Mini Food and Cute Stuff

Since it's a holiday weekend, I allowed myself some time to surf the web for things that make me smile. I came across a few that I'd like to share here:


The Mini Food Blog
Mini pumpkin pie by Sarah Maloney

I love food and I love miniatures so it makes sense that I really really love miniature food! Who knew there was a whole blog dedicated to this?

These Full English Breakfast earrings, also by Sarah Maloney, look very tasty:
Through The Mini Food Blog, I came across the delightful blog, Less Apathy More Cake, by Melly Kay. She writes in her intro, "I make lots of cute stuff" and that is true.
Check out her Etsy shop where she sells her adorable mini cakes along with other items.


As an artist, I constantly look for inspiration and the web never fails me. I always stumble upon something fresh and surprising and I appreciate and am inspired by the risks people take in sharing their creativity with the world.

This makes my day!!

Keeping it Local

When I first moved to Tucson almost five years ago (it will be five on September 9, 2009), I must admit that I was underwhelmed. Tucson did not wow or dazzle me right away. But it has grown on me over time, surprising me with its quirkiness and subtle desert beauty.

I was most proud to be a Tucsonan this past week during the 4th Avenue Underpass Opening (August 20, 2009). The tremendous spirit of Tucsonans came pouring out as individuals of all ages and backgrounds streamed into downtown to celebrate the long-awaited reconnection of 4th Ave and Congress. All of the downtown businesses put on their Sunday best - welcoming the crowds with free treats, discounts, and special performances. I scored a pen from Chase Bank, a t-shirt from Dinnerware Artspace, glow sticks, an Entertainment guide, and a free historical walking tour of the El Presidio neighborhood. But it was not this collection of goodies that most put a smile on my face. It was the energy and excitement I felt walking under the new underpass and searching for people I knew in the portrait tile mural. It was the feeling that we were all in this together, that for at least one day we could forget about all of the complaints and woes of downtown politics and development, and just have a good time. It was pure magic.

Tweetup at Tooley's

I created this video with Judy Kinney. You can follow me on Twitter if you so desire!

Post-it Love

Client Spotlight: LA Commons

Trekking LA 2009 E-Flyer

I have been working with LA Commons for three and a half years, doing grant writing, research, and graphic design. It has been a wonderful partnership and I feel truly grateful to contribute to this innovative and dynamic LA non-profit arts organization. I met the executive director, Karen Mack, when she was the interim program director at The HeArt Project, another amazing arts organization where I worked for three years and continue to do freelance work.

Several years ago, LA Commons, in partnership with UCLA's Department of Urban Planning, launched Uncommon LA, an initiative to bring attention to the cultural treasures of the neighborhoods where it engages artists and residents in public art projects. Uncommon LA's signature event is Trekking Los Angeles: Local Adventures in A Global City, now in its third summer. I have been involved in the design since the inception and have had a lot of fun watching the project - and the resulting graphic identity - evolve.

Cover, Trekking LA Guide, 2007

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Trekking LA website
Site design by Khari and Akia Scott was informed by Trekking LA graphic identity.
I designed the map!

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Front and back of postcard for 2008 Trekking LA BBQ series. I was very inspired by this project, partly because I love working with food images. For the background image on the back, I took a picture of ketchup that I had squeezed onto a paper towel.

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A final food + design tidbit: I used okra and peppers from my mother-in-law's beautiful summer garden (in Ohio, not LA. Don't tell anyone!) for LA Commons' 2008 gala invite and program.

Okra and Peppers

Uncommon Angels Invite (inside of invite)

The Wonderful World of Online Color Resources

I love color. I love names of colors, especially paint colors. Dill Pickle, Olive Branch, Barley, Sea Urchin, Burnt Peanut Red, Cool Lava, and Sweet Butter are a few succulent names I just pulled from a Benjamin Moore color guide.

A quick guide to color for graphic and web design: There are two different color modes - CMYK and RGB. RGB (the red-green-blue light emitted from a monitor) is the mode for computers and internet. CMYK represents the four inks - cyan, magenta, yellow, and black - that are used for four-color printing. Here is a good article explaining the differences.

You may have heard the term "web safe colors," which refers to the 216 cross-browser color palette, created to ensure that all computers would display the colors correctly when running a 256 color palette. This is not as important today, because most monitors can display millions of different colors. W3 schools.com is a great resource for HTML colors.

An important color system to know about is the Pantone Matching System (PMS), a standardized color system developed in the 1960s by Pantone, the "global authority of color." Pantone sets color trends, each year selecting a color of the year. The 2009 color of the year is PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa, representing "hope and reassurance" during tough economic times.

Here are a few online resources for choosing colors for a project.

