Isabel Allende: last page of quotes.

…..various sources:

Write what should not be forgotten.

For women the best aphrodisiacs are words.

Here, write it, or it will be erased by the wind.

You can tell the deepest truth with the lies of fiction.

I see a more feminine world, a world where feminine values will be validated, the same as masculine values are. A more integrated world. I see that in the future, things that we have lost in the past will be recovered. There's a search for those things, a search for spirituality, for nature, for the goddess religions, for family and human bonding. All that has been lost in this industrial era. People are in desperate need of those things. I don't think the world will destroy itself in a nuclear cataclysm. On the contrary, we have the capacity to save ourselves and save the planet, and we will use it.

You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not.

I've been so thoroughly incorporated into the California culture that I practice meditation and go to a therapist, even though I always set a trap: during my meditation I invent stories to keep from being bored, and in therapy I invent stories to keep from boring the psychologist.

Allende's The House of Spirits

How to react to an angry, explosive man:

He shouted like a madman, pacing up and down the living room and slamming his fist against the furniture, arguing that if Clara intended to follow in her mother’s footsteps she was going to come face to face with a real man, who would pull her pants down and giver her a good spanking so she’d get it out of her damned head to go around haranguing people, and that he categorically forbade her to go to prayer meetings or any other kind and that he wasn’t some ninny whose wife could go around making a fool of him. Clara let him scream his head off and bang on the furniture until he was exhausted. Then, inattentive as ever, she asked him if he knew how to wiggle his ears (106).

Ferula, the spinster sister of Esteban Trueba:

She was a regal matron, but with a bitter smile on her face that revealed her inner tragedy (109).

Nana, the Trueba’s live in nanny:

She had been born to cradle other people’s children, wear their hand-me-down clothing, eat their leftovers, live on borrowed happiness and grief, grow old beneath other people’s roofs, die one day in her miserable little room in the far courtyard in a bed that did not belong to her, and be buried in a common grave in the public cemetery (124).

On charity and giving to the poor:

“This is to assuage our conscience, darling,” she would explain to Blanca. “But it doesn’t help the poor. They don’t need charity; they need justice” (136).

Design for a Cause.

hello, world!

new project: Design w/a Cause.

Description:

Find a non-profit organization, or cause, to develop a poster, or series of posters for… Initially you will create a list of words that best describe what the organization or cause is about. Looking carefully at your list of words, select 3-5 that you feel have strong connotations.

Assignment:

Create a design using imagery based on the connotation of the word or words that relate to the essence of your cause. Your final layout will be suggested 16x20 poster and should include a possible headline and a logotype for your non-profit organization.

This project will require an extensive exploration of thumbnail indications.

· A minimum of 100 hand developed thumbnails (due this week)

· 6 hand developed rough sketches

· 3 semi-tight indications

· Final layout

Preliminary Research...

Organization:

826la

About:

Non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills. Helps teachers inspire students to write.

- Drop in tutoring (Monday through Thursday, 2:30 – 5:30).

- After school workshops

- In-schools tutoring

- Help for English Language learners

- Assistance with student publication

Services inspired by the belief that great leaps of learning can be inspired by one on one education, and strong writing skills are essential to future success.

Any ideas? I went to class yesterday armed with a boatload of stick figures. I want to play on the iconic 1950's classroom....

key words:

CULTIVATE CREATIVITY EDUCATION INNOVATION

brainstorming images, or what my professor calls "visual stable data":

- the yellow pencil w/green stripes and a red eraser
- chalk boards
- lined paper
- student desk
- detention lines
- lunch pales

over the ocean blue.

have a wonderful weekend!!

memememe.

me in the tub, quirky-unspectacular-ridiculous.


Amy from Rich Interior World (a blog I absolutely LOVE, she is such a profound and beautiful writer!!), has tagged me in a "Quirky Game."

In lieu of Friday link-love, I decided to exercise some self-love and concentrate this post on moi.

The Rules Are:

1. Link to the person who tagged you (did that above)
2. Post the rules on your blog (doing that here)
3. Write 6 random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them
5. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.

6 random things/unspectacular quirks about myself:

1- I pride myself on my smooth, soft skin… conditioned by creams, lotions, and sprays aplenty. The soles of my feet, however, are atypically rugged.

Most of my friends and all of my boyfriends comment on my “Indian” feet. I owe my ironbound footsies to years of Florida shell rock, coarse Canadian beaches, California casual, hiking around Chile in flip-flops… marathon walks, open toed shoes, barefoot nights, swimming, snorkeling, sun tanning, sandals. Oh, and last but not least, the endless search for summer that defines my life. I despise the cold weather and I will avoid it at all costs. Even scabrous hobbit's feet.

2- When I left for college I wanted to rename myself Raven. Looking back I can understand the desire to transform, yet I cannot fathom why I chose a name fit for a porn star!

3- I think I am a Broadway-caliber singer, I sing all the time – almost as often as my friends tell me that I am horrendous.

4- I love LOVE buying a big ole frozen yogurt, topping it with granola, mochi & coconut shavings, sitting in my car (whether or not I have somewhere to go), and turning on the heat full blast.

5- I cheated and asked Omar. He said, “Your appearance and home are in magnificent order, including your desk space and the way you organize. However, your car is a mess, like a bomb exploded.”

