A few weeks ago I had the absolute honor of shooting a video for Adobe featuring Women in Technology. Enjoy!
Finally I Have a Tail: Dino Metamorphosis
If I could have an extra body part it would be a tail. Last night I got the chance to make that wish a partial reality — I made a dinosaur wearable. The CCA MFA in Design Program is hosting Nightlife on Thursday, November 14 at the California Academy of Sciences and along with my strap-on stegosaurus, guests will have the opportunity to try out other great wearables and interact with tons of metamorphosis-inspired installations and exhibitions.
The first child
As part of my Design Writing class, we were to write a paragraph for 3 images in which we discuss, analyze, or imagine what the subjects are thinking, doing or saying. Below is my narrative on the image above.
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Every time he sees her, he is overwhelmed with love. She is just over a year old but he already has a hard time remembering what is was like before her; not to say those 12 months were easy. There was the obvious adjustment of adding another person to their tiny family, but there were also a considerable number of late nights, wondering if she would ever stop crying. There were early mornings, bottle feedings and, of course, there were dirty diapers.
But as he looks at her now — a toothy grin on her chubby face, tugging on the leg of his jeans and slowly attempting to pull herself up to stand — he is struck by the symbolic nature of their actions and physical relation to each other in this moment. She trusts him, looks up to him, wants to be close to him. He is her father. He is all she knows. He feels a tingling sensation starting in his heart and then slowly spreading throughout his body. An unavoidable smile tugs at the corners of his mouth and in one swift motion, he reaches down and swoops her up to his level. Her grin turns to an infectious giggle as he attempts to plant a kiss on her open mouth.
One week of grad school is…
48 line, value & interval studies1 paper describing an object without using descriptive language Lots of reading 63 form studies 1 book review event 1 workshop + 2 posters 1 research presentation providing a solution for the retail pharmacy experience 3 blog posts 10 hours of B'stro work 1 happy, slightly delirious, exhausted, crazy-eyed 1st year student
Make things. Do stuff. Have fun.
Is is good? Who cares?Is it perfect? Why does it matter? Is it fun? Good.
D/R: Personal Statement / What Am I Doing? (Redux)
what am i doing
Exactly one year ago I was furiously prepping an artist talk — aptly titled "What Am I Doing" — for the design students at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Other than being a great exercise in holding the attention of 75+ undergrads for 3 hours it also provided a great space for me to find connecting threads in my personal work and think about what I had been doing over previous years. Now, a short year later, I find myself asking the same question with about a million more added to the mix. What am I doing? What inspires me? What matters to me? What is my goal? What do I want to do?
What inspires me?Anything. Nothing. Everything. It would be a lie to say there is always one thing that inspires me. I'm the kind of person who tends to hop from project to project so depending on the environment, project and even time of day, nearly anything can provide inspiration. From a piece of trash on the ground to experiencing something ordinary from a child's perspective, I find it amazing the things that trigger the brain.
What matters to me?1. Doing good work. Growing up, I watched my parents do things they didn't necessarily want or enjoy but followed through because it was something they had committed to. And it wasn't any sort of crappy work either; if they said they were going to do something, they did it, and they did it well. That made an impact on me and is something I've carried on.
2. Surrounding myself with good people, personally and professionally. As the saying goes, "You are the company you keep." I always try to friends with and be in the presence of the people I want to be like. At a young age, I learned that people are people no matter who they are or what they're known for. Fairly often I reach out to people I admire, even when they seem out of my social-sphere.
3. Being happy. At the end of the day, no matter I'm doing, I want to be proud of what I'm doing, and doing what I enjoy. That is a big part of what drives me.
What is my goal?Continuously create. Taking a look at my personal work, I see a multiple unrefined and disconnected alphabet series, wacky Alice in Wonderland-esque creature drawings, and bits and pieces of work that I start but never finish. One thing that stands out when looking over my short career is the willingness to try new things. Rarely — if ever — have an end goal in mind other than to keep creating; keep doing things. It's an overwhelming desire I can't control when it comes and leaves me feeling empty and frustrated when it's not there.
What am I doing?Trying to figure it out. I like to think that I shoot too high, take too many chances and veer a bit too far off the well-paved road in favor of some shiny object in the bushes. But the truth is, my path is pretty ordinary; throw me in a room with a bunch of other MFA candidates and what I'm doing looks pretty normal. My initial reaction to that realization is dismay. I want to be special and different. What does that mean? I haven't figured it out yet but I have a desire to do something big. Something people notice. Something that makes a difference.
What do I want to do?Think differently and always be a little uncomfortable. I have absolutely no idea. At the highest level, I want it to do something that makes people think about things a little differently, something that makes me happy, and something that makes me uncomfortable enough to keep exploring.
Continuous line drawing: Making the city human
Downtown.To some, downtown is bustling with energy, life and ambition. To others the tall concrete buildings feel cold, not human, detached. So tonight in a slow, continuous line it becomes human.
It's home and it's beautiful — especially at dusk.
