When I am feeling stressed and overwhelmed to the max (like I am today), I like to look at Lisa Hanawalt’s art work.  A few years ago, I was in my favorite comic book shop in Vancouver, Lucky’s Comics, and I ran across a copy of her mini-comic Stay Away From Other People and immediately fell in love.  I still look at it all the time and laugh my head off and wish I could be like her when I grow up.  Her art and writing makes me feel good.  I like her weird animal drawings so much I want to get a tattoo of one someday if I ever get brave enough to get a tattoo.  This would probably be my third, or maybe fourth or fifth tattoo.  I would get it on my leg or possibly my butt cheek.

Anyway, I love her work and I want to buy some more.

Her illustrated recipe for soup was printed in saveur.com and pretty much makes me want to be a better person.  It is the most fun I have ever had reading a recipe and it should be hereby ruled that forevermore every recipe in the world shall be illustrated like this.  Because reading recipes is friggen boring as hell.  So, in summation, if you like cooking, or soup, or even just skating around your kitchen with onion skins tied to your feet, I strongly encourage you to check it out.

And if you’re super stressed to the max and that doesn’t work, there’s always beer.  My new favorite is Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA.

THE END.

I love this artist.  Hanoch Piven does portraits of famous people, constructed out of mainly rudimentary supplies and household items.  I think he’s a genius.  Thought it would be remiss not to share.

Also, more paper art sites:

This guy is amazing.  And my facebook friend!!!

Elod Beregszaszi

That’s all for now!

Here are my three ads for Red Hook Beer.  I don’t know anything about Photoshop, so I learned a lot today. I enjoyed coming up with funny ideas to go with pictures, and made a few extra ones, which I will post below.

I think the most challenging part of the process was finding the correct image / word combo.  At the start of class, Andrew put bacon on the overhead projector (actually, it was an image of bacon, not *actual* bacon), and then I thought “Hey! Bacon is trendy right now! And it sorta goes with beer!” so I sketched out a few ideas and went with it.

As part of my creative process I need to put pencil to paper, so I made a few little drawings and wrote out some slogans I thought might work.

These might not be good.  I feel proud of how the “fat kid” one turned out.  The main thing is, this was my first shot at using Photoshop and I hate computers, so I perceive the fact that I didn’t throw a chair through a window and tear my sweater “hulk-style” as positive forward movement.

Last but not least, feast your eyes upon a slideshow that adequately sums up my interests (beer, bacon, kitties, bacon shoes, Spiderman, Diet Coke, fun-wigs, and people).  I hope you have at least a moderately fun time watching this riveting and informative slideshow.

[slideshow]

Co.Design

My number one favorite blog that I visit every day (I subscribe and get their daily emails) is Co.Design.  I don’t remember how I originally found this site, I think by accident, but it is so good.  I get a lot of inspiration from it.

Co.Design is so effective for me because it has a very organized layout and great articles.  It is easy to scan on a daily basis for relevant information, but really all of their articles are good.  I have been reading this blog for about a year or so and have gleaned a lot of valuable information from it.  I highly recommend subscribing and getting their daily emails.

Art Fixx

Another one that I subscribe to is Daily Art Fixx.

I also subscribe to this one and get their daily emails.  I like how they send me a daily overview of only ONE artist at a time.  The emails contain a short biography and a few samples of the artist’s work.  From Caravaggio to Annie Leibovitz, the information is always really interesting and easy to read in short time.

ArtFinder

I believe ArtFinder is associated with ArtFixx, but it seems to have more of a focus on painting and photography.  I like that they have a search function on their website for where to find art in your area.  I don’t get the emails from them on a daily basis yet, but still pop into their site frequently.

ArtFinder is less design-focused but sometimes I like that.  Since I have a background in fine arts, I find this inspiring in its own way too.

Here are links to a few others:

http://ffffound.com/

http://designspiration.net/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

http://www.chasejarvis.com/

http://friendsoftype.com/

http://www.thedieline.com/

Tyler Potts was born on June 9, 1993, on Whidbey Island, about 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle.  Do not be fooled by her young age!  Her relationship with the camera began early.  Tyler was first introduced to photography while modeling for her mother, who was taking a photography class.  She got her first camera as a 13^th birthday gift from her mom.  That was on June 9, 2006!  One of her biggest influences has been her mother, who got her whole family together to raise the money for her equipment costs.  We think Tyler’s mom is pretty neat.

Tyler didn’t need no photography classes.  She is self-taught, and already had two art shows on Whidbey Island before finishing high school.  She has sold no less than 8 pieces and wants to make a career out of photography.  This is what she was put on Earth to do and she will stop at nothing to make it happen.

Growing up in a very small community, Tyler quickly learned that there were advantages like more opportunities, living in the city.  So, she decided to apply to Seattle Central Creative Academy.  She continued to work at an art store on the island during her one year on the waitlist, learning as much as she could about photography.  Now she is living with her aunt, while she keeps the dream alive.  Growing up in a small town taught her to keep her friends close and her enemies closer.

“That’s the thing about living in a small town,” she said. “You never know who you might need to, like, call on for help, and when, y’know?  I was the cheer captain of my school.  Only 30 out of 70 people graduated.  That’s a small town for ya.”

She hasn’t done a lot of travelling yet, but her strangest travel experience happened when she was visiting a friend in Arkansas.  While standing outside a restaurant after dinner, she started chatting with a fella about being from the Seattle area.  When the topic of the Sonics basketball team came up, things got heated.

“He just started insisting the Sonics moved to Oklahoma in 2005 and I know it was 2008 because that year I was in seventh grade and I know it was later than that,” Tyler reported, twirling her hair. “But he kept, you know, insisting that it was in ’05 and I kept insisting it wasn’t and before you knew it, we were fighting on the street and he pulled out a gun.  It was really scary.”

Amongst many other things, Tyler would love to get a Bachelor’s degree in photography at Seattle University, and then get another Bachelor’s in History.  Then she’s gonna take off to Europe and travel and go scuba diving.  After she makes her first million, she plans to buy her mom a mansion and a Ferrari and a Mark Wahlberg as payback for all her love and endless support over the years.

As we speak, young Tyler is somewhere on the 5^th floor, dreaming and talking, dreaming and talking, dreaming and talking her heart out about conspiracy theories, tattoos, mermaids, UFOs and anything strange and magical.

I love the idea of two photographers sharing the same roll of film.  Photographers Stephanie Bassos and Timothy Burkhart created a photo blog where each image is a double exposure.

http://peoplevsplaces.tumblr.com/