i ♥ seeing

Chalk Mural Project: Google Campus at BBDO

2009-04-22T19:31:00.003-04:00

After doing some chalk illustration at the office for a media pitch, we landed another gig--this time with Google, to illustrate a chalk wall at BBDO NY's all new Digital Lab space. The occasion was a "Google Campus" event at BBDO as well as the opening of this digital lab space.

The idea was to showcase some of Google's product offerings, like Google Latitude, YouTube, etc.

It was a pretty compressed time frame - we had one night to do it. So we went there after work, and pretty much pulled an all-nighter...

First, the set-up:

Pete's hard work:

The entire thing, in progress:

Gettin' closer...

...and.... we're DONE!

Reference: 40 Logos designed with Helvetica

2009-03-20T17:43:00.004-04:00

Here's a great post by Web Designer Depot about logo design with Helvetica. Great branding really CAN be created with simple, basic fonts.

lunch bag art from one cool dad

2009-03-17T02:02:00.003-04:00

today i stumbled upon the Lunch Bag Art blog on tumblr.com.... totally COOL lunch bags drawn by a totally cool dad. Geez, these lunch bags are WAY better than the yellow Care Bears lunchbox I used, back in the day...

Imagine putting in your request every day for a new design... how fun...

corporate website references

2009-03-10T14:25:00.005-04:00

For a couple projects I am currently working on, here are a couple resources with compiled lists of well-designed corporate websites:

Trackerz.com:

and this blog posting is a bit dated at this point, but hey, the designs are not too awful (yet):

Rubiqube.com

history in the making: election 2008

2008-11-03T23:46:00.004-05:00

on the eve of the most historical election of my lifetime thus far,
a tribute to Barack Obama:

I am ready to believe again. Let's get out there and vote.

museum inventory

2008-10-11T19:44:00.009-04:00

an inventory of all the amazing art/design museums, galleries and events I've visited over the years, tracking where I've been and where I want to go.

Amsterdam
Foam Fotografiemuseum
"Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Retrospective," 23 December 2005 - 2 April 2006
Van Gogh Museum

Barcelona
Museu del Temple Expiatori de La Sagrada Familia
Museu Picasso

Berlin
Kunstgewerbemuseum
Decorative Arts, September 2009
Museum für Fotografie
Helmut Newton Photography, September 2009

Boston
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Museum of Fine Arts
"Gauguin Tahiti," 29 February 2004 - 20 June 20 2004

Boulder, CO
Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art

Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago

London
OXO Tower Gallery
Saatchi Gallery
Tate Modern
Victoria & Albert Museum

Los Angeles, CA
LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
"Vanity Fair Portraits: Photographs 1913–2008,"
26 October 2008 - 1 March 2009

Miami
Art Basel Miami Beach 2005
Lowe Art Museum - University of Miami
"Classic Posters of the Belle Epoque," February 5 - April 3, 2005
The Wolfsonian-FIU

New York
Brooklyn Museum of Art
"© Murakami," April 5–July 13, 2008
The Cloisters
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
"Design for the Other 90%," May 4–September 23, 2007
Gagosian Gallery
"Warhol from the Sonnabend Collection," January 20–March 7, 2009
Guggenheim Museum
"Richard Prince: Spiritual America," September 28, 2007 - January 9, 2008
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Morgan Library & Museum
Museum of Modern Art
"VanGogh and the Colors of the Night," September 21, 2008–January 5, 2009
Whitney Museum of American Art

Paris
Musée d'Orsay
Musée du Louvre
Musée Rodin

Prague
Mucha Museum

San Antonio
San Antonio Museum of Art

San Francisco
SFMOMA

Washington D.C.

the culture of museum "member previews"

2008-09-21T16:04:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I experienced another New York "first" -- that of the art museum Member Preview. Now, of course I know that Member Previews happen in art museums all around the world, in metropolitan cities everywhere, but I suspect that the phenomenon of the "New York City Art Museum Member Preview" is unique and very distinctly "New York."

As a member of the MoMA, I had been getting several emails and regular mailed invites to the exciting new exhibit "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night."

One of the benefits of membership is that you get to view the exhibits before the galleries are open to the general public, about 5 days prior. This concept was very appealing to me -- the very idea of "member preview" conjured up visions of a peaceful, serene viewing experience, with members strolling through the exhibit, murmuring their appreciation for the artwork to each other, while silently congratulating their fellow members for having the smarts to join the museum and BEAT OUT the masses of hungry pedestrian artgoers who would have to see Starry Night in "general viewing."

As the security guard pointed the way to the Van Gogh gallery, my anticipation mounted as I thought about how pleasant it would be to enjoy these masterpieces all by myself -- or at least, with a few other savvy members.

Apparently, thousands of other MoMA members had the same idea.

As I turned the corner to the exhibit entrance, I was met with a massive, coiling line of pseudo highbrow art aficionados, Brooklyn hipsters, amorous young couples, frenzied parents with turbocharged baby strollers, and distinguished old gentlemen with tweed jackets. So much for having a little QT with Vincent.

And so I patiently wormed my way to the VERY end of the line, ignored the father behind me who kept pushing the baby stroller onto my heels, drowned out the MoMA staff who kept shouting "this way to the end of the line! Members and Members' Guests ONLY!" and waited my turn to shove my way into the exhibit.

