Patterns of My New City: Lines

I recently moved up to San Francisco and have been enjoying this new city of mine. Walking around and exploring, there is just so much to see so, here's just a peek at some of what surrounds me. Like the India pix, I'm splitting this series into themes. First up -- the patterns I spy all around me.

lines in the sky criss cross just outside of my window

and down on the street

lines of safety

of transportation

and of movement

Noah's Ark at the Skirball

This weekend I was down in LA to see some friends (congratulations Vee and Oscar!) and was surprised with a visit to The Skirball to catch the popular exhibit, Noah's Ark, before the end of the month.

For those of you not familiar with it, it is an interactive exhibit which showcases a slew of animals made from repurposed/found objects. Inside the exhibit is an actual ark complete with rope ladders, a mini kitchen, and even foam pieces of poop that the kids can use little dustpans to sweep up. It was a great opportunity to get into that child state again and allow myself to give in to that sense of wonder -- something we should all do more often. So, adults, kids, if you haven't seen it yet be sure to stop by before it closes. Below are a couple of highlights and here's an article on the designs and artists.

This crocodile's head is made from a violin case, its teeth are pipette tips, and its tongue is the neck of a violin. If you look closely, you'll notice that the brows are actually leather gloves and the eyes are small cabinet knobs.

This deer has shoe forms for ears and below...

an assortment of found objects from rulers, to pulleys, to wrenches make up its body.

These turtles, perched innocently atop a wooden beam of the ark, are made from steel rebar and...catcher's masks! They are made of found objects yet manage to capture so much personality!

There were a number of different bird friends floating over head but this one was definitely the most dramatic with her red fan wings and spring torso.

I should also mention that one of the greatest things was watching the kids interact with the exhibit and hear their commentary on it. At the end of the exhibit, they have a little desk where visitors can make a statement about what they can do to improve the world. That statement is then projected on a nearby wall in circulation with a host of others for about a week. This one was just too good not to post :)

Education First!

The Art Center petition to put education first is closing tomorrow, June 13th. If you haven't signed it already, please do so and tell all your Art Center friends about it!

Art Center Petition: Education First!

On the Road

These are just a few of the pictures from the road trip Craig and I took up the Pacific Coast Highway from LA to San Francisco. Everyone has always said how beautiful that ride is, but it wasn't until the wind from the Pacific Ocean was whipping my hair in my face and the colors of the wildflowers were surrounding me that I really knew what they were talking about.


The natural landscape of the California coast is beautiful.

Lazy days for the seals that lined various rock beaches along the coast. It made me sleepy just looking at them.

Along the way we stayed a night in Pacific Grove which is right next door to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's an amazing facility and there was a lot of beauty to be found but still it was sad to see wildlife such as otter living behind glass and under fluorescent lights.

Jellyfish are beautiful creatures...the layering, colors, and varying forms are so elegant.


Moon Jellies
An antique clock shop on Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove

The windblown trees of Pacific Grove

And finally at the end of the road...San Francisco, my new home :)

Icy Pops!

This book is just in time for summer and is a great new spin on a classic summer tradition -- making your own icy pops!

Written by a former teacher of mine and great mentor, Krystina Castella, Icy Pops brings the fun and creativity back to this childhood treat. With recipes like Thai Coffee and Tea pops, the fun isn't just for kids anymore :) She even shows you how to make your own popsicle molds with silicone!

Buy a copy here or visit the website which is a wealth of information all in its own.

Family / (ˈfam-lē)

A couple of things have happened recently which have made me really re-evaluate what the word "family" means. Traditionally, the word family has been associated with people of the same blood relation though I would argue that in this growing world of ours, everyone with a significant impact on your life can be counted as family because they each play a role in how you have been and are being shaped. For me, family (and you know who you are) are the ones who I find myself thinking about in the oddest of moments -- before I go to sleep, during a movie, when a certain song come on. How do you define family?

My biggest worry is that they don't know how much they mean to me. Think of the ones you love often.

Simple Solution

This is a picture of a taxi driver's solution to an uncomfortably tight seat belt. It allows him just enough slack and it is a nice alternative to what other drivers (Ba!) opt to do -- not wear the belt at all.

Enough is Enough

[In response to a blog posting by Nathan Cooke regarding the hypocrisy of our "leading design educational institution."]

This is a great dialog and one that is long overdue. First of all, I care a great deal about Art Center because I'm grateful for the role that it has played in my life. Without it, I would not be the designer that I am today and I know that.

That being said, and as a recent alumna, it is frustrating to watch members of the administration continually fail to prioritize the students and education above other "academic" initiatives. In ignoring what should be its prize possession (the students), Art Center has created class after class of alumni who will never give back to their school and it has created a destructive cycle: 1) Art Center ignores students and diminishes the educational experience through bureaucracy and personal agenda, 2) Students graduate after having accrued a massive amount of loans, 3) They neither can afford nor care to give monetary donations to Art Center, 4) Art Center's endowment continues to shrink under the current administration and lack of support from its alumni body, 5) Current student tuition is raised increasing the amount of loans that the current students will have to endure and scholarships continue to shrink.

It is time for action. Time to bring the voice of the students back. Can Art Center truly continue its legacy of creating "leaders in design" if at the first sound of dissent it (Erika, Iris, Richard) attempts to silence it?

