For those of you who do not know me or know me and do not know what has been going on in my traveling experience, I am Teia Hagood and I am Art student at Texas Woman's University. I worked my tail end off and have finally been rewarded with this truly blissful experience to study abroad in Italy.

To start off my experience abroad, the provider I chose to study abroad with, AIFS, organized a three day experience in London, England. I got to experience many free museums. A few being: The British Museum (Where all the controversy is taking place over the returning of Parthenon relics), The V&A, and The Museum of

Natural History. My first night in London I went to see the play Wicked. Unfortunately jet lag hit and it was a little hard to enjoy the play when your fighting to stay awake.

We also had the opportunity to partake in a Private coach tour of London with the most wonderful tour guide. Her name is Nicola Watts. If you ever need a tour guide in London, England please give reach me and I will gladly give you her contact information. This woman is so delightful! We ended up have three extra passengers sneak on our bus during our visit at Buckingham Palace and she handled the situation marvelously and instigated a new rule of have a "secret password" for all tour members. She made our short stay so much fun.

This is me is my "AIFS landmark Coat" in front of Buckingham Palace.

During this tour I also got to see St. Peters Cathedrale, Hyde Park where the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS performed. Yes, I was the only on the bus that yelled "No! Way!" This park is near this beautiful animal memorial, Greengot bank, Prince Albert Memorial, London bridge, and The Eye (A huge ferris wheel).

Following my stay in London, I flew into Bologna (right when you recover from jet leg, here's some more!) where we took a bus to Siena! The first day of my Italian Language class started Monday January 12 and lasted until day was January 30.

This is all for right now. The next time I write I will right about eveything I got to experience in Siena.

ps- the picture in the middle (above buckingham) is the view from our hotel in Siena.

Sunday January 25

Man Ray (Silhouette 1916)

Sunday the 25 of January I visited a pretty little museum known as the Guggenheim in Venice, Italy. During this visit I was blessed with the opportunity to see masterpieces by the well known artists: Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Max Earnst, Vasily Kandinsky, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and many other well known truly inspirational artists. These artist that I mentioned are the artists whose work impacted me the most. 

It is one thing to see pictures of an artists work and to study an artists work. It is quite another to see it... RIGHT THERE.... on the wall. It was as if I did not believe my eyes when I saw the name plates beside the paintings. The artists signature on the paintings clarified my doubt.

Picasso (On the Beach, 1937)

The first piece I came to on my right was a painting by Pablo Picasso. I was stunned. I then saw a flash come from the girls 

camera who was standing next to me. One of the interns who worked in this area told her no flash photography. I have been told that a flash on a painting is the equivalent to 5 days in direct sunlight on a painting.    (This is the Painting to the left.)

One piece that had a great impact on me was definitely Alchemy, 1947.  This is a painting by Jackson Pollock. I have always seen his work and admired the crazy beauty hidden within the paint but I never understood his work until this exhibit. When you get up close to this painting you realize there is sand, rocks, string, and who knows what else. I could look at a Jackson Pollock painting for days. Literally days. I did not want to leave. I also read in this museum that Pollock puts loose canvas on that ground and then pours paint upon paint and does his thang. 

Another piece that made me stop and go oh no! SERIOUSLY! SERIOUSLY! Please tell me this is real! Oh yes it was real two original Man Ray rayographs. I was stunned. They were beautiful. 

During this Guggenheim Visit I also learned that Peggy Guggenheim was married to Max Ernst. If I am not mistaken Max Ernst was jewish and Peggy Guggenheim saved hi

m from the Germans through marriage. The tour guide also said that Peggy Guggenheim was a very self confident woman and no one ever made her jealous except for Max Ernst. Evidently he was quite good looking. They married in 1942 and divorced in 1946.

I am on cloud 9! Thank you Guggenheim! And thank you so much for reading!!