"On Top of the World" (Villa Adriana Trip by a PI student)

On top of the world, or at least Adrian’s. You tend to see things in perspective, the broad scope of humanity when you’re perched above all things around you.

There is a certain amount of pride one feels, I imagine without actually understanding, those that have ventured to the top of the world.

In this instance a picture is worth about as much as a postcard you’d find across the street from Mount Rushmore. My deepest feeling is that as evolved creatures, we have the ability to create astonishing images within our minds. One that Nikon cannot even begin to comprehend. I may have a tendency to over dramatize a moment. Create the illusion of some cataclysmic scene. I have no problem admitting that. When you are unable to open your mind to thinking in a way that is bigger than you, I have to criticize.

Fifty years from now I am going to want these memories. I want to remember standing on what was once the private villa of an emperor to Rome. Overlooking Tivoli and the surrounding mountains. The ay the olive trees seem to create a sparkling sea of green that shimmers in the wind. One barn plopped down in a vast endless plain, sheets of green layered all the way to a distant range. The only thing that keeps my eyes and imagination from running off is the tiny moving boxes crossing smack dab in the middle of my painting. Fucking Highway.

Who would have thought I would be sitting in a town outside of Rome, suffocated by architects. Sketching, putting my picture to paper using lines and geometry instead of loops, dots, and scratches. Allowing me to see the world from a different perspective, it keeps me sane. Brings objective light into an otherwise subject moment.