Every morning I wake up to a giant piece of ceiling stucco above me. It is centered over my bed and 4 feet wide, so I don’t even have to twist my head to see it. Hello, good morning, it says to me. I’m still here.
Lately I’ve been rising earlier than my alarm, so I lie awake in the morning sun tracing the circle with my eyes, practicing the shape over and over, as if I were training for something, perhaps a professional circle drawing contest.
So, as I frequently do with things stuck in my brain, I put this circle on paper, cave man style and to the power of 10. Yowza.
Update June 4, 2012: The next steps for the Goodie Monster are to find a home in a Portland area school, to make an impact at a local level directly with kids by providing a framework for eating healthily. Check out the Goodie Monster on Facebook, or contact Mark Jacobs for more information at mark@goodiemonster.com.
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At long last, Mark Jacobs and I have been hard at work the last few months working on figuring out the next steps for the Goodie Monster. Now, we are ready to raise money to make more Goodie Monsters and share more healthy snacks with people. We’re really excited about this and hope that you are to, so check out our campaign on Kickstarter.
Here are a few more pieces I helped North with for Keen’s RECESS IS BACK site. I created the hand drawn typography for these two spots, “Fresh Air” and “Grab a Paddle”, which are part of a video series about outdoor activities. I love the outdoors and this summer went both camping and paddling, the spirit of which I think are captured nicely in these little snippets. Although not quite as risqué as the biking-troll-powering-a-hot-spring “Get Naked” illustration.
This is a video about Gary Chang, a Hong Kong architect who transformed his 330-square foot apartment into a super-efficient “24-room” domicile. What an incredible use of space that shows the versatility of what a home can be, and what can be achieved even with such strict parameters. Design solved this nicely.
I don’t often blog about things before they happen. I prefer to let things run their course, gather my thoughts, and then let it all out. But recently I made an agreement with one Jelly Helm to work together for a bit and see how it goes. Kind of like a reallly long date; one with a full 3-course meal and several desserts. I hope one of them is strawberry shortcake.
I am writing about it now because it is exciting! Also, this is a longer engagement than usual for me, and I will probably be blogging the intermittent results along the way. I’ve been freelancing for year and a half now, and for the most part it agrees with me. But part of what I miss is the collaboration you get from being part of a group. While I am happy drawing pioneer rabbit adventures, I also like to have my brain poked from the outside.
As for the Bureau of Betterment, I will still be accepting other projects, but for a while I will have to be a bit choosier because of my time commitment to this new endeavor. Does that super cool gig come with a YEAR’S SUPPLY OF PICKLED HERRING? Let’s talk.
Jen Stevenson is the most food-obsessed person I know, and also the author of the guidebook I’ve been working on called Portland’s 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces. Like a true food celebrity, she recently did an on-air interview with Koin’s Studio 6. Check it out below, or visit www.bestplacestostuffyourfaces.com for the full scoop.
As a child I desperately wanted a pet horse. If not a horse, a dog. If not a dog, a goat. All of my spare time not spent reading Walter Farley books was spent plotting on how I could turn my backyard into a pasture. My birthday wish lists consisted of listing every animal I could think of and rating them with stars and check marks depending on how much I desired them. I think a horse was worth 17 stars and a rabbit garnered 2 stars. How times have changed.
Instead of equines or canines, my parents decided that pet rats were the ticket for their 8-year-old daughter. Small, easily caged, and with lifespans lasting about 2 years, they were low commitment pets. So ensued my doting upon Ratty, Rocky, Rufus, Rex, Ralph, Rascal & Peaches. Later I did own a horse and several dogs, but the rats will always hold a special place in my heart.
So, I drew a little rat and who likes to sing and dance.
Two of my favorite things to watch on the television, together at last! Caricature artist John Kascht gives an insightful and in-depth glimpse into his process, both in understanding his subject and drawing it, while working on portraits of one of my favorite TV funny men: Conan O’Brien. JUST WATCH IT!!!
Two of my favorite things to watch on the television, together at last! Caricature artist John Kascht gives an insightful and in-depth glimpse into his process, both in understanding his subject and drawing it, while working on portraits of one of my favorite TV funny men: Conan O’Brien. JUST WATCH IT!!!
When I was younger, my dad used to cut out newspaper articles and highlight the important parts for me or his students to read. Now that he’s fully emerged in the digital world, I get short, unpunctuated, uncapitalized emails telling me what to read.
His most recent recommendation was this video from The Fun Theory, a “site that is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better”. I’m all for that!
The Fun Theory is an initiative of Volkswagon. Normally I would be the first paranoid Gen-X denouncer of a big company trying to convince me to “like” something on Facebook, but for some reason this just makes me like Volkswagon more. Good job marketing team!
Watching the Fun Theory videos solidified some thoughts I had been having about my blog and its purpose. My blog is a way for me to 1) explore ideas, 2) get better at making things, and 3) bring people enjoyment or encourage thinking about things a bit differently.
Number 3 is the important one, because I believe that people are at their best when they are happy or inspired. Whatever we can do to poke at each others brains to spur positive action, the better. And if it turns out that my blog is “just fun”, well that’s not so bad either.
