La La Love You

La La Love You
Originally uploaded by a.m. design

More valentine's love. For some reason this holiday provides me with the most inspiration to create. I think it is the fact a valentine can be sweet, silly, sassy, or bitter. Really all you have to do is slap a heart on it.
Check out more on my flickr page.

Sweet Love

sweet love
Originally uploaded by a.m. design

Nothing like little sweet window treatments. Valentine's is the only time I feel like it is acceptable to indulge in the super cute... and I take that job seriously; hearts, glitter, lace and all.

Show Poster

As a follow up or cap to the Digital Art class I was given the opportunity to make a show poster for The Bellmont. I haven't done any show stuff in awhile and was happy to get back to it. I only wish we could attend the show. I have heard the CD several times and really like it, very tight and clean recording with some great tunes and lyrics.

This one is a tiny bit different from the final printed one but I prefer it with the ommited detail.

One a different note we had a great Christmas with family and friends and got to some crafting in between starting off with the messiest cookie making session ever, i.e. more dough on my clothes and walls of kitchen then actually got baked. There was a step we took beforehand that we will have to omit next time ;)

Other crafting that I am excited about that I will post about soon are garlands and Suminagashi.

Digital Art Class

It's been awhile but I have actually been blogging in between just over here for the semester. I am posting some highlights from the class here but hop on over there for more... because I know you are dying for it.

Home is Where you Park It

14 Images 14 Days- Mid-Century Modern Adorned

Final Project- Holiday Cards

To be honest I went into this class having little idea of what we were going to be doing. Certainly not art, that's not school. School=boring, right. Well obviously I need to wrap my mind around what art classes are because I had a blast. In part due to the professor, Phillip Faulkner (check out his art) and some of the classmates.
I also had a bias in my head about digital art, one that that I think that most people have, that it is missing an aura. I am still coming to terms with the fact that it can have an aura and trying to figure out how any digital art I create is special or unique to me but I think I am hooked on this medium.

Risque?

I completed these collages about a month ago and immediately put them in my archives without documenting them. I was a little concerned about the content and message, how people may react... specifically to Head in the Sand. I am not interested in making this my platform for issues I may or may not have with my country and the world in general but I am interested in creating things that provoke thinking, even if it is just my own thoughts that are provoked. Aside from that, I like the elements of the collage, I like that it is a little edgy... so there it is.

This next one, not so much message-bearing as it is just a little risque, more skin than usual and a straight up appropriation of someone else's full work of art. I got this out of an awesome book about the history of mass art that is full of beauties like this and a whole bunch of huge-eyed children and creatures. Pretty amusing and very disturbing.

Also, M helped me make a lot of the executive desicions in the content of this collage. Co-creating is fun!

Montreal

Ok, I went to Montreal this week... it was awesome. I will go so far as to say it was fucking awesome.
I am not sure why I went all the way to Montreal and these are the images I came back with that in my mind summarizes the city. I know, it makes no sense.
More pics on my flickr page... some that more appropriately represent the city.

Spiro Collage

I got myself a Spirograph set and made this.

Upcycled: Altered T

I love shopping for t-shirts at the thrift store but never found them girly enough to wear outside the gym... and usually the neck is too tight, the arms are too wide, etc. *sigh*
Solution: I borrowed this book from the library (thumbs up to Denver Public Libraries... a breath of fresh air!) and unpacked the old sewing machine.
I actually remembered how to thread it... yeah it's been that long.

Excuse the cut off head, the hubs took the picture!

The shirt turned out well but I realize I can really only wear it to the beach or Vegas! So... time to go book my flight.

Thrift Store Love- From House to Home

We purchased our first house in November of last year and then promptly dove into the holiday season with plenty of travelling and entertaining. There was little time to make the transformation of a new house to our home. As soon as the holiday rush slowed down we ended up with some room-mates. The in-laws needed some help. Well seven months later they have moved out.

For reasons having to do with respecting each other's space and lack of vision we did not do much with our house since moving. Now that we have an "empty nest" suddenly the desire to pimp it out has surfaced.

The majority of the elements in this collage are found from thrift stores over the months (I bet you're suprised). The flowers grew on their own in our backyard and are absolutely beautiful. I feel lucky that that they decided to return this year.

The bedroom is turning into a real girlie-girl room with nail polish and bangels on display but the other half doesn't seem to mind so let the gold leaf prevail.

Upcoming plans for the abode? Paint our super long & tall wall in the living room/kitchen. I am thinking of a dirty turquoise, the kind that goes well with lots of wood. Hopefully more news on that soon!

Thrift Store Love- Old School

I more addicted than ever to thrift store hunting. I realize that I can't take everything home with me so I snap a photo and then pine after crazy bobble head tigers for days... Hey, if nothing else at least they provide inspiration!

