Alright, so it’s on life support. I’m referring to this blog of course.
A friend of mine recently started a blog. It made me remember how much I enjoy blogging. (Even though it is generally infrequent…)
I have a project brewing… and I’ll be blogging about it soon.
For now, check out this new installment of the Hyphae Series from the lichen!
Alright. I’m either going to bury this thing, or give it more of a commitment. I’m thinking a post a week… and anything I find anything of incredible interest. Right now, it’s binding books. I think I’ll put together a photo tutorial of the process of hand binding a hardcover book. It’s incredible! For now, here are a couple of different bindings I’ve been experimenting with:
I’ve been neglecting the blog… so I decided to make one massive blog.
I really want to get my site up. I’ve got the ideas, now I just need the time. Also on my list of things to conquer: book binding and screen printing…. oh, I suppose there are all the things I need to do as well, but those are pretty boring and the list is incredibly long, so I’ll spare you.
Anyway, let’s start where I left off.. we were working on this great design for porridge papers:
We decided to make a video featuring porridge papers and an awesome dvd package to distribute it in. Above is a photo of the back and below is the inside and dvd. We really need to take some product shots of this. It’s beautiful.
Watch the video (below)! We’re planning on making a series of videos highlighting various local businesses, studios, and individuals in the future.
The Hyphae Series – Porridge Papers from the lichen on Vimeo.
There have been many exciting things going on at the lichen in general. Everything is starting to come together, and we had our first opening reception just a couple of weeks ago!
We were very pleased to get such great artists, Meredith Miller and Jonnie Andersen, for our first exhibition, Innocents. Here is a small sample of their works:
Untitled (Saniyah)
Meredith Miller
Digital Print, 30 x 20 inches
2007
Gloria
Jonnie Andersen
Digital Print, 30 x 20 inches
2007
Here are a couple of photos from the opening reception:
The amount of support from the community has been overwhelming. The LUX Center for the Arts has given us a very warm welcome, and we’re working together with them to start drawing more people into the area. We designed the poster for the art crawl we participated in for our first show.
We’ve also set up a temporary space in the digital world. We’ve been meaning to get up a permanent site.. but that will just have to be added to the “things-we-have-to-do” list. Visit it here.
As far as the rest of life goes, I’m finally done with (teaching & taking) classes for the semester. This semester I confirmed I’m not that into clay.. I won’t be taking much away from that course, although, I did make this shoe:
It’s much more impressive at “thumbnail size”… trust me. The only reason I even have photos of it is because my instructor requested to take a few and forwarded them along to me.
As for Late Medieval Art.. I had the opportunity to thumb through some books that were over 500 years old. Including a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Perhaps, this is what re-sparked my interest in book binding. These early printed books and illuminated manuscripts blew my mind away.
In addition to handling these fantastic books, I learned how to catch a unicorn. Apparently, unicorns are attracted by young, female virgins.. and when they encounter one they’ll place their horn in the chaste woman’s lap. Sexy, eh? If that’s not enough, check out this tapestry:
I ended up including unicorns in my final paper… If I only knew back when I was a little girl what I know now, my unicorn fantasies would have been much different.
The end of this year also brought my students to their completion of the program. I’ve had a great time working with this group of students, and I’m looking forward to meeting the next ones. Here are a couple of student portfolio site projects completed this quarter:
These emerging designers have worked incredibly hard throughout the program, and I see bright futures ahead of them.
I suppose that sums it up… minus all of the cookies, brownies, and pies I have been eating in preparation for hibernation. Yes, I’d like to add sleep to the list.. but, I also would like to catch up on lost time with friends and family. ‘Til next time, goodbye!
So much life going on right now…
I’ve found two amazing deals on craigslist in the last week. It’s crazy, we’ll be able to purchase the track lighting and 30+ chairs for under HALF the amount we planned on spending on track lighting alone! Now all we need is to order the sign, finish up that website, and get some promotional materials out there. We might need some help bringing together the finishing touches though (touch up paint, painting chairs/shelves, installing the track lighting, cleaning up, etc.)… anyone up for helping out a bit and having an exclusive “pre-opening party” after? Sounds delicious to me.
