Author: approximately

An evening with Mark Dion

approximatelyLeave a comment

Mark Dion visited NDSU this evening to give an artist’s talk. I wasn’t familiar with him before the lecture, but after seeing his work I feel fortunate to have caught him!

Dion, a native not-so-native New Englander that spends his time globetrotting (my ideal job) incorporates archaeology and nature into his work in a curious, orderly way. He’s been featured in the PBS Series Art:21 and even has his own Wiki page!
Check out some of Dion’s work.
His visit has prompted my interest in owning this book as well…
xx
j

Seriously? Seriously.

approximately3 Comments

SCULPTURE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ME to learn to use tools, materials, and skills in a way not utilized in graphic design. I enjoy the possibilities within craftwork and the escape from the computer. It’s a rare opportunity for me to build with my hands rather than from pixels and vectors.

Last spring I began to further explore the notion of melding the two realms of sculpture and graphic design — handcraft and text. Previously text was something I’d only explored and manipulated in Illustrator. I created my first text-driven sculptural installation titled Love, Mom, a 9-foot sculpture of suspended paper cubes—”pixels”—in a pixelated rendering of my mom’s signature. This September I continued along the same path, opening the semester with Seriously, a handmade sign of a common expression.
A lot of detail goes into graphic design, and even more goes into translating graphics into three dimensional objects. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. Seriously started on the computer, each letter enlarged and printed to size, hand cut with a nibbler and finished with a cutoff disk, sanded in order to preserve the structural quality and exactness of each letter, painted and sewed together. It was nothing short of a learning experience.
I installed Seriously in the student lounge where it could seriously make a statement, and photographed it this past week for my semester portfolio.
Seriously.

xx
j

Record Breaking!

approximatelyLeave a comment

In a recent thrift adventure, I purchased a stack of records sadly marked “50% off.” I don’t know what to do with records. I don’t own a record player and generally believe that using them as a material can quickly turn cliché. But, feeling like using the tool shop’s bandsaw, I decided to give them a slice.
If anything, the experimentation was more about testing the material than coming to a conclusion. I also love the graphic qualities in them, and the way they look when they’re cropped. Looks like I have myself some new coasters.

A baby snippet of October’s Midwestern Mayhem

approximatelyLeave a comment

WAY BACK AT THE BEGINNING OF OCTOBER, a Californian (Californianite?) came for his first ever visit to the Midwest. Being the born + raised Midwesterner that I am, I couldn’t bear the thought of him leaving my home state thinking it looked like the barren inside of a Dustbuster. So I promised him buffalo, a plethora of Walmart (along with low, low prices) wide open spaces, good land and Badlands. I never promised sunshine, but the entire week he was here it was borderline 70’s. Marvelous.

Californian and I swept the entire state, from east to west, north and south. We stopped at many convenience stores as well as skeevy hotels. We wore bandanas where bandanas were necessary (think Medora) and there is not a millimeter of land, sky, or sediment that Californian’s iPhone camera didn’t document in some form of media or another. (A good thing, as both my cameras died on Day One.) We found everything I’d promised, along with several things I didn’t: lackluster fast food stops and a gregarious gaggle of prairie dogs in their interconnected burrows. If it had to be labeled, our journey fall under the category of big, lush SUCCESS.
I was recently sent a few samples of the journey by said Californian, who along with missing the Midwest terribly, will never, ever eat at a Pizza Hut again (or at least not for another 15 years).
///

Somewhere there are 19,248 more that I have yet to see (and likely never will)!
xo
j
approximately1 Comment
Everybody, meet today’s socks.
Today’s socks, everybody.

Also, today is a glorious day as I’ve finally located my PASSPORT! (It’s been missing since August…)
These two things, paired with listening to Abbey Road make for a lax, lovely Saturday afternoon.
xo
j

prøjëx

approximately2 Comments

I’ve been picking up little household things here and there in order to bring more color into my life/keep my mind off school/make things interesting/cozy. Over the past few months I’ve garnered quite the collection of decor: mirrors, lamps, linens, frames, amongst other tchotchke.

This week’s decorating ventures included a mirror I thrifted for $1.99. It looked like a really fancy carved wood frame, but when I approached it and picked it up I felt the weight of it and realized it was plastic!
I knew I could do something with it, and set my sights on giving the mirror a paint job. It’s been hanging across from my bed — the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see before I sleep, so it’s pretty prominent. After weeks of deliberation, I decided it had to be my favorite GREEN.
So I scrounged my spray paint archive (which is rather impressive, if I do say so myself) and found the green I was looking for. (As an aside: In making a list of my interests I’ve decided, “spray paint” nears the top of the list…) I primed and painted the mirror and oh! It looks so, so lovely. A beautiful departure from it’s original state.
Check out these before&after pictures!
If that weren’t enough, I thrifted a groovy-shaped lamp yesterday. The shape was reminiscent of a gorgeous yellow lamp I’d seen in a photo from design*sponge earlier in the day…


So of course, it was only necessary that I attempt to recreate it. Here’s my version of the lamp!


My room now has a ton of happy colors. Which makes me…happy!

More prøjëx to come…

xo
j