It still ended up being a very interesting exhibit, despite the hordes of people. In actuality, Member Preview was probably even MORE crowded than the more regulated general admission hours, which have timed entries.

Luckily for me, the OTHER benefit of membership is that I can go back and catch Vincent on other, less-frenzied days, from now til January. I just might have to create my OWN Member Preview on some quiet, off peak Tuesday morning.

cool creative in chattanooga

2008-07-12T18:46:00.006-04:00

After an almost 2-month long hiatus (sorry!), I'm now back on blogging, and it's nice to be back. This is a post I've been meaning to write for months, but just hadn't gotten around to scanning in the artwork until recently when I got a pretty decent new Epson color photo printer/scanner/copier-in-one. So now I'm back from my weddings, travels, career quandaries, etc and updating again. (And yes, I'm back to reading all of your blogs too AND commenting..)

A few months ago, during my trip to Chattanooga, TN that was part-work and part-visiting one of my best friends from high school, I was browsing in a cute little gift boutique, Blue Skies, when I found these funky greeting cards:

These cards are designed by Anahata Katkin, a collage artist who has been creating cool art journals since she was in 3rd grade. Together with her mom, they started a greeting card company, PaPaYa!, which is now sold in 7 countries all around the world. I like the collage-y style of the cards, where some have a kind of ethnic feel - asian or indian-inspired patterns, and then a use of lace, glitter, and cloth texture. Funky. She has a blog, too, which had some really cool images and inspiration.

In a drastic departure from that girly style of collage art, while in Tennessee, I also happened upon Hatch Show Print, an old print shop that has churned out cool rock posters for some time.

Now I actually already mentioned this place in a previous post, but at the time I didn't get a chance to scan these "postcards" which I stupidly bought for $2 each:

As you can see, these "postcards" are really just cut up pieces of posters and test prints that ended up on the cutting room floor, swept up, printed on the back, labeled "postcards," organized in a turning postcard rack at the front counter, and snatched up by people like me, who'd pay for art room scraps. All in the name of art. Oh well, I still think they're cool. The letters printed on during the letterpress process create a kind of impression in the card stock, and then each layer of paint that is applied adds a bit of texture to the stock as well. Cool effects you can't exactly recreate in Illustrator or Photoshop. (Well, at least I don't know how to just yet.).

And there you have it, my tribute to creative inspiration in Tennessee.

COLOURlovers unite!

2008-05-08T16:28:00.004-04:00

Here's a cool-orful website, Colourlovers.com, which is a "color and design community for creative inspiration."

What's cool is you can search sections to see what color trends are happening on the web and even in magazine covers:

You can also just browse the over 1 million colors they have on this site, as well as the thousands of patterns and color palettes. You can create your own colors, palettes and patterns and let others in the COLOURlover community vote on them.

I feel like choosing a color palette and painting all the boring white walls of my apartment now.

argentinian inspiration

2008-04-19T15:53:00.010-04:00

I was checking out the Design*Sponge blog and saw this post about Argentinian artist, Lucas Rise, which was inspiring to me in a few different ways.

First, he paints these vibrant, colorful cabinets in latin, tribal, kaleidoscope-like patterns that are really fun and whimsical. Great inspiration for furniture painting projects or even mural compositions.

Such intricate detail:

But then, when I went to his website, even that was designed totally in line with his overall style and aesthetic.

His own design influences are from carnaval, the circus, and the park, and the combination of patterns and colors on his site--although very busy--still works for me. He uses a few different, stylized fonts, but they complement each other and still feel fun on the site.

Celebrate bold color, complex patterns, geometric shapes and energy!

mural project #2, part 2

2008-04-17T01:30:00.005-04:00

After the mural background color was painted, we returned the following week to sketch the entire mural from a scaled-down paper study to the full blown mural, which was 56'L x 5'6"H. Transferring the mural from paper to wall took about 4.5 full hours, and the next day we had a crew of about 15 volunteer mural painters who helped us paint all day long.

The pics below show various portions of the mural, in its sketched state and final painted state. What an undertaking!

And lastly, one of my favorite contributions to the mural:

All in all, it was a pretty huge project with a lot of lessons learned. But beyond that, it just felt really awesome to know that we made even a small difference in the lives of the residents of the Veralyne Hamilton Residence in the Bronx.

mural project #2, part 1

2008-04-08T01:35:00.005-04:00

Location: Veralyne Hamilton Residence

The first week we went, we scouted out the location and took pictures of the wall we needed to paint.

On the second visit, we measured and taped the wall to mark the borders of the mural.

And then we painted the background: "Rocky Mountain Sky"

Next up: Drawing the mural outlines and then painting with the volunteers. Stay tuned!

nashville TN: music city usa

2008-03-31T21:36:00.009-04:00

Last Thursday, I had to go down to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to give a presentation to the brand managers of Chattem, makers of 22 health and medicinal product lines that are probably sitting around in your medicine cabinet. Amazingly, it turned out that one of my best friends, Alicia, lives only 20 minutes from Chattanooga, so after the Thursday presentation, we had 3 fun days of exploring to do.

Nashville is a very cute little city in the Midwest, also the capital of Tennessee and dubbed "Music City USA." It's home to the cable channel Country Music Television, the Grand Ole Opry, and scores of little country bars where famous musicians are said to have been discovered.

Here, you can see that the influence of music is so great, that even signs are in the shape of a guitar pick.

