We found this giant field of sunflowers on a farm near Yellow Springs, OH today. It was the best, most colorful thing I saw today. Nature makes the best colors.
Columbus Museum of Art
Today I visited the Columbus Museum of Art. It is in a really beautiful building in downtown Columbus. Unfortunately on this visit a few of the galleries were closed while a new exhibit was being installed, but they were very kind in giving us a discount for that inconvenience. The museum is currently undergoing construction for what looks like a major expansion, so I’m looking forward to visiting again once it is complete. I like that the museum is very interactive. They had an exhibit on color that had lots of different stations to make art. In the image above you could make and hang a little sculpture out of brown twist ties. I made a pattern out of construction tape, and designed a shoe while I was there. This marks the first time my work is hanging in a museum, ha!
Left: I’m having trouble tracking down the artist name. If anyone knows, please let me know in comments so that I can attribute it.
Middle: Detail from The Weight of Winter by Laura Alexander. Beautiful papercut over golf leaf.
Right: Glass work by Dale Chihuly. Full image here.
Left: My sneaker is the pink argyle patterned one near the top right.
Middle: Gorgeous ceilings on the second floor.
Right: Gate in the atrium.
My favorite piece was an oil painting titled Sunflowers in the Windstorm by Emile Nolde. The purple was so vibrant against the sunflowers. I also loved the story of the artist painting in secret after the Nazi government had forbidden him to paint.
There is an exhibit opening on October 3rd about art and money that I’m really sad I won’t be able to see!
Grumppuccino
What is this madness? How did Grumpy Cat get a line of bottled coffee? Just a note to say hello, and post this ridiculousness.
I saw an amazing gallery show today, but I don’t have the time or energy to do it justice, so I’m going to save it for tomorrow. I love traveling because everything is an adventure, even going to a new grocery store and looking at the packaging of products you haven’t seen before. I’m feeling super inspired. I love how travel opens up my eyes to awesome things all around me.
Airport Carpet
Airport carpet from Portland, OR, Denver, CO and Columbus, OH
I spent much of the day traveling from Portland to Columbus, and documented the carpet at each airport. I prefer the bright colors of the PDX carpet to the muted tones of the Denver and Columbus carpets. I could see this becoming a really fun series. You never really think about how hard airport carpet has to work when you’re running from security to your gate. It has to be durable, and the pattern has to hide stains well. Also, it doesn’t hurt to have a memorable pattern, or at least one that is not terribly ugly.
Fun facts about the PDX carpet:
» The carpet has an Instagram, Twitter and Facebook account.
» The carpet was designed in 1987 by SRG Architects. (source: A Brief History of the PDX Airport Carpet)
» The carpet design has inspired lots of products including a bike helmet, socks, mug, iPhone case, art print, mouse pad.
» You can download a wallpaper for your iPhone, courtesy of Shawna X. Huang
» The airport carpet is being replaced with a new design, with an expected completion in 2015 – 2016.
» Some PDX residents are of course not happy about the change.
One of my favorite parts of being in the Graphic Design program at PSU is being exposed to all of the different possibilities there are in design. I don’t think I ever would have thought of carpet design as a potential avenue for my creativity if I hadn’t worked on a carpet assignment as an Adobe Illustrator exercise.
For this assignment we were asked to make four carpet patterns. Each pattern was to be made out of a single character or glyph – meaning that if we chose to work with an “A”, the entire pattern had to be made out of that character, but we could manipulate it in any way that we wanted. It was a super fun assignment, and a good intro to Adobe Illustrator for me. I also learned some lessons (some frustrating) about making repeat patterns. My favorite is the one in the top left. I think the color palette is successful, and the simple pattern would make for an awesome carpet. I’m looking forward to experimenting with more of these patterns.
Heading to Columbus
Brick pattern in Downtown Portland
Writing this blog post is the last task before I try to go to sleep at an impossibly early hour. I have to be up at 2:00 a.m. for a flight to Ohio. I’m already wishing I had chosen a later flight. :) I’m visiting my boyfriend’s family in Columbus. I’m a little nervous about this little 30 day blog challenge + a vacation, but I’ve already completed a daily pattern challenge while on vacation, so I should be able to do this. I’m hoping to take lots of pattern, color and street art images to share.
Tree of Life Mural
Tree of Life by Loey Hargrove
I tried a new lunch place today (Roses Ice Cream), and when we sat down I saw a mural about a block in the distance. After we finished eating, I had to investigate the mural. I found a stunning set of twin murals by Loey Hargrove of Left Ear Studio. The murals are on buildings across the street from each other. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this treatment before, so it was a nice surprise to find two murals, when I thought there was only one. I love bold, geometric murals, so this one has jumped up to the top of my favorite murals in Portland list. On Loey’s blog I found a slideshow of in process photos.
In the photo above, you can see a glimpse of the mural across the street.
Through a little research I learned that the words painted in the leaves were suggested by members of the neighboring communities. I love that CATS made it to the list.
I have a big love for murals and street art, and seeing this mural made my day. I wrote a research paper on murals at the beginning of the year, and just finished making a street art magazine for a design class. I frequently drag my travel partners around streets or alleys to take photos. Reading about murals and street art, looking at photos on the internet, and finding them on the street is infinitely fascinating to me. I think wall art is one of the best applications of creativity, because it is a gift to the community. I’m so happy that I stumbled upon this one today!
