Illustrated

As an artist myself, I'm always on the lookout for new inspirational creators to discover. Lately I've been particularly interested in illustration and have been consequently stalking a lot of awesome artists' blogs/Tumblrs/general work. Here are my current favorites, in no particular order:

1. Noel Badges Pugh

This guy sparked my desire to write this post about inspirational illustrators. I stumbled upon his work on Tumblr yesterday and absolutely fell in love with his attention to detail and unique hand. For the most part he does insanely delicate ink and water color illustrations of flowers, with the occasional scientific study of a bee thrown in for good measure.

2. Katie Rogers of Paper Fashion

I've probably been admiring Katie's work for the longest out of this group, seeing as her illustrations pertain to fashion and have therefore gotten a lot of attention on the many blogs I follow besides her own. What I really like about her style is that it's simultaneously classic in line, much like sketches of Dior or Chanel gowns from the 50's, and modern in execution, with the use of things like sequins and glitter in many of her pieces.

3. Kelli Murray 

I'm a huge fan of Kelli Murray's blog, mostly because she has a totally awesome badass-boho style and her daughter is adorable, but also because her artwork is fantastic. Including a lot of braided hair, cute animals, and colorful floral bouquets, her illustration style is feminine and natural.

4. Mel Stringer

Another Tumblr find, I love Mel's style because it's at once extremely girly, cool, and cartoonish. All that combines to create neon cute illustrations of cool girls being cool girls.

5. Kelly Smith of Birdy and Me

Kelly Smith is yet another fashion illustrator who has become very popular in the industry. Her drawings are hyper realistic pencil illustrations with pops of color in clothing and flowers. I love how she combines this intensely detailed portraiture with quick brushstrokes to imply clothing or accessories.

Coming to an End

Once again I'm writing a long, delayed post, but this time it's to sum up my time in Paris (sort of). I finished my last busy week with my study abroad class and I'm now spending a few extra days playing tourist with my mom before heading home to the US. When we talked about it this morning she pointed out that it's as if I'm being a tourist where I live because I've spent so much time here at this point that it really does feel like I've lived here.

Our last week with Abigail was filled with long days and trips to exciting places. Despite the heat and constant walking we managed to keep up and stay conscious for class time, in addition to spending as much of our afternoons and evenings together as possible. On Monday we spent the day trekking between the many covered passages, or arcades, near the Opera area (think Nichols Arcade in Ann Arbor). It was nice to get out of the sun and even better to experience the shopping culture of the 19th century.

Tuesday we spent the day in Giverny, aka Claude Monet's country home. Obviously we were all thrilled to see where Monet lived, worked, and hosted other cool important people. Once again it was VERY warm, which despite the discomfort was preferable to rain because so much of the good stuff at Giverny is outside. Inside his house the walls were filled with Japanese prints, a few small paintings, and collections of things like porcelaine plates or vases. We hurried out of the house however, so that we could get another look at the garden out front and, more importantly, locate the lily pond. Everything was beautiful and I kept having those "Monet PAINTED HERE" moments.

The next day we made our last trip through the Musee d'Orsay (though not my last) and then quickly hopped in another bus to make our way out to the Barbizon School. The first thing we did was head into the Barbizon forest where realist painters like Millet and Courbet would go to paint landscapes and physically be out in nature. You could see why these artists would choose to work there, the light, the trees, the rocks, it all fell together naturally to form such beautiful scenes.

After that we visited Millet's studio which now exhibits some of the work, primarily Millet's, created in and around the Barbizon forest.

 Thursday we began with a guest lecturer at the Musee des Annees 30 (Museum of the 1930s) where we got to see some really cool 20th century art, appliances, and furniture.

After that we met Abigail at the Petit Palais to jump back and view their collection of 18th and 19th century French art. The juxtaposition between the art nuveau of the morning and the work at the Petit Palais was fantastic.

Friday was our final day with each other, our professor, and our lovely in country organizer, Judith. We started the day at the Musee d'Art Moderne which was essentially just a wandering exploration of the museum since Abigail knew very little about the art. We did however begin with the Dahn Vo show as a group and got to see some really interesting pieces relating to Vietnam, America, and McNamara.

Afterwards, we headed next door to the Palais de Tokyo for the best meal I've had since getting to paris. I started with a mango lassi to drink and a massive ball of burrata mozzarella on top of zucchini marinated in mint and garlic.

Next was a heaping plate of curried vegetables with a bowl of couscous and peas.

And finally a citron cheesecake with strawberry sorbet. Needless to say I've never felt more full nor more happy. I think Abigail was secretly trying to stuff us to the point of euphoria so that we wouldn't all start crying when we had to say goodbye (tears were shed anyway).

We finished up our time together with a relatively spontaneous trip to the pompidou center. Even if we barely covered contemporary art in our program, we all still wanted to go to spend a little extra time together and have a chance to listen to one last lecture.

I'm so thankful for the time I got to spend here and especially for the people I got to spend that time with. I've been given so many amazing, mind blowing opportunities while I've been here and I wouldn't want to have spent my summer any other way.