I took this picture of the Lawrence Record Shop as a little tribute to my brother:

And then, of course, there was the required group of gypsy kids panhandling and singing. This quartet, led by the squinty-eyed chap on the right, happened to be crooning the lyrics of "Hey There, Delilah," and they actually sounded pretty decent.

Nashville is also home of cowboys and all things western.

Miles and miles of boots as far as the eye could see.

Here are a few of my favorite pairs:

We stumbled upon Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. They still make posters the old fashioned way by hand - and I was so excited to be in the actual print shop and take in all the posters they had displayed on the walls.

These are 2 examples of their posters:

Finally, Chattanooga itself is home to lots of great little shops and the quirky Hunter Art Museum, located on a rocky bluff overlooking the Tennessee River:

Sadly, the 3 days came to an end too quickly, and I soon found myself boarding the Delta puddle jumper...

...bound...

...for...

...Home Sweet Home.

wall art

2008-03-18T01:41:00.005-04:00

Wall art and/or removable vinyl decals have gotten to be a big craze in home decorating over the past year or so. Blik is one of the more recognized producers of wall decals. Could be an easy way to create customized walls.

Stylized graphical elements:

Simple, geometric patterns:

Busier wall themes/scenes:

MoMA's newest member

2008-03-18T00:37:00.007-04:00

I recently did something I've wanted to do for many, many years--I joined an art museum. And the MoMA, no less--one of my favorite art museums. Never felt like it was the right time to join--for financial reasons or because I was moving around, etc. But now that I'm in NY and have decided to be here for AWHILE, I figured I had nothing to lose. And I love it. The museum rocks.

Cool pieces from the MoMA's permanent Architecture and Design collection:

Panorama with 50 Years of Helvetica exhibit in background.

Simple, yet funky posters.

Black, red, and white coolness.

Solid, handcrafted chair from Arts & Crafts movement.

A chair designed to be placed in the CORNERS of homes. Ingenious.

And lastly, a chest of drawers with differently-sized drawers...something I would absolutely LOVE to own. I'm sure I could find something to store in each of those little drawers.

There are a few other great exhibits going on at the MoMa, and I will be visiting again soon with more cool seeings to post.

mural 101

2008-03-11T18:53:00.007-04:00

Doing a little research into murals, and here's what's interesting...

From Wikipedia
Murals are important in that they bring art into the public sphere. For artists, their work gets a wide audience that otherwise might not set foot in an art gallery. For the city, it gets beautified by a work of art. Murals exist where people live and work and affect their daily lives. World famous are the murals in Mexico, New York, Philadelphia, Belfast, Derry, Los Angeles and in India which have functioned as an important means of communication for members of socially, ethnically and racially divided communities in times of conflict.

Blah, blah - Let's just do something cool in a public space to cheer some people up.

Trompe-l'œil murals are interesting in that they play with 3D in a 2D space, but all these subjects are really too "classical" and boring to me:

Eric Grohe:

John Pugh:

John Pugh, again:

More modern mural designs, wall decals, etc to come...

cool rock band posters

2008-03-08T16:04:00.007-05:00

I'm trying to design a poster for friends of mine who are getting married -- but it CAN'T be cheesy, or lovey-dovey, or LAME. They love bands like The National, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, and they have lots of funky band posters framed around their place, so I'm thinking of doing their commemorative poster a la rock band style.

Here was one poster artist, Leia Bell, whose style I liked a lot:

My friends liked the handwritten, bold style too, so we have a starting point.

They really like this Interpol poster, which is hanging in their apartment:

Another reference that they sent along though, were these Dead posters:

Stylistically, they're pretty different, but I think my friends thought of these posters more because of the subject matter/composition - where the illustrations are of a location (i.e., NY, SF) and something else placed within that location (i.e., skeletons). My initial sketches resemble this (i.e., Brooklyn Bridge, cats) so that is where the similarities end. Anyway, back to work...

ugly is so cute

2008-03-06T11:57:00.003-05:00

A couple days ago, Pete pointed out the new ugly dolls site, which is a lot of fun. And full of cool illustrations, action and games.

In the "Meet the Ugly Dolls" section, the ugly dolls scroll by on a conveyor belt, and this one was my favorite ugly, Babo. So cute with his 2 little alfalfas sprouting out of his head. And when I read his bio, I clicked with him immediately.

Life seems like a lot of fun in Ugly Town!

mashup of my favorite things

2008-03-05T11:57:00.004-05:00

I found this cool website Kirna Zabete a little while ago, and it's THE perfect combination of everything that I love: cool fashion and funky design (of the store AND the website itself). For now, some screenshots of the site. I have to plan a little recon mission to the actual store soon, though. I'm embarrassed to admit - I have not yet had a chance to check it out... *cringe*

Here is the New York boutique:

And here is the Tokyo boutique, which in my opinion, looks way cooler:

In clicking through the site, I actually think that the pictures of the product and interiors aren't great - they could do more to showcase the clothing in cool angles and lighting. Maybe they can have me do some product shots for them...

And look! A call for new designers...

My friend Shelz and I have many ideas - maybe we should submit some samples of our tattered tees concept. My brother and I also have had many creative concepts - "Day o' the Week Wear" - maybe we should create some fashion concepts too?

