Ciao ciao! It feels as if this second week here in Milan we’ve all finally started to become better acquainted with the city and our surroundings, despite how busy this week was~ we visited Lake Como and so many different architectural landmarks with Futurist and Art Deco styles, and I ended up embarking on a weekend trip with some friends to Monaco and Nice in France! And despite having been a bit sick this past week and having woken up with a (very) swollen eyelid on Monday, I truly feel that I’ve made the most out of this week. I’ve begun to notice patterns of how the city works, also thanks to my group and I having gone on our Mapping the City walk between Torre Velasca and Torre Branca. We noticed how the cityscape combines the old and the new and fully embraces all of it even if its history is bleak; even in those cases, the city seems to find a way to reinvent them and breathe new life into them, giving way to something new while still remembering its history and past. I feel like this week I finally understood what it meant when Professor Catterall told us Milan is a “living” city: not only is the city optimized for living, but the city seems to have a life and heartbeat of its own, changing and evolving with the times and people who come and go about it.
I also really loved getting to see in-progress works and sketches during some of the visits we had this week, like the Matisse and Picasso sketches we got to see during our visit to Villa Necchi; this was something that even followed me to France when my friends and I decided to visit the Matisse museum in Nice, where his paintings and finished works were displayed alongside thumbnail paintings and sketches he made in preparation of the final product! It felt really good to see these as I’m a bit of a perfectionist and tend to hold my work to a really high (and unrealistic) standard which can make me too scared to even begin sometimes, and since I’ve been especially nervous to make my sketchbook for this class really good as well…but seeing that even some of the most celebrated and renowned artists started with just a simple sketch and that just the fact that they were done by them and their hands is what makes them special gave me some encouragement that as long as I put in the effort and try my best, I know I’ll end up with work that I’m proud of~
I’m excited to see what the rest of our time here in Milan will bring, but for now, arrivederci!
