By 1975, all the isms were wasms.

As hard as Jeff Jahn's lecture was to follow I feel like he had some very interesting things to say about art history, and the comparisons he made between different art pieces were things I would have never thought about.


(I will continue this post later, I am at work and have a costumer....weird.)

Breakdown ... it had to be done

On Wednesday i had a break down over our whole project and the review coming. I guess I just got to the point of being so frustrated that I had to breakdown. Im glad I had that talk with Colin though, he really helped me understand where I am, where I should be and what I can do.

One thing Colin pointed out was that the project I was working on for Zara really was similar to my big project, so maybe I have a better idea of what I am doing than I am letting myself know. If even said to show both projects at the review.

For Zara's class I am actually happy with what I am making (which happens VERY rarely) I think they will live on the wall at my house! The other good thing is they really have made me think a lot about design, myself, and our big project. They even gave me another idea that is kinda a mix of the 2 I am working on right now. Who knows if I will actually do it or if it was just a nice idea just to think about... but what if I took this idea of postcards, and when you think of postcards you think of the grand canyon, new york city, statue of liberty, lake Tahoe, and so many more tourist sights that people want to share with their friends and family. So what if I got topo maps of all these types of areas and "abstract" them a bit and make them look more like art then maps and present that as a postcard of wherever... they still could have your normal description of the grand canyon or what not on the back but that is the only way you would know what famous place you were looking at...


just an idea, we will see.

Now my house is full of awesome chairs.

There are also 2 white and green tulip chairs at the same store. I want them, but they werent 20$ I will add a picture soon!

OK OK I bought them, how could I not! If I dont want them I could sell them for twice as much on EBAY!!! They are just so cool!

TWENTY BUCKS? SOLD

I got myself a Herman Miller chair today! I might be using it for our final project, we will see.

So COOL!

http://www.coraline.com

if anyone figures out the other keys let me know!

Almost forgot

Oh I also had an idea while trying to fall asleep last night, Im really just writing it here so it doesn't disappear forever.


A series of photos, ice, figures, melting.


That all I need for now.

Stressin'

Our big review is rapidly approaching and I HAVE NOTHING!! Im stressing because I thought I would have some postcards by now, but as I discussed in my last post, things just arent working out. So, I have been thinking, what am I going to do?!? I had one idea but I dont know if I should do it, remember my SK4 Port-o-potty. Well it was a lot of fun, so what if I kept running with that idea, just to do something fun. I could take a few more items that are "must haves" and turn them into port-o-pottys. Someone has got to do it, right? Then I would have a collection of these designer bathrooms that I could make a whole product line for....

Just a fun idea, that has nothing to do with my final project, and who knows if there is even time...

Am I screwed?

Prototype, Prototype, Prototype.

So for the last week I have been trying to get my prototype postcards out but I am having the hardest time getting them printed. Originally I was going to print them on individual 4x6 sheet but i can not get the photo tray on my printer to work, and ALL photo paper has the brand name printed on the back! So, I decided to print a few on a larger sheet then cut them, not ideal but I need to get these out! After searching everywhere for card-stock paper that has a gloss front and A BLANK back I found some that I really thought would work but the ink isn't printing right. It looks kinda blotchy!! Anyways, I am still struggling to get these post cards out, next attempt.... school printing.

Unfortunately because of all the problems I am running into with printing I am starting to stress about our review! What am I going to show?!?!

Missing Nike

Unfortunately I missed the talk from Nike, it was definitely something I wanted to see... On the other hand I'm sure the reading from last week wasn't as good as the talk. As we all know and probably have done is have a compulsion to collect. This reading talks about this compulsion as well as institutional collections. I know when I was younger I felt the need to collect frogs, not real ones, but anything with frogs. The line form the reading "What we have begun to suspect is that the collection is never really initiated in order to be completed" seemed to perfectly summarize compulsive collecting for me. You never really think about it that way but it is very true that when you are collecting frogs, shoes, fiesta ware whatever you never have an end in sight.Today there are so many things people are interested in collecting, toys, figurines, comics, antiques and so on, but how many of these things do people really care about and how many people do it just to collect?

