the Palazzo Publico in Siena..... there were large areas of loss..... and Julia pointed out the effect this has on what is depicted there, and some of the figures hovering in the middle of these big empty spaces did have quite an impact......also the textures surrounding them were beautiful..... Something to think about: big spaces and interesting textures.

Today was spent exploring the section of the map of Florence that has been assigned to my group. I worked out a route, that brought me back and forth across the area on the largest avenues. I took pictures of Virgin Mary shrines along the way. My interest in them has been around just about as long as my interest in cemeteries.... so I just latched onto them as anchoring points for my walk. Another perception, is how the walk brought me back and forth past some of the same areas a number of times.... and allowed me to see some of Florence's most important monuments from a number of different perspectives.

I also have a unique perspective in that I live in my section of the map..... a general sentiment that characterized my walk was the progression from the well known to the unfamiliar as I moved out from the center to the beginnings of the periphery of the city.... perhaps a representation of this movement will occupy my efforts in the coming project.