It is New Years Eve - and for the first time since my pre-teens I have no plans whatsoever. Normally that would make me feel a little unloved, but this year I’m pretty okay with not having plans to do anything for once.
Especially after Liam tore his hand in half on a cat food can and we had to spend a few hours in the ER getting him stitched back up Friday night. Not. Cool.
Instead we get to sit around and eat yummy food and watch silly movies and I can play with my Christmas presents a bit more (I got a relatively fancy Waterman Fountain pen and I’ve just hunted down the perfect waterproof black ink for it!!! Pen nerd is in lurve!!!).
So we rented all four hours of Gormehnghast, and will probably head out to the big asian supermarket soon to get supplies to make our own dim-sum (yummy-nummy).
No resolutions. I don’t believe in making promises I won’t keep.
Besides, this year I got what I wanted (moved to Toronto, got into and attended OCAD, got a kitten, got a studio, got to work for Torontoist) and found out that sometimes getting what you want can be just as disapointing as not getting it (attending OCAD for instance… and having the stress of that prevent me from staying at Torontoist…).
Next year maybe I’ll make no plans and be pleasantly suprised with the results?
In my design process class at OCAD this term we learned about the process… of… well… design. No really, for real.
Ok, what that actually means is we learned how to come up with creative ideas on a deadline. Which is actually very helpful.
In one assignment we had to sabotage something we disliked in a way that was ultimately beneficial to society (which meant nothing illegal - which kinda ultimately makes it not really sabotage anymore but, whatever).
This is our final installation - an elevator sudoku board. It’s meant to sabotage urban society’s tendency to close off from one another (especially in elevators).
The theory was that this would make people WANT to talk to each other - about why the heck there’s a sudoku board in the elevator, and whether anyone want’s to play.
We used the conveniently located wood shop (oh… the many dreamy amenities of an art school *sigh*) to drill holes into dry erase pens so we could hang them from the vents in the ceiling (so they wouldn’t wander away). We also used masking tape (in eye-catching fluro colours) so that we could just pull it down and wipe it away when finished (thereby not vandalizing the school).
See! It worked! That’s a random stranger interacting with his environment and the people around him without prompting (other than the game board on the wall).
Heads up for future students making installations on site at OCAD:
When OCAD says: “your installation must come down after two hours”, they mean: “or else it will instantly disappear like Cinderella at midnight.”
Good thing we were taking pictures all along.
- Figure out Christmas presents for my family + boy… Probably home-made presents, since that’s the way I like to do things - but that gives me a very limited timeline.
- I also need a Birthday Present for my Sister. Raserfrasen family with birthdays so close to Christmas. Boooo to that. Seriously Heather. Celebrate your un-birthday or something next year.
- Design wedding invitations for friends, and find sources for printing and paper.
- Read Don Quixote for Liberal Studies now, so I don’t have to tackle that monstrosity of a novel in the midst of classes later this year
- Pitch something to Motherbrand for group show at Gladstone on theme of “Souvenirs.” Before December 22. Hrm. That’s more time than I got for many of my assignments. I can totally do it.
- update blog with results of school project
- Redesign (or at least buff and polish) my website? Maybe? Perhaps? I’m about due… Maybe just a new header? Or a new colour scheme? Or both?
- Paint coffee table turquoise like dining table
Our old table really didn’t fit into the corner of our living room that serves as a dining room, so earlier this year we went on a hunt for a new, more compact one. It was a long, hard search. We went to antique stores, flea markets, thrift stores, ikeas, fancy designer shops, discount furniture stores - but people really seem to enjoy their furniture bland, expensive and oversized these days.
Finally we found this one at a home improvement store. It was perfect. It has leaves that fold down to make it a teensy table for two - but then fold out into a big round table that can fit at least four. It was unfinished hardwood, so I could repaint it whatever colour I wanted (which is really the best part) - I chose a deep turquoise.
Here, as promised, are the recipes for my Fast Food project.
They are super-mega-healthy fruit smoothies for kids, that look kind of disgusting, but actually taste pretty good. The lime and the ginger in the Pirate Grog even cure scurvy and seasickness, respectively.
I think they would also work really well for themed kids parties (like a pirate party, or a Monsters Inc. party, or maybe even a Halloween party).
Or add some booze to them, and have them at themed non-kid parties (the grog is just asking to be turned into a rummy daiquiri).
Pirate Grog
500 ml vanilla almond milk
250 ml pureed fresh kiwis
250 ml pear juice
zest and juice of one lime
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp spirulina
Put everything in a blender and blend!
