Castrocielo, It

My most recent Coffee Hour Drawing is of Castrocielo, Italy. It is done in sepia ink with bamboo pen on Stonehenge paper, 10" x 10". Castrocielo, Italy is about an hour and a half south of Roma. This is the town where my great-grandmother, Carmela Cataldi was born.

I will be bringing this drawing as a gift to Italy this week. My parents traveled to Castrocielo in 1999 when I was studying abroad and while there they researched my dad's genealogy and found birth certificates and the home where my great-grandmother grew up. I no longer have any family that I know of in Italy, but my parents met a family during dinner at a restaurant in Castrocielo, had dinner with them, and went back to their home to meet their children. They've since kept in touch, and on 9/11, the family called my parents in Easton, PA to make certain we were all okay. I am hoping to meet the family and give them this drawing of a portion of their town.

I will be travelling also to Roma and Firenze, visiting the city I lived in and getting the opportunity to re-experience an amazing country under different circumstances. I hope to create a Coffee Hour Drawing each day at some point in my sketchbook. Check back in a couple of weeks for new drawings and interesting stories about an emerging artist travelling in Italy. Ciao!