Stay tuned...

banksy hits up a chelsea gallery

2008-01-23T02:53:00.002-05:00

Banksy had a month-long exhibit last month at the Vanina Holasek Gallery, which I was very fortunate enough to have gotten the chance to see.

I wasn't sure at first how I felt about Banksy, a once-unknown "street artist" from a sleepy cow-town in England, displaying framed, matted recreations of his graffiti and selling them for $40k a pop. He did provide a B.O.G.O.F.F super-deal though, which was really funny to me:

And finally, my favorite picture from the Banksy exhibit. I was trying to take a picture of his framed counterfeit Priness Di moolah, when I noticed the reflection of the American flag in the frame, as well as in other reflections all around... Weird.

It's cool how Banksy has been able to turn something he loves doing into something that also helps him pay the bills and fund his next "big thing." Banksy in a gallery? All the more power to him.

changes in 2008

2008-01-17T10:41:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, friends! I'm such a delinquent on this blog, and lots of you have been calling that to my attention... Well, sorry for the radio silence! I have been thinking a lot about what I want this blog to be about (some of you told me I think TOO MUCH about it...), and I KNOW I have a tendency to overthink things sometimes... but I want this blog to be about the cool things I see and the cool things that inspire me, not just a blog about myself. Not that there's anything wrong with personal blogs about people's lives! Actually, I love reading all of yours - I guess I just don't like writing them about myself. I feel so...exposed. So my blog is changing a bit - for the better. And I'll definitely try and post more frequently. And please keep on reading.

merry christmas, everyone

2007-12-25T15:25:00.000-05:00

Wishing everyone love, happiness and peace this Christmas.

can you read this?

2007-12-24T00:38:00.000-05:00

So my friend Shelley, a very established and veteran blogger, brought it to our attention that there is actually a "Blog Readability Test" that determines the level of education required to understand the contents of a blog. I guess mine is at College (Post-Grad) level. Weird. I love that the badge above that defines my blog as "College" level is visually represented with a test tube, some kind of generic rocketship, and an atom of some kind. Because that is EXACTLY how I remember my college years.

As I commented to Shelley, I would have thought mine would be at "Pre-Kindergarten" or "Remedial" since I haven't blogged in weeks.

a tearful evening

2007-12-11T00:26:00.001-05:00

Tonight I made dinner for a friend, and I have never shed as many tears as I did tonight while preparing it. I didn't even think of this before, but now that I've had eye surgery and have been contact lens free - my eyes are a lot more sensitive to onions than they have ever been before. When I used to wear contacts, I used to be able to chop onion upon onion without ever shedding a tear. Not anymore. By the time I got halfway through the onion, the tears were pouring out of my eyes, my nose was running, my mascara had streaked all over my face - and I could barely see the onion on the cutting board. I have never been like that before. I guess that's ONE drawback to no longer wearing contacts!

christmas in new york, part II

2007-12-08T00:15:00.001-05:00

I've been a little delinquent with my blog these past few weeks - for a whole host of reasons, which maybe I will elaborate upon later. For now, here are some of the favorite sights I have seen lately that make it feel so Christmas-y.

Brooklyn Baking Day

The Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Light Show

Rockefeller Christmas Tree

The past few weeks have been a blur of activity, holiday festivities, friends visiting from out of town, work-related social events. Sometimes it's hard to keep up. Hopefully we can all find some time to just relax and find peace amidst the hustle and bustle.

black friday ridiculousness

2007-11-23T00:30:00.001-05:00

Okay, so technically it's Black Friday, and I've been trying to purchase something online at Circuit City and then do an in-store pick-up tomorrow morning, and everything on the internet is absolutely jammed. I can't even complete my online order because the website can't check inventory at the stores online to guarantee my online purchase, and then the server stops responding. There must be a lot of over-stuffed, post-Thanksgiving armchair shoppers out there. First there's physical traffic to deal with - cars, lines, people. Now it's virtual traffic. Stop it, people. Let me get my stuff first.

happy thanksgiving, friends

2007-11-22T09:09:00.000-05:00

365 days ago

2007-11-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

Exactly one year ago today, I received my offer letter for my current job. It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed, yet it feels like at the same time, I've packed in a whole lot of living. What seemed so strange and novel last year--namely, life in New York in general--is now so comfortable and familiar. It's hard to imagine what things today that seem so new will feel like old hat in another year?

november wrap-up

2007-11-18T23:47:00.000-05:00

It's not quite the end of the month yet, but I thought I might catch up a bit on my blogging to post some of the interesting sights I've seen this month.

First, I spent the beginning of the month relaxing in the peaceful "country" that is Phoenixville, PA. My sister and brother-in-law live in a suburban, almost rural area, with rolling hills, farms, and even cows and horses grazing by the roadside.

I saw a beautiful rainbow one afternoon, but couldn't capture it while I was driving. I did, at least, get some pretty cloud formations.

Here is your traditional, all-American "Main Street, Anytown, USA" complete with a theatre marquis, which incidentally was used as the set for the movie "The Blob" in the 1950s. This street is actually not Main Street, but Bridge Street.

And here is the church that we went to, with a graveyard that I'm not sure I'd want to be caught in after dark.

