5.28.2011

Altered Book: May

Altered book round robin, book 4!

This is a cute book with a story of a little boy who befriends a wild goose. It is beautifully illustrated, and I loved this drawing of the little boy waving good bye as his goose flies away.



Judging by my previous altered book posts, I like color and particularly texture. I didn't have any particular thoughts behind what I did this time, just started cutting and layering, and there you go.





And, as you can see, I like to work on my floor. Glue and my oriental rug, even if the orient is really Home Depot, are probably a poor combo, but I've avoided catastrophe thus far.






5.08.2011

Lollapalooza

I bought my 3 day pass for Lollapalooza about a month ago, and I can't wait. I bought the tickets before I even knew the line-up. Of course it's about the music, but more about who I experience the weekend with.

Music is always better with people who appreciate it! (And don't mind being a bit damp or sweaty along the way.)


Summerfest
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2003
I still have this T-shirt, wore it last week.
A very blurry photo of Jakob Dylan.
We thought the Wallflowers were great.
The Wallflowers, 6th Avenue Heartache


Dave Matthews Band
Alpine Valley, Wisconsin, 2003
At least I think it was 2003.
Dave Matthews Band, Satellite



Bonnaroo
 Manchester, Tennessee, 2007
Yep, we were just as hot and sweaty as we look.
The Flaming Lips!
The Flaming Lips, Fight Test



Lollapalooza
Chicago, IL, 2009
Drizzly the first day
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Shame and Fortune



Lollapalooza
Chicago, IL, 2010
The National. My favorite concert of the weekend!
The National, Fake Empire


Definitely looking forward to Lollapalooza 2011!

5.05.2011

Altered Book: April

I know it's May, but better late than never. Book number 3 in my altered book round robin.

I was incredibly excited when I received this book in the mail (and also nervous!). I was excited because this book was started by a college friend of mine who is truly wonderful and nervous because she is incredibly talented. I sincerely hope I did her book justice. Her book cover is an outline of her silhouette and the sign-in page is a map were each person identifies their city (clever, of course). The next artist tried to incorporate the map idea, and I wanted to try and combine both the map and silhouette.

You don't have to know me for very long to know that I have an intense love for my home state of Wisconsin. (Entirely justified. . . the entire state is built on cheese and beer. Be still my heart.)

I went back to my newly acquired X-acto knife skills developed here. I made a cut-out silhouette of Wisconsin. (Definitely traced. I wish could make a perfect free-hand outline of the greatest state in the union.)



I made a few patterned Wisconsins to fill in the cut-outs, and chose to fill the last one with a map of my home town.



They turned out ok when layered, but was hoping to be able to see the map more clearly. I made a tedious decision to cut out all the counties. (I thought it looked pretty good when I got half way through, so called it a day.)




The final product. I think this may turn out to be one of my favorites.




4.21.2011

It might kill me

This has been a relatively painful month. In a matter of too few days, I will have had my yearly in-training exam, two major presentations, a certification course, and a weekend of call. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be done draining myself in obligation to my education. Probably not. . . However, at least for this stretch, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm excited to have gotten another book in the altered book round robin. This one was started by a college friend, one of the most wonderful and creative people I've ever met. I only hope I can do her book justice. (Especially since it will be tight getting it finished and passed on by the end of the month.) So, that post will be coming.

For now, here's my theme song:

3.27.2011

Smile-inducing

How can you not love this??

Nothing so heart-warming as a free-spirited skinny bearded dude wearing shiny leotards and lip-syncing in the street to Lady Gaga!

3.23.2011

Altered Book: March

I received the first book in my altered book round robin!

The book is a collection of essays regarding women and changing roles in society. The cover was altered along the theme of women and independence, and it seemed to make the most sense to continue along that theme. I debated the best way to go about it, I liked the idea of playing with fashion throughout history, but couldn't think of a great way to execute it. So, I decided to focus instead on influential women throughout history.

I bought translucent vellum and printed black and white portraits of some of my favorite powerful female characters.


I had randomly purchased this hardware-patterned scrapbooking paper, and I loved the idea of pairing this traditionally masculine pattern with the photos of these strong ladies.


I wanted the photos to be featured like portraits, so used a circular punch to create a "frame" from either the book page or the additional paper. I used the patterned transparency to embellish the frame.


Also, I am a huge nerd and overly obsessed with detail. For as many of the portraits as I could, I tried to pair the woman with an appropriate word in the text. On the left is Rosalind Franklin, the woman whose work in X-ray crystallography led to discovery of the double helix structure of DNA (although the credit went to Watson and Crick). Her portrait frames the word "scientific." Ella Fitzgerald frames "music" and Frida Kahlo "artistic."


Here are a couple more finished pages:
Coco Chanel with Queen Elizabeth I in the background
Kathryn Hepburn and Marie Curie
Rosa Parks and Amelia Earhart (who shares my birthday!)
with Rosalind at the bottom of the page.
I think I may even have it in the mail before the April 1 deadline. I love this creative outlet, and I'm excited for whatever's next in the robin!

3.08.2011

Honoring the 'stache

I think my current town lacks quality facial hair. My co-workers last year were admirably devoted to cultivating the perfect 'stache. (Occasionally more devoted to that than actual work.) I was nostalgically flipping through pictures, and thought, this facial hair is worth sharing.


Faces have been cropped to protect the not-so-innocent.

These men are shining examples of years and years of higher education alongside a bit of historical inspiration:




Colonel Sanders



Sean Connery


Burt Reynolds





Howard Taft. The last Pres with facial hair!



Anyone who pulls a rabbit out of a hat.

Also, in my moustache research, I learned from AskMen.com that the top 10 moustache-wearing countries are:
10. Bulgaria
9. Hungary
8. United States
7. Turkey
6. Egypt
5. Iran
4. Germany
3. Pakistan
2. Mexico
1. India

Some more fabulous facial hair:
Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters 

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Walter Cronkite

Rollie Fingers