Updates!

I think I am going to be doing some major updates soon. I'd like to post a lot of my work that has been backlogged and I've been thinking about starting a new 30 Days of Drawing project. This one will be more loose though, not like the one I had to do for Drawing Studio. It might take a while to upload all of the work I'd like to have posted, but I think it will be worth it. I'm kind of excited about posting some of my AFO stuff and things I did this past year! Keep your eyes open for new stuff soon!

Oh The Places You'll Go!

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, has probably been at least a small part of each of our childhoods. For me, he was a major part. Ever since I was a little kid I have been fascinated and entertained by the genius of Dr. Seuss stories and illustrations. I can't exactly say which of his stories is my favorite, but I do have a particular fondness for a hardcover collection that I had growing up. Some of the stories included in this collection were: The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, The Lorax, And To Think That I Saw It On Mullberry Street, Yertle the Turtle, and Horton Hears A Who! One of these that I liked in particular was The Lorax, so much in fact that I have one part of my room painted with a garden full of truffula trees.



















As true as it was in 1971, the year of publication, The Lorax tells the story of environmental destruction in favor of industry. This, as throughout a large part of our history, is extremely relevant in the current age of technology versus conservation. By no means would I consider myself to be an passionate activist spouting rhetoric about how we as a planet need to cut down on pollution and consumption, but I do believe these things. As the Lorax stated, with the destruction of one part of an eco-system, the rest also begins to disintegrate. Can't this be said for our society as well? All I can say is that I think The Lorax is much more than a children's book, it is a warning for what will happen if humanity continues it's slow downward spiral. We need to start doing more than just listening to the stories of our forefathers, the Once-lers, and planting truffula trees from the few precious seeds they have collected. Shouldn't we do something to save ourselves and our planet while we still can?

Receipts

Of the many things I have collected over the span of my (almost) 20 years on this planet, one of the most compulsive collections I have kept is my two and a half years (2007-2009, so far) worth of check card receipts. The first purchase with my debit card was made on June 30, 2007 and I've been collecting all of my receipts ever since. Each one is different and I have so many that I can't even count them all.

Here are a few of the receipts from my collection:















Most recent purchase; while this isn't all that fascinating, extraordinary, or even particularly important it shows a record of my recent habits, well, eating habits at least.
















Smallest receipt; I looked through all of my receipts and this happened to be the smallest one.















Only blue receipt; most receipts are white with black type, but this one from Pier 1 is a really pretty blue color and one of the only colored receipts I have ever received.











First receipt; the first purchase I ever made with my debit card was was tote bag from The Format's website. I loved that bag, I wonder what happened to it...
















Most wrinkled receipt; I am surprised this was the worst one, I'm not always great about keeping things neat and tidy.















A grocery shopping receipt; another look at my eating habits. I probably don't want people judging me based on my divergent grocery lists, but, as they say, you are what you eat.















The most receipt copies from one purchase; this was the most excessive number of receipts I've ever gotten. 3 receipts for one meal? Give me a break, save a tree or two, why don't you!















One of the most interesting receipts; attached is what I think is an insurance receipt for a package I sent to my dad for his birthday containing a VCU hoodie.















Receipt for Art & Wonder books; I just thought it was neat that I found this receipt. I guess it's proof that I have them organized pretty well.

















Receipt from my favorite coffee shop; I just love Old Mill Bakery.

Links

Butterflies and Beetles

Alphonse Mucha

Weird Bikes

Interesting Illustrations

Miranda July

Now that's something you can sink your teeth into...

AnnaTheRed's bento factory is really fabulous website that features bento creations by AnnaTheRed. A lot of her bentos are kyaraben or charaben, or character bentos. Most of the scenes and characters come from parts of Japanese culture, primarily anime. In case you don't know and are wondering, bento is Japanese for lunchbox. All of her boxes are completely edible which means SHE MAKES EVERYTHING OUT OF FOOD. I don't know about anyone else, but I find it incredibly fascinating that someone has the time and patience to carve these intricate shapes out of food and combine them to create edible works of art.

Shameless Self-Plug (!)

Since this blog was originally for my work, I've decided to make a completely irrelevant post with some of the things I've done.



These were created for a project where two separate posters were designed using three common elements and logos provided for us. The common elements are the female character, the flower, and the heart.



These were designed for a stamp design project. The premise is that America is called the melting pot because of all of the different cultural backgrounds present. The stamps would come in sets of four with different cultural foods. These need some tweaking to become more "American" though.



These are some solutions to a fun expressive typography exercise!



These are some of my favorite pieces from my 30 Days of Drawing.

I'll probably add more things in another post in the future. I definitely need to get some of my more recent sketchbook work up too. It's just nice to put up a few pieces from this first year of CA.

The Style

Piet Mondrian is easily one of my favorite artists of all time. Most well known for being an irreplaceable contributor to De Stijl and founder of New-Plasticism, Mondrian constructed planes that utilized a grid system of horizontal and vertical black lines. These lines created enclosures which were then filled with one of the three primary colors or black.



If there is one thing to know about me as an artist, it is that I really like design that is comprised of clean lines and graphic elements. I often times prefer to use digital media than traditional media such as charcoal, or graphite in my own work. What I like specifically about Mondrian is his organization. Through the use of a grid, he achieves extreme order and harmony between shapes and line. The restricted use of minimal elements is proof of the Neo-Plasticist view of the world where art should not be the reproduction of real objects, but the expression of the absolutes of life. In this way, the absolutes of life always manifested as the horizontal and vertical lines as well as the primary colors.

On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, I also really love illustrative design. Illustration is something that usually tends to be free form and organic, not usually clean, but often times graphic. One of my favorite illustrators is James Jean.



Compared to the usual uncluttered compositions I am attracted to, Jean's work is noisy, busy, and fabulous. The spontaneity of his sketchbooks amuse and awe me because I know it would be incredibly hard for me to do something like this. I am a one sketch per page kind of girl and if it's not one sketch per page, the multiple sketches are very specifically mapped out in a grid-like fashion. As a student of illustration, I would do well to take a lesson from James Jean.