On my day off I thought I’d head to the Uffizi, but I’m a little saturated with Renaissance art after Bologna so Cortona  on this beautiful day sounded like a great compromise. Although I’ve been to this famous Tuscan hilltown many times, I had yet to see/explore the fortress. It was closed. So I hiked around the backside and even scaled one of the old walls to get a peek inside.. maybe a questionable move given I was by myself, but the view was incredible! Mi dispiace, the climb required I leave all my gear behind. This photo was taken from the foot of the wall where I began my ascent.

So very excited about exploring a new medium, as it seems i’ve been doing nothing but ink (fountain pen) drawings for years now. Architecture school and exhibit work limited the scope of personal pieces I’ve been able to work on in the past (or so I’ve been telling myself)… so it’s refreshing to learn a new set of tools and imagine different potentialities. These monotypes are my absolute first prints. You can see I’m a little messy with hand registration (wonky borders on first) and in retrospect I wish I hadn’t cropped the circle, too many things going on at once… but! it is so much fun, you try and you learn! I’m planning to carve an alphabet series after being so enamored with the illuminated books.

I absolutely adore illuminated manuscripts. And after watching Marian Bantjes’ documentary on Lynda.com, I’m so excited that there are designers I look up to that find them just as fascinating. Marian was inspired by their ability to incite wonder, to draw the reader into the text. The Duomo and its museum in Siena is home to a collection of beautiful books, and despite my horrific attention span, I had the patience and stamina to stop and sketch some incredible letterforms…

So damn lucky to have windows to these Tuscan hills.