[march - may 2003] [june - end of 2003] [2004]

[13.November.04]
Yep, it's been a while again. Once I started back to school, I've been a busy boy. Not much new in the street painting department as the weather isn't to kindly to us at this time of year. My biggest news is my return to the states on December 3rd. I'll be coming back for about 8-9 months to work, do some chalk festivals and take a break from studies here in Florence. So, I will likely be at the major California street painting festivals this next year. I'm really looking forward to it.

December 17th and 18th I'll be holding an exhibition at Crossgrain Creative Studios in Orange, CA. For more details, contact me or visit my MC Originals site (map and hours, etc.) I'll have over 20 drawings and a few paintings to show. I'm anxiously looking for commissions so please contact me if you are interested in making an appointment to discuss this subject.

Italy has discovered winter again. The weather is freezing to this Southern California boy. Glad I'll be back to the warm 70-ish temperature again. It's with mixed emotions that I return to the states this time though, as I've come to realize I am leaving one 'home' to go to another. Italy is now a major part of my life. Outside of my desire to return next September to continue my studies, I believe in the future, I will have to spend at least part of the year here and then the rest in Southern California. Yes, I intend to return and set up shop permanently in So. Cal in the future. Of course, God always has plans that I don't know about, so I can't rule out other possibilities...

I suspect this will be my last update from here in Florence. I'm hitting crunch time before my move and finding a moment to work on the websites is rather hard at this point. Thanks all for your prayers, letters and calls of encouragement. I appreciate them more than I will ever be able to express.

Oh, and in regards to previous entries, unfortunately, the second trip to Istanbul fell through. Next year? I sure hope so!

So, ciao from Italia and hope to see you at my exhibition December in California!

[5.September.04]
A lot can happen in a couple weeks, and well, a lot has happened. I've finished 2 more street paintings, and taken yet another trip to Venice. I'm now convinced that Venice is my favorite city in Italy. It's the mystery and romance of it. I think I would be content visiting Venice for a week or two every year for the rest of my life... yeah, that would be fine with me. Don't know if I should move there as it might take away the romance of it...

I was accompanied by a friend of mine from Florence, Ettore, he's a real Florentine, and we painted for a couple days. I did this oil [painting], my first of a building, of the Santa Maria delle Salute. Venice really is one of the most beautiful cities in all the world. I've got another gallery for those that would like to have more reasons to visit Italy [gallery]. You'll notice a picture of me with three lovely girls from Southern California. From right to left, Cynthia, me, Jenny, and Vanessa and yes we had breakfast right there by the Grand Canal... cool. Jenny is a friend of my friend Larissa (from California) who emailed me before they arrived suggesting we connect over here. I spent a few days here in Florence with them, a day trip to Sienna and then ended up finding them in Venice. They inspired me to go to Venice when they said they were going... what's an artist to do? They are really sweet girls and I enjoyed the time we got to hang out. It was fun having some Californians around to share Italy with. Later in the week my friend Yusuf, from India, and Murad, from Egypt (film maker of my Madonnari film) arrived and we went out to Lido, an island in Venice to check out the Venice film festival. You'll see a few pictures of that as well in the gallery (link above). Didn't see anyone famous people though... oh well. Yusuf went out on Friday and saw John Travolta, Scarlet Johannson and Roman Polanski... he's special I guess... LOL. Venice is always a buzz with something.

I'm still waiting for final confirmation on another trip to Istanbul, but if you visit the gallery section you can see my last two street paintings from Florence. Street painting this summer has been extremely fun and financially fantastic. I wish I could paint all year around, if I could I could probably afford to stay. Still returning to the states in December. I've secured a position with ProAxis a web development firm in Orange County as a salesman, so if you're looking for web development, give me a shout. Thanks to Joel and Brian for the job and the support of my dream here in Italy.

I'm moving to a new place tomorrow (Monday) for the last few months of the year. So, it's onto the packing of my world yet again. Blessings all and check back soon for hopefully an update from an Istanbul trip! Oh yeah, last note, I've recently finished my 50th chalk painting, wow, I can't believe I've done this over 50 times now! Thanks Chris, look what you've done to me! (INSERT ENORMOUS GRIN HERE!)

[19.August.04]
Did another one day piece on Wednesday, see it in the gallery. I've also been able to compress a copy of my short film! It requires the DiVX codec and is an avi, the codec is free by following this link. If you want a copy of the movie, please contact me and I will send you the link. I'm offering this for a limited time only as I don't pay for hosting and I don't want to abuse this privilege. Many thanks to Thomas Ryan at My Webteam for hosting my sites. The file is a compressed version of the the original and is about 10mb in size, but plays great! I also have a DVD version that I will gladly show people when I'm back in the states.

[16.August.04]
Back to the street and having a blast. The festival on the Adriatic didn't happen and I didn't attend the International Street Painting Festival in Mantova, Italy this year, as finances didn't permit, but I did have a great week of painting here in Florence. Not only has the weather been amazing this year, as many recall my laments of living on the surface of the sun last year, but I've been so blessed to have a number of people that just come and hang out while I'm painting. See the latest pieces in the gallery. You'll notice a picture at the end of the Madonna Della Sedia piece of a girl that hung out for most of the day watching me, she filled in the frame for me, her name is Harriti. Her parents are from India, she was born in the states and lives in Washington, D.C. area.

