Art Project #4: Mask

For a little fun Halloween treat our 4th design project was to create a mask.  There weren't many guidelines besides the mask had to cover the entire front of the face.  This was actually my second mask.  The first one looked really horrible so I was glad this one was cool. 

Mask Theme: Hard vs Soft.  

Although I didn't do some of the things I had originally planned to make this theme really stand out, I think it still works.

Materials used:

• Orange Flannel
• Green Yarn
• Tin Foil
• White/Orange Sheathed Wire
• Mask base
• Glue (spray glue and craft glue)

Wearing the mask before heading to class

Much needed outdoor adventure

Beautiful

Life with school has been great, but it has also left little time for me to get outside.  This weekend I had a much needed outdoor adventure and an overall relaxing weekend. 

My friend Matt has a friend Matt who has a cabin in Wyoming (yes it can be confusing).  It was their yearly fall cabin trip and Talena and I were invited up to play.  Ashley couldn't make it but we bought her a little something to let her know we were thinking about her (aren't we good roommates).



Yep! I'm no good at this game

After I struggled to change some bike tires, we hit the road.  Driving 2.5 hours up into Wyoming we were welcomed to the cabin by fireworks.  Ok so the fireworks weren't for us, but it was a nice treat to see when we arrived. We meet all the cabin guests and spent the evening playing games and watching movies.

Saturday morning we woke up to the smell of bacon and Beth's delicious buttermilk syrup (don't worry we got the recipe).  After a hearty breakfast and a few games of speed we hit the mountain bike trail.  Our trail was a little made up. Our motto was "run the river not the race."  Apparently, Smitty is a big kayaker and that is his slogan.  It was a fun trail and we even got to bushwhack it after we got off the trail somewhere.  This made it a real adventure as we carefully maneuvered our bikes around logs and ducked below branches.  Even the last quarter mile trekking our bikes across the muddy shore of the reservoir was fun despite the fact that our shoes and bike tires were covered in thick clay mud.

I needed a little relaxing when we got back to the cabin so I curled up with a blanket and sat out on the porch reading a book.  It was a really chilly (by my girl standards) afternoon so it was nice to have a big quilt wrapped around me.


Smitty discovered the "sexy" All Spark (Transformers)



Great little trail thru the woods



Our adventure group



But too much seating gets boring so we headed back out to do a little shooting.  Apparently, years ago I was good just one time and never again.  I got 3 clay pigeons in 15 shots.  Oh well, it was fun.

A night of movies and games followed.  FYI, I am really bad at playing "Ticket to Ride" so you can play it with me if you like winning, because you are sure to do it playing against me.



Tires and shoes covered in mud, Matt gave up and carried his bike



Beautiful 2



So what did I make of this weekend adventure.  I love variety.  I have missed the outdoors.  I don't like to seat around for long, but it is nice when I do.



Mountain biking is good

The Language of Things

I seem to sign up for a lot of newsletter at work related to both marketing and the industry for which I currently market (crazy complicated engineering stuff).  Today I got a newsletter with an interesting quote from the book "The Language of Things" by Deyan Sudjic.  I think I would have always found this quote interesting, but now that I am a design student I am very intrigued by this definition of design.  Adding this book to my list.

"There is something to understand about objects beyond the obvious issue of function and purpose. It suggests that there is as much to be gained from exploring what objects mean, as from considering what they do and what they look like. Design is the language that a society uses to create objects that reflect it purposes and its values. Design is the language that helps to define, or perhaps to signal, value. It is the language of design that serves to suggest an object's gender, often though the most unsubtle of means, through color, shape, size and visual reference. It is design that reflects a sense of authenticity, or its manipulative opposite: cynical salesmanship."

Art Project #3

I finally got to use color in a project.  I must not get too excited because this is one of the only projects I can do that in so I don't want it to go to my head.

Project Details:
Choose from industrial object, animal or plant and create a segmented drawing.  Continuously enlarge the object until it is no longer recognizable and is just shapes.  Only on the final design can color be used (black & white are not considered colors in our class for design purposes).

My Design:
I decided to use a desk lamp for my design because I suck at drawing animals and plants (except maybe a daisy or a bird that looks like an 'm').  The project was fun.  I got to use this old fashion, but really fun, projector at school to enlarge my design.
For my final design I use dark navy as the background color and varying shades of blue to highlight my focal point - yellow. 
I am fairly happy with how it turned out, but figuring out the colors were a nightmare.  We couldn't use a computer so I had to just experiment with materials I could find.  I decided to use color paper to achieve my color.  I headed to the craft store and thought I had found the perfect color mix.  My original plan was to create a gradient, but the color jump between 2 blues was too drastic and just didn't feel right.  Ultimately, I went with the colors below.

Climbing - Oh how I have missed you

Last night my ward went climbing at Momentum climbing gym in Sandy.  It was awesome.  We had over 40 people come (which I call a successful activity).  Personally, it has been about 4-5 months since I climbed. That is very sad.  I used to love climbing (I still do).  I used to climbing weekly.  Now I get blisters because my hands are too soft.  I better go more often and toughen these hands up.  But it was good to just to be climbing again. And the soreness today is well worth it.
Here are a few pics of the wardies climbing (taken with Bishop's iphone).