For the headiest basketball game, take a look at this picture of B.J. D’Elia, White House Producer for CBS News, and an alumni of Art Workshop International. B.J., who is a fabulous photographer (his photos are on several of the pages of our website), is also a writer. Art Workshop International alumni B.J. D’Elia, White House Producer for CBS News.

With the 30th anniversary of Art Workshop International coming up, alumni are sending us photos. Here’s some from 1991. Will post more as they come in. Ciao, Chris Spencer

Sandra Perlow consulted with Edith Isaac-Rose in Assisi, Italy, last summer as an Independent Artist. We’re pleased to announce her upcoming Exhibition at the Linda Warren Gallery June 26th to August 15th. If you’re in Chicago, Illinois, stop in at her Opening Reception on Friday June 26th, from 6 P.M. to 9 P.M. The address is 1052 W. Fulton Market, Chicago, IL 60607. Her website is sandraperlow.net.

Sandra wrote to me recently: “I want to put one of the pieces I did in Asissi in my show at Linda Warrens gallery. I wrote an artist statement for the show, which mentioned a connection to the light around religious figures and light emanating from different types of light fixtures.”

Here’s an advance look at the American Airlines Online Magazine Article about Art Workshop International coming out soon! As written by an Arts Workshop International alumna, it’s a clever takeoff of Eat, Pray, Love - Chris Spencer, director

LEARN
Surround yourself with artists, award-winning authors, playwrights, painters, cooks, and those who want to be any of the above at Art Workshop International where you can workshop that play you’ve always wanted to write, learn Italian, paint that painting that’s lying dormant, or learn to cook by apprenticing to a master chef in the kitchen of the Hotel Giotto, in Assisi, a 12th century hill town in the heart of Umbria. The summer workshop, now in its 29th year, lets you find your inner artist – with all meals, board, instruction included. Like grown-up camp for the artistically inclined. Stay a week or a month. Enthusiasm – not experience, required. July 22 – Aug. 18. For prices, details, instructors and classes: www.artworkshopintl.com or call Bea Kreloff, director, Toll free: 866-341-2922

EAT
 If you attend the school, you probably will have to drag yourself away for a meal anywhere other than the restaurant at the Hotel Giotto, but force yourself! Impossible to get bad food in Assisi.
 Personal faves – and faves of locals, include The Fortezza right off the main piazza, the Trattoria Umbra for easy, casual dining. A more elegant feast can be had at the Medio Evo right below the piazza as well as the excellent Trattoria Pallota.
 La Stalla right outside of town offers a great casual outdoor meal; tables covered in red, and Chianti candles. A must-stop for families, campers, hikers, who gather under the arbor, near the large camping site, for yummy grilled meats, chicken, vegetables.

PRAY
 Assisi, once home to Francis of Assisi, houses the magnificent Basilica of S. Francisco, a double Basilica, with an upper tier that has Giotto’s spectacular frescoes of the life of St Francis and the famous frescoes of Cimabue, Giotto’s teacher. The lower frescoes by the masters of the 12th and 13th centuries are open from dawn until sunset.
 The Eremo delle Carceri, the Hermitage, is a place of solitude up the Monte Subasio where St Francis went to meditate. Open from 6.30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
 The charming church of San Damiano, one of the earliest churches in the area, is a small simple building where the more casual masses are said to the music of strumming guitars. Go in the morning and take in the solitude. Take a camera and shoot the amazing light pouring into the ancient chapel.

LOVE (To Shop)
 Some of the finest hand prepared vinegars and olive oils in all of Italy are found in the shop of Francisco Mollaioli (Franciscodassisi@umbria.net) directly across from the Hotel Giotto. There you can buy the famous oils, as well as cherry barrel aged balsamic vinegar and Francisco’s special recipe grappa. Stop in – the only thing Francisco loves better than overseeing his product is telling you all about it. Great way to while away a morning.
 You won’t find a Bennetton in this gorgeous town square. What you will find is craftsmen who make some of the finest handbags, paintings, and religious objects like the still ultra-modern shops looking crosses designed by St. Francis himself. It is not impossible to find a painting from modern to practically relic for a price you can afford. And, yes, bargaining is still a time-honored sport here.
 Assisi has a small but choice market on Saturday mornings up on Piazza Matteo including a van with one of the choicest delicacies of Italy, the porchetta, roasted pig — sandwiches and by the pound. Pick up cotton shorts, cheapie sandals, and hand-hewn wooden St. Francis-style crosses.
 There is also a permanent outdoor market at the rail station in Assisi where you can pick up handmade jewelry, scarves, cotton dresses for a song.
 Take a side trip to the nearby market town of Bastia Umbra, where the streets are full of all kinds of wonderful bargains from clothes to housewares every Friday morning.

