Meg and Doug's visit ...

I finally made it to the Art Institute Museum here downtown. Meg and Doug came for the weekend and I thought they would both appreciate the museum, so we figured what better time to be in a warm museum when it's 30 and rainy/snowy. We saw amazing works, so many famous recognizable pieces, it was especially cool for me to see having taken so many art history classes, to see the real works seemed so neat. Above are a few of the pics I took with my phone, we saw: Pollock, De Kooning, O'Keefe, Cassatt, Davis, "American Gothic" Lichtenstein!!, and so much more. Unfortunately the "modern" wing was closed, but guess that just means we will have to go back when Shannon visits. Dr. Collins would be proud.

About 20 minutes into our museum trip I found the room I had wanted to find.... Seurat's "A sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte". For anyone who has seen Ferris Bueller, you  know they come to the museum and pose with statues, hold hands with a chain of students, and of course Cameron sits down and stares into this painting. The scene shows him starring, and then zooms in close, about 5 times until all you see is the tiny dots used to make up the image of the boy's face, (Seurat was the first to use pointilism), but it's my favorite scene from my favorite movie, so I was pretty excited to sit and contemplate my life just as Cameron does before he decides to "let his monkey off the leash"? perhaps. :) (Shannon will understand this)

Awesome.

Oh and the highlight of this trip was seeing someone famous! As we were waiting in the cold to get into the museum on the steps, Doug started to shake as he announced that Aziz Ansari was ahead of us in line. Ok this is a celebrity to us, maybe not to anyone else. He is one of the guys from "Human Giant" and has also been on "Flight of the Concords". He was there with his buddy from Best week ever, who later gave me a dirty look when I didn't see him and was trying to sneak a picture of Aziz on my phone, so I stopped and could only get this picture above of Aziz texting on a bench in the Asian art room. It's actually a pretty neat/sad picture, you just can't tell who it is, but I promise you it is:  

(Aziz is the one in the middle)

We had a good time at the museum, and I will definately be back...that is unless they find out that I am not a student at USC like I said I was to get the "student" price...hehe. The rest of the weekend was fun, we ate at great restaurants, went to fun bars, and even saw a bit of snow! 

Oh-Bama

Just a little photo I took on my way to work the day after the election. Many of the store fronts on the bus route were putting the front page of the paper up in their windows. It was obviously all everyone could talk about at work and many people sported their Obama Tees and buttons. It was pretty cool to say I was only a few miles from Grant park where the whole shindig went down. Unfortunately I am always exhausted and get home late, so making it to grant park...or even making it back before sunrise, was out of the question. I wished I could have gone, but it still felt pretty special to just be in the same city, and be around all the people now that are  so happy with how the election turned out. Luckily I can stay in this great city/country because if Palin was our VP I'd be sending my resume's to canada. Luckily, I don't have to.

awesome

please go to this. it's hilarious, even if you aren't a big nerd like me..

Halloween in Chi-Town

Halloween: Chicago really should be known for celebrating it like crazy. We went out to the bars and there wasn't one person not dressed up or one bar that was not packed. We had a good time, I was an 80's aerobic person, not biggest loser like i had planned, and my roommate was a Lion. We met up with our friend Mallory was a troll. The last picture is the guy i ran into in the bar who was coincidentally dressed as my workout partner. It felt like a movie, a really cute nice guy dressed the same as me--that our minds were on the same brainwave...and of course the girls he was around really didn't like me talking to him, haha. So that was the end of that fantasy meeting. Oh well. 

Concerts

Since I have been a resident of chicago, my first thing  I did when I got settled was to make calendars. Calendars of concerts and shows around chicago. So far I have only had time (and money) to make it to three shows. They were each really good and I hope to see so many more in the future. It's kinda hard coming from NO good music around your area  to so much it's overwhelming. So here are a few pics from the three so far.

1. Hot Chip at Metro

Seeing Hot Chip at Metro was my first show in Chicago. I bought the tickets and went on my own, cuz well the only (2) people I know couldn't go/don't like this kind of music. Im glad I went though. This was one crazy sweaty dance party. The guys from Hot Chip were really funny and entertaining and said "Chicago" funny with their english accents. The show was great, pretty long with a mix of new songs and old ones. Everyone was so into it and at the end giant balloons dropped from the ceiling while everyone was dancing in them. So great- wish I had had someone who'd appreciate that show with me there. 