Kuler is a beautiful Flash site from Adobe. Themes have five colors each. You can browse and rate themes created by users, create your own themes, download themes to use in Adobe Creative Suite applications, and even use color extraction tools to generate themes from your favorite painting or photograph.


Color Schemer and
Color Schemer Online
You can browse through hundreds of color schemes created by users (for free) or purchase their software. I have never used the software myself or downloaded schemes. I just browse through the schemes as a quick reference. I noticed they have a free Galleria dashboard widget that I will probably try out. (I like widgets!)

Visibone Color Lab
This is a fun visual tool for browsing the 216 web safe colors. Each color also includes RGB and CMYK values.


Please let me know what online color resources have been helpful to you. Happy color journeys!

Going in the Right Direction

I appreciate the feedback I received on my last post. It is becoming clearer to me that I want to use all of my social media tools - blogs, Facebook, Twitter - to promote my work. I also need to work on an expanded description of my work/services and what I bring to a project (thanks Alice, for highlighting this). I have been nervous about listing all of the things I do for fear that people may think I am scattered and not focused. To turn this into a positive, I bring a diverse range of experiences to my work and can view a project holistically. For example, because of my writing experience I can edit text in the middle of designing a piece. Finding a balance between copy and design can be challenging because the client may not want to sacrifice any text but too much copy can be overwhelming to the reader. Because I am both a writer and designer, a client can entrust me to design and edit simultaneously!

It feels uncomfortable to be writing so much about myself - I prefer to write about other peoples' ideas and projects - but this is an important part of my journey. I recently had a conversation with Judy Kinney, a Law of Attraction Life Coach (check out her website Dream and Flourish Coaching) about making money doing what you love, and as a result we are going to host an event on this very topic. Just being open to this possibility has already helped me to shift my attitude.

So here I go down this road. Hope to meet new companions along the way!

Self-promotion and Micromovements

I have a hard time promoting my paid work. My "volunteer" work or community arts initiatives I have no problem talking about, pitching to the media, etc. But when it comes to my own graphic design, grant consulting, public relations, it is tough for me to sell myself. I am thinking perhaps this blog could come in handy for this.

So I am putting out to the universe that I want to grow my business and get new clients.

Here are some questions I have for myself:

- What do I have to offer a client?
- What am I looking for in a client?
- What is/are my ideal project(s)?
- How do I convey this in my promotional materials (website, business card, etc.)?

Possible action steps:
- Create e-newsletter and email list of past, current and potential clients
- Gather testimonials from past and current clients

I consider writing down these thoughts "micromovements. I found this concept years ago in a book by Sark. "Micromovements are tiny, tiny little steps you can take towards completions in your life. I'm a recovering procrastinator, and I have a short attntion span, so I invented micromovements as a method of completing projects in time spans of 5 minutes or less." (The Bodacious Book of Succulence, 1998)

My goal is to blog about my process, ideally encouraging me to move forward and help manifest my goals. I'm also interested in what others have to say about this!

Confessions of a Twitterer

Ok, I confess! I have forsaken my blog for Twitter. Can you blame me? Twitter offers bite-size chunks of information all day all the time! For a highly-distracted person like myself it is very appealing. Plus you can meet people from all over the world that you would never find on Facebook and that you would have to spend hours searching for on the internet. On Twitter, they just pop up, out of the blue, and you have a new source of information.

That being said, I have been reminded of the importance of blogging from my friend Margie, who launched her new blog recently! Yeah Margie! She acknowledged me as one of her inspirations to start blogging, so I do not want to let her down.

So I am recommitting to blogging. At least for today. :)

Downtown Scavenger Hunt!

Pop Up Spaces presents
Downtown Scavenger Hunt!! Sunday, March 1, 2009

Walk through the streets of downtown Tucson and you will find multiple FOR RENT signs on every block. While that may be discouraging to some Tucsonans, a group of artists sees these spaces as blank canvases. In the Downtown Scavenger Hunt on March 1, participants will be given clues to find 10 locations, each one with a short activity that will encourage them to engage with the current environment, reflect upon the historic record, and imagine future possibilities for the space. The resulting photography and writings will be displayed in the future at a time and venue TBA.

Clues and instructions can be picked up at Shot in the Dark Café, 121 East Broadway Blvd. between 12pm and 2pm.

Downtown Scavenger Hunt is free and appropriate for all ages.

Downtown Scavenger Hunt is the inaugural project of POP UP SPACES, a collaboration between artists Rachelle Diaz of Tu Scene, Molly McClintock of MAXED ART and Julie Ray of The Burrito Files. POP UP SPACES seeks to produce temporary, interactive, site-specific installations in empty spaces in which the visitors are not just expected to be passive viewers, but asked to be active participants. The goal of these art-based experiences is to enhance economic vitality and public engagement in downtown Tucson through promotion of the area's culture, history, architecture and business community.

