Heroes

It's been another great Christmas. We got so much more than we wanted, except Whit still doesn't have a kitty or a puppy. I had to promise her that after we get back from Switzerland she could get one.

Heroes was on sale at Best Buy this week. Neither of us had really seen beyond the first episode but had heard great things about the show so we bought it and that has been our life for the past couple days. Even last night after going to bed we ended up getting up and watching one more.

Also, I recently added a sidebar that I'll keep posted with what I'm currently reading. Over the break it will probably get updated every few days, during school probably only once a month or so. Right now I've got a list of 4 or 5 books that I'm trying to get through before school starts.

The Book Thief

In celebration of having finished my finals I was finally able to finish the book I've been reading every spare minute I've had since Thanksgiving. I'd recommend it to anyone, it was a great read. It's been a while since I've had a book that has captured my attention like this. It deals with Liesel Meminger, a young girl living with her foster parents in Nazi Germany. She starts to learn the power words have and finds herself stealing books since her family is too poor to buy them. The whole story is told from Death's perspective who becomes aware of Liesel early on when he comes to collect her little brother's soul.

Well, I'm off to work.

1942

What a relief. Finals are over and for the most part I'm happy with where I went with them. Pictured above is my Printmaking final. It used two plates (one for each color) and was a fun experience. I still need to go in and put some highlights on the airplane but overall I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Healthy Energy

Our final assignment in my Brand Identity class was to do a logo and packaging for an all-natural energy drink. We had to choose the name, write a positioning statement (how the brand wants to be perceived), create a mark of identity and design 3 bottles of the product. Turns out the application is really a pain in the butt. It really opened my eyes to how much goes into all of this. I was surprised to see just how much baggage there is with the shape of a bottle. Anywho, this was my mark of identity. I liked the irony of it being called "Verde" but having a multicolored logo. Overall it has been a great class that I've learned a lot from but I'm very glad it's over.

Aunt Fanny and Marco Riviera

Here are the two prints I sold at the print sale. The top one titled "Aunt Fanny" and the other "Marco Riviera."

Also, I was on Ikea's website this morning looking at frames for some of the stuff we bought when I noticed a red link that said IKEA Madness. Curiosity got the best of me and soon I found myself entertained by dancing lightning bolts and screws. Check it out if you are entertained by fun flash animations. It tells the story of how some of their designers came up with their stuff, but it's done in a fun way. It reminded us of the Blur music video Coffee & TV, with the little milk carton.

USU Print Sale

The past two days the "Printmaking Guild" has had a print sale. I wasn't planning on entering anything originally, but after some convincing by my teacher and a couple friends I entered in 3 pieces to be sold. Ultimately I assumed that only one print would sell, the one I posted here below. But, as of 4ish this afternoon two of the three were sold and the one left was the only one I expected to sell. Turns out my face must be the moneymaker since both prints sold were self-portraits. It felt pretty cool to sell them, being the first prints I've ever sold. Tomorrow I'll post some images of them.

Another cool thing about selling the prints is that one of them was actually sold to the USU housing... something, to put into some of the on-campus housing. So technically I have a piece in the University collection.

Whit and I are both pretty stoked about our purchases, though not about the money we spent (more than we should have). We have such talented people in the program up here. Now we just need to have it framed so we can proudly display it all.

More digital assignments

This is the section of the blog where I practice my graphic design skills. That's why it looks so great. So, these are some pictures from my latest digital photo assignment. There's one more but I'm going to do a cyanotype with it so it'll be a little while before it gets posted.


The End.

Jen Stark

This is an artist I came across a couple months ago but every time I see her work it blows me away again. Her work is uh-mazing. It seems like such a simple concept using construction paper like this, but the sculptures are so intricate and intriguing that you can't stop looking at them. Check out her work at www.jenstark.com.

Writer's Strike

Well, now I'm all up in arms about this whole writers strike thing. I haven't really read up on the details of what's going on but since I can no longer watch new episodes of The Office I'm pretty upset. And understandably so. Just how long will this last?

Just wanted to get that off my chest before I go make some salsa.

Magic Black

I guess this is a "large" picture. The real prints are 6x14" so these are looking pretty small. Here is the work I've done on my latest assignment for my Intaglio class. It's a reductive print, or faux-mezzotint, which means that I etch a texture on the whole plate so it's all black (like the middle print), and then use a burnisher to lighten up the areas that I don't want to keep black. I did one step before putting the texture on, I etched some linework into the plate so I would have a guide while burnishing. It's pretty close to done, I just need to clean some areas up and I can do my edition.

Birthday

Ok, here is the logo I did as an assignment in my Brand Identity class. The art department at USU is celebrating its 100 year "birthday" next year so our class got the opportunity to design the logo. We still haven't heard back to see who won. Hope you like it though.

Putting First Things First

At the request of some friends I have now entered the 21st century and created a blog. As part of the millennial generation it must be my duty to do so. As it is titled, this will surely be something of a waste of time but hopefully someone somewhere will get something out of it. So, I'll throw on here some of my assignments from school as they are being worked on so anyone who's interested can keep track of what I'm up to. And who knows? Maybe I'll be able to get Whit to post on here as well.

So first off, if anyone hasn't tried these Candy Cane Kisses, you should. I'm addicted.