oui. oui.

i brought babette back for a one night only appearance at mica's abandoned hotel for the event of the year... the halloween party. this was me taking a break between desk attending (& dancing, bien sur) to do a little dusting in the al capone suite. it was such a fun night. mica definitely knows how to do halloween and art kids definitely know how to do costumes. my favorite of the night was a kid who had a blue flashing light attached to his head and a black shirt that had the baltimore police city watch logo on it and "believe" underneath it in big white helvetica. so good.

and it was all yellow...

my final installment of the whole yellow obsession. i think. maybe not. we still have a few more projects/crits left to squeeze into my elements class this semester. katherine is so good about allowing you to really take an idea and develop it from class to class. and something within me is still drawn to all this yellow.

it is an uncontrollable urge. like the other day, i stole a ceiling tile from main building because the insulation of the flip side was a very gritty application of my favorite, shamelessly sunny, post-it yellow color. (don't worry, there isn't a hole in the ceiling now... it was already chilling on the floor when it called me from across the room.)

i do think i'm going to break away from the installation-based work... do things that are more 2-d. i have lots of ideas floating around in my head. i want to do a piece now with that ceiling tile, something with file folders, maybe painting and altering the 1985 world books i got at the thrift store (i couldn't just by one... it came as a set. oh well.)


and here's where the ocd comes full circle: i got so giddy when i was working on my first photoshop animation (very advanced) in emac and discovered the color table that showed up when i saved it as a gif. where has that been all my life? 256 colors of bliss. i had the sudden urge to paint it. and for as much as i struggle with painting, i really do enjoy color mixing. (i felt so left out when everyone in painting 1 was making color charts at the start of the year because i don't have that class until second semester. i almost made up my own color theory assignment.) i genuinely want to know more about how it all works. my love for color is just less painterly, more pantone. this brings the two together quite nicely. i've already got a huge square canvas. it's definitely something that is a departure from my previous yellow projects, yet (1) still includes various shades of yellow and (2) references the square motif of the post its.

i'm already thinking about ways i can extend what i've worked on at mica during the school year to back at home during the summer. (because believe it or not, you do have to go home sometime...) ideas have been formulating in my head for some sort of exhibition at the pontiac creative arts center. i want to look into it over thanksgiving break. right now my excitement about the things that would surround such a project (curating it, & promoting it, & vinyl lettering on the walls, & ahhh!) is entertaining my doubts about it even being a legit thing to put in a gallery. but, to quote katherine, "i trust doubt more than i trust certainty."

good stuff.

paula shared with us today a brochure from the village of arts and humanities in north philadelphia that she got yesterday. very cool. an example of community arts at its finest. good to know that kind of thing is out there.

side note: it's weird that i saw that philadelphia trip posted in cobalt soup... it was a "city planning" tour for some class, but they had extra room on the bus. i put it on my ical and considered missing work study because i was intrigued by it. i regret not going now... totally proves that if something moves you, allow yourself to be pulled by it.

dear ava and olivia,

sorry i have been a bad pen pal. i've been busy. look for something fun in the mail soon.
love, becky

juried undergraduate exhibition

thought i'd try to share a little bit of the juried undergraduate exhibition that was just installed @ mica. these are all pieces that, for whatever reason, resonated with me.




(this is my friend rachel's photography. see anyone familiar?)

i love being able to see what other people are doing. you either look at the talent around you and are motivated or intimidated by its greatness. i guess in the art school environment a little of both is needed. it's why i chose to surround myself with people who are just as passionate and talented... each persons way of seeing is inspiring if you allow it to be. and it doesn't hurt to get pulled off your own pedestal once in a while when you realize and kick it up a notch.

new york city

"for every traveller who has any taste of his own,
the only useful guidebook will be
the one which he himself has written."
-aldous huxley

my friend alex showed me her new york moleskin before she left for nyu. i thought the concept was cool. it has subway maps, customizable tabs for whatever you wish, lots of space for notes... after my first new york trip i wanted an easy way to document the exhibits i had seen & save any fun ephemera i had collected. and, because i am powerless before expensive notebooks, i just had to have one for myself. i have no use for it on a day to day basis (seeing as i've only been to the city twice in my life for 7 hour increments) but the open format lends itself really nicely to a scrapbook & can add to it each time i go.