Visit PopUpSpaces.org for more info.

Complete the Hunt and enter a Drawing to Win a special prize regarding Historical Downtown Tucson!

Altered Book Exchange

Community Storytelling Arts is hosting a 12-month altered book exchange. An altered book is any book, old or new that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art. Altering can include (but is not limited to) painting, embossing, collaging, and rubber stamping individual pages.

First meeting is Sunday, March 8th from 1pm - 4pm.

Community Storytelling Arts

40 W. Broadway, between Church and Stone

Park in lot off of Jackson behind building

Cost is $12 per Sunday

To sign up or for more information email csatucson@gmail.com or (520) 882-3988.

The Impossible Project

I just love the name of this project. It feels very appropriate for this time we are in - war, economic crisis and at the same time a new administration. What are the opportunities here for creative people and entrepreneurs? Can we create some new paradigms [david aguirre] - perhaps more collaboration [therese perreault] instead of always re-inventing the wheel and sticking in our silos [monica spigelman]? In the spirit of collaboration I am crediting the folks who have inspired me about these concepts. Let's give more people credit.

here are some folks that are stepping out there and contributing to our Tucson creative scene.
TDAC (Tucson Digital Arts Community)
Maxed Art
TuScene
PLAY
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO HIRE ARTISTS TO WORK IN SCHOOLS & COMMUNITIES
Tucson Main Street
Community Storytelling Arts

What else and who else is out there? Step up and BE HEARD [IABC tagline]

Open Source Social Change

love this concept - The Power of Us: Re-Imagine Media
A collaborative competition is an interactive solicitation to identify and develop innovative, workable solutions to the world's most entrenched social problems. Competition entries are posted online and made available for anyone to view and collaborate with by providing new ideas, asking insightful questions, and providing connections to new resources.

Happy Chanukah and Buon Natale from Rome!

I have been a horrible blogger lately, probably because I've been focused on my burrito project blog. Since I am in Rome for the holidays and happen to have a computer and internet access I thought I would check in!

First of all, I love Rome! How come Europeans have figured it out and us Americans haven't? They have teeny, cute cars, use energy responsibly, and know how to enjoy life. I think I am more European than American. We haven't driven or ridden in a car in about five days and I don't miss it at all. The dollar is not very strong right now but there are ways to have a budget-conscious trip like buying food at a market and preparing it yourself. We are staying in an apartment that has a shared bathroom, kitchen and living room but we are the only ones here so we have it all to ourselves!

The neighborhood we are in is very diverse - there are tons of little shops run by Chinese and Bangladeshi immigrants. Prasenjit has spoken Bengali with some of the Bangladeshi produce vendors in the nearby Mercato Esquilino, a wonderful covered marketplace similar to Grand Central Market in Los Angeles.

Haven't downloaded any pics yet so I just stole a few from the web.
These menorahs are from today's LA Times.

Wishing everyone around the world peace and joy this holiday season.

Stuff

Here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:

Prop 8

Prop-erty Crime. There's been a rise in break-ins in our neighborhood so we're trying to organize some neighborhood walks. Anyone know of creative ways to address property crime in a community?

Obama - the human being, not the politician
photo by Preston Gannaway

Also,
- Auto industry bailout
- Downtown Tucson
- The Invisible City
- Email and web overload!!

What's been on your mind??
self portrait by Marcus during Open Studio Tour Nov 8 & 9 @ El Centro

Art in Odd Places

i went to an opening of the Micromentalists show at Lulubell's Toy Bodega last night and came across artist Eric Doeringer's "fakes" collection. i went to his website and found this awesome NYC happening - Art in Odd Places. Here are a few examples but there are lots more at the website.

NO DELIVERIES TODAY

Miryana Todorova and Hatuey Ramos-Fermín

A series of boxes painted in bright colors are continually loaded, unloaded and moved from one place to another on a cart. The normally mundane job takes center stage as the delivery moves at a high speed and with no clear destination. Pedestrians will be forced to interact with the "moving" process while the colorful delivery boxes continue to question: who sent them, to whom do they belong to?

Time/Location: Friday, October 3 (2pm-6pm); Sunday, October 26 (10am-2pm). 14th Street btwn Union Square and Seventh Avenue.

FREE BOOKS
Eric Doeringer

A box of books labeled "Free Books" is deposited at various 14th Street locations. A seeming act of generosity, the artist has removed the last few pages from each book. The alteration will only become apparent to the reader after he or she has nearly finished the book, converting the cast-off into a statement of art.

Time/Location: Ongoing throughout October. Four undisclosed locations on 14th Street.