Science Pub tonight!

Science Pub tonight!!!!


When: Portland Science Pub is the last Tuesday of the month, (unless otherwise noted) from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Doors open at 5:00 p.m.
Where: Mission Theater & Pub, 1624 N.W. Glisan, Portland, OR

Epic Failure

After my talk with Zara and Colin about my project I have realized I have a lot of things to think about. I also realized my idea isn't as unique as I was thinking, but nothing ever is I guess. Hopefully by the beginning of next week I will have my first set of test postcards out around Sellwood, and ideally it will show me a lot about what design was most eye catching and how people respond to the task. Who knows this could all just be an epic failure! But lets hope not.

The most important thing I need to think about right now is what will I write on the back of the postcard. What am I asking for from the people? Do I want them to respond to my image, the city, the neighbor hood, anything...??? Or maybe I just write a few and put different ones on some postcards to see what the turn out is... i dunno but I have to think fast! I need to get these out!

On another note I just got the most ridiculous coffee job ever. Good news is they know I am looking for an internship and have no problem if I end up leaving soon! In the mean time at least I will be making some money.

Slacker.

So I feel like I have been a total slacker lately but I have been dealing with these migraines that are seriously kicking my ass! It might be time to go see someone...

Anyways, I have been thinking and working on my final project a bit and have come up with a new idea for the final installation. Ideally I will get plenty of postcards returned to me so I can make this possible but I might put a Portland map on he wall and post a postcard from each neighborhood on the map then connect it with all the places they have been sent from and back to me. Then with all the remaining postcard I have been thinking of making a large screen like thing... At home I have one of those clamps that put the grommets in when you punch a hole, so i could do that to every post card and attach them with the metal binder ring looking things. Ha, such technical terms! Who knows if this will even make sense to anyone but me, but at least I have it saved somewhere now so I can refer to it when I am lost...


As far as the images on the post cards go I have been playing around with a few and am getting closer to something that might work, we will see. I have images of Sellwood, Old town, and part of Hawthorne/Belmont so far, I am kinda waiting for the new camera before I get too far along with images!

Understanding Comics

Last week Ken came in and talked to the class, which I was excited about. Ken was an animation teacher at the U of O and retired the year I started. I took art classes from his wife at my high school and only ever heard great things about his classes. The only thing that really bugged me about his presentation was not his fault at all... it was the whole video communicating thing! I did really enjoy how he encouraged us to sketch tho, and I made notes of some of the artist he showed!

The book we read before Ken's presentation was Understanding Comics, a book I have read before. This is a great book that breaks down different story telling techniques and visual communication all in a comic book style. If it weren't done in such a creative way I would probably have lost all interest in it. Although McClouds book focuses on comics it realates alot to just basic design and what I do everyday!

Too much fun!

HA! So I found this site and it made me laugh, so I thought I should share it with you all!

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

this is what I have been doing with it....




haha im way to easily entertained...

Sunday thoughts

I am working on 3 projects and while 2 should be pretty much done I am still struggling. My vinyl project has never become something I have really gotten into because I havent come up with an idea I am in love with yet. Then Colin sent out that email and now I am really stuck. Lindsay had a good idea (since we share a wall) but I still havent met up with her about that... If I dont do a joint one with her this is my incomplete thoughts on one idea



My design remix is coming along I still need to work a few things out and polish it up a bit but it has actually been a lot of fun! Here is a unfinished look at that...



and last but most important is my final project. I finally found a great art store this weekend and picked up a sketch book dedicated only to this project. Now I can document my impressions, ideas, and what not all in one place. I think this will be real good for me! Other then that I have taken some photos but am struggling with my design idea for the postcards! I know I want to design my own stamp...dont know what it will look like, and I know I dont just want photo postcards, dont know what they will look like.... So do I draw on the photo, cut out parts of the photo, just draw what was important from the photo, andd text to the photo, make them all the same style, make them all different....these are just some of the questions I am thinking about. Anyways here is a sample of a Sellwood clock I drew over, again unfinished, just a taste!