Links Round Up!

Woah! Hey guys! I am sorry I have been so out for so long! (Like 3 weeks long!) That exam was indeed killer, but we will see how it goes.. Anyway, I am back to school! And although there are so many inspiring and fun things here (sometimes I wake up and just think, “Is this my life? This is so awesome!?”), I need to STAY FOCUSED. That line under my blog name says that I am going from engineering to industrial design, and DAMN STRAIGHT I AM GOING TO DO IT. I am going to do it even if it kills me. (That is so intense! I did not mean to be that intense, but maybe like %87 of the intenseness. Wait, yes I did mean it to be that intense! I’m getting in, dammit!)

On an unrelated note, now that I’m back to school I made an observation about engineering classes:
It is so weird how for years and years, throughout high school and my general life I would not feel at all sheepish to wear the ‘flamboyant’ clothes that I did. White, slouchy, 80’s leather boots – I wore them in high school. Lacy pirate blouse – yep, own it.

Anyway, as a future artist/designer, that totally makes sense. BUT, these past few years, I kept asking myself “Why do I slowly end up dressing more boring in school?” And coming back after a summer of doing art, it is more obvious than ever! I’ve realized the reason of why I feel just can’t wear as crazy clothes in engineering classes: It just doesn’t ‘fit’/make sense to wear outfits that are high maintenance in those situations.

It is not because I’m not confident enough or because I feel I would be looked down on, or because my classmates wouldn’t understand it… (although they wouldn’t..) ..  It really is because it would just be so out of place, wearing something bothersome or unnecessary+bothersome in an engineering class. Therefore, crazy blouses – still wear them. Hair wax and tinted lip baum – yep. High heels (even wedges, comfortable heels, etc.) – can’t wear! Too high maintenance. Fussy clothes – I never feel comfortable wearing them in class.

NOTE: Engineering girls out there! This is just me! If you can wear fussy things to eng classes, DO IT!! Being young and wearing crazy clothes is so fun. OWN those heels. Also, this obviously does not pertain to working engineering girls. Boys wear shirts and ties. We can wear fussy outfits and wedges to work if we damn well please.

Anyway, since it is Monday, I will do the link round up that I would’ve posted on Friday! I hope you all enjoy!

1. John Steinbeck on Falling in Love: A 1958 Letter. “If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.”  Here, ᔥBrainpickings.

2. The Sartorialist did some work for the new coach line, and trust me, I would be the last to say this (Coach generally isn’t my style), but these bags are all pretty damn beautiful. With their natural colors and their worn-leather potential, and classic styles, and unisex-ish aesthetic, I actually am really loving them. AND they got smart and hired The Sartorialist, who obviously did an awesome job (watch the video!).  photo here.

3. Marchesa’s Spring 2013 line. Not usually a huge Marchesa fan (they do crazy beautiful stuff, but I feel like they are not really artists. They always have the exact same aesthetic, and although its very marketable, I feel like they are never actually doing something new) BUT, this line is actually kinda cool.  It was inspired by 1960’s and Indian fashion and colors, both of which I approve of! Beautiful colors/flowy fabric + anything 1960’s  —> I am there. (↬@honestlywtf) photo here.

4. In general, I LOVE Bri’s advice page. I feel like she is telling me secrets, that I really shouldn’t tell anyone cause they are too good.

5. I know everyone’s been talking about this book, but it looks really fascinating.  It Will Be Exhilarating was written by the guys who made Glif, the famous ipod/iphone tripod attachments.  They’ve launched two successful Kickstarter projects, being a part of the new era of independent hardware manufacturing.
“This book was written to offer guidance and inspiration for those charting a similar path, and covers topics such as running a small business, creating hardware products independently, launching a Kickstarter project, and tips for promoting your products. Everything is told through the lens of our own experience.” (↬@swissmiss)  photo here.

6. Been reading Girl Crush Magazine again, and man!, these girls are awesome! Check out Ariele Alasko who is a furniture designer in Brooklyn.  Coming from being a girl in mechanical engineering, RESPECT. Also, coming from a girl who loves well-made furniture… (umm, Industrial design much?)  Here‘s her blog!

7. DIY – sliced shades! here.

8. Kelli Anderson is one of my top personal and professional role models.  Here’s her TEDxPhoenix talk.

9. Cool colorful print called Coda, found here.

Art/Design Round Up

So, I’ve decided to try a new thing where every Wednesday I feature some art, artist, designer or piece that has been super inspiring for me. This week its this amazing piece found on Designcrushblog.com by artist Kent Rogowski. The piece is called ‘Everything I Wish I Could Be’.

To me, this is a piece that I wish I thought of. (Especially when looking a my last post, which was a piece I made driven by the idea of books and what they can mean or represent to different people) I love the cream on cream, and the use of pre-existing materials (just in general though, I love when artists reuse pre-existing materials…), and the meaning in everyday objects, and the lack of cheesy-ness, but honesty, that the piece has. Its so freakin visually compelling.

Describing his work, Rogowski says,

“I had been thinking about how people deal with moments of pain and change in their lives and knew that I wanted to explore this in my work. I started collecting self help books and realized that there was literally a book for every moment in life: from relationship advice to dealing with a midlife crisis. I liked the idea that I could create images that would represent individual moments in life using the books that were written to soothe and help with those moments.”

Fascinating, I think. And maybe a not-harsh or embarrassing look at self-help books, which I find is so often seen whenever the genre is mentioned in the media and in life.

