art, spring, a very cool party, mochi, sun valley, and randomness

Time: 2:41 PM
Mood: eager, restless
Playing: Shpongle Nothing Lasts, But Nothing Is Lost

So, if I don't post now I probably won't get to for a very long time. The next busy quarter begins today.

The Conceptual Illustration class at AiS had a little too much fun week 11 with paper towel rolls. We were kinda going off of the Sagmeister "Things I've Learned in My Life" theme.




Speaking of Sagmeister, he was in Seattle a few weeks ago and spoke at the University of WA. It was great. He said some really great things about concept vs form/style in design that really resonated for me. Found this video of him speaking the other day and really liked it. Pardon the car ad at the end.
Sagmeister: Yes, design can make you happy (at TED)


Train by AiS in early March.


Blooming trees on the Seattle waterfront, early March.


About two weeks ago Riga showed me how to make some fabulous Thai food from scratch, and then we got adventurous and tried to make Mochi from scratch. They tasted ok, but looked pretty strange. :D


Alex came in February and we went to the Seattle Aquarium.




Chihuli had some work at the aquarium. Gorgeous.


And I don't know what this thing is, but I love it. It's on the Seattle waterfront.


This club in Boise, Idaho doesn't admit dorks.


Spotted at a Boise, Idaho Target: the ugliest dress ever.


Graffiti on a train in Twin Falls, Idaho.




Maggie's 26th birthday, March 15, at Buca di Beppo's.




Mmmm. Me with Limoncello.




This past week I was back in Idaho for a visit.
Mountains on the way to SunValley (from Boise).


On the way to Sun Valley there were two para-skiers (kite-skiers?) off in the distance and they were hauling! I had my camera on almost full zoom to get them. I'd never seen this before.




We spotted a Spacecraft sticker in SunValley (that's Baldi in the background). I'm doing an internship at Spacecraft this quarter.


Ice cave sign off the highway between SunValley and Shoshone.


The bustling town of Shoshone, ID.


Between Twin Falls and Boise, ID. Most of Idaho right now looks like someone went at it with a Photoshop sponge tool and sucked up all the color.


In February I volunteered for the Wexley School for Girls Quantum Leap-Year Party Extravaganza. They're a design/marketing firm here in Seattle. Their downtown business front is a fake Chinese restaurant. It was the most incredible party. The photos do it no justice.
Me, protector of coat-check.


Security. People kept driving around the block and staring, and then driving around the block again.


Some of the other volunteers from AiS, me, and Jason, one of the security guys.


Those photos were by Jason. Other photos by him are HERE. Other Wexley party photos are HERE.



That's probably it for a while, unless something earth shattering happens. Annie, I miss you! Niki, where ARE you? Amber, come visit! The rest of you, write me!
Cheerio all!

sunshine, candied papaya, violin, and posters to get to Cuba

Time: 5:11 PM
Mood: happy. It was SO marvelous today!
Playing: Geoffrey Castle All Blues

Wow, it was a BEAUTIFUL day. I walked along the water's edge to run my errands this afternoon so I could soak up some sunshine. A lot of other people had the same idea, and they all looked happy because of it. On the way home I walked through the market and it was the same mood there. There were street performers on every corner, kids running around in t-shirts, people walking their dogs, tourists buying French breads and smoked salmon, locals buying groceries, and some guy doing really well playing an acoustic guitar behind his head while hula-hooping at the same time. :)

I grabbed some maté and some candied papaya from a little Mexican store in the market.

Candied papaya is one of those things I hated as a kid but like now, in moderation. It has a weird and overwhelming sweetness, like dates, . . . sort of.

But, speaking of the market, I discovered a little delicious Mexican place hiding, with no signs, right next to the über famous original Starbucks store in the market. It's the best Mexican food I've found anywhere in downtown so far: super authentic and usually run by old Latino women. It's fabulous! I always get the tamales. The only things in the place that I could find with a name were the business cards next to the register.


And yes, if you know me you're probably thinking... isn't she so busy right now she doesn't have time to do things like make blog posts? And yes, you are entirely right. But, my brain is not reacting well to the onslaught of Action Script 2 code homework. I'm considering this my break. Half hour. Tops. Seriously though, life's been insane lately. Consider that my conceptual illustrations (for class) lately are coming out like this:


My Dunny stares down at me as I procrastinate.