2. Pinback at bottom lounge

I have always wanted to see a pinback show since I had started listening to them way back in the day. Finally on a sunday night I saw they were going to be at a place downtown. So i bought tickets and just went by myself. Im glad I got to see them, Rob Crow and Zach Smith sounded just as good as they sound on any album. The only thing that put a damper on the show was the people around me. These 5 overweight asians (Im not stererotyping, they were) who had obviously not been out in social situations much proceeded to stand right in front of me. Not only were they huge and blocked my view of the stage in this relatively small venue, but they started to thrash around like they got confused and thought this was a slipnot show. Sorry friends Pinback is mellow as can be. No headbanging allowed. To make matters worse the one largest guy had obviously ate something that didn't agree with him and had the worst smelling gas I have ever unfortunatley been witness to. There was no escaping them either, I moved to the right...they slid to the right. They were so annoying it forced me to leave before their encore. Oh well. 

3. Crystal Castles at Metro

Crystal castles was a great show. The place was really packed with crazy hipsters and you couldn't really get a view of the stage from anywhere but the music was so good that it really didn't matter. At first Lymbic System came on. They were really good, I suggest you download them if you want some soothing mellow music--not really the best pic to open for a crazy upbeat electronic show, but hey they were good. 

Finally Crystal castles came out, they had an amazing set up- so many electronic devices to make music on that I have no idea what they were, and a drum set. The show started and went fast.... almost disappointing though, they probably played maybe 6 songs and ran off stage and the lights came on. People next to me were mad, as were many others who waited to see them only play for a tiny bit. Nonetheless they sounded amazing and really got the crowd into it. I am so glad I saw them since I have been so obsessed with their music lately. 

{There will be many more to come in the future, hopefully I'll actually have someone to go with!}

Public transportation #1

Im completely stealing this from Meghan who stole it from the email Doug sent her, it's just too funny not to let everyone else read. Oh, and if anyone can sympathize with you Doug about public transportation and the crazies on it, it's me. Just yesterday a drag queen got on the bus, but I felt bad for him, because you could tell he was totally new at the whole looking like a woman thing. He was just more or less a man with a pony-tail and makeup. Poor guy, he'll get it soon enough.

From Doug's email to my sister:

"...Second, when I got on the bus Ben was on, so I sat down next to him. He was carrying kind of a crazy amount of stuff with him, as apparently today is the journal pot luck and he had to bring a bean salad to school (weird). Not happy about the situation, Ben says to me "I feel like a bag lady today." The thing is though, there was an actual bag lady sitting directly behind us. The cruel irony of this Brandeis-educated Jewish guy in a North Face jacket choosing that particular simile at that particular moment was apparently not lost on the woman, who tapped him on the shoulder and said, "You think you feel like a bag lady, I AM a bag lady!" She then held up a Clorox bottle, sealed only by a shred of cling wrap, that had some kind of red substance oozing out of the top of it and asked Ben to touch it. When he did, she asked him why he just touched anything people asked him to. Ben later confided to me that the bottle was strangely hot. She then asked me if I could read bad handwriting, and I replied that I sometimes could, so she pulled out a notebook and handed it to me. Written on it was a rap song about Obama, the election, the Constitution, and religion. It was a little nonsensical and hyperbolic in parts, but it completely flowed, she had a better vocabulary than most college freshmen (and she clearly hadn't used a thesaurus), and a shocking ability to spell. "I scribbled that out on the bus," she said. "Pretty good for a bag lady, huh?" I had to admit, it was."

By the way, if anyone has any other amazing stories involving public transportation, email me, I'd love to start a series of stories/photos on it.

Wasting time..

So I haven't really had much time to do anything now that I started work. I go to work, come home, make some dinner, try to squeeze in a run (although that hasn't been happening since I now need to wear underarmor leggings and earmuffs when I go running by the lake), and then usually collapse in bed no later than 10:00 pm. I am officially old and a loser. Oh well. But I seem to have more than enough time at work to do....oh anything and everything. My first week went by pretty fast, but the same isn't happening for the second. I am finding myself going to other people's cubes asking if they have anything for me to do...please! Im begging for work so I don't sit and stare at my computer, but hey I'm getting paid, and after listening to one man on the train at 6:00 saying how he was just going to his second job where he works till 3 in the morning, only to wake up for his first job at 6am... I'm thanking my lucky stars.
Well the weather is def changing. The leaves are all pretty and falling, and our street and sidewalks are lined with crunchy leaves. The temperature is also getting lower and lower each day it seems. Today was 40's when I woke up and was the first day there was frost on the cars. Good thing I went out this weekend to the North Face store and splurged on a jacket that will save my life in a few weeks to come. This will be my first cold halloween. When we were kids we always wanted a costume that wasnt too hot... where kids here need costumes that include masks (to shield your face from the wind) and gloves. Speaking of Halloween I think i have come up with a great creative idea (yet again, I'm awesome lol). Im not saying just what but it involves ordering a 4XL shirt online.... going to be great. Luckily Katie's (my roommate) parents will be here on that saturday so maybe they'll dress up with us, haha.
I must say I dont get much done on weekends either because lets face it, this town loves to party, and by party I mean watch football all weekend long. It' Saturday, wake up throw on your alumni colors and head to (well if youre from the midwest) any bar... we, on the other hand, go to the one SEC/USC bar, which is actually pretty close to our house. It's nice because the Gamecock alumni club meets there, and we have fun (except on games like last saturday). College football during the day, rest, and then out at night. Sundays are even bigger for Bears, Browns, etc. fans. We hope to go to a Bears game sometime soon. I have never been to an NFL game before.