This trip to PA was my first time driving since PRK on my eyes, and I'm glad I got the first night driving experience out of the way. It definitely made me a bit nervous since I was seeing a lot of halos and glares, but I made it. I will point out another driving first - my first time driving with less than a quarter tank of gas. If you know me, you know one of my biggest driving fears is driving until the "empty tank" warning light comes on. I have actually NEVER driven a car until the tank has been that low. But with gas prices so high, I actually drove all the way from Philly to the Woodrow Wilson Service Station along the NJ Turnpike, where gas was 20-cents cheaper, AND the guy did my windshield. Nice.

After returning to the city, my roommate and I took in the NYC Annual Marathon one cool November sunday. I've only seen the Boston Marathon, so I was definitely curious to see the NY Marathon.

This cop was one of the funniest and most motivational cheerleaders out there, picking out individual runners and making wisecracks and jokes about everyone.

The marathon had a very international feel to it - there were runners and supporters from all over the world - Europe, Asia, South America, Africa. It was so cool to hear so many different accents cheering for their loved ones. We cheered for the Dutch runners, who looked at us in surprise that we knew how to pronounce their names, (e.g., Jannick). We also cheered for the costumed runners - like the monk, the snowman, Darth Vader and Chewbacca, and various fruits and vegetables. The one difference I noticed between the Boston and NY marathons was that New Yorkers definitely are not as into the cheering as Bostonians were. We cheered loudly for all the strangers that ran by - just because hey, it's 26.2 miles and those runners deserve a little cheer. But at all points along the NY marathon route, we tried to cheer people on, but it was almost like people looked at us like we were a little overzealous. In Boston, you would find excited cheering squads at EVERY point along the route. Boston 1, New York 0.

This upcoming week will be Thanksgiving, so it's a short work week, and then off to Pennsylvania again - for our first EVER family Thanksgiving at my sister and brother-in-law's. My Dad has already planned some interesting events for "Black Friday," which include sporting goods stores... Stay tuned.

christmas officially comes to nyc

2007-11-14T03:07:00.000-05:00

Tonight Lar and I got to go to the Opening Night of the Rockette's 75th Annual Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.

Larry had a pair of comped tickets from work, and we had to go with some of his co-workers, but we sat right in the Orchestra and were very up close to the stage.

I hadn't been to see the Rockettes since a school field trip in 7th grade, so this was a very exciting event for me! We didn't even know it was Opening Night, but that soon explained the mass chaos that was outside Radio City Music Hall, and Tony Bennett making an appearance too. In any case, it was a really great show - complete with a 3-D ride through New York on Santa's sleigh. My favorite part was when Santa's sack flew open and gifts started tumbling my way into the audience.

The Rockettes themselves are just cool - I wish I could kick that high and straight in the air. They did a cool toy soldiers routine where they fell back on each other like dominos. At one point, they blasted "snow" into the audience, and another time they shot streamers out into the air, which caused more chaos as little kids began to run into the aisles to get the streamers. There were real fireworks, ice skaters on stage skating on a fake "pond" in Central Park, and even a procession of wise men with a live camel and mule (which Larry tried to convince me was actually 2 people in costume. Nice try.)

Nothing makes it feel more like Christmas than a fun night on the town with the Rockettes at Radio City. Thanks again, L!

late night adventures about town

2007-11-12T02:16:00.000-05:00

It was yet another trying end to an otherwise great weekend. Work loomed, I had to get 15 copies of a client presentation printed and bound. To make a long story short, the wonderfully convenient FedEx Kinko's next door to my apartment refused to take my order at midnight, forcing me to cab it up to a FedEx Kinko's near Bryant Park, on W. 40th Street.

I guess what could have been miserable turned into a rather fun little adventure when my saviour of a roommate, Banan, crazily offered to go with me.

So we made it to Kinko's, but thought it was locked up until I called the guy and some short little man came to the door to show us that it was just a broken door that wouldn't really open. Luckily these guys were understanding of my plight and agreed to make the copies and binding right then, so I wouldn't have to come back in the morning. Bless the late night workers of all FedEx Kinko's around the world!

We had 30 minutes to kill while the job was being done. So we strolled through Bryant Park to Times Square.. where I encountered the very building I would be returning to in less than 24 hours for a 10 AM presentation...

Times Square is so different at 1 AM. It's actually rather quiet and peaceful, and we found a restless late night artsy guy on the corner of 41st and 7th, taking a picture of the skyscrapers and neon lights. We chatted with him a bit, in a late-night Times Square bonding moment.

And then we checked out Bryant Park, all set up for ice skating. But we were accosted soon after by a security guard who told us the park was closed.

And then it was back to Kinko's to pay for my presentations and go home.

I guess there's always a silver lining at the end of an interminably long day - just when you think life couldn't be any worse, your friends step in and show you how much they care. Thanks for the company, Banan.

$2 paper cup therapy

2007-11-10T16:44:00.000-05:00

I have coined a new concept - I call it "paper cup therapy." (Maybe I should trademark/copyright this?) My good friend Beau and I discovered this last year, when we were here in NY at the MAS Portfolio Review. We bought coffees at an outdoor vendor and strolled through Central Park - commenting on how there is just something comforting about holding a paper cup of hot beverage and walking along. The experience can happen anywhere, but it is especially comforting in New York. It just feels right.