Serve chilled. Makes apx. 1 litre juice.
Monster Goo
500 ml vanilla almond milk
250 ml pureed fresh or frozen blueberries
250 ml pear juice
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp spirulina
Put everything in a blender and blend!
Serve chilled. Makes apx. 1 litre juice.
Warning: If you add in the Spirulina, it will significantly boost the health quotient of these beverages BUT it is very expensive and will turn these from bright fun colours (lime green and purple) into dark foreboding ones (slime green and black). That’s kinda the look we were going for (stomach turning actually - although the ginger acts as a natural and highly effective anti-nauseant) as we were capitalizing on the current, incredibly successful, trend in gross-out marketing for kids (bloody zit slushie anyone?). But if you want to save a bit of money, and your stomach, you may want to skip it.
I am such a food nerd.
I am a food nerd, cause right now I am sooooo excited because I am watching Racheal Ray and Giadda Dilaurentis duke it out, Iron Chef style (with Batali and Flay by their side). And Mo Rocca’s a guest judge!
I’m betting Giadda will win. She’s actually a trained chef - where as Ray is more of a personality that happens to cook. Plus (as I said in class just the other day), I’m not Italian but I aspire to cook like one.
Also, I cleaned out the freezer and I’m letting a huge pork loin defrost.
Also, I completely ACED my fast food project. I mean, come on. Make food? For credit? Me? Puh-lease. Like I’m not going to rock that. I’ll share my recipes for that soon (I was actually asked to by my classmates - how sweet is that?)
And so now school is done, for the term.
Whew. I really need the Food Channel at a time like this.
On agenda for today:
1. Answer age old question: How do you keep an egg dropped from 8 feet from breaking using only a sheet or two of white card-stock and white glue?
(Yep, I’ve been assigned an egg drop in my Form and Structure class)
2. Figure out what an egg drop has to do with illustration.
(Probably something to do with it being a challenge, and coming up with creative interpretations and solutions and whatever - but I mean, really, isn’t this a 10th grade physics class thing?)
3. ‘Design’ a recipe for an innovative, and original fast food that can be served in 28 single serving portions to every student in my Design Process class and will appeal to 17 year old tastebuds and win Iron-Chef-style food-off.
4. Figure out what designing a fast food has to do with being an illustrator.
5. Ignore the fact that fast food assignment is basically excuse to grade class on throwing a term end party (too bad no one’s of age, otherwise my recipe would involve large quantities of booze).
6. Blow apx. fifty bucks on supplies I’ll never use again.
I haven’t slept in days.
So now that my classes are almost (so close) over, right now I’m looking up my professor’s websites.
(The internet is a wonderful thing.)
Check out some of my Design Process prof’s stuff here. As someone who grew up visiting a ridiculously quaint and pretty much iconic little 100 year old log cabin cluttered with mid-century-design cast-offs, ancient (museum-quality) comestibles, lost cross-country-skis and rock collections - I gotta say I really love the idea of riffing on cabin culture as an aspect of Canadian identity. So I think this is a great idea for a collaborative/concept design show.
And my very own, Prof. Erdmann’s designs are pretty much the best ones.
And his head-shot makes him look ridiculously adorable (which I don’t remember from his class).
Now I understand why he gave me such good marks. I think we have a very similar approach to designing things. He’s all about repurposing and whimsy, and being self referential, while at the same time juxtaposing contrasts. Mee Too (for example: I just did a project in my Graffiti class, where I stuck Marie Antoinette on a skateboard - figuratively and literally. It was a skateboard design, so I put her on a board, and gave her a little I *heart* sk8rs* t-shirt and pink converses, and drew her in the style of Mary Blair).
Sometimes, Liam works with my Graffiti prof’s design studio, and doesn’t even realise it, which is weird. They both do treatments for the same production company. What’s also weird is how corporate a lot of their design work is - nice clean graphic work for big companies - but he’s teaching me Graffiti. Although, I think he keeps trying to push old school methods (like not using a computer for anything and actually breaking out a pen and paper) on us ’cause in the real world he’s forced to go digital so often. Vector work is technically convenient and is pretty hot right now, but it lacks soul - and again this is where he and I get along very well.
I’ve spent the last 2 months thinking of nothing but how I can get myself out of Art School, but occasionally I am reminded of it’s advantages… Even if it is that I have more in common with my Professors than my fellow students…