I actually have a few last projects from OCAD that I haven’t posted. This one is pretty much one of my favourites.
It’s a personal uniform. A me-niform, if you will.
The goal of the assignment was to design a uniform for yourself that addresses your daily needs as well as your style and personality. Something you would be willing to wear everyday for the rest of your life, if necessary.
Rather than whip up something bland and utilitarian, I decided to go a more traditional route, and did some research on some of my favourite historical uniforms (namely, sailors suits, Pan-Am stewardess outfits, and the classic Girl Scout look). You can see that I chose to use such old fashioned elements as buttons and dresses and layers (rather than futuristic pockets, cyber-fabrics and embedded technology). I love vintage clothing, so why not incorporate my interests into my outfit? Plus, buttons are sturdier and last longer than other fasteners, and switching them out can instantly update a look.
When it came time to present, I turned my process sketches into a little magnetic paper doll so I could show how interchangeable and layerable my pieces were (I *heart* paper dolls soooooo much!!!).
Oh yeah, you know I got a good mark on this one.
I’m pretty much firmly entrenched in a “Don’t look at me! I’m hiiiiideous!” moment in my life right now.
Don’t worry, it’s more a ugly on the inside that I’m feeling (not that I’m feeling top notch on the outside - but my haircut is growing out pretty cute, and I just got all dolled up for my cousins wedding last week, so my self esteem on that front is at least higher than it is low right now).
It’s mostly just a vast feeling of insecurity about my art skills. And the only reason I feel so insecure about them is because I, quite frankly, don’t feel much like flexing or using them these days.
I mean, look at that handsome man up there in the picture. You see that cute little tee he’s wearing? With the little retro teevee? Yep, that’s all me. I designed the little logo, and ironed it on to a colour co-ordinated shirt. I made it and it’s pretty awesome.
I do good work. Work that impresses people. They tell me so. I mean, we all know that the reason that I quit OCAD had nothing to do with marks (even if most people think it’s crazy to quit something you’re doing well at).
But for the past few months I’ve been having trouble actually doing any.
Work, that is.
I just can’t force myself to sit down and draw right now.
My brain won’t do it even though it also knows I won’t get any better, and indeed will actually start to go downhill in my suckage if I don’t pick up a pen to retain my hand/eye co-ordination (let alone my life drawing/proportion/line control skills).
Worst of all, I’m letting myself be totally intimidated by people who in other times would have simply inspired me.
There are the Team Machos of the world who balance incredible technical skill with mind-blowing creativity and an intensely obscure and mind-boggling sense of humour.
Not too long ago I got to sit in their studio, and sift through their work, and stare at their wall of wacky found art and inappropriate polaroids and pat their twenty three toed feral cat (named Punchy). Tell me that’s not completely overwhelming. And I got invited to come study with a member of the collective for a session or two - but I totally chickened out.
Then there’s all the Hopes, Roses, and Lucys of the world. Incredibly talented and incredibly YOUNG girls- way younger than me even, and they’ve all already graduated from incredible schools and had amazing jobs and/or published work and/or critical acclaim. And they’re girls in a (until very recently) incredibly male dominated industry. Way to rock that boat!
Which says nothing of how much I respect their drawing abilities - the strong, clean, beautiful and very personal images they create. I would give anything to be able to use line the way they do.
Although to be honest, I know I could do the same if I just WORKED at it.
But I let myself get intimidated instead.
In short: I suck!
I kinda knew that it was going to be even harder to motivate myself to work after dropping out of school than it was while was in school, so I could see this coming really (no terms or deadlines to encourage me - not that they ever really did a great job of doing that in the first place).
And I’m in this for the long run, so on the short term I feel like this is a moment in my life I will totally overcome.
But looking at the long term I know I’ve got to WORK to find a solution to this. I can’t just let this moping become my life.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how me being at Art School was like playing a shell game.
An awful lot of people were selling it awfully hard. And it seemed like some of them had made a go of it (though usually under much different circumstances). And yeah I was doing very well on my first attempt. Very very well. I won my first try. I found the nut under the shell. I won.
But I looked around at an awful lot of the artists I respect, and they claim to be ’self taught’ and do very well for themselves. Some of them were even my professors.
And the first question I would ask anyone is: do you need a degree to be an illustrator? And the answer would always be a resounding no.
The second question I’d ask is: Why does none of this make sense? Why am I not learning here? And their answer would be: You’ll understand when you graduate. When you get out there in the real world. When you start working.
Funny thing is, I already have some experience with the real world…
And I know, I know, that ultimately it was just a waste of my money. All I really want, or need is some more life drawing experience. And OCAD had cut life drawing in first year down to almost nothing. And I can find life drawing classes (without disgruntled professors who force me to draw with messy charcoal) for 10 bucks a pop throughout the city. And I can go (or not go) whenever I feel like it.
I’m smart enough and strong enough to be an artist on my own without gambling my time away at shell games.
Because the wisest move you could make in a shell game is to walk away.
This was an assignment for my 3D form and structure class - we were given a 2D drawing of a top elevation of an object, and we had to build it out in 3D and turn it into a functional, household object.
I made a bento box (a Japanese serving tray for sushi) out of different thicknesses of illustration board. I glued it together and sprayed it red (hence my current affection for spraypaint).
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.
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…
How’s art school Beth?
You know, the place you’ve been waiting months and months and months to attend?
Is it wonderful and amazing and inspiring and awesome?
How do you like it…?
Do you like it…?
Hrrmmm… Ummm… Well… How to go about this…
Ah…. I guess…
Nope.
It sucks.
First year sucks.
I knew that going into it, but MAN does it ever suck.
I mean, I’m doing pretty well… Actually, very well. Very, very well indeed.
But… Well, here’s an anecdote for you:
I am 24 years old.
My wittle, adorable, baby brother is 17 (though we like to tell him he’s 13).
That’s a 7 year age difference.
He just entered college this year.
So did all the people who I am am in first year with at OCAD, who are all also 17.
We had this Liberal Studies class on primitivism and exoticism and eroticism - in other words, a lot of images of nudes - but stylized ones, like Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Some boys sitting behind me giggled their way through the lecture. It was as though they had never seen a naked person before. And then I realized that there was a good possibility that they never had.
How exactly are these kids going to handle life drawing if they can’t even handle cartoon boobies?
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