Also, today, I was headed home and taking the shortcut through the convention center. Sometimes the place hires live music when there's a convention. Today there was this INCREDIBLE solo electric violinist playing. There was this huge crowd of awe-struck shoppers stuck in their tracks listening to him. I've never seen so many people stopping to watch any of the musicians in there. His name was Geoffrey Castle and even I had to buy a coffee and sit there and listen through three or four songs. I tried to take a photo with my camera, but couldn't get one cuz of all the people. I'd say go check out the music, but I know any recording isn't going to do it justice. That's the way it is with all the violin and cello music. When it's live it vibrates through your whole body—you feel it. Violin and cello seem so flat recorded. It would still be great music, but not the same. His site is geoffreycastle.com


As for the more distant past, I finished a couple of books early in the quarter before things got so crazy:

Both are fantastic! I am, officially now, hooked on Anthony Bourdain stuff.
Love it.

And then, here are some snaps of David Gallo's "Cuban Poster Crisis" show opening at the Vera Project. The "Cuban Poster" part doesn't refer to his work, but to his being invited to the Havana poster show, and the "Crisis" I'm assuming refers to his financial crisis in funding the trip, for which he had the show. It was fun. If you have any dollars to spare for an artist wanting to (legally) go to Cuba, I think he has some prints for sale on his site: iheartwhitespace.com

Naomi and Ashley on the "viewer participation" poster.




In the screen-printing room:




That's David on the right, Angela and Evan on the left.


Chad, Naomi, Elaine, Matt.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OK. That's good'nuff. Now I have to go learn more.

Cheers all!

amazing fruit, skating, cannibal cookies, holidays

Time: 10:38 PM
Mood: restless
Playing: Radiohead OK Computer

I love Uwajimaya. This fruit is called "Buddha's Hand"


I have no idea what these are.


Old sign down near Uwajimaya. Pigeons kept poking their heads out of the holes.


Snow in Seattle, around mid-December.


Ice skating at the Seattle Center.


Art in the stairwell at The Art Institute of Seattle.


Huge box of crazy old sheet music and music magazines I went through at my parents on Christmas day.


Fun with Christmas cookie decorating. This is the cannibal cookie. I was going for that cute monster/ugly doll look. :)




Me and the brother.




New Years Eve with Vanessa and Nathanial and friends. Maggie kept my glass full of champagne.


Ringing in the new year.



So I just finished reading two Oliver Sacks books. The abundance of stories of creative or intellectual genius associated with some other abnormal, negative brain function is staggering. And the one ability always seems proportionate to the disability. Then, when the negative fades, the genius also fades. I have no first hand experience with anything like autism or bipolar disorder or epilepsy or any of the other things that trigger many of the positive creative abilities Sacks describes, but creativity in general has always intrigued me. For me it always seemed to come in waves. Especially through high school, I could feel the creativity coming on, had an intense spell of it, and then would be frustrated by my lack of creativity for a while, sometimes weeks or longer, until it would come again. I always wondered what exactly creativity was and what was going on in the brain. Sacks makes no leap from the creative experiences his patients are having to the spur of creativity in "normal" people, but I have to wonder if it works the same way for everyone, only in different quantities and qualities. It makes a certain amount of sense, especially for those moments where I would write or draw something in a period of hours, usually late in the evening, and then the next morning be surprised by what I had been able to do. That kind of creativity is something above and beyond what I can force. It's spontaneous and maddingly unprovokable.


Grabbed a new magazine, Volume 1 Issue 1 of '4c: color couture curiosity culture' kind of on accident at Barnes & Noble last week. With copious amounts of spot varnish, Ultra Light Helvetica, and gradients in the rich blacks, I'm drooling all over it.

Ok. Happy New Year everyone! Cheerio!

Autumn, Masquerade Ball, Olympic National Forest, and fruit dancing at the market.

Time: 1:58 PM
Mood: need a nap, but fairly content
Playing: Jesca Hoop, Kismet

What happened to the last couple of months? How can it POSSIBLY be the 20th of November? Oye!!! Ok, well, I figured I better take an hr and make a post before the idea of a catch-up post would become too overwhelming.
I love the fall in Seattle!!! My apartment is full of leaves I've picked up.


Let's see, most recently was the Thanksgiving get together with friends at Nathanial's house. Lily, Vanessa's cousin's little girl wielded the Polaroid camera quite magnificently.


Hopefully I'll get a scan of these soon. This is a photo of the photo. Not so good.


Gestures. Asha, Ukari doing "explode", I think. And Evan (?).


It looks a bit radioactive but it tastes like regular cauliflower (Italian Broccoli/Italian Cauliflower). No, really.