Thanks to my big sister, I got to book my flight to thanksgiving. I am not going home this year, but instead I'm flying out to columbus OH to have thanksgiving with Meg and Doug. I also just tried an Apple Crumble recipe similar to the many I ate in Ireland, that will be my contribution to the dinner, ok maybe I'll help out with something else but don't get your hopes up! jk. Should be fun because as much as I miss my family and can't wait to see them, I'll be happy to still be in cold weather for thanksgiving. Roasting a turkey in a sweater in our driveway in 78 degree weather never really felt like Fall to me. I wonder if it will have snowed by then? Paste a picture of my head in one of the chairs in the dining room for me Shan, k?

Working girl

So i have started my job here in Morton Grove at Publications International. I like it pretty much here, its just getting out here that takes a toll on me and my energy. My starts at 6, I wake up get ready, make  a lunch and catch the bus that I ride for about 30 minutes to the Metra station.  I take the Metra into the suburbs to Morton Grove where I can (luckily) easily walk to my office. From there I work from 8:30 - 5:00 and then start the long commute again. 

Here is the metra train i take:

And a pic of my desk at work...I had to decorate on day one.

a mess of logos...

Friends from school asked me to help them out with designing a logo for their new frozen yogurt shop they are planning on opening up in Vegas. Called "Yolightful", they wanted something fun and hip and from their thoughts I have started brainstorming my ideas. Keep in mind the logos are all still pretty rough so who knows what the end product will look like or if my friends will even like any of these ideas. 

Here are my ideas sketched out on the computer:

and here is what I wrote to them, explaining each one. 

Grouping #1: This is a random logo i thought of that mixes the 'Y' with the 'L' shape. I dont know if it reads Y and L very well, but its just an idea. (oops and i just realized it's missing a 't', I'll fix that.
#2: I'm kinda drawn to this one for it's simplicity. Again, fonts can be changed and anything, but I thought it might be interesting if the little "plus" sign was used in place of the letter 'T', then this symbol could be your symbol placed all over things throughout your brand in different colors, shapes, etc.
#3: This is my original idea, I drew the font myself, theres different variations of it, becuase some look more fantastical to me, I still like it but not sure if it reads "Yolightful" quickly and clearly enough. Oh but I thought the peices that make up the letters could be incorporated into your logo and around your brand, that might be cool.
#4: Ok I had kind of become drawn to this "o" square shape, and thought that that could be turned into your logo or symbol that is repeated throughout everything. Whether you want to septerate the Yo- from the -lightly or keep it together, I just thought it was a fun shape to work into your logo, I still need to work on that idea, but its a start.
#5- Taking the "Yo" from group #3 font, i just added it to some hand lettering. For some reason I keep seperating the word, I feel really drawn to the YO, but that is your decision. I felt this idea mixed the fun "y" from the previous font, with some fun hand lettering.
#6- Again, just trying to play around with that boxy 'O'.....
#7- And again... trying to do some more with the seperation of YO...
#8- Random just sketching out writing out Yolighful

Tell me which you like the most. 

Marimekko

I started a new painting after finding a "Dick Blick" store nearby.....awesome. I had never actually been into a DB store before just always orderd from their catalog, so having a large one just 1.2 miles from my house (or .2 miles from the Clybourn stop on the el) is just really great. So i finally got some art supplies since I left a good about of my papers and canvasas in the move. 

Below are two tapestries that inspired the start of my painting: (they are not mine)

I had seen the lower tapestry in CB2 (which is the super fancy Crate & Barrell) for a ton of money. This one is "Ystavat" by Maija Louekari. I really liked the simplicity of it and I wanted to try to make something as sketchy and together as this. After looking up the designer Maija Louekari, from Finland, I have found a lot of other "Marimekko" designs, which I'm pretty sure is just the company, but all of their fabrics have these really great simplistic outline designs. 