Eric Doeringer is a Brooklyn-based artist. He has had solo exhibitions in New York at Apex Art, Soma NYC, as well as locations in LA, Miami, Toronto, Spain, Switzerland, and Prague.
www.ericdoeringer.com

LANDSCRAPERS

Aakash Nihalani

Brightly colored tape outlines rectangular shapes in the urban landscape. In a city made up of rectangular buildings, windows, and blocks the artist plays with a shape that is symbolic of New York City. In the attempt to draw attention to forgotten dimensions and overlooked layers, he creates reminders and portals with cubes that allow pedestrians to see the lines they are surrounded by in a new light.

Time/Location: Saturday, October 4, 11, 18, 25. (12-2pm). Bricks, sidewalks, crosswalks, windowsills, and other locations on 14th Street.

Aakash Nihalani is a Brooklyn-based artist and designer. His recent work explores the use of colored industrial tape as a medium for street art.
www.aakashnihalani.com

Invisible City

I have the honor of being one of the artists participating in The Invisible City project, a site-specific artist laboratory in Downtown Tucson. A collaboration between NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre and Kore Press, the project brings dancers, writers, visual artists, and musicians together for 4 weeks to create work that investigates public space through process-based explorations and performance.

The first lab was Friday, October 17th. Our public space was the parking lot on the north side of Toole, just east of the 6th Avenue underpass. We explored, climbed, danced, jumped, wrote, and felt what it was like to inhabit the space. Click here to see images from Friday.

YOU, the public, are invited to take part in this project - either as participants or observers. The project will be taking place Fridays from 5 - 7 pm and Sundays from 2 - 6pm through Nov. 9th. Hope to see you come out and interact with the process!

Photo by Krista Niles. (I am second from the right, the blurry figure in red pants!)

Acts of Faith

Faith, religion, and spirituality are on my mind. We are in the midst of the Jewish High Holy Days and today my husband and I went to a Bengali Durga Puja, the annual celebration of the Hindu goddess Durga. I recently read the book, Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel, an Indian American Muslim who founded the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that brings young people of different religious traditions together to do direct service.

I related to Eboo's experience as an activist college student searching for a way to connect his faith and religion to his desire to better the world. This was also my journey. Being heavily involved in student activism in college left me feeling that something was missing - where was the spirit and soul of what we were doing? Where we thinking about how we were treating our fellow students or just focused on "fighting the power"? Disillusionment led me to work for change on the inside - my personal growth - and within the non-profit world.

Marrying outside my religion has tested my faith and values. Do I really believe that all religions are equal? Can my husband and I celebrate and appreciate both of our religious and cultural backgrounds without resentment or fear? This includes our own religions. For a time, I avoided the Jewish community out of fear of my Judaism being questioned and of my husband feeling excluded. After reading With Roots in Heaven, about Rabbi Tirzah Firestone's return to Judaism, I realized that I want to be connected to a Jewish community - one that is inclusive and open-minded. These do exist, and I am grateful for that.

I struggle with the contradictions. Some Jews consider themselves "the chosen people" and believe that we are a "light to the nations" - an example for other religions. This seems condescending and exclusive. Yet at the same time we have a long history of standing up for the rights of all peoples. Many Jews have explored other spiritual traditions; Jewish Buddhists abound and Israelis are known to travel in droves to India after completing their mandatory military service.



I don't know what all of this means. I do know that my activism stems from my Judaism - the experience of being a Jew in a Christian country, the history of American Jews as union organizers and civil rights activists, and the concepts of tzedakah (justice), and tikkun olam (repairing the world). I also know that I believe we all come from the same source and that the path to peace has to come from acceptance and love.

Acts of Faith ends with Patel's thoughts on religious pluralism, which I believe can be applied to not just religion but ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and all of the things that divide us as humans:

"I came to one conclusion. We have to save each other. It's the only way to save ourselves."

JewBu definition from www.urbandictionary.com

Paying it Forward

I haven't blogged in a while because I've been occupied with Park(ing) Day and my burrito cart. Now that it is over I am trying to get back into the blogosphere. I was reading the blog Tucson Cowgirl and found out about the challenge Paying It Forward.

This is how it works, as excerpted from Monica's blog:
"I have agreed to send something nice to the first 3 bloggers who post a comment on this blog entry. In turn, those 'first three commenters' who respond to my post will honor the pay it forward concept to the first 3 people who post on their blog… and so on. So if you're interested in participating in this, be one of the first three to leave a comment. Please remember that if you agree to pay it forward, you need to post this acknowledgment on your blog, link to me, and pay it forward to three more people."

I don't know what the something nice will be yet but probably some quirky items I have lying around.

This image has nothing to do with Paying it Forward except that I don't like to post blogs without an image. I suppose an apple is a good symbol for paying it forward in that it pays you with health!