Italy Tarot Tour

Last year was full of interesting encounters and travels around Italy. One of the best was this sojourn with a merry band of tarot travelers, tracing the history, symbolism, and art of Tarot where it was originally found/created, in northern Italy. I wrote about it last year before the actual trip here. And now, months after, I've finally come around completing the trailer below, with things you might expect to see/find on this tour.

Muse: 5 Key Steps

We had fun creating the materials and shooting parts of the video lecture for the upcoming Muse: A Video Portrait Workshop. Here are the 5 Key Steps - each of which will help you tell your muse video story in the best, easiest, and most enjoyable way. Class is starting soon, so join us if you haven't already and get started on your project here.

Muse: A Video Portrait Workshop

Excellent news! We are teaching our first online class over at Skillshare and its all about creating Video Portraits. Learn more about that here. It is a really exciting new project for us - me and Francesco. Something we're both crazy about doing (doing it half crazy too, in a good way). Hope you'll join and explore this new territory with us. Don't worry, we'll try and cover everything important in a memorable way, playing with the online/digital possibilities available today. ;)

Everyone's the Same - Kaapin

Made this music video after nearly a year in the back burner. I was asked by two good friends from home, talented musicians, who formed this electronic duo called KaapiN to work on their song which I loved to pieces. Being often in the realm of music as player/performer/appreciator, it was obvious I would accept this proposal. It was just a matter of when and how, and with who.

Early 2012 I got acquainted with Lucia and Simone - two very talented theater actors/directors who then became great friends as they too have a son the same age as ours. We've discussed this collaboration earlier last year but never really had the time (as all new moms) and now since we are serendipitously here in Ancona for the first week of 2013 and with the great power of minds that come together to make things work - voila, we did it! I'm really happy even if its nothing like the original plan. Porto Nuovo and Monte Conero of Ancona as our playground worked just right. and of course, Lucia, sei veramente BRAVA!

If you are predisposed to new music, different kinds of sounds and art and the manner in which people express themselves in reckless abandon then feel free to check out KaapiN. I used to be in a band with one of them and we made some awesome stuff together. Very proud of these guys.

Lets just say we are off to a good start 2013.

Muse: La Tela

So I've finally completed the video for La Tela, our next door neighbor while we were living in Macerata for about a year (sometime last May). It is also a museum on artisan weaving and a handicrafts workshop! I know, I know.. It was one of the most amazing discoveries literally right outside our doorstep. I also wrote an article on them over at Poppytalk.

Muse: Stella Cerioni

 Stella is one of the first people we met when we moved to Pesaro. Through her, a whole different side of Italy opened up for me. She and her folk musician friends played at Gradara that beautiful night - a testament to the spiritedness of Italians (lucky that I get to see it intimately, ashamed I used to think that this heightened sense of communion and community was exclusive to where I am from).

Compared to most Italian women I've met, Stella holds conversations looking at you in the eye. Warm, open, a bit shy, curious, starry-eyed (Stella means star in Italian), I can tell her life is full of interesting stories and adventures waiting ahead of her. Here she spends some time sharing her music. I've only managed to capture some of our conversations because shes camera-shy but the little I took (with a baby in one arm. haha) tells the story of how she started playing the Organetto. Take a look at the video below.

Muse: Roberto Papini

Brilliant and in constant pursuit of beauty, symmetry and truth - some words I can offer on Roberto Papini. While his choice of material is almost always used/recycled/trash, calling his work recycled art seems a bit absurd. Look closely and see how the materials shed their former identity as he assigns new roles, pegs and cogs in his machine/canvas/opus. A generous and simple man, bahai messenger, fan of classical music and philosophical conversations, its impossible not to fall in love with him. No matter that hes turning 91 this year, hes incredibly fit and sharp for his age and generous as he may be, he doesn't like being photographed - or filmed.

Librare Part 2

Here are a few more images from Stefania's laboratory Librare. The drawers of metal things are actually drawers of metal fonts. I remember there are several on just Bodoni. This is old school printing press stuff, she even has Gutenberg-ish wood blocks (possibly inherited from her father) and a paper chopping machine from the 50s that still works today (chops up to 10cm thick paper and thats how you get even sides on books).

Muse: Librare

This week we have the tall and magnificent Stefania of Librare whom I've known for some time, admired from afar. Shes monolithic (taller than me or my tall hub) yet approachable with a quirky yet sophisticated style. Its my first attempt at an interview (my Italian still needs a LOT of work) but trying to film these encounters has been fun so far..

More vignettes to follow in the coming days.. Wish you a good week ahead!

Muse: Smallest Forest

I met her only once, in Manila - call it a chance encounter through a friend of a dear friend who happened to be into art and all that good stuff. and she, Natalie or Smallest Forest, revealed herself and blew my mind with the wildest things I could dream of. But really, before I even saw her work, she made me laugh so hard I could've choked on my own spit. Sharp, witty, unpretentious, fierce, wild and natural. I immediately felt a deep respect and kinship.