Dressed in my orange and black best, way to go Giants!

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

I’ve been invited by my alma mater to give an artist lecture on Friday, September 7.

While I feel extremely honored, it made me question what it is that I’m doing that caused them to ask me to address a group of students getting ready to enter the world of graphic design. Looking back to my very first typography course at Kansas State University and tracing that to the work I’m doing today was enlightening to say the least.

So I’ve decided to appropriately title my lecture, “What am I doing?” Here’s the summary:

“We tend to ask ourselves this question too often — or not nearly enough. It’s an uncomplicated question with a complicated answer. In this presentation, Brooke Francesi will disclose her obsession with documenting feet, nonsensical word poems, and magazine cut-outs. She’ll invite you to challenge what it means to fail and discuss how one simple question can impact the creative process.”

Thanks to Vince Francesi, Hunter Stark, and Victoria Montgomery for their contribution.

How did I get from this, to this, to this?

I recently participated in a project called Dead Words. The project is best described by the curator, Karen To:
“For over centuries, thousands of English words have been created, modified, and removed. Through this blog of lettering, we rediscover and interpret stories of dead words.”

My submission for Dead Words helped me realized I’d come full circle to my BFA thesis project and now I’m not only running around take pictures of feet, I’m also cutting obscure words out magazines and ensuring each one has a face.

Who’s getting me that pedicure already?

divulse \dahy-VUHLS\ verb: To tear away or apart.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

I think I’ve officially come full circle to my BFA thesis project.

My latest obsession — of which I’ve only posted one — is hand cutting words out of magazines and ensuring each letter has part of a face in it…and then standing on my table and taking pictures of it with my feet.

The inspiration for my thesis project was a quote by J.L Frazier, “Faces of type are like men’s faces. They have their own expression; their complexion and peculiar twists and turns of line identify them immediately to friends, to whom each is full of identity.”

Combine my love of lettering & typography and feet portraits, and you get something a little like this.

Also, would someone please get this girl a pedicure?

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

Yes ma, I’m standing on the table. Don’t be mad; I cleaned it afterward. Promise.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

At a warm afternoon wedding in Sebastopol, California

Inside the infamous The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

Bringing back memories of my Caltrain commute. Waiting on a southbound train.

I love to travel.

Feet at Jamaica Station, the largest transit hub on Long Island and one of the busiest railroad stations in the country with over 200,000 daily passengers

My dad spent a decent portion of his career traveling to interesting places. At the end of every one of his trips, my brother and I would wait with gleeful anticipation to see what exciting souvenir he had brought home for us.

Night at Madison Square Garden, above Penn Station in NYC

Because of that, it’s no surprise that my dream is to live on a different continent in a country that doesn’t speak English at some point in my life. Until then, I’ll give you feet pictures from my domestic travels.

Feet taking a break in Maryland.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.