Creative Endeavors

blooming brilliance

more bejeweled flights of fancy

as much natural sunlight as possible and as little technology as possible

Some of my words to live by for this year, as collaged for the January installment of the monthly art exchange I've been doing with my cousin. January's theme being, of course, "resolutions".

(Yes, I do realize it's April already -- we are loose with our deadlines, my cousin and I.)

This weekend's other accomplishment: a basil and cheese pizza, made from the ground up. Not terribly photogenic, but dude, it started out as flour and yeast and turned into an honest to goodness thin-and-cripsy-yet-just-the-right-amount-chewy-crust pizza! Next up: mastering the perfect tomato sauce to go with it.

I think that's enough for the weekend; now to follow through on my resolution, turn the computer off, and sink back into the stack of library books awaiting me.

I went to California...

... and came back with an obsession with crate labels. This first one might be my favourite -- it's simple but looks amazing against my wall.

The genie is pretty fabulous, although he is certainly holding those oranges at an unnatural and awkward angle. But the landscape looks just like what I drove through on my way up to Northern CA.

The McCurdy pears were my first purchase and responsible for starting me on this label-buying binge. Isn't there something so perfect and satisfying about the typeface and colours? At the time they were made, these were just, you know, advertising labels, and yet there is so much beauty and attention to detail. I can't quite put my finger on exactly why I love these so much, but maybe there is a nostalgia for a golden era I never experienced mixed in there.

Stay tuned for a massive photologue of my trip to California coming soon.
Part One: *Orange County*

Intro to Art & Drawing 101

Since we may or may not be getting a massive hurricane in the next few days, it seemed a good time to venture into the garage and check for items we wouldn't want to lose to a flood.
I found a box full of dusty old drawings and paintings I'd done, lo these many years ago when I flirted with the idea of getting a degree in Art.


I hated and loved my drawing classes. Hated them because they were just so messy -- I'd come away each lesson face and clothing smudged with charcoal. And the huge sheets of paper and art box were so unwieldy to lug about campus.


But I did love that quiet peace that would settle over the studio once we all had our easels set up, the air of focus and concentration. The occasional whispered suggestion from the teacher, the nod of approval. Stepping back after having been lost deep in the drawing to see a picture coming to life.


I haven't held a paintbrush in years (apart from painting my bathroom walls). After I discovered the clean and sterile world of graphic design the pen tablet replaced my palettes and paint tubes and my creations are now kept in tidy little computer files instead of rotting in the garage.


But it's no substitution, is it.

preview

an illustration from my textbook, ミニドラマで学ぶ楽しい英会話, an English conversation book for Japanese university students. it will be out in stores next spring.