Memoir part two

I like my first memoir project better, but this time  played around a little more with the words and how I can make them follow a line i just drew.  If i can learn to draw nicer lines that will come in handy soon.

Those kids take after their parents exactly!

Its really exciting how I got to do this project three different times because the computers kept freezing up.  That just makes anything frustrating.

So these are my two icons and I really hope I got this right.  Don't remember where the paper was with the icons on it, but I do remember there being one for no smoking so I decided that was a safe bet.  Besides, I am all for not smoking myself.  The first icon shows thread and a needle.  I've always liked to sew.  I got it from my mom who got it from her mom.  I guess something about having at least three sewing machines in our house at all times helped out with that one.  I mean I'm not very good but it is something that I really enjoy doing and sewing was pretty much the first creative hobby that I had. 

Tech Center

It is official.  The tech center hates me.  I finished all my projects last night and as i was figuring out the best way to save it all, the computer froze.  I had to put up with that colorful spinning wheel for 15 minutes before the tech guy had to shut it off and I lost everything.  On the bright side, I am a MASTER at making little families of shapes.  As of right now I am pulling an all-nighter to get my folios completed.  I am so tired I am having a lot of trouble moving my fingers to the right keys.  But at the same time, if I can pull this off and not collapse mid-critique, I'm going to be very happy.  Wish me luck!

Art Lecture

So I literally just got back from our lecture, where Candy Depew talked about her work with silkscreen and molds and bikes.  I found this to be exceptionally interesting.  I had always been interested in the same type of art and hearing about her life kind of inspired me.  That is very similar to what I want to be doing when I grow up. So much that I am tempted to email her and later on in my schooling, try to be an intern.  I’m not going to lie; the past lectures we had I would often doodle and concentrate more on my 2-D sketches, but I was just so involved in what she was saying; even when she got sidetracked and talked about bikes at the bottom on the canals in Amsterdam.  Another thing that got my attention was her variety in work.  She appeared as a graphic artist to me at first.  I mean she used solid colors and lines to make her images.  Then she got further along in her work and I realized how much variety she uses.  Such as Tony Hawks skateboard for example.  The design on that was so beautiful and romantic in my opinion.  Then she had molds.  Some complex and some simple, going back to that graphic look.  Then she showed us her fabric, and not just her silk screens but I was amazed with the dress she gave the ballerina who performed at one of her exhibits. The fabric was very bunched up together and had little form, but I thought it was beautiful.  And in general, she seems like an awesome person.  I mean she’s an artist who works with skaters and punk rockers.  I’m not too into either one of those things myself, but its still pretty cool.

The Met!!

So this was my first trip to the met. Ever.  I cannot describe a more perfect day.  I got to explore the met, I strolled around central park talking about music and art with a friend, and, finally,  I really just experienced New York on my own for the first time.  Every other time I went up there I would be with my mom who, despite my adult age of 18, would not let me out of her sight.  I don't think I need to even begin talking about how AMAZING everything at the met is.  I was so awed by everything.  And, I really enjoyed our tour with Professor Kline.  The art seems even more interesting when he talks about it.

At one point I also got to see european art and was completely mesmerized by a Van Gogh painting for about 10 minutes.  I literally could not look away.  The way he mixes his color to show dawn is absolutely gorgeous.  But I digress.It was an amazing trip and I cannot wait to go again.

Some pics from the museum and central park... 

Memoir

This assignment was a little frustrating.  It took a while to figure out how to put the final picture on my actual blog.  Other than that though, I enjoyed playing with the Illustrator.  On this particular picture, I used an effect to make the image look like water since my memoir involved a pool.  I chose this memoir because it represents my life very well and also there was no way to incorporate goggles to these pictures and this project.   

Awesome Links!!

http://www.betterphoto.com/gallerytocdynosub.asp?cat=12 This is a new discovery I made.  It has a lot of really nice photos in it and I love photographs more than anything.  I love exploring angles to make something look completely original. 

 http://www.fashion.net/            It’s a lot more than just fashion.  There is a whole section on art.  But everything is so beautiful.

http://www.cytwombly.info/ I did my 11^th grade research paper on this guy.  I didn’t understand his work, much like I don’t understand a lot of modern art, so I decided to have it be my topic.  Turns out, there is a lot of meaning that goes behind his work and it is all just so big and epic and beautiful.  That research paper also taught me to look for meaning in modern art in general.  I just like to check out his website every once in a while to see if he has anything new. 

http://www.stumbleupon.com This is kind of awesome.  You sign on with like a username and all and it lists different things you’re interested in and click start stumbling and it just shows your pictures and clips from different websites.  For example: I chose art and it took me to this video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv8kNTH-KDY&feature=player_embedded

This actually brings me to my last website.  It is not the most creative, but it is amazing and I don’t need a link because I am pretty sure everyone knows what YouTube is.  YouTube is fantastic because it is so easy to use.  The other day, I looked up Xerox transfers and learned how to do that via YouTube.  It is truly a great thing.

MET

Trip to the Met tomorrow!!! Stay tuned for details.

