Dana Tanamachi does great hand lettered chalk work. I appreciate her motto of "liv[ing] a quite life and work[ing] with your hands." from 1 Thessalonians 4:11 and have had that as one of my guiding principles for years. Below is a time-lapse piece. "Free admission to those who dream" What a great concept! When I saw Dana's work and Jessica Hische's work I thought, "Oh I have to go get a job at Louise Fili." since that was a great launching point for both of them. But I don't. I just have to continue my daily practice. Hope you enjoy Dana's work as much as I do.
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I am admittedly particular about my clothing. Not just how it looks, but also how it feels. In the interest of cutting down decisions for 5 years I only wore black & white. In the past two years I have begun incorporating hot pink. You cannot live in the south and only wear black & white. People literally stare at you with sympathetic condescending looks because they believe you have just come from a funeral. My rules for an article of clothing would be: 1. Comfort: soft, no biting seams 2. Simplicity: simultaneously an interesting detail or twist 3. No garish logos: it is almost impossible to find unmarked clothes 4. Fit: well proportioned While this hoodie is perhaps not the most flattering and certainly too casual for a fair number of activities it is my current favorite and has been since the moment I put it on. Some of the details that make this garment superior are documented below. What's your current favorite? Nothing Dramatic: Just a minute over the water while the sun sets
This video is from my Documented Moment series. I wish I had kept filming for 10 seconds longer, to fully get the other side of the bridge, but when driving a jonboat & coaching I don't always have that option.
I was working with the Husky Folding lock back utility knife yesterday. It works great & has an excellent feel in your hand: very solid. Then I went to close the knife. And almost cut my finger off. You have to press the locking mechanism on the back of the handle to fold the blade in & this is difficult to do without placing some portion of your hand in the trajectory of the folding blade, as it is a very sturdy lock and requires a fair amount of pressure. There is no accidental folding of the blade with this product. So while it is ergonomically excellent for utility blade work, it is a wonder this product every made it past OSHA & onto Home Depot shelves. Sometimes I really wonder if product designers ever get to test their products and if they have some gnostic knowledge that makes the product work correctly for them. What are some of the dis-functional designs you have found and wondered about? Should we photoshop beauty images? Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty does a great job posing these questions! So watch them & let me know what you think. More information on International Women's Day can be found here.
In third grade I had a strict teacher. One day I was finding it difficult to sit still in my chair and I spoke out of turn and something else happened that I don't remember. What I do remember is that at the end of the day I was assigned 425 sentences. As in, "I will not speak without raising my hand." "I will sit in my chair." etc. This is third grade & I am 8 years old! 425 sentances?! It took up pages of my composition book. And while my hand cramped that night something else happened, I learned to manipulate letters. Drawing a straight line down the page and then hatching it off provided a column of "I's" This saved a lot of time. I remember the moment when I realized I could do this. That letters were just lines on the page that I could change & use for my benefit. It was heady. Maybe if I write this quote a few hundred more times I will remember to "be kind [to] everyone."
What does it mean to eat rocks for breakfast? One of our athletes used this to describe another coach and the phrase really stuck with me. Her meaning was complimentary, as in "She's so hardcore & tough." Both beneficial qualities for crew. "Rocks for breakfast" is now the ultimate metaphor for moxie. It means being dedicated and disciplined practicing your scales and your squats. Going thru the tough stuff with focus and determination. There is a W.H. Auden quote fun tacked to my computer, "This is the season when we must practice the scales of rejoicing." It is not always easy and sometimes it's drudgery, but it produces results. My goal is to "eat rocks for breakfast" and keep on making things I think are worthwhile & beautiful despite rejections & setbacks.
While playing with circles and connectors I stumbled upon this X design... I like the balance of positive and negative space. As with most of my patterns I start with a hand drawing of the element that repeats and then manipulate in photoshop.
Here's the deal: I know I need to learn how to code. Back in the day I dabbled with the code on myspace personal page and while I didn't know really what I was doing I managed to take others templates and change them so they met my aesthetic standards. Now I use Weebly for my website hosting & design and I can accomplish minor changes, but nothing really significant. And I know it is time, I need to learn how to code. TED is telling me. Jessica Hische is telling me & she even made a beautiful website to show me how! There is even a Code.org website with Bill Gates & Mark Zukerberg telling me to learn code so that one day I can be an industry titan like them. So there really is no excuse. I am not promising a new site, but saying maybe there will be some changes.
P.S. You really should check out all of Jessica Hisches' sites! She has a great sense of humor & provides a lot of info/research on her pages. They are an education in & of themselves. Prepare to spend hours in her corner of the internet. |