This afternoon after treating myself to a manicure at Dashing Diva with Maia, and then a so-so massage, I topped off my pampering with a BOILING cup of tea. There is just something therapeutic about the hot cup and how it keeps your hand warm. Something soothing about sipping it while the steam curls up to your nose. It could be a rich hot chocolate, a deep black tea, or a mulled hot cider - anything. It just makes you feel at peace -- my $2 session of paper cup therapy.

cab driver wisdom

2007-11-07T01:39:00.000-05:00

The best part of my day today was talking to the cab driver who drove me home at 12:15 AM, when I finally left the office. I wasn't really in the mood to talk (actually I was miserable), but he immediately got on my good side by asking if I was cold and then blasting the heat into the backseat for me when I said yes. Then he asked me if I worked in fashion? Nope, but he got bonus points for thinking that! He asked me a few other questions, and though I was not in the most conversational mood, I don't know how he did it, but he made me laugh. These were some the priceless bits of wisdom he shared with me:

- To find your spiritual partner, befriend the lonely. Because karma always comes back to you--and everyone in this big city is lonely or desperate or f'n strung out, so be kind.
- Care, but not too much. (He was referring to my job.) Don't do things to the point that you kill yourself... which led to his other point,
- Always be good to YOURself.

He went on a lot more about situational awareness, opening up fast-food restaurants and wanting customers who were f'n hungry, and about being a cabbie and getting to talk to f'n crazy people (including myself) in the city, but only for so long until they got out. He was this older, grizzled driver - who liberally dropped the f-bomb into every sentence, and kept taking his eyes off the road to glance at me in the rear view mirror (making me slightly nervous). But he was a careful driver, and so earnest, sincere, and slightly batty, that I couldn't help but feel my mood being lifted. So what if he was a stranger - I kind of felt like he cared about my wellbeing, if even for just ten minutes out of my lifetime.

Here's to you, Mark, my cab driver from Queens. You made my night.

option A or B?

2007-11-05T22:40:00.000-05:00

Okay, art directors and visual people. Aesthetic opinions needed. This past weekend, I had to do an impromptu framing job for my sister. She had this cool illustrated poster of our hometown in lovely little Rhode Island, and wanted to get it framed for her new home. I have matted drawings and prints before for random informal things, but never had something professionally framed. So I hope I made the right choice. It was a bit tough to visualize what the entire poster would look like, since when you go to the frame shop, they only have a CORNER of a matte, and a corner of the moulding (I originally called the moulding the "frame" - geez, I'm SUCH an amateur.) for you to look at, and then you have to try to imagine the entire piece framed that way. Anyway, Daisy put me to the task, and now I am putting you all to the task. One thing to keep in mind -- our high school color was crimson, and so I wanted to incorporate that into the matte/framing somehow.

That being said, which matte option do you prefer?

Option A:

or Option B?

Please weigh in, and I will announce my decision in a subsequent post.

halloween along the east coast

2007-11-05T01:33:00.000-05:00

So this is a bit tardy, but better late than never! Halloween this year was a lot of fun, beginning with a ghoulish bash thrown by some friends in the remote borough of Brooklyn. Our hosts, Edie Sedgwick and John Lennon graciously welcomed us into their home:

Here's one of America's favorite couples, Bridezilla and her hunky Hipster. Love the black nails!

The Bridezilla with Raggedy Anne and Military Girl:

Anonymous hipsters interacting:

After some time, we left the party to meet up with a friend at a bar in Nolita. Shortly thereafter, we ran into Britney Spears in rare form here. Gimme more! Note Raggedy Anne's receding hairline here - even dolls grow old and lose their hair, too.

After the weekend costume extravaganzas, there were work/office festivities, including a very competitive pumpkin carving contest. This was actually my very first time carving a pumpkin, believe it or not, so I was very excited. That meant I even managed to drag myself into work EARLY to get a jump on carving:

And the final result (thanks to Pete for the pic):

Okay, so you're probably wondering who the heck this pumpkin is supposed to be. Well, keep wondering. We liked our concept very much, but not that many others did. Hence, the lack of cheers during the shout-o-meter for our misunderstood pumpkin. The winning prize of Outback Steakhouse gift cards went to a bloodshot eyeball pumpkin (kind of like my eyes right after PRK), just because a girl standing next to the judges shrieked like a banshee. Just goes to show that no one understands creative genuis.

Then, on actual Halloween day, I headed down to PA to spend some time with my sister and brother-in-law. Trick-or-treating in the burbs! I got to give out candies to some nerds, a pirate girl, and some other goblins. Very cute, and very domestic. It reminded me of past Halloweens, going around neighborhoods with a group of friends, feeling your bag get heavier and heavier with each chocolate bar, and jostling with your friends to see who got to ring the doorbell at the next house. I love Halloween!

Meanwhile, back in RI, my poor Mom had a different experience a few days prior to Halloween when she got GHOSTED. Luckily, my halloween-savvy brother was able to explain to my mom that this was not a hate crime, but rather -- a new tradition of ghosting, where you ring someone's doorbell and leave them candies and treats with a chain letter. She was about to have the candies tested for traces of arsenic, but I think she's going to hold off on that now. If anyone would like to ghost ME by leaving candies, baubles and diamonds at my doorstep, I'll readily provide my address.

All in all, a very fun-filled week of festivities. I've always loved the last 3 months of the year, beginning with Halloween, as it marks the start of the holiday season, in my calendar. Now it's on to Thanksgiving!

the most hilarious e-cards i have ever seen

2007-11-02T23:38:00.000-04:00

Today my friend sent me a link to an e-cards site that has instantaneously VAULTED up to the top of my list of ALL-TIME FAVORITE sites ever.