All the Things

This has been a long and busy week, so as a result this is going to be a long and busy post... My apologies.

On Friday I had to say goodbye to two of my friends who've been in Paris for the last few weeks. I was sad to see them go, but spending the night eating Nutella crepes under the Eiffel tower was a pretty great way to send them off. Plus, it was the night of the Fete de Musique which meant two things; one, there were twice the amount of people out and about late at night, and two, there was a marching band dancing down the steps leading to the tower. It all made for a pretty eventful night.

Saturday, we explored the Latin Quarter and visited a few of the open air markets and busy shopping streets. I had to physically hold myself back from buying all the peonies in sight. Somehow all the flowers here are more beautiful than any I've seen in America.

Because of the never-ending rain, Sunday was devoted to catching up on work and lounging around the apartment. However, I did make it out of the house at the end of the day to play trivia at The Thistle with my friend Moira and my friend Ingrid's older brother Berent who lives in Paris. We came in complete last place and didn't even win any points for our creative name, The Loch Ness Trains Harry Potters (an attempt to win the favor of the Scottish/Irish/British bartender). Despite the loss, we all still had a fantastic time.

Monday, we started off at the Louvre for one of the girls' oral presentations, but we found ourselves frustratedly looking for the room containing Louis XIV's portrait only to realize it was closed off in a construction area. Since we couldn't see the portrait in person, we did the next best thing and headed to a cafe where we could pass around Maile's iPad and "gaze lovingly" at Louis XIV while enjoying a cafe au lait. 

Next, we began walking around the city to look at the development of bourgeois and royal homes throughout Paris. We stopped at Saint-Gervais to admire it's contradictory classic front facade and gothic sides. It also had really interesting modern stained glass windows inside.

Continuing on, we saw a handful of fancy houses called "hotels" which are kind of a mix between an estate and a small castle set in an urban area. The architecture was beautiful and one even had a semi-well manicured garden behind it that we got to listen to our lecture in.

Between houses we made the executive decision to take a much needed eclair break at L'eclair de Genie in the Marais. Words cannot express how simultaneously beautiful and delicious these eclairs were. I shared a raspberry chocolate eclair with my friend Dorie, which we marveled over for a few minutes before sacrificing it's beauty for the sake of our cravings.

Tuesday we met in front of the Fountain of the Innocents for one of the girls' presentations. Afterwards we headed a few blocks down to Saint Eustache, which from far away can be seen poking out over the construction around Les Halles. The church was big and beautiful, as have been all the cathedrals we've visited so far. The best part, however, was that in one of the chapels we discovered a minor modern art exhibition with tall canvases covered in drippy glitter paint.

Then, we made our way over to the Gobelins, which was and still is a tapestry factory in which workers create tapestries and rugs on massive looms. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the people actively working on the tapestries as we walked through, but photography was allowed inside the exhibition so you can see the end product.

Watching the artists work meticulously at the creation of one knot of string completely put into perspective the time and effort that went into the finished works we got to see in the exhibit.

Wednesday was the day we've all been waiting for. That's right. VERSAILLES DAY! My friends Max and Kelsey have been in town since Tuesday night, so they tagged along for the day as well. Walking up to it from the train station I was half thrilled to finally get to see this amazing place in person and half terrified of the amount of people that would be inside of it. The interior was beautiful, all mirrors, velvet, and painted ceilings. No stone was left un-decorated.

But it was the gardens that really got me excited. I'm fairly certain the gardens just go on forever and all that other urbanized land around Versailles is just an illusion. All you can see when you're standing up by the house is green and I LOVED IT.

Unfortunately, Versailles was our last day with our professor, Maile, which made us all very sad when class ended. But after hugging Maile and trying to follow her as she walked away... We've developed a bit of a mother duck problem in that the second she walks somewhere we automatically follow, so it was even harder to say goodbye. But! Now we're all excited to get to know our new professor, Abigail, and learn about impressionism in the next half of the course.

Before moving on, we explored the grounds a bit more and found out where Marie Antoinette's house was. The second class was over I just kept repeating, "I want to find Marie Antoinette's peasant village. I want to find the peasant village.", and y'know what, we did. And it was awesome.

On Thursday, we had a brief informational orientation in the morning, and then were set free to do whatever we wanted with the rest of the day. I met up with Max and Kelsey in the Tuileries so that we could walk through the garden, grab some lunch, and head over to the Musee d'Orsay. 

Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take pictures in the Musee d'Orsay, but just imagine all the awesome paintings from the pre-impressionist, impressionist, and post-impressionist era all in one place.

We'd been on a mission to find ice cream all day and after walking back into the Tuileries we found an Amorino gelato cart right away! Needless to say, the gelato blew my mind.

Keeping on the sugar binge, we then sought out Laduree, the famous macaron brand.

On Friday we didn't have class, so I spent the day exploring with Max and Kelsey. We spent most of our time at Les Invalides where we saw loads of interesting war memorabilia and Napoleons ridiculously giant tomb. There's also a really cool museum  about Charles de Gaulle in one of the areas of the building with interactive screens and audio tours that aren't finished being translated into English.