Asian String Beans. Super fun to eat.


At Floating Leaves Tea in Ballard, where Liz and I went to learn about Chinese tea for our editorial shoot.


Amazing Chinese tea. Photo by Elizabeth Gibson. I'm so ruined now that I know what real tea tastes like.


Sunset, taken from First Hill.


Me by Elizabeth Gibson, for one of her class assignments.




Unbelievable October colors from my window.


This was the coolest fog day Seattle's had since I moved back here. The fog was rolling off the water and curling around the buildings SO thick it was completely opague, but just over the buildings was the bright blue sky and warm sunshine.


Bits and pieces of projects and homework.


The amazing Miss Vanessa had a masquerade ball for her birthday in October. I got a Marie Antoinette wig. I'm not sure who took this photo.


Riga Sutukal and me, by Riga.


There are big group photos somewhere. If I have time I'll dig through them all and pull some sometime soon. Ok, relatively soon anyway. This one is of Elizabeth Gibson, Riga Sutukal, and me, Jodie Eilers.


I wish I had caught this artist's name. The paintings I could see through the store window all used metallic paints. Beautiful.


At La Carta de Oaxaca restaurant in Ballard, Seattle, with Vanessa, Nate, Ukari, and Maggie.


Mmmm. More leaves. :)


I LOVE THIS BUILDING!!! It changes colors in different light. It's the Crown Plaza Hotel building in downtown Seattle.


Camping in the Olympic National Forest in late August. The fire grate was straight the day before.


Olympic National Forest, Hoh Rain Forest fishy.


Hall of Mosses, Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Forest.


:)


This is what happens when a tree eats up a nurse log.


Kinda felt sorry for this little slug. He was all curled up in defensive mode trying not to get stepped on while crossing the trail. From the looks of things, most slugs don't make it across the trails. Icky.


How many slugs do you see? I count at least four.


Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Forest.


A rainy day at the beach. Olympic National Forest. Oooh it smelled SO good.


Lake Quinault by Lake Quinault Lodge, Olympic National Forest. The lodge was amazing... like stepping back in time to the 20's.


Super cool flier on a pole in town. Constructivism about construction. :)


Naked Juice company guerrilla marketing. I think the banana was in charge.




And last, for now, some amazing pottery at Kasala. I wish I'd caught the name of the person/company who made these. There were a whole bunch, all different. I miss playing with clay.


So, aside from the above, I've done a ton of other things, not the least of which, of course, is getting through most of another quarter. I still have a few hard weeks of it left.

I also went to listen to Jonah Lehrer speak about his book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, which I have not yet read. But it was really incredible. I also can't stand that he's my age and has done so much. :) But, really, that whole "bridging principal" (mind vs brain) thing, intuition, awareness, phenomenology, etc. etc. etc. is so fun to think about and study. I'm think I'm going to try to work it into my Thesis this year. Why didn't I study neuroscience? Hmmm.

Ok, so I've procrastinated long enough. I have to move on to my environmental graphics assignment for in the morning. Many cheers all. Wishing you much joy, and a happy Thanksgiving no matter how you are celebrating.

Jodie

curry, chalk, Alki, acrobats, lots of artists, trolls, more pigs, ...er, and more.

Time: 11:45 PM
Mood: :D
Playing: NPR, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

Oye. There are a million photos here, so sorry if it takes forever to load!

The trees here are starting to turn colors and it's beautiful! I love that there's a long autumn here (as opposed to the fall in Idaho, which lasts about a day and a half).

Here are some highlights from the last couple of months:

Just the other day Riga taught me to make Thai curry (and to say a hilarious Thai tongue twister). This is some of her beautiful art.


Strange fruit: Tamarillos, Chinese dates, and something kind of like a lychee.


Riga and Yaël making crêpes.


Red Bull car for the Fremont Soapbox Derby on the 21st of September.


The Fremont Troll is cool, but he smells like... he smells really bad.


Before the Pioneer Square Art Walk on Sept. 6th, from the patio of a REALLY good Italian food restaurant.


Some of the art walk artists.


Occidental Park galleries on art walk night.


EQlateral in Occidental Park.


Amazing performance artists in Pioneer Square.






The famous 90-year-old Bill Cumming! He has free workshops at The Art Institute. He's hilarious—he loves to talk about how he was a Socialist Union organizer and how much he hates Lincoln. And he still flirts.




A kid busking in the market, playing violin. He was racking in the dough!