These cards are so obnoxious - yet so incredibly true. For example, check out this card. Don't you wish you could have sent that the last time you accidentally sent an email to the wrong person?

Or how about this one, friends? Expect this in your inbox from me in the next five minutes...

I couldn't stop looking at all these cards. Good stuff. Enjoy, and feel free to send me a completely stupid e-card.

the important things

2007-10-31T00:41:00.000-04:00

This is going to have to be a quick one. It's late, I only got back from work about an hour ago, and we have a big presentation tomorrow morning. My eyes were really blurry today, and I'm sure staring at a computer screen for 12+ hours doesn't help. I'm worried that my eyes may not get much better than this, and I think I am only at about 20/40, if even.

But the high point of my day came at the very end, when my friend surprised me with a really thoughtful little pick-me-up and card:

It's a cooling eye mask, to soothe my dry, red eyes after a long day. Oooh, fun and relaxing! More than that though, the gift and card was a reminder to me that sometimes, some of the most important things in life -- friendship and kindness -- cannot be seen, only felt. Thank you.

it's my life...and it's now or never

2007-10-26T02:06:00.000-04:00

Tonight was Bon Jovi's opening night at the all-new Prudential Center in Newark, NJ!! For now, some pix - more details later - now it's time for bed!

Verizon let you text messages that would be displayed on a scrolling ticker... check out this cute message from my favorite little brother:

And here's a special close up of JBJ for my BFF, H-M, who sadly could not make it tonight:

This was my first concert with the new eyes, and I have to say, I wasn't seeing all that much - there were lots of blurry halos and glares. And no, it wasn't the watered-down Budlights and Stellas....!

sesame street in the bronx

2007-10-22T22:40:00.000-04:00

Saturday, October 20 was the big mural painting day! As part of the annual NYCares Volunteer Day, hundreds of volunteers take to the schools and parks in the 5 boroughs to clean, paint, garden and just improve the spaces overall. I decided to volunteer my artistic skills to mural painting, and I recruited Anna to help out too. So, Saturday morning - bright and early - Anna and I hopped on a 6 train toward Pelham Bay Park, and settled in for the long ride deep into the Bronx to PS 47x, an elementary school where we would be sketching out the mural for volunteers to paint.

I had already met with Tom & Steve a week earlier, the Principal and Asst Principal, and visited the school to get a sense of what they wanted done. I knew they had already started a Sesame Street mural on the back wall of the school, and wanted to add 2 new characters this year, as well as pull the mural together with a sky, clouds, etc. Tom, the Principal, was this energetic, young-ish guy who actually used to be an Art Director at Print magazine for 6 years until he burned out and left the industry to be an art teacher -- and eventually become the principal of PS 47x. The entire school was filled with fun, cheery characters and wall paintings, and it made me want to contribute even more to the overall creative feel of the school.

So this is how the day unfolded. First, Anna and I scoped out graffiti-tagged spaces on the wall where we would add the new characters, Kermit the Frog and Zoe (note: Zoe is apparently a relative newcomer to the Sesame Street 'hood.)

Then we drew the lifesize characters onto the wall using black charcoal. We also added big, playful clouds and blades of grass to the entire stretch of wall.

Here is Anna's Kermit:

and my Zoe:

By 9:30 AM, the playground was mobbed with ready volunteers, anxious to get painting. They staked out territories where they would paint, and it was actually pretty cool that we were "The Artists" that everyone came to with questions. Anna and I both suffered a little bit of "art director's angst" - where you worry that what you draw will not be accurately re-created by others, but hey, it's a mural, and a community effort, and you have to let go. We jumped in where there were gaps in painters, we re-drew some guidelines where necessary, and directed people overall. We also overheard some people complaining about our designs -- and how the grass was too long, or the clouds were too low... tough critics! But it just goes to show that you can't please everyone.

Ta da! The finished results, by 3 PM Saturday afternoon:

All in all, it was an incredibly rewarding day, and an amazing experience for me. I actually helped create an entire mural in a school in the Bronx! And I'd like to think that that made a little bit of a difference out there.

seeing the light...of ingo maurer

2007-10-22T00:29:00.000-04:00

Hi again. It's been a little over a week, and thanks to the encouragement of some friends + family, I am back to blogging again! I did promise my friend BEAU that he would get special props for rejuvenating me back to blogging, as he had specially BOOKMARKED my blog. Wow - being bookmarked in someone else's list of "hot sites" is kind of cool. It's like I can't let people down now. So anyway, a LOT has gone on in over a week's time -- here's a recap of one of the highlights.

Friday night, Anna and I went to the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. In honor of National Design Week, admission to the museum was free for the week, and they are currently running a cool exhibit on Ingo Maurer, this cool guy who designs very funky lighting structures.

Here is a wall designed with "wallpaper" that has a repeating rose motif, where each rose is lit from behind. The clear plexiglass table is embedded with small squares of yellow and green lighting.

