INTERNSHIP!

I am now officially interning at a gallery!!!!!!! 

(here is a picture of it but not one that I took)

GX Gallery is south of the river in Camberwell - I went in for a "trial day" today from 10-6 and at the end of the day, the woman I'd been working for all day told me and the other intern that we were brilliant and she would love to have us around. YAY! 

^this is it from the road

Other than that...THESE ABSOLUTELY MADE MY DAY! SO MUCH LOVE TO KELLY AND MOM! THANK YOU!!!!! kelly your birthday card almost made me cry I was so happy and mom I haven't read one magazine since I've been here and these just made me unbelievably happy. I love you both so much and felt so special to get mail :-) thank you thank you THANK YOU!!

Oxford!

On Sunday, I went to Oxford (via the oxford-london bus, called the Oxford Tube) and met up with a friend from Princeton who is studying there! 

We walked around quite a bit - Oxford is bigger than I thought! There is a lot of green space but it is ALL inside courtyards like this one...

Beautiful ivy-covered walls that are turning shades of fall...

and I thought this bridge was pretty cool...

We walked up the highest tower in Oxford, from which you can see views of the whole city. The staircase was the smallest, tightest stone spiral staircase I've ever seen in my life...made me a bit nervous (I was taking deep breaths the whole time) but the view was totally worth it!

Oxford was built in the 1200s - still looks like a medieval city

and this is me!

climbing down was much easier than going up...this was one of the windows in the staircase

Afterwards, we went to the university's art museum (which is world famous!) and then a coffee shop to sit, chat, and have tea.

Dinner was actually a scene out of Harry Potter (fun fact they actually do film scenes from the "Hogwarts" great hall and libraries at Oxford!). We had dinner in one of the college halls completely by candlelight...

I had to wear "robes" which are not quite the full robes you would picture but more like a thin, black, long vest type thing that I had to borrow from one of his friends. You stand up when the professors walk in and don't sit down until they walk up to their head table (which is perpendicular to our long table), hit a gavel, and say something in Latin. It was 3-course meal (SO GOOD) and then we could not leave until the professors stood up, banged the gavel again, said something in Latin again, and left. 

I got home around 11 - really fun day and I was lucky to have a tour guide that knew the place so well! Incredible that it has literally been around for over 800 years. Great day!!

weekend recap

Keeping super busy over here between class, physical therapy (which takes anywhere from 30 to 45 mins to get to and from), interviews (gallery trial day/interview at GX gallery for an internship tomorrow!), events (auction previews, museum visits, alumni drinks for Christie's students Thursday night!), writing papers/doing research, and staying healthy by sleeping enough and making food instead of buying sandwiches. A tad overwhelming but trying to balance, plus I wouldn't have it any other way! Here are a few things that made me smile this weekend...

^^this was the sun setting on a building

This is a piece of street art I see every day on my way to class. I thought it was witty and took a picture of it the first week I was here and just NOW got around to Google-ing it...and found out it is by Banksy!

This is the lovely salt cellar I am writing an extensive object report on...random little piece of Italian ceramics (c.1525) meant to hold salt. 

This is the park I walk through on my way to class each day - fall is here!! 

This was an NFL "fan rally" taking place outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square on Saturday. I went to the museum to brush up on a few things we talked about in class that week and when I walked outside I was face-to-face with a huge screen on which Tom Brady was talking...no complaints. Saw the whole New England Patriots team! (they're standing on the blue stage down front) 

And finally, Saturday night I went to east London with a few friends to this live music club/bar/stage...really fun! Phil is below and my face is painted...bartenders were painting people's faces (probably for pre-Halloween) so of course I got in on the action.

Field trip! Burghley House and Rushton Lodge

Field trip today! First stop, Burghley House...

 Left my room at 7:30am this morning to catch the bus with my class up to Lincolnshire, about two hours north of London...we were halfway to Manchester! 

("A" is where the house is, London near the bottom of the map)

Built between 1555-1587, this Tudor mansion belonged to the Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, Sir William Cecil. 35 major rooms and 80 lesser rooms/halls are inside while an expansive deer park and gardens make up the grounds. 

We took a tour through the state rooms...no pictures allowed inside but here are a few I took on the DL...

These were just SOME of the bells used to summon servants - this was literally Downton Abbey. We began in the HUGE kitchen and this was the room right outside the kitchen...each bell has a label indicating which room was ringing. Imagine! 

This was the room where the Congress of Berlin was signed! Disreali's portrait is in the background. 

Beautiful Italian-Renaissance-style ceilings painted by Antonio Verrio...he was paid 200 pounds per ceiling (?!!)

and this was the coolest room...the Heaven room. Painted architecture looks so realistic and love the angels falling over the corners and rainbows cutting through the middle...incredible!

Had lunch in the Orangery (turned cafe) - amazing cream of onion soup and coffee to warm me up - these country houses are cold! Then went for a little tour of the grounds...here are the gardens outside the cafe

huge fish!

and then we were on our own for a bit...Laura and I attempted the self-timer camera but not a huge success...

so we just took turns (haha) here we are! 

There were TONS of deer in the park - this guy must have been king of the herd. He (and his huge antlers) eyed us carefully as we walked past...

We piled back onto the bus after 4 hours at the house and on the way home, stopped at this little 16th-century gem - Rushton Hunting Lodge

Built in 1593, Lord Thomas Tresham created this (rather odd) building as a testament of his Catholic faith during England's forced conversion to Protestantism. Every single part of it represents the trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) and either triangles, multiples of 3, or significant Catholic symbols pertaining to 3 appear all over the building and engraved inside. 

Here it is from an aerial view (internet pic)...three sides, three floors, three rooms on each floor...you get it.

and here is the side facing the road

and here is me! 

Great (though very tiring) day - and early day tomorrow! Doing some reading and going to sleep soon. Weekend plans are to go to East London this weekend to check out some of the clubs (apparently the scene there is Brooklyn meets Meatpacking district in NYC terms) and then to Oxford on Sunday afternoon to walk around and have dinner with a Princeton friend. It is definitely getting colder here! 

Street Art Tour

Today I went to East London (think: brooklyn, less hipster) for a tour of street art....this is Stik.

I learned that first of all, there is a clear difference between street art and graffiti - graffiti is more likely associated with vandalism and is done almost exclusively from a spray can and completely on-site, like so...

Street art, on the other hand, is usually created ahead of time and brought to the location for application (for this reason, "street art" tends to be more developed/detailed/thought out). 

That being said, there is plenty of cross-over between the two - there are many street artists who use solely spray cans to do their work, like this guy...done completely with spray paint (although, fun fact, a lot of work went into this - to get that particular effect, the artist puts the cans on ice for at least 30 minutes so the paint comes out more slowly so he can get that look by adding translucent layers)

I learned that Alice (see below) was dating another street artist and this is a self-portrait of sorts of them...

(this is also Alice)

and saw things I NEVER would have seen - these guys are so small! done by a Mexican artist, Pablo Delgado

Saw some really cool stuff - loved this one

and here is Bansky! so hot right now

used the panorama feature on my iphone for this guy...

and these mushrooms are literally everywhere! crazy how you don't notice them until someone points them out...

this guy paints on pieces of chewing gum...

and this was pretty - south american female artist

space invader! Parisian guy - so cool

loved these...

and more stik!

i'm so much more attuned to seeing these now i'm looking for them everywhere!