There is a stack of left over letters printed on index cards from the experimental alphabet workshop I conducted earlier this month. And tonight they were calling my name.
This issue of faces and letters just won’t go away. Tape inspiration courtesy of Victoria Montgomery
Last Friday I stood in front of approximately 75 students to give an artist lecture and lead an experimental type workshop. Here’s a taste of the awesomeness that ensued.
In short, it was amazing and I’ve got a few hundred pictures to edit. More to come.
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.
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.
A nod to the cheap, fun $5 races my husband and I have been participating in this summer with our friends.
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.
When I was 8(ish) we got our first dog. My brother won it during a Farmer’s Co-op drawing and my family has had dogs ever since that day. We were a big dog family, particularly of the German Shepard breed, but long story short, I have soft spot for any type of dog that isn’t yappie.
This weekend we were attending a birthday party in the park when I noticed this little girl. She was so insanely adorable that I actually left mid-conversation to see her up close. Her name is Ramona and she’s a combination of Pit Bull and a Shih Tzu. I think my Facebook post appropriately summed it up, “Whenever I’m sad, I’m just going to look at the picture of this puppy…”
Really. How adorable is she?!
I’m not a huge fan of meat; not for any particular reason. Large chunks of meat make me noxious and I don’t really care for the taste, so it’s not typically a part of my diet.
That being said, I’m lucky enough to have a husband who is willing to go along with my food preferences, so for the past 3 years, we’ve eaten vegetarian at home just because. If we’re eating out, meat finds its way into our dish (we usually share) about 1/2 the time.
More recently however, Vince has been engaging me in conversations about the ethical side of eating meat. Specifically, should we be eating animals who are self-aware? Would you eat a dolphin or an elephant? If you revolt at that thought, should you really be eating a cow? What’s the difference?
The conversation is just beginning for us but I have a feeling there will be more to come.
