Stage two

The itinerary is official. For all you stalkers out there, here's where I will be for the next week or so:

19 Arrived in Amsterdam
20 Day in Amsterdam
21 Day in Amsterdam, go to Rotterdam
22 Rotterdam, overnight train to Nice, France
23-25 Nice
26 Back to Italy




How to be a world-famous artist:
1. Develop a revolutionary style. If you're not quite that creative, jump on someone else's bandwagon really quickly, and start a school together.
2. Make a huge body of work, so that every major museum can have at least one of your pieces in their permanent collection, and so that there is still enough left over for your homecountry to be able to open a museum dedicated to you.
3. Create a handful of ironic paintings so that even college students will want to buy posters of your art.
4. Paint 'pretty things,' so other people will want to buy calendars or cheap prints of your work. Or for college students who want posters that will make them seem 'cultured.'
* Bonus points for being troubled, eccentric, or a failure.

In Austria I went to four art museums. In every other country so far, I have been to one each. I wouldn't say I burned out, but I am torn. I know that there are amazing masterpieces awaiting me within so many walls, but there is amazing life and culture waiting outside of them. After a while, it feels like going for the sake of going. Or, like been there, done that. If every museum boasts a Monet and a Picasso and a Warhol, do I really have to go to each museum? I never thought I'd say it, but it almost feels like if you've seen one, you've seen them all. At the same time, after going to the Van Gogh Museum today, I am of a different mind. We get so used to seeing the same handful of a famous artist's paintings, it is easy to forget that he ever did anything else or anything different. I had no idea how much Van Gogh produced, or how much his style changed over the short years of his life.

Tomorrow, Rotterdam and architecture.