Looking for Francesca Woodman’s Voice featuring Amy Love Tomasso (Part II)

“Francesca studied in Rome through RISD, where she went to college, so at RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome from 1978-79. And I would say that year in Rome, in addition to her childhood there, but that year in Rome, was extremely formative, maybe the most formative time of Francesca's life artistically; that's because she did immerse herself with artists and intellectuals and radicals.” Amy Love Tomasso Join me and Amy as she continues to ask questions in an effort to put together the many missing and mysterious pieces that will ultimately bring her project on Francesca’s life to fruition to give people the chance to hear Francesca’s voice and her truth.  In this episode we take a deeper dive into Francesca’s relationship with Italy, how the Italian spaces she photographed and inhabited really informed her work as did the political and social climate of Italy where she lived and studied during the turbulent Anni di pPombo (the Years of Lead). We also look more closely at her Italian work, which features allegories and classical themes that are in stark contrast with the more experimental work she did in New York shortly before her untimely death in 1981. We also touch on our own journeys as artists, whatever our medium is, and the challenges and joys that accompany our stories and how we interpret and represent/recount those of others. Finally we speak about an urgent need we have, especially at this point in our collective history, to return to beauty and humanism, to something fundamental. Warning: This episode contains mention of suicide Further Reading and Links  Amy Love Tommaso’s Biography  Amy Tomasso grew up in a large Italian-American family in central Connecticut. When Latin was cut from her high school’s budget, she taught herself Italian at age 15 using her father’s college textbook and honed her speaking skills that year with the first of many visits to her relatives in Italy’s Abruzzo region. On this formative trip to Italy, Amy fell in love with the piazza, the quintessential Italian public space, which led her to major in Urban Studies and minor in Italian at Stanford University. While studying urbanism and photography abroad in Rome her junior year, Amy was introduced to the work of the photographer Francesca Woodman, who would become a central research and writing subject. Amy went on to receive her MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where she continued researching and chronicling Woodman’s life, artistic contributions, and time in Italy. A lover of storytelling and community, Amy currently works for the Vermont Department of Housing & Community Development and works on her creative writing by night. In her free time, Amy is an avid triathlete, traveler, and Italophile. She plans to return to Italy to complete her book project about Francesca Woodman next year.    Francesca Woodman’s Official Biography https://woodmanfoundation.org/francesca/biography The Woodman Foundation  https://woodmanfoundation.org/   The Tate’s Finding Francesca https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/francesca-woodman-10512/finding-francesca   Francesca Woodman’s Biography (Gagosian)  https://gagosian.com/artists/francesca-woodman/   Francesca Stern Woodman Roma 1977-1981: Exhibit at Il Museo del Louvre https://www.ilmuseodellouvre.com/2011/05/23/francesca-woodman-photographs-1977-1981 Il Museo del Louvre - https://www.ilmuseodellouvre.com/   Public Collections https://woodmanfoundation.org/francesca/public   Exhibitions https://woodmanfoundation.org/francesca/exhibitions https://gagosian.com/news/artist/francesca-woodman/museum-exhibitions/   RISD https://www.risd.edu/   Isabella Pedicini. Francesca Woodman. Gli anni romani tra pelle e pellicola. Contrasto, 2012. https://www.amazon.it/Francesca-Woodman-romani-pelle-pellicola/dp/8869653315