Traveling Into the Crevasse

Here is a work-in-progress that I have been working on for the past week or so. I am taking a part-time sculpture class at the moment to get my portfolio going, and so far it is totally working! Here’s a piece I am half done, for an assignment for class.

The challenge was to re-purpose a book into a sculptural piece. The piece I made is a book with a hand-cut, 3-dimentional crevasse running through the centre. It is made from an old encyclopedia, which was a bit heartbreaking to destroy, but I think worth it. Alas, art is pain.

To create the piece I used an exacto knife, plus 5 re-fill blades, and a piece of matt-board (to protect the pages underneath). Right now, I have cut through 437 pages, so only 163 left to go! (When its done I’ll post a picture, but ideally the crevasse will just continue throughout the pages.) Just a warning: If you are planning to do something similar, be sure to stock up on movies. The first 300 pages or so took more than two Wes Anderson movies to complete…

Anyway, the piece was created to give the idea of: interest and fascination in something most would find boring. Most people assume that no one reads about fluid mechanics or organic chemistry for fun. People assume that in-depth math and science is too dry for even those who are practiced scientists or engineers. But there are so many people who are passionate about science and math. For some people, math and science connects with them the way that an ink drawing never can.

People who read textbooks for interest’s sake exist! I find that because many of them may not be inclined towards the arts, their stories are never told to the masses. Anyway, this was my attempt to take something some may find boring – a resource, a text – and show the idea of engrossment and escapism even into this kind of a world. Scientists, engineers and mathematicians have hearts, too. And their fascinations are incredible.

Do you find something fascinating that no one else really gets? For me it was the arts and couture techniques and sculptural installations, in and around a world of engineers. Let me know in the comments below!

p.s. The title of this post is totally a 30 Rock reference. No bigs.

This Week’s Round Up

Photo is found here.

1. So, Etsy (if you haven’t heard of etsy, then I am super appalled.) has these amazing video series’. One is ‘Handmade Portraits’, another is ‘There’s no place like here’, etc. Anyway, they are all so fascinating and interesting and beautifully shot, to me. Anyway, since I was recently trying to re-scare myself into working on my art, I was looking up ID grad schools. When I was watching RISD videos, I came across this ‘No Place Like Here’ etsy video again that I hadn’t seen in a while, but it is so cool! …love RISD… AND I MUST GET IN…

2. Another great artist, is sculpture artist AJ Fosik! He makes these amazing 2-Dim -> turned 3-Dim pieces, reminiscent of chinese dragon costumes, and totally intriguing, different and fierce. Here’s an interview with him, too.

3. If you are looking for inspiration, or just want to look up the art available at a specific gallery, this (the Google Project) is so cool and useful. Great art resource.

4. I read this ages ago, but its so freakin’ funny and TRUTH! I had to post it: The NOGOODFORME Guide to Picking Up Girls. Ladies, how much does it annoy when a guy (OR ANY PERSON) or another lady, if you swing that way, lists their “Coolness Resume”? A “Coolness Resume” tots exists and I’ve had it listed to me SO MANY times I want to rip a carpets’ hair out. And then, after someone lists their “coolness resume”, you have to make yours up on the spot (or worse. you actually have one, too.), and we all know how last-minute resumes go. They have an oil stain on them and you don’t get the (well-dressed man) pro-job you deserve, but are maybe planning to turn down anyway cause he’s not that great of a talker.
This metaphor is getting weird. Anyway, I AM UNIMPRESSABLE! Just don’t do it.

Anyway, there are so many good parts of this post, but my favorite quote is:

“Do not list your “Coolness Resume”. Because it’s not going to work. I am unimpressable. When I meet you, I don’t want to hear you list off bolded points from your “coolness resume.” Why do people have to have coolness resumes? It’s such a big part of dating in 2010, and it’s so uncool. Coolness resumes are chock full of boring and pointless information I don’t care about such as: a semi-whimsical and poorly-executed description of the (weak) concept driving your rock band, worst-case-scenario segueing into some drivel regarding “your musical influences” (No musical influences. Never tell me your musical influences.), and just all the normal garbage that makes me want to walk home quickly and swear off men forever: who you know and where you go and bad art and how hard you partied last night. How hard you partied last night- that one’s the worst. I am so turned off by the contemporary impulse to try and encapsulate everything notable you’ve ever done/ all of your most captivating personality traits within the first four minutes of meeting someone you find somewhat attractive at a bar. Let’s just talk about what we did today and share funny anecdotes from our respective adolescences and discuss what foods we like to eat and what zodiac signs we are. I will figure out that you are cool in the long-run if I like you. (Laura Jane)”

5. I’m really sorry, plebians. Ira Glass two weeks in a row. Except I’m actually not sorry. His top picks from Boarders!

6. So, Readlist is “A group of web pages—articles, recipes, course materials, anything—bundled into an e-book you can send to your Kindle, iPad, or iPhone.”, and lucky for you and I, the amazing, extraordinary, cool Tina Roth-Eisenburg (aka swissmiss) has made her own Readlist for Students, which I am slowly savoring, absorbing and reading through.

7. One of my favorite artists ever is the famous Steve Powers. He is weird, and that is so normal. And he does not give an EF what the world thinks of his hair or his Love Letters to New York. EF ya Steve Powers!

8. Colin Jack is just such a fabulous illustrator. He’s so earnest and shy and real-childhood-y, and still fun and silly. This is one of my favorite’s of his. Also, this:

9. I have wanted this book since it came out. Basically, I have wanted this book forever. Even before I knew I wanted it. Fully, I am As deep. As. Stefan Stagmeister.  !

Enjoy! Happy Friday :)