No Time for Sleep

My first week in Paris has been unbelievable in every aspect. While on one hand it feels like I've been here for months, on the other it feels like it's only been a day. On Tuesday we started at the Roman Arena of Lutecia where we talked about the beginnings of this amazing city during the Roman Empire. While Maile lectured, we all occasionally paused to watch a group of kids in summer camp play on the sand where gladiators once fought lions.

The Roman Arena

After the Arena we stopped by the Baths at the Cluny Museum, which we unfortunately had to look at from behind a fence... Despite the obstructed view, the surprisingly well preserved ruins of the baths were still fascinating to look at.

Once we'd awkwardly peered through a fence at the baths, we took a quick break for lunch and a few of us sought out a little cafe near the Sorbonne to had a celebratory birthday lunch for one of the girls. We then headed to Notre Dame, not for the cathedral, but to see the crypt beneath it (we're big on crypts right now). We were able to look at the location of the old medeaval city's wall, a few remnants of buildings, and plenty of 3D reconstructions.

The crypt at Notre Dame

That night I was lucky enough to meet up with my friend Tricia who's been working in Cannes (yes, that Cannes at that film festival) and is now spending some time in Paris! We had dinner with her friends Moira and Elise on the bank of the Seine right near Notre-Dame. I somehow managed to get myself there and back with very little knowledge of the Parisian subway system, but between confused public transit explorations, I had a wonderful night! We quickly befriended some street performers and attempted to communicate with them, speaking what little french we could while they spoke what little english they could.

Elise rapping with our new friends

Wednesday, we started off at the Carnavalet museum, which is made up of two old mansions and filled with all different centuries of art. Because of the mansion layout, making our way to the room containing Parisii artifacts was confusing but it lead us through rooms of earlier impressionist and classical pieces. After that we took a nice walk through Paris, and by nice walk through Paris, I mean a trek across the entire city. Though my feet ached and my knees creaked with each step, getting to see the city on foot is so much more meaningful than jumping from place to place on the metro (but I'm very content with that one long trip and hope I never have to walk that far again).

National Archives

When Maile said we'd be going to get some "amazing views" of Paris immediately after the walking tour, I thought I might cry out of fear for walking up stairs. Thankfully, the view was at the top of the Galeries Lafayette, a department store with endless escalators leading to a terrace overlooking the entire city. 

On the way, we met Maile's insanely adorable daughter, Matilda, who may not have understood the amazing view, but was definitely entertained by all these girls fawning over her cuteness.

On Thursday we met at Saint-Martin-du-Champs, which is half church half technology museum, which, as you might imagine, is a very interesting combination. We learned about the various parts of cathedrals from this period, while surrounded by things like massive pendulums, old planes, and modern couches.

Next, we moved on to Saint-Germain-de-Prés, a more traditional looking and much larger cathedral. 

Candles within the chapel

Our third, final, and largest cathedral of the day was Saint-Severin. Here we saw the difference between the two different times the church was constructed and reconstructed. At the alter was a glowing cross which stood out from the darker ambulatory behind it because it was ringed with light. Obviously this illumination is very new, but just getting to walk in and see the light glowing at one end was amazing.

We were meant to take a Bateau Mouche ride down the Seine that afternoon, but what with the rainy weather we'd been having we decided to postpone until Friday. Though we chose to move back the boat ride, we did so knowing it would make our already lengthy Friday classes even longer... The day started all the way up at the Basilica Saint-Denis, a 30 minute subway ride away. Though the distance was far, the Basilica was worth it. When the doors opened, we all gasped at the view of the massive, circular window flooding purple and blue light into the room across from us.

After the initial shock of the first window we saw, we entered the church to find further beauty. Here we heard our first presentation from one of our classmates, more will follow as the class progresses.

Our next destination was the Louvre, but we had at least 3 hours between leaving the Basilica and our appointment at the museum. Instead of risking lateness by staying up around Saint-Denis, a group of us voted to head to the Louvre and leisurely get lunch down there so we could leave time for getting lost (which tends to happen relatively frequently). 

We ended up grabbing sandwiches at a little boulangerie a few blocks from the Louvre walls and though we had planned to eat them in the Tuileries gardens, our hunger got the best of us and we ate them while we walked. At one point we asked a shop owner if she knew of a creperie nearby and we were shocked to discover she couldn't name a single one. What do you mean no crepes around here?! We eventually made it to the Tuileries where we spent some time lounging on the grass and appreciating the perfectly manicured lawn (which we later discovered was at least partially manicured by goats) before heading to class.

The Tuileries

The Louvre

Finally, after what felt like the longest day of my entire life, we ended with the postponed Bateau-Mouches trip down the Seine. Thankful to at last have a place to sit, we all ran onto the boat to get the best view. As the sun began to set over the Seine we passed the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, and the Musee d'Orsay, a beautiful end to a long day and an even longer week.