tutorial

currently listening to: where is my mind; the pixies

currently craving: himym season 5 on disc
currently, currently: anticipating the weekend up north

oh goodie, i have a mini-tutorial for you today! i was recently inspired by a profile picture on facebook, and thought, "now hey, there's a good idea!" today's tutorial in honor of all you out there who think you are just awesome. go you!

[hip-ster] Origin: 1935–40, Americanism ; hip⁴ + -ster. A person, esp. during the 1950s, characterized by a particularly strong sense of alienation from most established social activities and relationships. See also: jazz enthusiast.

first things first. you HAVE to have a sweet camera. not a point and shoot, no $3000 canon something or other; a no-name camera with square negatives that you develop and scan yourself. antique stores & garage sales are preferred places of purchase. examples are as shown:


proceed to nearest place with nature imagery. mountains, oceans, national parks or galaxies also preferred. next, ironically set up your shot to cut off half of something. also acceptable, blurry and out-of-focus subjects that are too far away, or purposefully load film incorrectly as to create images that are halves of other images. here are some wonderful examples:

next, develop film and overexpose. you may choose to de-saturate the image or cross-process, both work for this tutorial. also, adding a film rebate border is very hip today. here, i cross-processed the image and added a border. to cross process, simply adjust the curves in a new layer in photoshopp (both red & green) and give it a slight "s" curve. in the blue channel, move the blue line up a bit from the bottom, and a down a bit from the top. OR cross process it yourself in the lab! you smartie, you.



next choose a shape. circles and squares are agreeable, as long as no one knows you tried too hard. choose a color from a palette of, say, photos of your parents from the 1960's. uncommon color choices include: pale salmon, almost mustard yellow, faded periwinkle, the occasional pink. turn transparency of shape to 50-60% (mine is at 52%), and place over part of the image where it makes the least sense.


voila! you have a skilled, paradoxical, self-contradictory, contrary to accepted opinion, fully edited photograph that perfectly exemplifies your complex personality!!

now, define "complex" ....

lovely

currently listening to: alive and kicking, simple minds

currently craving: a clean desk
currently, currently: wearing all of the same color

i've been browsing more design blogs, and happened upon websitesarelovely. i think he is lovely, truly. he is the author of jetpac magazine, which is "a free pdf culture magazine, featuring photography, illustration, design, comedy, poetry, interviews, reviews...basically all that is good with the world." if i'm not mistaken, there are 3 issues currently out. i love it!!! especially the font choices he's made. his blog is also fantastic, and i feel i have learned so much already.

i also found this fantastic photograph tool titled tiltshiftmaker. it easily transforms your photographs into these images that give the illusion of a tiny-scale model. i edited 4 images i took in NY. it literally took me 3 minutes to make these....try it!!!

2010 alumni

currently listening to: the ceiling fan

currently craving: honesty
currently, currently: watching TCM

all done! finished with school....forever. i don't understand it yet. i just don't know what to do. do i look for the same kinds of jobs i've always looked for, or now that i have a (incredibly expensive) degree, do i pursue a real career? i know what most people would say to that, but i think i'm afraid. i know i'm ready, but where do i even start...

speaking of, here are my new business cards! fresh off the press tonight, actually...

there's a speed-networking conference at the bloomington campus for the 2010 alumni coming up on the 14th of june, which i am a little too enthused about. i'm getting over being shy and just learning that putting yourself out there can be really beneficial.

here's some shots of the day!!!!

final stretch

currently listening to: silvia, miike snow

currently craving: a crazy, much needed thunderstorm
currently, currently: thesis show at macalester (it was sweet! i really loved their gallery space)

good news..i am surprised with how focused i am!? with about 2 weeks left of school, then i'm done FOREVER!!!!!! i have my art show in art-a-whirl coming up on the 14th, and the opening reception on the 6th. also, i got two of my pieces accepted into a juried show called raspberry monday that opens on the 1st, which is really exciting! here is my latest poster 'series' we'll call it. we needed 4 posters to hang up advertising the 4 events starting next week. this is possibly my last project!! it is cool up close too :)

i told you i loved shapes. here is a sneak peek of my final project in digital imaging. i don't know what it will turn into. any ideas??

any & all prayers you have for me to get through the final stretch are needed and appreciated.

herring

currently listening to: generator ^ first floor, freelance whales (aislyn remix)

currently craving: task party
currently, currently: sitting in the gallery

well well well. the last few weeks i have had some pretty cool opportunities. first off, a few of us has lunch with oliver herring. if i told you how down to earth he was, you wouldn't believe me. probably more than you or i. he was so genuinely interested in my life and had such sweet things to say about us all, even after knowing us for only a few days. bethel and mcad in minneapolis are teaming together for tonight's TASK party, which is bound to be a BLAST!! if you haven't heard about what TASK is, read it here. it is an improv collaboration between herring and a group of people that provides a complex, messy, open-ended outlet for creativity. people use things like cardboard, string, tape, and foil to interpret different tasks that those people make up, such as "hug a hipster" or "start a revolution" or "you are an alien, create your ship." i can't wait to see what we get to do. oh, and i'm working in the gallery, and see this sculpture? yea, i'm sitting right by it ;)

i just finished reading the novel "in the land of no right angles" by daphne beal. i don't think i've ever talked about what i've read before, but i guess this is as good as ever. essentially, it is the memoir of a woman living in nepal, who got away from her mid-western lifestlye and got mixed up in an awkward mess of a relationship between a previous professor and a nepali village girl. it includes her stories about how the girl, maya, came into her life, abruptly left, and reappeared in the red light district of bombay, & how the main character tries to save her. it ended horribly. horribly to me is an ending that makes you feel like you read the entire book for nothing. it literally ended with nothing. i don't need the hope of a series, or the main character to triumph, or even a real page-turner to enjoy reading a book; i just hate ending something with the thought, "that author sold themselves short. that ending meant nothing to me." ok ok, i did love reading it. it was so jam packed with culture and vivid imagery, and i loved the messy love triangle, and the characters were also really well developed, but whyyyy daphne did you have to leave it like that???

