the alphabet

I love this typographic short film from n9ve.

success

I'm having to read this book for my Writing 101 course, and I've really enjoyed it. Supposedly it's my college's "common book" but I would recommend it to anyone. It's a fairly quick read, and it's an amazing story of success and inspiration. Let me tell you, it's really hard to write an essay critiquing an inspirational book! It's about this guy growing up in the ghetto, barely making it by, but his love of clay (he's a potter) brings him through college and then to create a world class arts center and job training facility (Manchester Bidwell) for underprivileged folks. He has won all kinds of awards and now he's working with President Obama. It's a pretty incredible story, one of my favorite quotes was this:

"I'm convinced by the experience of a lifetime, responsible pursuit of things that really matter- to the spirit, to the soul- is the best and most reliable path to genuine success in the world" 

There's a nice quote to start your next day with 

ponder it!

xoxo

spring flowers

maybe it's just my overwhelming desire for spring, but I'm loving the beautiful flower arrangements in this video below done for West Elm...I also love West Elm. 

cataloged

some favorite looks from early spring catalogs and collections.

anthropologie

jcrew

  zara kids

free people

urban outfitters

ruche

real quick video goodness

Hey! Real quick before I sleep. The Sartorialist is partially responsible for me majoring in photography. So enjoy this interview if you know of his brilliance...and if you don't you need to google him :)

Oh sweet goodness.

xoxo.

support the cause!

Hey guys! It feels as though all my posts are starting to get later into the night, being as though it's the only time of day I have enough energy and time to devote to my blogging. Wednesdays are one of my busy days, as you can read in the post below! Just when I think the homework is final, they always seem to add more, but this weekend I will have some really exciting stuff for you to see, and so I hope you can check us out here this weekend!

Speaking of weekends, this past weekend was amazing in the fact that I went to two GREAT shows in both Charleston, SC and Charlotte, NC. They were both for one incredible cause, and I wanted to share the word with you. My amazing friend, and my high school Environmental Studies works for an organization called Restoring Eden (click the link!), and they do all sorts of amazing environmental work. They have paired up with ilovemountains.org to raise awareness about Mountain Top Removal, particularly in our beloved Appalachian Mountains. It is definitely something worth fighting for, and reading about. If you click on this link HERE you can sign the petition and join the cause on the right of their homepage. It's incredibly simple and it makes a big difference, so take a moment and do that please!

My wonderful boyfriend plays in a 3 piece indie rock band based here out of Charlotte, Older Brother, (they're amazing!) and they rocked out this weekend in two benefit shows for Ending Mountain Top Removal along with the talented Uncle Mountain of Asheville NC, Dewi Sant (from Minneapolis), and the incredible Wylie  from Charleston, South Carolina.

It was overall two great events, and the awareness it was able to spread for this cause makes it even better!

Older Brother at The Evening Muse in CLT

Photo Cred. Alex Albrecht

My January & Project One

Happy February!! I can't believe how fast January flew by, it's been a big month of big changes for me, and I'm excited to post things for you to see.
disclaimer: this is going to be a pretty long post :)


First of all I should give you the basics so you know what I've been up to. I just started college at a University here in SC to get my BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) with a concentration in Commercial Photography. It has such a great art department and I waited patiently for 6 months to start my classes and move into my dorm! But more about that later...

Let's see...one of the nice things about college is that you can most likely choose all your times and plan out each day...this is my concise schedule so that in future postings you understand what I mean when I say 8 am's will be the death of me :)

Monday & Wednesday
Wake up at 7
8:00 am- Art History (Renaissance-Present)
Break (Einstein bagels & a chai latte mmm)
2:00-3:15 pm- Writing
3:30-6:15 pm- 3D Design I  (meaning 3D paper forms- this is a studio class so it lasts for 3 hours)

Tuesday
Sleeeeep
12:30 pm- 2D Design I (best class ever)
7:00 pm- ACAD 101 (freshman class)

Thursday
12:30 pm- 2D Design I

& no classes on Fridays!

So let's go on now to the more interesting stuff... Most of the projects I will be sharing the process of with you are from my 2D Design class, and I really hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do (you're going through the process with me but without any studio time :) pretty good deal!)
I apologize this post will be a little fast paced and random, to get you caught up on what's been up so far!

We got behind a lot because of the amazing snow days we had here in the southeast! This was our first little project on day 1 of 2D Design class. Simple dots of varying sizes to create interesting picture planes.

okay, finally PROJECT I

Our first project we had to search through magazines to find fonts that were interesting. Then cut out those letters, and trace them (like above) & photocopy them. The goal was to create 3 symmetrical, nearly symmetrical, and asymmetrical (no symmetry at all) designs of both squares and rectangles using the lines and curves of letters. So 18 designs in all. 

Using an exacto knife only (an art major's best friend) we had to cut out the photocopied letters. Let me just tell you now, just in case you were wondering, it is the most time consuming process ever! :) I spent more than 12 hours (6 on a friday, 6 on a saturday) doing this step alone. Oh the joys! 

I just recently turned these in on Friday morning, I was so proud of myself! I have never taken any basic art classes before, all the work was worth it. Even to gain the basic skills.

Here's a few of the finished works.

& that is all for tonight, goodnight :)

-The Quail Stitch