Students: You are paying for a service. If that service does not meet your expectations, you have the right to raise your voice.

Alumni: We have invested a lot in our diplomas. For some, over $100,000 in student loans have been accrued (the same as an average Harvard med student). The value of your association with the school is only as good as its current reputation. Do not let your investment depreciate under to poor guidance.

All: What are our next steps? Should we start a petition? Rather than have letters and emails trickle in one at a time to the trustees, we should make it a collective effort so that our individual bark becomes a collective roar. I am posting this comment and a link to this discussion on my blog, will others do the same?

PS: I really like the idea of t-shirts with "Education First" printed on them :)

The Small Things

I've made it back to LA and after 4 months in Singapore and already I am starting to miss the small things.

The character found in the store fronts and use of color.

The beautiful heritage trees that line the streets with their lyrical branches (there are tons more photos where these came from but I'll save them for a separate post).

Strong black kopi (coffee) with condensed milk. It costs 75 cents a cup at any hawker stand and its flavor puts Starbucks to shame (as does the fact that it doesn't burn a hole in your stomach).

Tian Tian Chicken Rice! Once it hits your lips...

Green tea soft serve with mochi and red bean. Why can't there be more desserts like this?

Looking up and seeing the rainbow of clothes drying in the breeze.

Robitussin, Strepsils, and National Geographic?

So, being sick stinks and I've been sick for the past 4 days. The one good thing about it though is getting to watch as many reruns on TV as I please without getting any grief about it. One of the reruns I caught the other day on the National Geographic Channel was on a project called Scrap House. It's an old project from 2005's Earth Day but I thought it worth mentioning because it brings up a lot of important issues which still loom over our heads today -- reusing our existing resources (like TrunkSale!). Every bit of the house was made from scrap found at the dump or donated by builders. Some of the more interesting bits include a traffic lens chandelier, door floor, and phone books used for insulation and acoustics. Here's a great video on the project.

Aside from the project itself, the National Geographic documentary also brought to light some interesting social dynamics. There were the designers and the contractors and everyone in between. Everything was strained from the get go. There was a lack of communication but most of all, respect between the designers and the contractors. As a designer, I wonder if we will ever be able to break the stereotypes and biases create chasms between different working classes.

Old street signs and scrap sheeting make up the exterior panels of the house.

The traffic light chandelier from above with a leather scrap floor below.

The door floor filled with concrete and the phone book wall.

Glass and metal sheeting donated by Building REsource.

Geo-Bio & Memory Bank

View Larger Map

After my entry on We Tell Stories, I wanted to see how I could use Google Maps in a new way. (I don't know if this is actually new or not but it's new for me ;) So, I talked to my friend Nathan (who gets cred for the name 'Geo-Biography') and decided to make a map of my life. As I placed the markers on the map, I realized that some of the most important markers were not placed to mark chronological milestones but ones revolving around fond memories. Since I have the memory of a small bat, I decided to recruit some friends to help turn my map into a memory bank. (If you have any memories to add, just message me and I'll add you as a collaborator.)

My hope is that not only can Google Maps be used to tell stories, it may also become the next social networking tool. If you start your Geo-Bios and layer them we may find that at one point in our lives we were in the same city or lived across the street from one another. Mine is still evolving but I wanted to post it up there just to inspire some other thoughts.

La La Land Art Land

Looking for inspiration in La La Land? For Your Art is a neato site dedicated to the LA art scene. It includes a downloadable pdf map of all of the art venues (galleries, museums, schools, etc) broken down by neighborhood.

Redefining a Medium

Ever look at the variety of internet tools we have -- Google, Picasa, Facebook, Blogger, etc, etc -- and wonder how else we could apply them? Well, there's a great project being initiated by Penguin Books called We Tell Stories. They have asked 6 authors to write 6 short digital fictions. Each of the authors uses the internet to redefine classic stories and more importantly the medium of 'The Book.' For example, the first is called The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming and is a story based on the classic The 39 Steps by John Buchan. It's told entirely using Google Maps! The bubbles and landmark function are used to show the text of the work in direct association with a specific location (here's an interview with Cumming on Cool Hunting).

It really makes you think about all of the uses that can be applied to the various internet tools at our very fingertips. In fact, I'm going to engage in some medium redefinition right now!

Sharing the Knowledge

I just stumbled across Slideshare and it's incredible. It's like flickr for presentations and covers a huge range of topics from design to drunken philosophy. You can view slide shows and even download the files. Knowledge sharing at its best! Just check it out and love it.

Feast for the Eyes

[continuing themes from our India trip 2008, here are some photos that don't fit into any other category or theme other than 'beautiful.' enjoy.]

Great colors and textures of this beautifully tattered and worn building facade.

The misty woods of Kumily.

Colors everywhere. Why don't we wear more colors?

The juxtaposition of the ancient architecture and the fluorescent lights above is intriguing.

From the houseboat we rented in Allepey, it's hard to tell the sky from the river water and the trees from the floating plants.

Just one of the many Ganesh's we saw during our trip.

The view from the river boat at Periyar wildlife sanctuary. So vivid and crisp.

I had to add this one! From virtual feast to actual feast...