Art Chantry @ the Henry

First of all, I must apologize for the lack of posting in the last month or so. I have been crazy busy settling into a new place, learning, working, and playing. I've had several things I wanted to blog about in this time, but it never seemed to happen. Tonight however, I went to a lecture that inspired me so much that I couldn't keep it to myself.

Tonight I stopped by the Henry Art Gallery to see local designer Art Chantry speak about his work. He hadn't really been on my radar before, and when I was deciding whether to attend or not I was frankly a little put off by the fact that most of his work is in advertisement. I admit to a bit of snobbery when it comes to slogging product, but this guy managed to rock my world anyway. What was so amazing? Authenticity. There is so little of it in the world, and Chantry has it in spades. Why shoot a TV and then take a picture of it, when you can take a picture of it and shoot the picture? Why put flames on a poster, when you can set the poster on fire? Why declare yourself to be Swiss when you're really a punk at heart? For the first time I see with 100% clarity that the abstract and undefined ideas that have been floating in my head do have a place in this industry, that I have a place in this industry. This man stepped up to the podium and he was tattooed, he was crass, he was unapologetic about his ugliest work, and I was amazed, because it's far too easy to become obsessed with making things look good at the expense of authenticity and experimentation and your own real self. Now, I'm not ready to run off and be a little disciple or anything, because that would only be imitation, and be as plastic and slick as the Swiss disciples, and I'm not particularly punk anyways.

But I guess what I'm trying to say is this: thank you Art, for a magical evening. You really opened my eyes.

Moving, TA Training, Orientation.... information overload!

So, I will be starting the MFA in Visual Communication Design at the University of Washington next wednesday. This past weekend, I packed most of my posessions in my Jetta and drove it 17 hours north to start a new life. I went from summer to fall in under a day, from warmth to rain and chill, from architecture to graphic design, from the working world back to school, and from the known into the unknown. More images of my neighborhood, my school, and my studio work, will come in time, but for now I thought I'd post some observations gleaned from the information overload that has been the past four days:

*Never ship anything you really care about, unless it is nigh indestructable.
*"Do not beat up your students"!!! (yes, this is an actual quote from my TA Training conference. I don't know how the seminar took this turn, but once it had it was hard to get back on track)
*Even grad students have a hard time with some very simple things, like course registration.
*The bus system here really IS better.
*A Volkswagen Jetta can fit approximately one room worth of posessions, plus up to three bicycles on the back when outfitted with the appropriate rack.
*I'm not the only one too poor to afford the MacBook Pro they really want...
*I need sweaters. LOTS of sweaters.
*Even when it's cold here, it's really, really beautiful.

Seattle Parks - Freeway Park

This is post #1 in the Seattle Parks series. Freeway Park is a hidden gem in the midst of downtown Seattle, designed by Angela Danadjieva. A concrete 'lid' has been constructed on top of a portion of I-5, and populated by walkways, plants, and fountains. This hidden gem is a great example of the character of Seattle itself, with the large expanses of concrete directly bordered by verdant landscape. It is full of interesting textures, beautiful dappled light, lunching workers from nearby corporate towers. I don't blame them --- if I worked downtown I would lunch here, too. Full photoset can be found on Flickr.

notes on biking in Seattle

So I was in Seattle a few weeks ago, and meant to do a series of Seattle posts right when I got back, but, well.... you know how it goes. Anyways, two great things about the above image: first, the bike parking was pretty nice. Apparently these used to be parking meters, but the metering on that street was replaced by a single electronic meter that serves the whole street. So instead of ripping out all the old parking meters entirely, they just chopped off the tops and added these cute bicycle symbols, that cyclists can lock to. Being convenient, good-looking, obvious, and based on the principle of re-purposing existing infrastructure gets this bike rack major props here. The only downside was that they were only good for one or two bikes.

Great thing #2 about the above picture: that's a rental bicycle! That's right, the great folks at Montlake Bicycle Shop hooked me up with a very nice rental bike for a few days. I got several compliments on it, everyone was suprised that it was a rental. I completely recommend renting a bike as a great way to see the city- you're not at the mercy of the bus schedule, and you get a better view of many of Seattle's natural wonders than either pedestrians or motorists do. Plus, all that exercise lets you try tasty treats from Pike Place market guilt-free! So all in all, it was a great trip and I logged in lots of miles. I hope to post more later, particularly about some of the parks I saw there.