One of the most fun aspects of working on the street in Florence is meeting people from all over the world. After finishing the copy of Botticelli's Venus, I went to dinner with a bunch that had been hanging out for a while, with all these countries represented around the table, Syria, Mexico, Egypt, India, and the United States. How amazing is that? And then after my first night working on the Madonna, I went to dinner with some a lot of the same crowd and these girls that met us, from Switzerland, Romania, Singapore, and the United States. And people as me why I like working on the street... Here are a few pictures from that dinner.

Here is a picture of my friends Murad (from Egypt) and Chris (from Boston, US) that did the little film of me. We're still working on getting a digital copy I can post here. I will make it available as soon as I can. Keep watching this space for information about the film. It's really cool and I think everyone will enjoy it.

And just when you think you've seen it all... don't remember the bunny's name, but isn't that fantastic?! We do have an interesting city here when it's almost 1am and a girl is out walking her rabbit.

[2.August.04]
Well, I've finished the workshop and I'm convinced that painting is likely the most fun man can have. Well, at least one of the most fun things man can do? Yes, I'm loving painting with oil. The second week of the workshop we only did 2 paintings. The first was a portrait study. This painting was done in 3 sessions of 3 hours each, a total of 9 hours for the sitter. The second painting we did was a longer sustained pose with a full palette. Lots of fun! This painting was a total of 18 hours with the model over 3 days. For those of you that are thinking, man, 18 hours is a lot of time... well, the model stays in pose for 23 mins, then has a 7 minute break, then back. After 3 hours, of this we have a lunch break and then do the evening session and repeat the next day and so on. No, the model doesn't have to stay in pose for hours on end. That would be just cruel and mean...

Well, I'm quite happy with what I've accomplished so far. Considering this is my first time painting with oil with proper instruction, well, I'm extremely pleased. Also, one of the students that was taking the workshop, Frode from Norway, arranged to have me do his portrait in charcoal. See it here. Also, one of the guys that helped shoot the film of me a couple weeks ago requested I do a copy of the Vermeer he could take with him. (We've not figured out how to rip the street up yet, LOL). So, I did this with pastel on paper. I guess I should do more of these. I haven't done many pastel copies on paper, so I think I'll start doing more...

Things are looking up for my return to the states in December. More on that in a future post, but for now, back to the streets soon and hopefully a festival this coming weekend near the Adriatic Sea.

Ciao!

[24.July.04]
Ciao from surprisingly pleasant weather Florence. This July has been fantastic so far. I can't believe the weather. Although the last few days have been more like the Florence I remember last year, 90 degree plus weather, mostly, it's been quite pleasant. I've been doing a painting workshop for the last week, continuing to the end of next week. I'm having a blast! I'm finally painting with oil and I actually have an idea as to what I'm doing! Here are the first four pieces I've done this week. [gallery] I also had this adorable little girl 'Natalie' come and help me do part of the frame on the piece. She just HAD to take part in the painting. Fun!

I also did the Vermeer, 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' again... yes, I know, how many times are you going to do this piece? Well, there are some film students here in Florence for a summer course that shot a mini-documentary on yours truly. The completed work will likely be about 5 mins long or less. I hope to have a digital version to post on the site at some point. They wanted me to do the painting as it was something I knew I could do quickly and they knew people would be familiar with. Sooo... there ya go.

One more week of painting to go, then back to the streets. Look for more updates soon!

[9.July.04]
Well, if you haven't noticed, it's a brand new site. Be on the look out for a new issue of "Primo" an Italian lifestyle magazine published in the states that will have an article about the Madonnari and none other than yours truly is interviewed in the article. I'm very excited to see what kind of responses it generates. I'm out of school for the summer and painting again! I've done two new pieces which are featured in the gallery section.

I don't know that I'll be doing a lot of travelling this summer, unless street painting goes extremely well and I have enough money. Otherwise, I sure hope that some of you are going to come this way. There is another possible trip to Istanbul, but that isn't confirmed at this point.

I hope everyone enjoys the new site and please send your comments or suggestions. Yes, I did remove a fair amount of images. Some of which will be added to my MC Originals site, but a lot because I need to be mindful of how much I have on the server. Thanks for reading as always and I hope to have some more images to share soon!

[16.June.04]
Wow, it's been ages since I've updated this page. Sorry for the long delay, but I've been quite busy, moving to new places and doing loads of work at school. I have a number of new images to share that I've done at school since my last update. Some new portraits, some new imagined images and some new studies of the model(s). Visit my other site for the new stuff here. Also, see my in progress page here.

