We are all dumb tourists.

A recent conversation I had with a friend reminded me of these dumb tourists Daisy and I ran into while in Italy. You really should do everything you can to blend in, God knows we did but they still knew we were Americans. Others, on the other hand, don't get it at all and act as if everything should be catering to their needs. 

10 hours.

Last summer my wife, Daisy, and I went to Charlotte, North Carolina for an extremely restful vacation. Daisy drove the entire 10 hours home to our home in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and I took the opportunity to sketch all of the fun stuff we encountered on the ride. I have become quite accustomed to drawing on trains (three days a week during the school year) but drawing while she drove at 70+ miles per hour in a small SUV was a hoot. Here are the sketchbook pages from the trip. I did have to clean up some of the lettering.

Paper Sculpture

I promise to keep on top of this blog more frequently. If time will allow it I hope to do weekly postings.

June 2 was our first wedding anniversary. Unsure of what I was going to get Daisy I did a little research and was tickled to find out that the traditional first wedding anniversary gift is paper. Rather ambitiously I decided that I was going to a create a paper sculpture for Daisy of a scene from our honeymoon on the island of Capri in Italy. Considering it had been 15 years since I made a paper sculpture it took me much longer than I had planned. Thankfully it was completed on our anniversary and Daisy loved it.

It's amazing how much the lighting effects the look of it. Here's a few photos of it as well some of the scenery that it is based on.

While hiking down Monte Solaro, Daisy and I stumbled upon the shrine to Santuario Santa Maria a Centrella. I'm not entirely sure who Saint Marie was or what event the shrine is associated with. Ancient stone ruins surrounded the mountain side as well as snakes, lizards and flowers. To add to the beauty of it all low flying clouds continuously collided into the mountain.

You'll note that I removed the stone "cap" on top of the shrine for the sculpture.

One of the many lizards on the island. Daisy was fascinated by them so I added one into the sculpture.