So I attempted my own version with this crazy picture I fell in love with of old men wearing some sort of 3D glasses. Awesome. Once again I can only do like one style. I attempted to make it abstract and outlined and sketchy.....and it turned out cartoonish. Its ok it's fine right now, but its not Marimekko. I plan on fixing some of it. I like how the orange background doesn't touch the outlines and is messy, but now I think im going to add some gray washes to the faces for some depth if i'm going to completly abandon this "marimekko" style.  Oh well I will attempt again, maybe on something not people, since I can only do them like this. 

Shandon Baptist Church

By the way for those who didnt know 'twas my little sistahs birthday this past friday... or thursday here New Zealand time. We didn't get to send much presents being so far away that a letter costs almost $45 dollars to send, haha, so I sent here this (which took quite some searching to do). I just hope she played it super loud in her tiny dorm down under and partied to it. I like to play it here and with no one's birthday coming up soon I really don't have an excuse for it. Happy 20th Shan-don.

Update

So I officially got a job! I came here to get one and in less than 2 weeks I actually got a full time decent job. I interviewed for an intern position with Publications International for my first interview since I got here, and halfway through the interview they stopped me and asked if I wanted to interview for the assistant art director position instead? I kindly thanked them and said no I'd rather get paid $150 a week instead of a salary.... just kidding. I went through with that interview and appearntly they liked my work because a week later they offered me the position. I'm sorry... I'm an assistant art director? Ha that sounds unreal to me. I just hope they were right in asking my to apply for that posistion. In all seriousness I know I can do whatever they give me, but it just seems very professional for me, but I always think less of my work and abilities, which usually turns out helpful in most ways for me. 

So I start work on Oct. 1st, and having already been doing basically nothing but getting our apartment together the past two weeks, I literal

ly have to create projects for myself to do (that dont require spending too much $$) this week to keep me occupied. I was thinking of going to the Dick Blik art store around here and just wandering around the aisles. I have never been into this store-let alone seen a free standing one, but have always ordered from it since forever, so that's always an option. 

I also need to get to a target or somewhere to buy a shelf for my room and a bedside table...both which require some strength or possibly a car instead of me carrying both back atleast a mile (each way) down Lincoln. I don't want to attempt that, but I think it must be done. 

Well that's my update on my work/boring life. We had a fun weekend this weekend, since my roommates have full-time, energy sucking jobs our weekdays consist of dinner and an hour of tv and bed by 10, we live for the weekends. Friday just Kate and I went on an adventure of a night, going out to the bars where we figured out each one we went to was more of a college depaul bar, (hmm still looking for the good places) and then somehow got to 10pin... a club like bowling alley. Ha..for real. It was actually pretty fun, we bowled a round and watched the crazy screens play dance videos and then headed back out of the city to Lincoln park to go home. Saturday we watched our Gamecocks just barely beat Wofford and went out to meet our new group of friends we have been making. Sunday was spent walking around Michigan Avenue to find Nordstroms Rack (which would not be possible without my new phone with GPS). It just still boggles my mind that we can say "lets go downtown"...and by downtown I mean the 3rd most populated city in america that I call home now :). It's still so amazing to me that I'm here. Well that's my update for now, hope my posts aren't too boring for you since I lack the gift of witty writing that appearntly the rest of my family excels in so well. ha. 

paz

-e

btw

by the way...I know I've shown a few people but i love this website. People make graphs of pretty pointless things, but sometimes they are really funny, other's... not so much. This one has to be my favorite: 

www.graphjam.com

animations ooh la la...

Our animations from maymester class got some press coverage. Although they didn't mention anyones name (way to go USC journalism) a screenshot of my animation is up at the top. Pretty cool. If anyone is still in Columbia in April, go see a show at Nickelodeon theatre and my animation will run before the film starts. Pretty awesome mannn.

Click here to see the article 

Life on Geneva

Life on N. Geneva Terrace:

So here are a few pics of our apartment since we have settled in, here's the first pic of the outside of our place. We luckily have the first floor so moving in wasn't that bad. Parking on our street is a pain, but Ashley is the only one with a car, so we don't have to worry about that too much. 

Below are some pics of the living room. We have great bay windows that let in a lot of light since most of the rest of the house is between two tall buildings. Kate and I pained the living room a dark gray color, but it looks really good especially against the artwork and our sweet giant TV ashley bought.



