In the spring of 2013 I spent three months studying in Firenze. These were the most transformative months of my life to date. My time in Italy is when I learned to trust my artistic creativity freely, when I learned to explore and adventure on my own without a plan, and when I became curious about the lives of artists and the meaning behind their works. As I painted from the terrace of an old building overlooking the Arno, I wondered what it would be like to have the freedom to simply paint and live in Italy with no further obligations. What would I be able to achieve?