i went with my drawing class on saturday, & felt like i was able to experience more of the city... taking the subway, going to galleries in chelsea, getting a huge slice of pizza. & i'm glad i was able to see the kara walker exhibit at the whitney. it's so powerful and unsettling, i have a lot of respect for her as an artist.

late night manifesto

graphic design and a bang up time

"certain people get their energy from problems they bring to themselves. they become sculptors, painters... other people get their energy from solving problems that others bring to them. they become graphic designers. " - chris pullman

the baltimore musuem of art held a super cool symposium tonight called "design for community" as part of the free fall baltimore series. i had been looking forward to it for awhile... (and it was a much needed pick me up after spending the morning getting pieces of glass removed from my feet. long story... but it involves my shoes coming off while in a mosh pit at the gogol bordello concert. gypsy punks bring out a rough crowd.) this event was a chance to hear about graphic design in action, from a perspective outside of MICA and CAP. (even though everything said totally related to both... & reaffirmed my purpose here.)

it was so refreshing to see 5 designers setting the bar high for the design. there tends to be an assumption that the general public is unsophisticated, and graphic designers should lower themselves to their level. the designers presenting could not have been better examples of the fault in that generalization. each project they undertook was prompted the needs of others around them, and they evaluated what their design talent and passion could bring to the table. i don't think enough people use that process in their professions.... "what does the community need?" and "what can i do to make it better?" why can't the carefully selected font of a subway installation or clarity of composition in a census redesign contribute to a community?

i was giddy the whole night. it was just a fun, happy atmosphere. those are my kind of people.

check out some of their work below...

sheila levrant de bretteville: new york a train terminus
wendy brawer: green map
sylvia harris: information design strategist
chris pullman: WGBH boston
mark randall: worldstudio foundation, the urban forest project

fall fricken break

yes... fall break festivities have officially begun for me tonight (yay for no friday classes.) and i have so much stuff i am pumped to work on. no deadlines or assignments (not entirely true, but my glass is still have full.) just art (& other things) that i have been wanting to do in this crazy inspiring environment. like the date i have tonight with ali edwards and her new life artist book...

a neighborhood called baltimore

this is the project i've been working on in my community arts class for awhile now. today i actually saw the project come alive. we went back to maree garnette farring elementary in brooklyn to work with pre-k, kindergaten, first grade & second grade art classes. our prompt was "where do you live?" to which the immediate answer was "baltimore." that is the power of the project. the concept is so simple, but you need the clarity of a child to see it. it was such a powerful experience.

check out the "a neighborhood called baltimore" website for more information... and lots of great pictures that were taken today. the pictures say so much about what it was like to be there... so much color, energy, so much the kids had to share.


(using my michigan hand to show a kid where i was from. "is that in austrailia or something?" he said.)

the project will be growing in lots of different ways for the rest of the semester... exploring other venues outside of schools and really starting to look at how it will all come together at the end.

"you ever have a thought that bums you out... you have a thought that bums you out and you're bummed out by the thought, but the thought escapes you, so all you're left with is being bummed out, but you can't remember what it was that bummed you out in the first place so you spend time going back in your mind trying to figure out why you're not looking forward to tuesday, whatever tuesday is... you're like, 'what's wrong with tuesday? hasn't even happened yet and i'm freaked out about it.' -john mayer, from any given thursday

maybe it was that i spent a good portion of my saturday at a disappointing cap meeting (the first thing i've done at mica that has been a let down.) maybe it's that i actually had to get started on the drawing i have due tomorrow that i've been postponing for two weeks. maybe it's that, as if using a new medium isn't frustrating enough, my ink spilled all over just as i was getting started. maybe it's that i just didn't have any coffee in my system this morning. maybe it's that i know a much needed break is on its way, and this week is only getting in my way. whatever it is, today i decided to be emo. i kept my glasses on, stayed in black soccer shorts and a beater, didn't shower, listened to death cab, and left the ink all over my feet.