6- I sleep with a special rock under my pillow.

I am tagging these special folks (most of them family):

Jackie
Carmeli
Mom
Dana May
Becca
Valentina

need your help.

For my graphic design course I have to choose an "organization with a cause"... save the environment, save the whales, march of dimes, redcross, etc.

Any suggestions? I was thinking about redesigning the logo for NOW's (National Organization for Women) California chapter...

I would rather cover a smaller, more grassroots organization, but I can't bring any to mind.

I am open to any and all advice! Thanks : )

Kevin Griffin, One Breath at a Time.

You don't have to believe your thoughts.

The Buddha talks about the “bliss of blamelessness.” When there are no secrets in your life and you’re living cleanly, a sense of safety arises. Your’e not looking over your shoulder all the time (15).

The Buddha saw how much suffering we create fighting these facts, resisting and trying to circumvent aging, illness, death, and loss, and he realized that clear understanding and acceptance was the key to letting go of that suffering (17).

The Buddha saw that everything starts with thoughts; that we speak and act based on thoughts; that our words and actions turn into habits—or addictions; and that those habits shape our character into something inflexible. So, he says, “Watch the thought and its ways with care, and let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings… As the shadow follows the body, as we think, so we become” (18).

Thursday is my something-spiritual day... enjoy : )

Allende's The House of Spirits.

On falling in love with a childhood friend - wedged between the innocence of youth and the trappings of adulthood....

They spent that summer oscillating between childhood, which still held them in its clasp, and their awakening as man and woman. There were times when they ran like little children, stirring up the chickens and exciting the cows, drinking up their fill of fresh milk and winding up with foam mustaches, stealing fresh baked bread right from the oven and clamoring up trees to build secret houses.

At other times they hid in the forest's thickets, most secret recesses, making beds of leaves and pretending they were married, caressing each other until they fell asleep exhausted. They were still innocent enough to remove all their clothes without a trace of curiosity and swim naked in the river, as they always had, diving into the cold water and letting the current pull them down against the shiny stones.

But there were certain things they could no longer share. They learned to feel shame in each other’s presence. They no longer competed to see who could make the biggest puddle when they urinated, and Blanca did not tell him of the dark matter that stained her underwear once a month. Without anyone telling them, they realized that they could not act so freely in front of others. When Blanca dressed up as a young lady and sat on the terrace sipping lemonade with her family each afternoon, Pedro Tercero would watch her from afar, without coming closer.

They began to hide when they wanted to play. They stopped walking hand in hand with in the sight of adults, and they ignored each so as not to attract attention.

Nana gave a sign of relief, but Clara started watching them more carefully (147).

Visual Comparisons/ Typographic Counterparts

Directions:

When creating a visual hierarchy in typographic space, a designer will balance the need for harmony which unifies a design, with the need for contrast, which lends vitality and emphasis. Typographic counterparts are elements with similar qualities that bring harmony to their spatial relationship.

Use forms of photography to create a corresponding typographic letter. Your counterpart relationship should create unity between two unlike elements.

Limitations: 7 x 7 inch panels, color, can not overlap letter w/photograph

- Foamcore = the Devil’s cloth
- Xacto Knifes = lethal
- never use 3M Mounting Spray in your breezy backyard (I didn’t need hairspray this morning, my bangs are already plastered to my forehead)
- Don’t wait until the night before
- What you think you will spend the most time on proves to need the least
- What you think you will spend the least time on proves to be the most time-consuming

Actually I spelled the word “OBSERVE.” I would post it, but blogger won’t let me upload! I curse you, blogger. I curse you.

How was it? I found “craftsmanship” impossible to master. On letter “O” my Xacto knife slipped and I sliced open two fingers. Omar had to rush over and dress my wounds with his portable hospital-kit. From that point it was an uphill battle, uphill with boulders raining down, hail, and lava.

All in all a solid effort, I think, and a good project from which to learn what NOT to do.

L.O.V.E.

Friday Finds!

Lara Cameron...

Heather Moore...

Jeff Divine.

Designers:
Lara Cameron.
Textile & graphic designer based in Melbourne.

Heather Moore
Illustrator, designer and writer who lives in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sarajo Frieden
From her website: I work from a studio in Los Angeles that borders Thai Town, Little Armenia and Koreatown, with Guatemalan and Salvadoran bakeries nearby.

Photographers:
Jeff Divine
great description of him found here.

from Isabel Allende's "House of Spirits"

Childhood.

She preferred not to torment her daughter with earthly demands, for she had a premonition that her daughter was a heavenly being, and that she was not destined to last very long in the vulgar traffic of this world.

It is a delight for me to read her notebooks from those years, which describe a magic world that no longer exists. Clara lived in a universe of her own invention, protected from life’s inclement weather, where the prosaic truth of material objects mingled with the tumultuous reality of dreams and the laws of physics and logic did not apply.

happy birthday to my best friend/ role model/ kindred spirit abc.

nostalgic for my days of unemployment and post college graduation-bliss... I long for the days of "theme-months." I also yearn for the freedom with which I used to post on here, pre-stalker and pre-professional life...

... but ah well, so is life, on and on and on until we pause to drink some lemonade.

back to my cublet.

san francisco trip w/jackie & carms