In addition to the gallery, I have some other exciting projects right now. I’m working on a piece for Porridge Papers’ schwag bag they’ll be giving away at their Sweet 16 Party. I won’t go into the details, but it will be made out of their hand made paper and printed on the letterpress!… it seems to be coming along well. I’ve also started concretely developing ideas for this website… and I’m super excited about it.
I’ve started taking classes again… well, actually well over a month ago, but it still seems like they’ve just started. I’ve come to realize I really enjoy summer classes, and I hate fall classes. I’m taking a ceramics course and an art history course covering Gothic art. I really thought I would have no interest in the time period covered in the art history class, but I have found it quite fascinating so far. Ceramics is going decent… but, I’m not very confident I’ll produce anything of any worth… we’ll see I suppose.
In other news… there is a new design oriented group forming in Lincoln that I have some high hopes for. Maybe this will be an opportunity for me to meet others who might be interested in collaborating on a few ideas I’ve put on the back burner with the realization I would be unable to feasibly pull them off solo. (Anyone remember Typograzine?)
I’ve been having some interesting philosophical internal conversations lately… and I’d like to write about them sometime… but for now, I’ll leave you with the small talk.
Here it is.. the photo that completes the mini-series I did over the summer. I like it. Click-here for a larger version.
Sagmeister IS a creative genius…
Made You Look came in the mail this week… and I marveled at it over the weekend. I know, I know… I’m a little late to get in on all of the rage over this book… but really, it is simply amazing. Every element of it from the cover and the fore edge right down to the little flipbook animation slyly placed in the middle of the book gave me little shivers of joy while I perked up at the idea of getting excited over design.
I may be getting a little ahead of myself here, but I think that having this book in my hands to be able to examine it as a tangible object has had quite the impact on me. I’ve seen/heard/read all about it over the internet, but having the real thing in my hands is much more mentally stimulating.
I know what happens. I get stressed and frustrated by routine and create (more like generate) out of necessity rather than from my inner drive. I create for a grade. I create for money. I create to produce. It has been so long since I’ve just created to create. This book starts an internal conversation with myself over the problems created by me being jaded in this manner.
Hopefully, this will inspire me to carve away some time out of my schedule that already looks like a half-eaten slice of Swiss cheese and start (or continue) some of my more personal work and exploration.
Even though I’m running on about 3.5 hours of sleep, I took the first chance I got to head down to the lichen and take some photos of the space. Mostly, this will help us plan how we are going to lay out the back room… but, the space is so great it must be shared. When thelichen.com launches, we’ll be posting pictures of our progress (there’s quite a bit to do… track lighting, hanging system, signage, desks, shelving, installing the projector… etc.)
So, here they are:
The room in the back is where we’re going to attempt to squeeze in a
couple of desks and some shelving… just enough for us to be able to
slave away on the design work.
Yup… you guessed it, the second we saw the exposed brick, we knew
it was home. This is where the magic happens! Art shows, film
screenings, music, and who knows what else the future holds for
this space.
The mirror in our bathroom… in case you want to make sure the top
of your head is looking funky fresh.
Well, we got the keys to the studio today (and with the help of Sam’s brother moved in the fantastic sofa). Woo!… photos of our space (in progress) will be posted sooooon… but for now, and equally exciting, we’ve finalized the logo and here it is my friends:
Now we can tackle projects such as signage, business cards, website (good thing thelichen.com was still available when we finally decided to register it tonight), etc.
And… on that note, I should probably be off to sleep… I have to wake up at 6:00 a.m.
Well, I finally got around to scanning in some more of my b&w silver prints from the photo class I took over the summer…. and lets just say I’ll never make that mistake again. There are fingerprints ALL over these things (and it looks like if there’s one way to bring joy to the scanner’s life it is to do everything in it’s power to find every single imperfection in anything I try to scan)… well, and I’m still too unmotivated to clean it.
I suppose I may chose to reprint these one day… and scan them the second they are dry…. in a clean scanner… but, for now, you will have to use your imagination to visualize what they once looked like without the prints, dust, scratches, bends, etc.
Hm… after loading them it looks as if I didn’t scan them in as grayscale… let’s ignore that too.
This fall, Sam Rapien and I are opening up a new design studio and art gallery in Lincoln’s historic University Place neighborhood. We have many fantastic plans, so be on the look out for more info soon!
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