STAY
 Hotel Giotto: Where you’ll stay if you attend the Arts Workshop International. Housed in an ancient piazza, this simple hotel is basic Italian. Not fancy, but quiet and quaint with a great room for working on that novel, relaxing and downing some grappa or a cappuccino with new and old friends. (The bartender won’t laugh at you for ordering a cappuccino after breakfast either!) There is also a giant wrap-around terrace for drinks and another for outdoor dining.
The oldest rooms are dark and the a/c isn’t great but some have giant terraces. Advice: Instead ask for a room in the new wing. After all, the afternoon cappuccino will give it away – you are an American and like your room chilly and your drinks with ice. High speed internet available. http://www.hotelgiottoassisi.it/


Congratulations are in order for S.J. Rozan ( author of the Lydia Chin series) who will be Toastmaster at the Bouchercon 2009 in Indianopolis. She will once again be conducting a writers workshop for the Art International Workshop in Assisi, Italy in August 2009.
Pat - alumna of Art Workshop International
(Motives for Murder)

Professional artist Marilyn Yanke surprised us all with the number of canvases that she brought along to Art Workshop International, all tucked into each other. I asked how she did it -and here’s what she told me:

I found a suitcase that would allow a 24″x20″ to lie flat in the bottom…. Inside the 24×20, I put a 20″x16″…. Inside the 20×16, I put a 16″x12″…… Inside the 16×12, I put a small one….. a 12″x8″ (you may have to get it made) or a 10″x8″ Basically, just put the largest one you can in the bottom of your bag, then substract 4″ from each measurement and you have your next size. I think I took 4–24″x20″….. so really I had a total of 16 canvases….. It took me most of a day to find a bag that would actually accept a 24×20 canvas. If you are young and strong, go for as big as you can handle and the airline will accept. Although, using several of the smaller canvases to make a larger one really worked well….. I still like the idea and can do diptychs or triptychs….or more.

I want to come next year, and I am going to talk to Jerry’s Artarama about direct shipment to the hotel of Turpenoid (truly oderless … oil brush cleaner).

You can see how Marilyn put some of these canvases to use in the picture below.
Another idea (and I have used this one) is to bring rolled up canvas in a mailing tube. You can mount them later.
Also, I have been painting on stiff, gessoed watercolor paper. It’s a very different surface to try.

Take a look at Lola Fiur’s spectacular photography on this link. She is at Art Workshop International in the drawing class - it will be interesting to see how her photography influences her drawing.
-Chris Spencer

Note: This is why I recommend that you put the address of your destination (including a phone number) on your bag, plus another address label inside your bag. This year (knock on a luggage carousel), we have had no lost bags! Maybe Linda Stasi’s article has had some effect. Here is her recent article in the New York Post. I loaned her clothes, too, but it’s a better story to focus on charming B.J.!
-Chris Spencer

EVER spend two weeks in an ancient, charming city in Italywith no money and nothing to wear but a pair of giant men’s boxershorts and a trashy tank top with the word “Ciao!” emblazoned in rhinestones?
I have.

The story of how I went frombliss in Air France’s first-class cabin to looking like an escapee from the cast of “Rent” is fairly simple.

It started with me finally deciding to take the trip that I’d dreamed of taking since Jesus was in swaddling Pampers - a stint at the Art Workshops International Summer Program in Assisi.

Two weeks of writingmy heart out, along with other writers, artists and seekers. Unfortunately, when I packed back home it never occurred to me thatthe Italians might be in the midst of yet another airport workslow-down. By the time I’d landed at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, CNN wasreporting that possibly 100,000 pieces of luggage were lost, missing or otherwise unavailable to their owners there. The chances of ever finding my bags? Slimmer than Amy Winehouse’s thighs.

Luckily I was met at the airport by several other students who had volunteered to pick up newbies and drive them to Assisi. They waited patiently while I tried to find my bags. Right. I snuck into an area roughly the size of the Coliseum and saw thousands of bags covered in a month’s worth of dust.

I wasn’t worried. Air France had told me, “no problem” - right? They had promised to find and deliver my bag the next day. Clue: As soon as someone in Europe says, “No problem,” you may as well kill yourself.

Oh well, I’d just have to buy a few things to hold me over in the fabulous airport shops - some undies, a sundress, sunglasses.

That’s when “no problem” became a “huge problem.” Citibank had also decided to invalidate my ATM card because I hadn’t informed them that I was traveling.

A few hours later I found myself in Assisi without clothes, without money - and worse - without cosmetics and phone charger. You mean I couldn’t call home? My hair would remain frizzy?

With the few Euros I had brought from home, I bought apair of men’s boxers and tank top at a kiosk.

Instead of being bohemian chic at breakfast, lunch and dinner, I was the skank at the table in the same outfit everyday at every meal. It was so bad that I was thrilled to find a safety pin. At least I could finally close the fly.

On day three a student either took pity on me or couldn’t bear looking at me any longer and bought me a cool pair of Italian rubber sandals. Finally, something other than my ratty, sweaty giant clogs. Sweet.

Next day a guy in that same class bought me some socks. On Wednesday a woman in the painting class bought me bikini underpants - red, white and black. Someone else gave me a bracelet.

For an elegant dinner the school was hosting, my sock dealer -CBS producer B.J. D’Elia, as it happens - lent me his button downshirt. An 80-year old painter lent me her embroidered gypsy skirt.Cellphones and cameras were offered. Ah, the kindness of strangers.

Ten days later, my luggage unceremoniously arrived.By now, I was almost indifferent. Did I need all that stuff?

To learn more about the program, visit artworkshopintl.com.