There were tons of other amazing light fixtures - the MaMo Nouchies - are a whole collection of paper lanterns and lights, where Maurer collaborated with fellow friend and designer, Isamu Noguchi, and thus the fun-to-say name "MaMo Nouchies." If you're in a bad mood and you say "MaMo Nouchies," I guarantee you will be in a better mood by the time you've finished saying that. Anyway, I would have snapped some pictures of the MMNs, but the cranky security guard lady told me "No photos" right after I snapped the one of the wallpaper roses. Maurer also had some really cool neon-type structures that were really bright and almost painful to look at with my recently-lasered eyeballs. Another cool lighting display was a flat aquarium type structure with floating mirrors, lit from below, where goldfish swimming in the water cast shadows onto the wall, and the mirrors were also reflected onto the wall. Very cool.

This was another one of his weirder lighting "blobs," hanging in the stairwell leading up to the exhibit on the second floor.

Note the freaky portrait hanging on the wall behind the light. The man in the painting has eyes that animate and move every few minutes or so -- odd and slightly disconcerting. It happens just slowly enough that you aren't quite sure the eyes moved, but you catch just enough of a glimpse to think you may be going crazy. I saw these same "paintings" at the swanky bar in the Clift Hotel in San Francisco, and it was a big conversation piece then too.

After our very quick museum visit, Anna and I were walking down 5th Avenue, debating on taking the subway or cab, when the M3 bus rolled by and stopped at a light. Our fellow NY gals-about-town, Jenne and Dayna, are constantly taking the bus EVERYWHERE -- to the very ends of the earth, it seems -- so Anna and I decided to hop on and see where it took us. Luckily, this was the M3 that went straight down to West Village. We got to see 5th Avenue by bus - which is yet another NY first for me. Being on a bus in NYC feels a little bit like being a tourist. Indeed, the lovely German couple next to us asked Anna where to get off for Rockefeller Center, and in her very friendly Midwestern manner, Anna told them to get off 3 blocks before the actual "Rockefeller Center" stop. Whoops. In any case, I finally rode an "M-something" bus in NY, which makes me feel like even more of a New Yorker these days.

Now it's time to turn in. My eyes are really dry these days. The doctors warned that my tear ducts would be producing fewer tears because of nerve damage from PRK. The vision is still not 20/20 yet, which slightly annoys me, but I am being good and using all those eye drops daily. Stay tuned for the next post - mural painting in the Bronx!

how do you turn off seeing?

2007-10-11T23:51:00.000-04:00

A weird thought popped into my head tonight on the 6 train as I was going home, after yet another long day at work. Whenever I used to get home exhausted, I would take my contacts out and -- being as blind as I used to be -- I would be able to relax and "turn off seeing" and just be able to look at the world as if it were an Impressionist painting. Kind of like one of my all-time favorites:

Well, I can't really do that anymore these days, and that still kind of feels strange to me.

a cool left brain v. right brain test

2007-10-11T00:08:00.000-04:00

My friend, Pete, from work sent me this test today that determines whether you are more right brained or left. Click the image below to try this out.

Which way do YOU think she is turning? I could only see her moving clockwise for a long, long time. If you focus long enough, you can actually see her flip and start going the other direction. Very cool. How do YOU see this?

the city of brotherly love -- and morimoto

2007-10-10T00:42:00.000-04:00

Today I brought my slightly blurry eyes to Philly, where my colleague and I are going to be giving a presentation on Web 2.0. We took the Amtrak from Penn Station down here to 30th Street Station a day early so we could hole up and review the presentation and materials.

We did have to take a break for dinner, however, and for that we journeyed to Morimoto, the original restaurant of Masaharu Morimoto, of Iron Chef fame. It was an amazing meal - one of the best I've had in a long time. We ordered a tofu appetizer, where a waiter came to our table and literally MADE fresh tofu from soymilk before our very eyes. It all happened under the cover of a stone pot, actually, over the course of 10 minutes. But still, it was pretty cool. More to come on that later.

For now, it's time to rest my eyes. It's been a few days now since the eye doctor took out my "contact lens clear bandages" on my eyes, and my eyes have been feeling more tired and irritated. Today was also the first day I wore eye liner again - after almost 2 weeks. I think my Lancome Le Stylo Noir pencil had missed my lids!

a new pair of blinkers

2007-10-07T22:26:00.000-04:00

I got new eyes last week. By that, I mean that I finally had laser eye surgery. After years of considering it, researching, talking to people and agonizing, I decided that now was the time. I had to have PRK (photo refractive keratotomy), which is a bit more painful than the basic LASIK that everyone has heard of, because I have thin corneas and a high prescription. The consultants at Diamond Vision warned me that I would need a bit longer recovery time, and that the pain would be more intense than LASIK, but I figured a little pain would be worth the chance to see 20/20 again without having to pop in those contacts I've been wearing for 15 years.

10 minutes on a reclined chair under a laser, 2 days of vicodin-induced sleeping in pitch black darkness, and 36 hours of non-stop tearing, burning and stabbing pain in my eyes, and I emerged with the ability to see things across a room that I haven't been able to see since I was a 7-year-old girl. Now THAT is an AMAZING feeling.

And that is why today, while standing in the shower looking at grout between tiles that I used to never be able to see, I decided to start blogging again.

This is my tribute to all things seen by the naked eye.

looking anew: my intro disclaimer

2007-10-07T21:04:00.000-04:00

I have a bit of blogger's block- if such a thing exists. I would like to start one again, but have commitment-phobia. I also have blogging performance anxiety. But a new inspiration came to me today and I've decided to start blogging again, after a bit of an embarassing attempt 2 years ago while I was in London. So here goes... my new blog! Welcome, and thanks for reading.