I just returned from a trip to Istanbul, Turkey last week. There was a chalk festival there to promote a Turkish website called Tebesir.com. 'Tebesir' in Turkish is the word for chalk. The website is an educational portal and they are trying to raise awareness about themselves and thought the chalk festival would be a good opportunity. They discovered me through none other than this website. Originally the plan was for me to come over last fall for an October festival, but due to impending inclement weather, they decided to postpone the event to June of this year. In spite of the postponement, we still had rain. Fortunately it didn't cause too much of a problem. I did 2 pieces at the festival, one on Saturday and one on Sunday (see pictures in the gallery).

Istanbul was fascinating. The people we're incredibly friendly and I had a wonderful time. I plan to return in the future to spend more time visiting the city and more of the country. The country has an enormous history of practically every type of culture imaginable. Needless to say, this fusion creates and rather mysterious and exciting place. There's a sense that the ground you're walking on is fabulously rich with history, and well, it is. I took a lot of pictures with a friend's digital camera. See the gallery here.

I've not been doing a lot of street painting here in Florence as of late since I haven't been able to get a permit. It's a long story that many have heard, but suffice to say I'll be starting again in July and hopefully be making a little living money. School is going very well and I'm rapidly approaching the end of the current trimester. I'll be doing a painting workshop in July and then August I'll just be working and possibly travelling a little.

It's been a bit of a tougher go this year, but I'm still going and looking forward to more opportunities to share art with the world. If you're coming to Florence this summer, make sure to send me a message. Ciao all and sorry for the long delay on updating the journal.

[13.Mar.04]
Finalemente! I've finished the cast of the hand. Actually, its been done for about 2 weeks now, but I've not had time to update the sites with pictures and such. To see this wonderful piece, visit my new site here. I've also taken some pictures of my current projects, a couple model drawings and another cast drawing. The cast drawing is of Abraham Lincoln's head from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Also, I've moved into my new place down in the center and its great. I'm paying a lot less for my space and I love the location. Don't know how long I will be in the place, but hope to stay for at least a couple of months. One block away is the world famous Uffizzi museum. Also, right around the corner is the Piazza Signoria where 'The David' orginally stood, but now a copy stands in its place.

Yes, it's a pretty cool place to live.

Well, we seem to finally be having some nice weather today so I'm going to go out and enjoy some more of it. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of new chalk images soon too as the weather is getting friendly again.

Ciao all!

[22.Feb.04]
Hello all. Greetings from Florence where I've been dodging cars, but not successfully... Yes, yours truly got tagged about 2 weeks ago whilst riding home on a Monday night. Have to admit that this was a major God moment. I should have been really hurt, but I'm okay, and my bike is too! If I'd been travelling slightly faster, I would have been hit in my legs. Instead, I hit his fender, flipped over my bike and my body landed in his windshield, then I rolled off the hood and crashed to the ground! Wow! Yes, it's not something I plan on doing again any time. Gratefully I was just sore for a while and now I'm pretty much back to normal.

I haven't had a whole lot else happening lately, thus my lack of updates. I've also been trying to break in my new computer that I ended up having to replace the hard drive in after I arrived back here in Florence from my trip to the states. I have added a few new portraits that I've completed since I've been back. They are in my new site, MC Originals, here. I'll also be posting a new image, cast of a hand, that I'm currently putting the finishing touches on this week. Watch for that soon.

Otherwise, Italy is cold and wet right now. Had a nice visit from my friends Tim and Ericka Harris last week and like I stated at the beginning of this entry, I'm dodging cars as best I can.

I'll be moving this weekend to a new place so if you need mail address information, check the contact section for an update. I will unfortunately no longer have a home phone, just my cell number.

I'm excited, since spring is almost here. The beautiful weather is just around the corner and I hope to see some of you here soon!

[11.Jan.04]
Buon nuovo anno! Happy New Year! Well, I've been a blaze since my last post, and I got to see so many of you that read this journal. My trip to the states in December was quite the rush. One week in California that went like a blur and then 2 and a half weeks in Texas that tried to catch up with the California pace. Never the less, I had a wonderful trip and many great visits with friends and family.

You may or may not have heard about the show I did in Orange, CA, but it went really well. Granted we had a very short amount of time to promote the show and it was in the middle of the Christmas season, but a great turnout still. If you head over to my new MC Originals site, you can see a small gallery of images from the show. Also, while you're there, enjoy my new site with collected works from my studies here in Italy so far.

I did get to have a fun day in Pisa the day before I flew back to the states. Pisa is definately a one-trick-pony. There's the tower, which isn't all that big of a deal, and there's the duomo, which is next to the tower and is really the best part of Pisa. I did enjoy the time though, there was a massive street market for Christmas happening while I was there. It was lots of fun and there probably were fewer tourists in Pisa than most times of the year as well.

So, I'm back in Italia and looking for a roommate or a new place, not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. Alessandro is moving back south at the end of January, but I have until the end of February to find a new place. For those of you that pray, I'd appreciate prayers for this. Otherwise, I'm glad to be back home and ready to get back to school on Monday and get off and running again. Keep an eye out for some more neat images and if you have plans to come this way this year, please let me know.

Sorry I didn't get to see everyone while I was out in the states. Hopefully our paths will cross in the future, blessings all.