The Art Institute has a chalk art competition each year for students just for fun. There were about 15 entries this time, and it was a LOT of fun. Oh, and I won,... but I actually don't have a photo of my finished piece! If I can get one from someone else I'll post it here later.






Love this texture from a cold glass of water!


Signs from the Water Taxi dock on the way to Alki Beach in west Seattle.




Beautiful people on Alki Beach.


One of many sailboats in the Puget Sound.


People fishing from the dock in west Seattle. One guy pulled in a huge fish. It was cool to watch.


A common site at the edge of the water here.


I want a beach cruiser! They are everywhere here.


Storm over the Sound.


The wake of the Water Taxi.


From west Seattle.


More photos of some of my favorite pigs from the Pigs on Parade around Seattle.






Green eggs and ham!




Flowers in the market in August.




Post office box in Pike Place Market. There are a couple of these.


Pike Place Market's 100th birthday on August 17th.


AMAZING chocolate from a local chocolate company.

We didn't start the fire...

Time: 6:52 PM
Mood: tired
Playing: Miles Davis Kind of Blue





A real post coming soon. No, really.

Theo Jansen . Kinetic Sculpter

ferry, gallery, bees, pigs, and other adventures

Time: 4:42 PM
Mood: :D happy.
Playing: SIRIUS Satellite, Chill Station



The dead bee with pollen all over it above fell out of these California Poppy flowers I bought at the market; a huge bunch for $5. Cut poppy flowers don't stay nice very long, but they were worth it.


LePichet with Yaél and Riga, June 2nd.


Yaél and me.


Street festival to kick off Pigs on Parade for the market centenial.










I went with a friend to Cornish's BFA show. This is one of their bathroom signs.


...and this is peeking through doors at their enviable letterpress room.




Outside The Art Institute, South Campus. Vanessa, I do believe that's Nathan's vw...?


Polaroid from Liz's 80's birthday party (Elisabeth, me, and Vanessa).


Outside a gallery. You can see the needle in the background.


The long way through the woods. McCall to Riggins, ID.












A going away party for one of my fav prof's at Ai.


Sculpture next to the convention center in Freeway Park near my apt.


A classy place in Boise.


The best sugar ever.


Champagne mangos. Yum!


Big events here lately in the arts. Seattle recently got its world class sculpture park and then in May it reopened its downtown museum with a LOT of new space.


Cai-Guo-Qiang's work in SAM.






Lit up trees outside SAM.


Celebrated the end of the quarter with Rachel at Purple. This is looking down from the balcony bar.


So, Thursday was my last class of the quarter. Survived a whole week of presentations and final projects, again. It actually all ended up going really well. My debate group won our organ purchase debate, a collective 'oooh' went out when one of my group company ID's was presented, a VIP in the field who was one of my teachers this quarter asked me to send her some of my work to review, another group corporate ID project I presented to the actual company owners on Saturday and they may use most of it, and I did the research and math to find out that Seattle throws away enough trash, every day, to fill a seven-story building (that's cube shaped). That got some reactions during my presentation Thursday too. A successful end to a long quarter.

By the way, could I just reiterate how much I LOVE SEATTLE!!!!: On the ferry ride to Bainbridge where I met the company owners for the corporate ID presentation, I looked over the rail and could see hundreds of jellyfish in the water! And Bainbridge Island is just east of the Olympic National Forest, a rain forest, so it is vibrantly green and smells like it just rained all the time. The company owners explained that once crab season starts on the 4th they can basically walk down to the water on their property and pull crabs out of the water for dinner.

Pigs on Parade started here in Seattle on June 2 with a street festival all around the market. Pike Place Market is 100 years old this year, so there's tons of stuff going on all summer until the actual celebration in, I think, August. I'm in Idaho again to do some work for a couple of weeks but I'll be back in Seattle by the 4th.

Cheers everyone!!!

Step It Up, Seattle Underground, and shivering.

Time: 12:56 AM (Forever nocturnal. Can't help it.)
Mood: happy but cold. It rained today and I left my window open and so it got cold in here but the boiler heat hasn't kicked on. :P
Playing: Céu, Céu

Most to least recent:

Seattle from a Ferry.


Surreal mountain to the south.


On the Seattle Underground Tour: there are skylights in some of the sidewalks. This is what they look like from underneith.


More underground. Most of the underground is now privately owned and no one really knows what goes on down there. According to a tour guide, there was a massacre in one section of the underground in the international district in 1983, that's 1983, where there was an illegal gambling operation going on.


At Step It Up Seattle 2007.




In the Puget Sound.






Home sweet home.


Cheerio!