Today was one of the best days of my life

Today was my first painting class at CCA.

How would I describe it? Life changing, finally!, amazing, wonderful, meant to be....

Woman Seated
Charcoal and Watercolors
(4'x4')

I worked on a large sheet of butcher paper to warm up. It was 4'x4'...I've never worked so large. It wasn't scary though. It was wonderful. I could move my entire arm as I drew our model. Large curves and shapes. My canvas took up my entire field of vision. I didn't care if it wasn't in proportion or that I had the wrong materials. It was what it was. I was enjoying reacquainting myself with the act of making art. My professor called it "dancing". I was just so excited to be there but primarily to acknowledge that I was letting myself create without the voice inside my head saying "no, that's not right" or "you'll never be good enough". It took a BS in Neuroscience, a year of exploring on my own, and countless friends and family encouragement to get here, but as they say it's the journey and I'm so happy I'm now on this path.



A diagram I did for my (dropped) design communication class. So much less interesting and fun to do!

Traffic

Saving Money by Cutting Traffic
A collaboration between GOOD and Oliver Munday.

Ugg. One thing I noticed right off the bat after moving to SF from LA was the difference in traffic! I drive about the same milage to go to school from my home in SF as in LA, but LA took me an hour while SF takes 25 minutes. Drivers are nicer and I use BART/MUNI (the light rail /bus system). While I can count on one hand the number of times I took the bus while I lived in LA for 5 years. Barf.

See it in full scale.

Valentine's Day Card Contest

by AIGA Nebraska

So I missed the one on Etsy (due Jan 22...boo) but there other options. Maybe you'll even submit one.

Craft: due Feb 9 to their Flicker site, must use at least one recycled material, winner gets a book and t-shirt

Nebraska AIGA: due Jan 27, winner is printed out to their members

Let me know if you see more!

d.school

Stanford University has this program called d.school (short for design school). They have a "Bootcamp Bootleg" compiled by professors. It's a loose collection of the methods, modes and mindsets that Bootcamp students found most useful this quarter. It's a nice refresher for any designer.

The d.school is an awesome program I wish I had known more about a year ago. Here is how they describe it:

"At Stanford we are particularly interested in the front end of the design process where we frame the question "What should we create?" Students are taught to use design processes such as need-finding, ethnographic field work, rapid prototyping, and iterative user testing to approach design problems." Learn more here.

Mike Mills

From The Humans. A project imbeds highly personal themes into mass produced items such as posters, scarves, ribbons, fabric patterns, T-Shirts and bags. Humans operates in between the art world and popular culture, in between graphic design and an art practice. Recycled paper, non-bleached cotton, and soy based inks are used. (Mike Mills)

Thumbsucker movie posters (2005)
Mike Mills

Mu Museum Exhibition
Mu Museum, 2004. Photos: Todd Cole.
Mike Mills

"It's like main stream was my first girlfriend and she dumped me really hard and I've never fucking forgotten her. And I hate her. I think that is why my work often relates to it. I am in love with her and hate it. It's awful" -Mike Mills (Beautiful Losers)

All of Us Parking Lot
Mike Mills

Loneliness Hiding
Mike Mills

These line drawings from the show, What will you do now that you know it's the end? (Alleged Gallery, New York, 2001),are so architectual and represent space, but the thinness of the line also makes them feel empty, or like something is missing (cars or people).

(all images property of Mike Mills<--he has a great site!)

Street Art

Graffeti used to scare me. It was illegal. It was tacked on in the dark. Someone had to clean it later. I couldn't read it or understand it. It was scary.

Now, I look at street art through a different lenses. Maybe it's because I fell in love with some of the art I saw in the film Beautiful Looser. Mike Mill's work made me see that it wasn't scary with his legiable thought provoking sayings written in unexpecting places (below). It sort of opened this whole new world for me. Now I try to read any graffeti. It's no longer a language I don't understand. Even if it's just a tag, some of those have awesome lettering.

Love is worth it.
Mike Mills

I still favor street art that is more 'girly' since that just my personality. Below are some examples from the CCA campus bathrooms.

Swivel Heart
CCA Bathroom, Oakland

I really want to take this idea further into a Valentine's Day card.

Skeletor
CCA bathroom, Oakland

The light behind this one makes it look like it's a neon sign at a store.

Irish Blessing
CCA bathroom door, Oakland

I like when people post things on bathroom doors. It's such effective advertising! I thought this was a nice "practice random acts of kindness" one. Sort of you're in the bathroom, re freshing yourself and readjusting your attitude.

Sleep Suit

Sleep Suit by Forrest Jessee

This amazing little puppy allows you sleep comfortably any where. Unlike a sleeping bag which is soft material parallel to one's skin, the Sleep Suit has fabric perpendicular to the user, raising them off the surface while also acting as a cushion. It's like a foam mat and a sleeping bag in one. As I've heard horror stories of students sleeping on the SF CCA campus to complete their projects on time, this may be a good investment...

Egg Drop

My Design for "Egg Drop"
Industrial Design I

Objective:
Design an apparatus that would keep an egg from breaking when dropped from shoulder height and later 2 stories high. Use as little material as possible to make it a cheaper/sustainable design.

Our materials:
Printer paper
Drinking Straws
Scotch Tape

Outcome: Scrambled Eggs
Sadly my little guy didn't make it. If I had added more cushion, such as small pieces of crushed paper around the egg, he may have had a better chance. I also dropped him head first (pointy side) in hopes to capitalize on the strongest part of the egg (the tips) however the fall was just too much for the guy. RIP