The Fun Theory


When I was younger, my dad used to cut out newspaper articles and highlight the important parts for me or his students to read. Now that he’s fully emerged in the digital world, I get short, unpunctuated, uncapitalized emails telling me what to read.

His most recent recommendation was this video from The Fun Theory, a “site that is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better”. I’m all for that!

The Fun Theory is an initiative of Volkswagon. Normally I would be the first paranoid Gen-X denouncer of a big company trying to convince me to “like” something on Facebook, but for some reason this just makes me like Volkswagon more. Good job marketing team!

Watching the Fun Theory videos solidified some thoughts I had been having about my blog and its purpose. My blog is a way for me to 1) explore ideas, 2) get better at making things, and 3) bring people enjoyment or encourage thinking about things a bit differently.

Number 3 is the important one, because I believe that people are at their best when they are happy or inspired. Whatever we can do to poke at each others brains to spur positive action, the better. And if it turns out that my blog is “just fun”, well that’s not so bad either.

Recycled Raindrops


In addition to some paper ponies, I also submitted some recycled raindrops to the community contribution show Portland Paper City. What possessed me to spend hours with a gluestick (well, six gluesticks) and a DEX/YellowPages, I do not know. But the result was nine 3D raindrops that float on a wall.

Raindrop strips before they are curved and sealed shut.

Continue reading “Recycled Raindrops”

Paper Ponies


Recently I submitted some 3D paper ponies to Portland Paper City, a collaborative art show. All around Portland there are old hitching rings in the sidewalks from days gone by. Tied to some of the hitching rings are toy horses and ponies, thanks to The Horse Project. Whenever I see them they make me smile, so when I was asked to contribute something “Portland” to the show it didn’t take me long to decide on these little curbside ponies. It didn’t hurt that between ages 6 and 16 I spent 98% of my waking hours drawing horses, thinking about horses, and riding horses. Yep, I’m a horse girl.

(click on the images to zoom)

Did you know that there are two classification of Paint horses, or Pintos? Overo and Tobiano. Now you can surely use this information to win at trivia night sometime!
I think this one is on steroids. I hope he didn't get them from Snoopy.

Being a horse girl, you can bet that I researched this thoroughly. There is a great Flickr set called “All The Tiny Horses” from which I picked my charges. I hope to draw some more of the horses later, because frankly, I spent wayyyyy too many hours as a child developing my equine drawing skills to let it go to waste. Yes, and after that I’ll re-read all of Walter Farley’s books!

I had a few of these fuzzy horses as a kid. Apparently this one got stolen from its ring shortly after being put out to pasture.
I thought it was a little too morbid to recreate the decapitation scene.

The process of putting my pony drawings into 3D was a challenge. After some prototypes and a short stint of being sidetracked by origami, I decided to put the ponies on display using an open-air type diorama with a built in stand. Below are the dioramas without the stand.

Here is a shot of Charging Steed mounted to the wall at the show.

SXSW Steer for IFC via Feel Good Anyway


You never know what job will come your way next as a free-agent designer. Case in point: drawing a cow (I really mean steer) diagram for Feel Good Anyway’s IFC promo for SXSW (appears at the 30 second mark).

This short stint of steer-drawing took me back to my childhood because I grew up in Steer Country. Every summer we would spend endless days near Grass Valley, Oregon on our friend’s farm for the annual castration/innoculation/slaughter. We played in the hay barn, took Bubba the lab with us into the hills to sic rattlers, counted how many young calves got their nuts cut off, and hand-ground pounds and pounds of beef for the year ahead.

Enough reminiscing; check out more of Feel Good Anyway’s work for the Independent Film Channel – it’s good entertainment from some very talented dudes.

Eat Eat Eat


Whether I’m stuffing myself silly, drawing food while thinking about my next meal, or planning my next smorgasbord, food is always at the top of my mind. So, below I have outlined the major events that will be taking place today, involving Blenheim’s Ginger Ale, some frikadeller and homemade chocolate-chip-walnut-oatmeal cookies.

Hoo boy, today is going to be a good one!

For all you font people, the top font is hand-traced from a sample called Marbleheart, the middle font is from my food-addled mind, and the bottom font is Phosphate.

Brian Dettmer's Book Sculptures (alternately titled "Holy Mother of Bibliography")


Wow, wow, wow. Check out these book sculptures by artist Brian Dettmer.
My Modern Met writes:
Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed. Dettmer manipulates the pages and spines to form the shape of his sculptures. He also folds, bends, rolls, and stacks multiple books to create completely original sculptural forms.

There is an interview with the artist here, or see more images of his amazing work after the jump. Continue reading “Brian Dettmer's Book Sculptures (alternately titled "Holy Mother of Bibliography")”

Brian Dettmer’s Book Sculptures (alternately titled “Holy Mother of Bibliography”)


Wow, wow, wow. Check out these book sculptures by artist Brian Dettmer.
My Modern Met writes:
Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed. Dettmer manipulates the pages and spines to form the shape of his sculptures. He also folds, bends, rolls, and stacks multiple books to create completely original sculptural forms.

There is an interview with the artist here, or see more images of his amazing work after the jump. Continue reading “Brian Dettmer’s Book Sculptures (alternately titled “Holy Mother of Bibliography”)”