my latest: the spring banquet. cutesy isn't it? i drew it all! except the font. it is weird that i will be done in the marketing dept in a month. i have had the greatest opportunities in BSA over the last three years, and hopefully i can go out with a bang.

i found a picture that i loved today. well no, i found a quote that i loved. here is a picture of a quote that i love. i wish i could say that i came up with it. sorry this may be kitch-y, and i may or may not have stumbled across this on someone's tumblr page...but seriously. that is my favorite thing. take me ANYWHERE i have never been, and it will be the best day of my life. explorer at heart.

new land of crazy

currently listening to: redline flights, mischna
currently craving: a massage
currently, currently: covered in white paint

check it out :) the gathering! my latest

i found some of my new favorite images!!!!! I LOVE STAR WARSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

this is a lithograph print i made; most of my prints are made in series of three's. i love doors and not knowing what is within them. also i think they just look sweet & i love wood grain.

last weekend a friend and i went to the closing ceremony at the soap factory in minneapolis for "the new land of milk & honey." if you haven't heard of this already, prepare yourself for something crazy. i'm all for being innovative and experimental, but this.....this was too much. late one night in february, i was flipping through channels and a bald man with a head piece and a lady on a segway dressed as dr. seuss praising a tetrahedron. i'm serious. i did some research and found out this is not just a performance thing, it is a real community of people. i wasn't shocked, i was closer to being disturbed. i wanted to find out for myself if this was truly real. yep. they all live together, grow their own food, dress 'different' (i have to be safe here) and are into things such as "electronic sleep, ley/tectonic farm acceleration, solar wave exchange, cryptoceramics, and chronobiology." they had a "trance tent," tye-dying, a tarot card reader, and a video presentation that was, to me, nothing more than neon 90's microsoft graphic-style blurbs and flashing lights, with purposefully weird music. we couldn't restrain our laughter, i'm sorry. people are into what they're into, but when they hand you a flyer on "the ritual on the metamorphosis of solids," you just have to say "really?" maybe you just need to take a look at it yourself, and honestly, i would LOVE to hear what you think: ummm yea.

intercession

currently listening to: cosmic love, florence and the machines
currently craving: sun & lake calhoun
currently, currently: hgtv

something pretty neat is happening soon in my life, and i would like to invite friends and art-lovers alike to my senior thesis art show on may 6th! me, along with about 24 other seniors, will be presenting at the thorp building in NE minneapolis during art-a-whirl throughout may. its a new experience, thinking about the things i create going into a gallery. ideally, i wouldn't put them on a white wall, or a pedestal; i'd rather see them in people's hands, in a hallway, on a t-shirt. maybe that is glorified too, who knows, but i like to see them being touched interacted with. this is my third group show, and its definitely a different approach to design.

senioritis. i think it is safe to say, i may have come down with a case. even now, i'm stealing glances out of the corner of my eye to my window, where its all sun and birds and breezes. i have less than 2 months left, and i'm already somewhere else in my mind. on another note, i'm working on the marketing for the last official coffeehouse in the underground. its called "the gathering," and they're having couches on stage, with a group of performing artists all sitting together playing for the audience. i'm really excited to create a design that will draw people to this relaxed atmosphere....and free coffee :)

these are some of my latest inspirations. i really love the pink design, and the packaging design of "lintar," a croatian brand of olive oil, which was designed by tridvajedan - you can check out their site here. the bottles are all handpainted on brown glass. i really like this "brachia"design of theirs too, but i can only guess that it is some kind of soap...their site is written in all croatian?

yum. something on my brain lately. in the mornings i have been reading the book "my utmost for his highest," and the phrase "intercession" and "interceding" has come up several times. i know what it means, and i understand the concept, but i can not remember the last time someone actually talked about it, or even the last time i heard it at church or in any other book. intercessory prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others. Christ is pictured in the NT as the ultimate intercessor, because our prayers are offered to God through Christ, and because of this meditation, we can intercede in prayer on behalf of others. one thing i am struggling with: is all prayer intercessory prayer if it is for someone else? does intercessory prayer have benefits beyond that of "regular" prayer? "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" 1Tim 2:5. i come to God very much as a best friend, and usually speak to him without structure or formality. one thing i think i have never before considered, is that i can only do this because of Jesus' death & resurrection; before he shed his blood on my behalf, i would never have been allowed to do so without sacrifice, as in the OT. i take this for granted 99.9% of the time. honestly, i have screamed, thrown tantrums, asked for things thinking i deserved them, and knowingly sinned without remorse to Him throughout prayer. wow. i know i am not alone. in order to be effective standing "between" a righteous God and sinful man, we must first stand before God to develop the intimacy required to fulfill this role. numbers 14 is a great example where Moses developed the depth of communication i desire!!