My Days at Art School

I speak honestly when I say I have never been this tired.  I mean the other night I went to bed at four o’clock.  I feel bad for my roommate for having to put up with me.  Also, I can feel myself becoming highly addictive to coffee.  I know its bad for me, but I really need the caffeine to make it through the day.  And I haven’t even started with the actual projects yet.  It’s all just homework at this point.  So far, I think 2-D is the hardest class.  When I get an idea for one of the spreads I can usually get the image down within an hour or two but its just so hard to come up with a successful piece that fits in to a principle, theme and medium.  I do learn a lot in that class though.  I mean i didn't know what figure ground was before. I'm also excited to start this new project we got.  I mean if it was as much fun as spreading around maps while they were being photocopied then I will really enjoy the rest of the project. But for now I'm still just getting an idea for what I want to do.  Drawing is a good class.  We will be drawing our first model next week.  I am a newbie when it comes to models and I'm a little nervous, I'm not going to lie.  But in that class, I like how my pieces in that class I can see are progressively getting better.  3-D takes the cake though.  I love that class.  Seriously, the five hours go by so quickly.  I love when I can go to a class and just go to work.  I put in headphones and just go.  I am tuning in to my inner artist as well as exploring the untouched songs on my iPod.

All in all, as stressful and tiring it can be, I’m really glad I’m here.

My introduction

Hello Everyone!

My name is Lindsay Thompson.  I am from Reading, PA, which is only like an hour and a half away.   My life story when it comes to art is that I wanted to be a fashion designer since I was in the third grade.  I started drawing ridiculous outfits on computer paper and notebooks and once even tried making one.  A little advice, don’t expect an outfit to turn out well when your only ten years old and had no sewing experience whatsoever.  Anyway, that was the only thing I would really draw, then in tenth grade I realized that I might need to take an art class if I was going to make it.  So junior year I took my first art class and realized that it wasn’t fashion but art in general that I really loved.  So I started going in a new direction and here I am.

Other things I like are swimming, water polo, my friends, music, movies and art (obviously).  

My Reaction to Helvetica...

... Also know as Die Neue Haas Grotesk

I honestly never paid attention, but Helvetica really is everywhere.  I think the next time I’m walking in the city I’m going to be paying attention and looking for the font.   It actually opens my eyes similar to how the fountainhead made me pay attention to different modernistic architecture.  I also think it is just surprising how passionate people are about not just Helvetica and about typeface in general.  Some of the speakers seem to really love looking at fonts and seeing how they help display a message, like how Matthew Carter thought the horizontal terminals in the “a,” “e,” “g,” and “c.”  I admire that because I never would look at something so simple and see art as he does. 

Matthew Carter was a big fan of Helvetica, as many others are, but others seemed almost offended by it.  On that note, I will disagree with Erik Spiekerman and say that I do like Helvetica.  He makes a point how writing is supposed to be like handwriting, and how Helvetica just goes against that concept completely, but I think there is a nice simple look to it.  I mean it is legible and you can really get an idea across with it.  Wim Crouwel said, “the meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface and that’s why we loved Helvetica very much.”  This is the one quote that really stuck out for me.  I couldn’t agree more.  The point in words is to get a message across and it is easier to do that when were not distracted by how the word itself looks.  

My six-word memoir

I have a few ideas for this memoir.  First I need to explain how I have been a swimmer since I was practically a baby.  My brother swam and my sister swam after him so I didn’t have much of a choice.  However, I must give my 5-year-old self some credit because swimming is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  I learned so much, stayed healthy, stayed out of trouble and most important, made great friends.  If I could go back I would do it all over again, even the practices that made me cry with pain.  I mean, when my senior year was over I was happy that swimming was over along with it.  Then I quickly realized how much I missed it and went to many optional practices and jumped at the option to be on the club team here at Temple.  So it was obvious that I wanted my memoir to relate to my experience as a swimmer.  My choices are as follows:

1: Life began on a starting block

2:My life began in a pool

3:Its best to just dive in (I think this relates to life and pool.  It relates to the pool because the water is usually freezing and the faster you get in the better)

4:Home is where the goggles are

I think I am leaning more for the fourth one just because it’s true.  I even brought my goggles to school.  As of right now I’m still deciding.  

My reaction to REmiX MaNifestO

First, in response to this video, and please excuse my language, but Girl Talk kicks ass! I want to know where he plays.  I mean I would really enjoy one of his concerts. Second, this video makes me feel a little rebellious.  Third, I never realized how secretive our society is.  Maybe secretive is the wrong word.  How about greedy? I feel like the people who claim to own these songs and ideas are just super lazy and are trying to find ways to make a quick buck.  Either that or they truly think EVERYTHING is plagiarized.  Really though, how are we supposed to make advancements when every building block is already an original idea and therefore off limits?  

Personally, I wouldn’t mind if someone made a mash-up of one of my hit songs.  I would be flattered that they liked my work enough to add it to their creation.  It’s the same thing with taking the sound of a song and making it your own.  I think its a crime how The Rolling Stones can sue the Verve for their song “Bittersweet Symphony.”  It’s ridiculous how after they won the trial, they sold the lyrics to Nike.  IT WASN’T THEIR WORK TO SELL.  And if every song was copyrighted, there would be no genres of music. For example: I don’t know who the first rapper was; but if he copyrighted his music, I feel like every rap song after that would be breaking those copyright laws.  There would be no rap music today because it already sounds like the original. I think rather than fighting the music or art or anything, people should just appreciate the fact that they have more than one thing to listen to or to look at that is appealing to them.