spaced out

Happy Wednesday! I just polished off an ice cream mochi (mango flavor, my fave) and was reminded that I never posted this little illustration I worked on for a campaign Bright was doing... a celebration of the fact that last Sunday was National Ice Cream Day AND the 45th anniversary of the first moonwalk. 

What flavor do you think that ice cream is? Superman? Have you ever had Superman ice cream guys? IT IS SO GOOD IN MY MEMORY.

fair enough

After reading Annie's round up of her day at the fair (she got some DONUT BEER, so jealous) I figured I might as well do a little one of my own!

If you're not from Minnesota you, as I did when I moved here, might be scratching your head in confusion. "The state fair?" You might be asking yourself, "People go to those? Isn't it just a bunch of cows?" I mean, yes, it is a bunch of cows. BUT THERE'S MORE. Minnesota takes its fair VERY seriously - the fairgrounds are on a permanent stake of land, not a field like all the county fairs I'd been to in Michigan. There are PERMANENT buildings. There are REAL STREETS, you can see them on google maps and everything! Maybe other states do this as well, but in Michigan they don't even have a state fair anymore, so I can't exactly speak on the matter.

But really folks, the most important part of the fair is getting the weirdest food you can, drinking beer, walking around, people watching and maybe playing some arcade games. This year we went late on the very last day, so all the animals were already gone... but it was nice and cool, and the crowds were down. You could even hear the vocal stylings of Toby Keith wafting from the Grandstand.

 

waiting in line outside the grandstand for our fried olives / first beer of the day

In case you were curious, here is a list of everything I tasted on that day. If you're into healthy food you  might want to skip this portion, otherwise you may experience heart palpitations.

-cheese curds

-beer (3)

-comet corn (illustrated above, these were like.. liquid nitrogen soaked, cap'n crunch flavored nuggets)

-fried olives stuffed with cream cheese (worth the amazingly long wait)

-a piece of fried banana

-corn dog

-cronut dosant 

-minneapple pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream

   

clockwise: the last fried olive / alex goes for the gold / giant jenga sits alone / alli and her dosant haul

We also went down the giant slide, which was more fun than one might think.

 

inside the agriculture & horticulture building / kidway at dusk

pattern pals #5: the alphabet

It's time for a very special pattern pals! This time around Katie and I created the assets and picked a color palette together, then went our separate ways and made a pattern using our combined drawings! SO MUCH FUN! Lettering seemed like a nice thing to work together on, especially since I've amassed quite a lot of books and websites with great vintage lettering and type. 

I had a lot of fun with this one, and it was so fun to see what Katie came up with as well! 

tile / iphone wallpaper / ipad wallpaper

And of course, here's the corresponding outfit, inspired by the snow on the ground and my major vitamin D deficiency....

sweatshirt / necklace / tote / sandals / shorts

pattern pals #4: secret society

I'll admit, when I suggested to Katie that we do a secret society theme for this week's pattern pals I already had sketched something else. On a whim I had been googling around, doing visual research on the ever popular Odd Fellows, and found this amazing website with loads of Odd Fellow art. The beginnings of this pattern ended up in my sketchbook, and that's when I shared my idea with Katie.

Weirdly enough, without having seen my piece, Katie and I came up with somewhat similar patterns! I guess when you think of secret societies you normally think of some sort of all-seeing-eye? Go check out Katie's, by the way, it is bonkers awesome.

I had a good time with this pattern! Experimenting always.

HERE COME THE DOWNLOADS: repeating tile / iphone wallpaper / ipad wallpaper

And here comes the corresponding dream outfit! This time around I was thinking about what I might wear to a the Master-esque masquerade party on a yacht or something....

  headband / necklace / earrings / shoes (how amazing are these things?) / dress / mask / clutch

girl talk

I mentioned earlier that for the GIRLS: Fact or Fiction show at Light Grey I chose the talented and gorgeous performance artist Marina Abramovic. Well, here's the piece! It's been quietly sitting on my website for some time but I wanted to wait awhile before I posted the whole thing.

This ended up being a very difficult portrait to do - by doing so much research I started getting nervous about properly representing an artist that I admire so deeply. After many attempts at starting, I finally decided to focus on the props used in her many pieces throughout the years. See if you can figure them all out! It's like Marina Abramovic scavenger hunt!!

And please, come to the opening of GIRLS if you can make it! If you can't make it, no worries! There's a real sweet looking book for sale. [UPDATE: you can also buy my print NOW, HERE! Spend $100 on prints or whatever and you'll get the book FOR FREEEE].

image courtesy LGAL

frozen planet

I know I know. Frozen yogurt was a huge deal FOREVER ago everywhere else. Minnesota is always a little slow to pick up on food trends, but once we have them we go NUTS with them (see also: donuts). It felt like in a flash there were froyo spots popping up all over the twin cities... and, to my delight, mostly in St. Paul! Freestyle is my fave, although TruBerry is conveniently close by.

So, in celebration of the Official Dessert of Summer 2012, I've whipped up a chart of my favorite frozen yogurt options, with a super sized serving! (seriously though, I could never eat that much)

1) Let's get this straight. I've tried some amazing flavors, like salted caramel or chili chocolate. They're wonderful. But nothing beats a nice plain tart yogurt. Tart pomegranate also is pretty great - and colorful!

2) Strawberries are obviously the best fresh fruit choice. Fresh fruit is REQUIRED, that's just how I roll. A lot of places have raspberries and black berries, which I like in theory but then all those seeds get in my teeth and I cry, because getting seeds in my teeth is a big food pet peeve of mine. My other big food pet peeve is anything that turns your tongue blue.

3) Some places have these funny bubbles that are just encased fruit juice. The mango one is amazing! It's like an explosion of mango happiness.

4) MOCHI OH MY GOD MOCHI. Did you think those were tiny marshmallows? THINK AGAIN, THEY ARE TEN MILLION TIMES BETTER. If you don't know what mochi is, (a) I pity you, and (b) they are a Japanese rice cake. They're squishy and funny, they go PERFECT with frozen yogurt, although I'm not sure why. Not all places have these either, which is a giant pity.

Aren't you hungry now? I certainly am.

ladie's night

Jessie Schneider

Going to art school has to be one of the greatest times of my life. It's so wonderful to meet people who really care about creating and actively discovering great artwork, past and present. I met a lot of great folks at MCAD, and have continued really meaningful relationships with a lot of these folks beyond school. Recently I've been reconnecting with a few that I haven't seen as much since graduation, and man. There are a lot of really talented ladies! Of course there were talented dudes too, but since I'm a lady and I love ladies, I think its time that some of my favorite MCAD girlz got the spotlight!

(I'm only posting a few, but I should seriously make this a regular series... when I went back to edit this I realized that I left out SO MANY talented MCAD women. Keep your eyes peeled!)



 
Jessie Schneider again, this girl has an enviable knowledge of color.... and also has some very enviable hair. Seriously, I think I need her hair cut.
 
Kelly Abeln is a whiz at skee ball and illustrates regularly for ROOKIE, making her my hero
 Sami Foust, you make graphic design and rollerskating look like a breeze.
 
Carla lives in the apartment below me, makes amazing/haunting photographs and is the best dancer you've ever seen. 
 Annnnnd of course, my best ladies: 
Katie Wilson is one half of Dude & Chick. She's visiting in a few weeks from LA and my excitement is tenfold!
 
You probably know Allison from her blog, dotluv, but I met Alli BEFORE the blog - we've been friends since our early college years! She's a fabtastic photographer, but I didn't have to tell you that.