Pollinators like butterflies and bees love the garden. Within it they find flowering plants and milkweed that suits them just fine. It is a great day when I can just watch them fluttering by, content and enjoying the space. All the hard work that has been put in is rewarded.

Graphic Design

Design, when graphic, should be bold and say something immediately. Using imagery is one way to achieve this goal. White space is incredibly important as well. Moving the eye is paramount. Tag Lines get people interested in this instance, that line is "Come Play With Ink" It gets people thinking about having a great time creating art.

Digital Design

Urban Echo

Design can mean a great many things. Artists look to blur the lines between traditional and ethereal and as a result they force people to think in new ways. Such is the case in this instant. A film, designed and edited to fit upon a building for an outdoor showing. Images had to be bold enough to be seen, the story though brief had to fit the space.
Urban Echo was such a piece. Dance, still images and a soundtrack were assembled in order to create a comprehensive film.

A Natural Design

Summer has come and with it flowers. Perfectly designed.
Pleasing to the eye.
Amazing one might even say.
Function and form married
together as one.
Balanced

Driven to Abstraction

photo from the internet

I did a design workshop that allowed people to delve into their imaginations. Participants learned about abstract art and its roots in early civilizations, quilt making and abstract expressionism. We then used Scratchboard, a medium that allows for the removal of material in order to create spectacular pieces. The board is covered in clay that is removed with a pen that looks like a fountain pen which has a nib on it. The clay is literally scratched off of the posterboard under coating. It is a medium that has a great deal of potential.

From Abandoned To Beautiful The Stoney Island Art Bank

The Johnson Archive @ The Art Bank

I was honored to be given the opportunity to be part of Chicago's first Architectural Biennial. I led two lectures on Sustainable Architecture and Design and it was fabulous. My lectures of course had an artistic bent to them and people were allowed to design and even build models of their green creations.

I was given this opportunity by the fine people at The Stoney Island Art Bank. This is an initiative of Theaster Gates, an artist who believes strongly in revitalization. He started the Rebuild Foundation on Chicago's Southside. It is the foundation's goal to bring art and development to the area. Shows, lectures, movies and even classes are offered at the foundation's sites. Along with the Art Bank are: The Dorchester Project, Black Cinema House, Dorchester House + Community Art and The Listening House.

The foundation's development projects use found and reclaimed objects in order to build and the outcomes are beautiful. So if you find your self on the Southside head over to one or all of the venues. I promise they will inspire.

Japanese Modern

Look at these structures. Beautiful in their simplicity. I will be teaching a Sustainable Architecture course and was wondering what we could do with cardboard rolls and then I saw this. These structures remind me of rolls of cardboard or squished toilet paper even but they really are great. Nestled within the trees you can just imagine how quiet it is in this area. These buildings ooze elegance. the gentle slope of the wooden stairs, the tall windows and wide open spaces within are all features that make one wish this was their home. There is a balance within this setting that allows one to explore both soft and hardscapes. Imagine how much could be created in this setting of whites, browns and greens.