Ancient Rome: A Continued Theme in my Work

My greatest inspiration. What sparked my interest in the decorative arts and, pretty much, the entire subject of art history. Junior year of high school, I got to visit Italy with my school. We went to Pompeii, Naples, Florence, but my favorite city was Rome. The Roman Forum, Arch of Constantine, everything...I'd never seen anything that old and that beautiful!

I started obsessing a bit once I got back. I pretty much centered my art around my trip as inspiration, using my pictures as references. These turned out to be some of my favorite art from high school (and some of the very few ones from that time that I can look at with pride rather than disgust). Two of my favorites are pictured above. The one on the left is a liquid graphite drawing and the one on the right is a pencil study, both of the Temple of Vesta from the Roman Forum. These led me to research more about what I was drawing which led me to more inspiration! For example these sketches, pictured below, are drawn from different architectural details I found in books!

The squares I sketched here are from pictures of coffered ceiling ruins, something that would turn into some of my favorite patterns. These particular sketches turned into this 18"x24" pencil drawing:

Now, the book pictures I had originally drawn those squares from did not depict them as ceilings, but rather as fragments of what I latter identified as pieces from coffered ceilings. So, I used my imagination for this drawing and used it as a wall decoration on some grandeur building I thought up.

The repeating square pattern became a constant in my work. I added it as decoration through border designs and background patterns in my early college work. For example, this decorative detail from my final project in Design 1, pictured to the left, as well as this linocut, pictured below with two examples of it being used. I carved the linocut for my dye final in spring 2018, my sophomore year. It's meant to be used to create a border for a scarf design (second picture from the right). I designed this project, using my grid sketchbook, full of border designs, inspired by architectural details. I later saw the connection between this design, my continued tendency to incorporate repeating squares into my work, and my high school work from 2016, putting together where it all stemmed from: my trip to Italy.

In the first Art History course I've ever taken, Survey of Western Art I, I got my first real lesson on ancient art, including the Romans. It was the most interested I've ever been in a lecture class, so I made it my minor at school! Although, I've never actually taken a class completely dedicated to Ancient Roman Art and Architecture (that's still on my list), I have taken an amazing class partly dedicated to some Ancient Roman pieces of history: Treasures of Provence.

Last year, in the spring of 2019, I got to study abroad in the region of Provence in France in a small village called Lacoste. The Romans conquered this region in the 2nd century BCE, so there are several prominent Roman landmarks scattered around. This class was so awesome in part, because we got to actually visit the places we discussed in class! Some of these include (pictured below from left to right) the Pont du Gard (a Roman aqueduct from the 1st century CE), the Nîmes Arena (a Roman amphitheater), and the Glanum Arch. This brought my attention specifically back to Ancient Rome as an inspiration so, when it was time to start my senior thesis that next spring, that is exactly where my projects started.

The Imperium Swatch Collection was first followed by the Romanus Scarf Collection, and so on.

I hope to keep up this theme in my future work, and to continue to personally study this subject that brings me so much joy and passion!