Swap-Bot Zine

Here is the full page layout of the Zine I made for a swap on www.swap-bot.com. It is very much nature inspired with mostly flora and fauna in the pictures. It is just as significant to me though that it is made from about 95% recycled materials with nearly everything acquired from thrift store purchases. I found several old Highlights magazines from the 1970's, at first pass through them I didn't think much was there for creating but once I started pulling things apart I realized I love the colors & texture of the paper and the illustrations are pretty cool on their own.

Details of each page here.

2-D Design Class Chronicle- Final Project

The theme for the final project was faces/heads. My source is a picture of mannequins with wigs for sale that I took at an antique shop here in Denver. I used Prismacolor pencils and Turpenoid with some collage as the medium.
I can't say I am totally happy with the way it turned out, perspective and proportions mainly. With that said that are parts that I do like quite a bit so I am displaying some of those snippets.




and the full piece... the funky face of the lady in the middle and the one on the right that looks dead have a mannequin-ish feeling that I think it worked for the project but I am still a little embarrassed by them.

Our latest Portland visit

We had good fun just exploring the city, the coast, and the town's parks. Lots of rain, lots of walking, lots of booze, lots of food, and lots of silliness. The way any good vacation should be!

I realize that I didn't post anything about our last trip to Portland over Thanksgiving '09 so I am going to include a collage of that on too. This trip was a little more green than grey. We visited a lot of waterfalls and once again ate lots of really good food and boozed it up.

2-D Design Class Chronicle- Project 4

The assignment was to re-create the alphabet through photos of objects resembling the letter forms. It was fun looking for the letters and enlisting anyone who was interested in helping me find them.
The finished project was a little 22 page book with an A to Z collage I made awhile ago on the front.

2-D Design Class Chronicle- Project 2

It took me much longer than I intended to get this up here. This was project two, we had to come up with a shape, repeat it 8+ times and paste it down on an 18"x24". Then repeat it with opposite colors, black on white, white on black. I liked the way it turned out and a couple of weeks ago my teacher asked me to bring it back to submit it to a juried show. This last week when I was going to my class I saw it hanging! Unfortunately I didn't get the best picture of it before handing it over.

The second assignment in the project is a paper cut out with one accent color. This is a succulent modeled off of a picture I took. Once again not the best picture taken of it, but documented nonetheless.

I should be getting graded projects 4 and 5 back tonight. I am excited about the concept of project 4 which is a 6 panel painting intended to hang in a public space with a different color scheme on each panel. I chose to replicate the line study below. The execution was a little poor due to some masking issues but it gave me a good idea of what it could look like with better masking so I may revisit it. I will post the painting soon.

2-D Design Class Chronicle- Project 3

I made these cards for my 2-D design class for a project that we had to make a linocut block for printing. The negative space is created by inking the block and then laying a silouhette cut-out and then printing the card.

This next block is pretty simple and the first one I tried just to get my feet wet. It is a polaroid film frame with the same negative space created from a silohuette. I have some ideas using this including using photographs I have or using pictures from an old year book. I am tempted to leave these last two blocks behind for now and create a whole new one. It is so addicting! More on my flickr page as usual.

2-D Design Class Chronicle- A Study

One of the first studies we did and I really like the way it turned out. There is something about the clean lines and sense of space I get from it. I have done smaller variations and have a feeling this could turn into more (because I am obsessed!)... like thoughts of making a linocut block in this manner.

2-D Design Class Chronicle- Spring 2010 Semester

I hope this blog will start seeing some more action, I have been lax.

I plan to chronicle my projects from the 2-dimensional design class I am taking at Metro State this semester and subsequent classes hereafter. We have done four projects so far and the last three will be up shortly (the first one should and will be burned! That bad...)

I am really enjoying this class and have pondered why I did not attempt an art degree earlier. A lot of that probably has to do with the murmuring of society about creating art and creating a living and how they do not go hand and hand… bullocks! Art and creativity can and should be incorporated into nearly any job so needless to say I regret taking those naysayers seriously. I am here now and that is what counts even if in the end I still decide to keep my skills a hobby.

2009 Christmas Cards

I haven't been able to get to much crafting let alone blogging but I HAD to do some Christmas cards this year. I started right after Thanksgiving when we were in Portland after a visit the storefront of SCRAP!. I am so excited about this store and am a little sad it is so far away. We found some awesome materials that have been recycled for the purpose of creating. Some of my favorite finds were fabric samples, wood samples, and tiny ceramic tiles. All things I would not have thought to even look for in my local thrift store if they even existed there.

Since Christmas time seems like it an excuse for excess consumption I was more than happy to re-purpose some materials to make my cards.

All of the cards are posted at Flickr and I am going to try my darndest to add more to the collection soon.

Great Sand Dunes

I thought once the cooler weather rolled in things would start to slow down enough to sit for awhile and create but, as of yet, no luck. In place of crafts I give you road trips.

We camped at the Great Sand Dunes last week and took in the amazing sights. I'd go back there in a heartbeat.


M is sporting his Roughin' It t-shirt from the thrift store.