Toscana

In 1998, I was a photographer and working with Photoshop at College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, NM while earning my Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art. I was given a work-study position at the Public Relations department to work as the webmaster, which seems like a high-paying job, but then, as a webmaster, I was paid $6 an hour. 

At CSF's Public Relations department, we created brochures, websites, and photographs for publication. I was grateful that I had the opportunity to be featured in the brochures. 

I was grateful to be able to use my Photoshop skills that I learned from Rollins College and my HTML coding skills from SALT Institute for Documentary Studies. I scanned slides, coded HTML with BB Edit, and edited photos with Adobe Photoshop. 

I worked on building templates for College of Santa Fe website. The faculty was new at student engagement using educational technology and interactive multimedia projects. We were just starting to get acclimated to the instantaneous email system. 

I remember that I knew I was planning for the FUTURE DIGITAL WORLD. I knew that HTML and websites were only just starting to grow. 

For the summer of 1999, I was offered an opportunity to go to Tuscany, Italy to fulfill my science course requirements, I accepted. 

I summered for 6 weeks in Toscana. While counting trees to plot and conserve for an estate as a National Forest, I discovered cinghiale running through the chestnut forests of Tuscany, while hunting for truffles. 

I dreamed of conserving the forest for future generations. I swam in the rivers and the pools at the nearby country club. I sketched many different scenic views of Tuscan windows in my journal. 

Our main goal was to "set up a conservation strategy for a 50,000 acre nature reserve surrounding a renovated 300 year farm house called San Giovenesse Estate. The estate, owned by the Province of Siena, now serves as an education and residence center," writes staff writer, Suezyn Talmage, of College of Santa Fe's The Independent. 

She continues,"to achieve their goal they worked on projects such as insect inventory, photography, identifying vegetation, making posters, counting herds of wild animals (including wild boar), surveying rivers, and forests." 

When I returned, I showed my painted series of my window drawings. Along with fellow artists, Robyn Corbo and Robin Olds, I showed my paintings at ROAR Art Show. 

ROAR Art Show, @1999, CSF

Also, I was featured and quoted in the College of Santa Fe's newspaper, the Independent, about our ICONS in Italy trip, "I had some more science credits I had to complete. What better way to do it than in Italy!" 

In 2003,  I conserved the forests of Santa Fe, with a garden near the Santa Fe outlook. New Mexico Youth Conservation Corp and I built a garden with a stone path. I shoveled dirt and moved stones, as a stone mason, we built the stone walls around the garden path. 

At Warehouse 21, the  New Mexico Youth Conservation Corps and I designed and printed tshirts for our project, using the silk screen printers. 

(image in heading: ICONS in Italy, The Independent, September 28, 1999 by Seuzyn Talmage)

While I was counting trees for a conservation project at San Giovenesse Estate, I found a paintbrush under the crescent moon, paired with the star of Venus, glowing in the purple sunset skies. It inspired me to paint this painting of a Tuscan window floating in Toscana's infinite fields of sunflowers. 

I painted Jesus Christ roaming with a pink robe with an added quote, "Puoi indicarmi strada per il duomo?" which translates to "can you show me the way to the cathedral?" 

It's interesting how strada is like the word star! 

Stars are the path.

"Puoi indicarmi strada per il duomo? 

Can you show me the way to the cathedral?"