Monday, March 23, 2009

Ye Olde Siren magazine

I just love Googling. Today I randomly searched on a magazine I designed with my co-conspirator Laura D. and found a blog post on the topic. In the 40 plus comments, a few of them sang the praises of the magazine and one even gave a shout-out to the cover I designed for Lili Taylor. The mag work resides in a special place in my heart b/c it was one of my first (albeit meagerly) paid jobs out of art school, and Laura and I designed much of it fueled on homemade breakfast after watching Martha Stewart in our pajamas, trips to Mel's diner for egg salad sandwiches, and beer. We also did a lot of xerox experiments that found their way into the layout. Ah, the glory days.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Crafty

So my second craft day with Melissa yielded fabulous results. She was working on a birthday present for Leah and I, having forgotten my original stencils, started work on some graphic coasters. I'll be revealing Melissa's fabulous painting after this Friday, but suffice it to say that it's genius!!
The following are some of the fruits of my labor. Photos courtesy of Melissa.







Thursday, March 19, 2009

What's On My Ipod

K'naan: Fatima. Heartbreaking sentiments on the gang shooting of a first love, wrapped up in light hiphoppy pastry. I lurve this song. Wait for the chorus.

Drawing little mopeds with tempera paint

I remember one of my first forays into making artwork that presaged my career as a graphic designer; I believe I was 8 or 9, and pulled an ad from a magazine for Honda mopeds from a Rolling Stone. There was a headline and a few lines of copy on a white background, and lining the bottom were images of 4 mopeds in different colors and models. Something compelled to draw and paint in freehand those little moped images with my Crayola tempera paints, the ones in those small plastic clear containers. The finished product looked fairly representative of the photographs, but more importantly, it was quirky re-creation. Of course, I wanted it to be a perfect reproduction; I didn't yet appreciate the value of idiosyncratic gesture.

Recently, Lani gave me a large postcard that featured the work of Evah Fan, an artist that lives and works in Berkeley with her partner, Brendan Monroe, also an artist. She makes these tiny pieces that are simultaneously loose and detailed, and most of all, full of humor. Her work took me back to those early joyous tempera moments. Take a gander at some of her work and marvel in the negative space and then get hit on the head with the polo mallet of her witty insights. Be sure to click for a larger image.

invitation to kleptomaniac at art committee meeting


source of bad energy



without further adieu

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Meditation on surfing

(random cull from Google images; please excuse copyright)