90 Mile Beach
My goodness, it’s hard to think of something to write about after a 12 hour day at work. Thankfully, I’m able to transport myself to the impossibly beautiful 90 Mile Beach tonight through a micro SD card. ♥ New Zealand ♥
Color Story: Seattle Gum Wall
I don’t have a lot of time tonight, so I’m going to share the very colorful photos from my visit to the Seattle Gum Wall last weekend. The wall is located in an alley underneath Pike Place Market. The wall definitely lived up to its gross reputation. My favorite part was the strings of gum hanging off of the windows that sort of looked like icicles. I also liked the words and messages that people spelled out in gum. We even saw a gum proposal! I disliked the business cards that people stuck to the wall. I can’t imagine a less appealing place to advertise your business!
Have a fantastic Friday!
Make It Work, Carry On
“Tim Gunn Tribute Tattoos” by Amber Karnes is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. This post has nothing to do with tattoos, but I couldn’t resist sharing this beautiful image by Amber Karnes.
As I was watching the latest episode of Project Runway, it occurred to me that my post from yesterday was a little defeatist. I’ve always loved Tim Gunn’s critiques on Project Runway, especially his repeated advice to “Make it Work” and “Carry On.” So simple, but really that advice can be applied to so many situations in life, not just art. When you’re down you really only have two choices—give up or make it work.
Q: Where did the ever popular catchphrase, ‘make it work’ originate?
A: It originated in my classroom and was spoken to a student who wanted to throw out a project and start all over again. And I said no. You’re going to make it work. And what it means is: Offer up a diagnosis for what’s going wrong, and a prescription for how to make it right. And each time that we engage in that process, we move forward with more resources available to us. – Tim Gunn
So this is me, making it work. I decided to think critically about the situation. Why am I not making progress with my personal artwork? This is the list of excuses I came up with:
01. I don’t have time.
02. I’m not inspired/I don’t know what to make.
03. My workspace is too messy.
04. I’m too tired.
05. I don’t want to make terrible work and then have to share it.
I think those are all pretty standard excuses, and probably all of them originate from a fear or failure, but I’m going to make an attempt to address each individually.
01. I don’t have time. Even while I’m in school, I should be able to devote 10 minutes to sketchbook work. A lot of my work time is spent procrastinating. If I just got to work I’d be a lot better off. I’ve set an alarm on my phone to go off daily at the same time. That alarm means I need to drop everything and work in a sketchbook.
02. I’m not inspired/I don’t know what to make. I think this problem is coming from a lack of structure. When I tried to complete ICAD I didn’t give myself any parameters at all. I had too much freedom in subject matter and materials, and that felt overwhelming rather than freeing. My plan is to work through one tip a day in Freehand: Sketching Tips and Tricks Drawn from Art. I’ll share some photos and my thoughts about that book in a few days.
03. My workspace is too messy. When I’m in school (or if I’m being honest, anytime) my workspace can get chaotic pretty quickly. If I don’t have easy access to my supplies, that’s often enough to deter me from working. I’m going to put together a small box of supplies that I work with most often so that they are all in one place and always ready to use.
04. I’m too tired. This one happens when I stay up until 4:00 in the morning working on school projects. The next day I’m walking around like a zombie. I need to work on planning my projects better next quarter so this isn’t happening every week.
05. I don’t want to make terrible work and then have to share it. I think with all of the outlets for sharing work (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc.) it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you have to share EVERYTHING you make. I need to switch my mindset and think that everything is practice for myself, and sharing is optional. I’ve been reading Austin Kleon’s book, Share Your Work, which has lots of good advice about this topic.
Okay, it’s go time with all of this! I’ll report back in a week with my progress.
p.s. If you are a Tim Gunn fan, you might enjoy this short interview.
Index Card a Day 2014 (ICAD) Fail
In June I attempted the Index Card a Day challenge, and failed miserably. These are two of four cards that I completed in two months. I really struggle with daily challenges. I get excited about the idea of a daily challenge, but have trouble with the execution. I think it’s partially an all or nothing perspective, paired with an unrealistic expectation of perfection. If I miss one day, I consider the entire effort ruined, and have trouble getting back to work. If I make something lousy, I worry that everything I make will be lousy, and I have trouble continuing on. I’m guessing a lot of artists feel this way at one time or another.
I don’t have any answers or tips on dealing with this. It’s something I’m working through right now. I’m doing an okay job of keeping up with class projects, but I’m having trouble pursuing personal work. My sketchbooks have been carried around in my bag untouched for months. I have a giant list of projects I’d like to work on, but don’t ever touch. I know the personal projects will feed into my school projects and help make me a more well rounded artist/designer. I know that the commitment to a daily project starts to snowball after a while.
My goals for September are to blog every day and watch one tutorial on Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. At some point I’ll run out of things to blog about and will pick up that sketchbook and pen again. Maybe tomorrow? For now I’ll end with an article I just read: How to Keep Going When You’re Not Seeing Results (Yet).