Here is the kitchen, when we moved in, it was this color, but we decided to keep it that way out of lack of energy to paint, and it matches our stuff pretty well. We have a nice dining area where we sit rarely, but we have a lot of great space to cook....or great space for the girls to cook.

And Lastly there's my bedroom. I painted it a dark turqouise color that looks really nice against my bedspread. I hung up a lot of my artwork and the art i had collected and it looks nice. After waiting forever for my dresser and bed I finally put together my bedroom, and although it's small, its really nice. I'm very happy with it. 

And here's the office. I have my work/art desk set up there in the corner where i have plenty of room to do computer work and a whole other side of the desk to do real artwork. Its kinda messy right now since I am not completely settled, but its fine for now. Across is Ashley's office corner where she does her work.

And that's our apartment. It's great space and we all really like it. Not to mention how nice of a location it is. Its near so many restaurants and shops and we can walk everywhere. Here is a pic of us at the beach the other morning... yes the beach...and yes in our bathingsuits! I love walking to the lake, and especially love running there. Its such a nice place. Enjoy the pics. check back for more! -e

Mission Accomplished!

I moved!

Yep, I actually did it. September 1st came around and I packed up everything I owned and moved to Chicago. My dad and I drove up his new tahoe + a uhaul (which he didn't think we needed at first) and headed through NC, Tennesee, Kentucky, and Indiana till we reached the great state of Illinios. The ride up was ....all corn fields. Thats it, maybe a little bit of horses in kentucky but other than that it was a flat and boring ride

We arrived in Chicago and settled into our awesome apartment, I have been living in our place for a week without any of my furniture, but it has finally started to arrive. I got my desk yesterday and quickly built that, Bed and dresser should arrive tomorrow, then I will no longer have to sleep on our pull-out couch, even though that's so comfortable. Our place is really coming together, we've painted some walls, added decoration and I hung most of my paintings. We are in such a great location too, everything really worked out.

We are discovering great shops, restaurants and bars around our little neighborhood. There is so much available here there is really no reason to ever go into the city. Although we did the other day and played tourists, it was such a nice day for it too. We went down to the lake the sat. morning and watched the RedBull Flugtag. It was just like the commercials, lots of crazy people failing and making a flying craftt. Quite entertaining though. 

I went on my first job interview...well twice since the first time they gave me the wrong address and of course both days i set out on the hour long El ride to the last stop in scary skokie it was pouring rain and cold, oh well. At least the interview turned out well. While i was interviewing for a not-so-great internship, they stopped the interview mid way and asked if I wanted to interview for an assistant art director position! So surprising... guess now is the time I thank my old professor for making us spend so much time on our portfolios. 

Everything is going really well, we are meeting new people and having fun in this new time-zone. I do miss my family, but I will see them soon enough. If anyone's reading this and feels like visiting the windy city...we have a pullout couch for you! 

-e

for my whiny big sistah ;)

Here's another creation I did while I was at home. I was supposed to do it about a year ago for Meg and doug...whoops. Its not original. Comes from a print Meg found online once, Called "Levitate" by Lia Kowalski. This is my version:

this is the original (bel0w)

 

pretty good at imitation if i do say so myself. :D

new paintings

I finally got some time at home to work on a new painting. I found a cool picture (actually from some myspace artist) and wanted to make it into a new painting for when i move into my new apartment. I think I'm keeping the gray one, but i made an extra, smaller one I want to sell. Thoughts?

I done gradumated

Well, the weekend finally came. August graduation! After finishing all my classes in may through july, and ending my fun internship, August 9th I walked across the stage at the colonial center. 

Two of my other good friends also graduated, future roommate Katie (above), and our friend Claire. It was a good weekend as a few of our friends came back into town for it. The ceremony was on saturday morning and then my lovely family held a nice day party at the lake for the graduates. 

We had plenty of food and drinks and lounged in the water all day. The Burkes, Platzbeckers, and the Ryans bonded while the "kids" drank and played games like "who can run around the water trampoline the most times before crashing into the water"... Daniel became champ of the game. 

The day turned into a night party and we took over the kitchen as the parents left, and as my parents decided to surrender the house and sleep out in the tent so we can be as loud as we want....because there was probably no calming us down at 1 in the morning. We partied into the night and everyone stayed over. 

It was a really good ending to a great 3 1/2 years at USC. I said my goodbyes and moved out of my little apartment... goodbye La Casa Grande! Now I am home for a few days until the big move in September. Im getting so excited/kinda scared. Hopefully I'll find a job in time! If anyone has some connections-help me out!