Dee you oh emm oh

As I was returning from class and grocery shopping today, I overheard this conversation between two clearly American -- and possibly Southern -- gentlemen:
"I needja to help me out with street names."
"This is...Plaza del Domo. Dee you...oh emm oh."*
That made me giggle.

I was feeling giggly in general because I'd just had really great morning. The only thing which was not so great was realizing the "milk" I had purchased yesterday was actually "lait fermente" (why in French??) or WEIRD CHEESE MILK. So I had my Rice Krispies (tm) dry. Despite that little hiccup, I thoroughly enjoyed my first class of the semester ever. Illustration -- I immediately fell in love with it.

My professor is a very relaxed, casual lady named Camilla, who speaks just vaguely enough to be artistic and just precisely enough to be incredibly comprehensible. Our first little exercise was to draw ourselves: a literal self-portrait and a metaphorical self-portrait. I wasn't really sure how to go about this. When I draw for fun I use a much different technique than I do for class. So I aimed at a kind of hybrid, drawing my face (rather accurately, I might say) from memory and then doing a little doodle of a lost me standing on a map and clutching one in my hands, being looked down on curiously by the Duomo and Bargella. I am just so clever.

After that, Camilla said "because of my addiction, we must have a cappuccino break at 10:30 every class." So, at 10:30, she took us to the nearby Biblioteca Oblate (a fantastic art library with a fantastic coffee bar on the top floor which has an incredible view of the Duomo shoganoglsjlsglansl) and we had coffee together, all ten of us. That was awesome.

I would write out the entirety of the lecture we had afterwards, but that would make my long post even longer, so I'll summarize with this point she made:

<--- Artists --->

---> Illustrators <---

Artists use questions, expression, and experimenting. They create in an external kinda way. Illustrators use answers, communication, and problem solving. Their creation is...reflective, I suppose. This isn't to say that illustrators aren't artists (don't get me started), but just that you use a different set of thought processes for fine art versus illustration.

Did I mention I love her? Here are some artists she brought to our attention in the lecture.

Roberto Innocenti (THIS MAN IS GOING TO GIVE US A LECTURE. Widely considered one of the top ten water colorists in the world.)

Mario Mariotti (these creations he called Animani. The Italian words for animals, animali, and hands, mani. ISN'T THAT CLEVER)

Lizbeth Zwerger. This is from Alice in Wonderland, I think.

Those were my favorites. I'm so happy with this class.

ps. We get to make a children's book for a project.

pps. It's so awesome when you make friends by slipping a video game reference into a conversation and having it picked up on immediately.

*I kid you not it sounded like he was actually saying it like that