Ralph Steadman

I was recently introduced to the art of Ralph Steadman through a school project. The assignment was to pick an artist from the list and create a work of art in the style of the chosen artist. I saw the unique style of his work and immediately chose him to base my work off of. Conveniently in copywriting class we had a discussion about Hunter.S.Thompson. Hunter was a writer who had a unique style of writing and worked in journalism up until he took his own life in 2005. Hunter S.Thompson had a fascinating life and was quite the eccentric, possibly due to the vast amount of drugs and alchol he took on a daily basis.

Ralph Steadman was a good friend of Hunter and often created the illustrations that went along with his articles. Ralphs work uses ink and minimal colour. Almost caricature like illustrations. What peeked my interest even more on these people was the film Fear and Loathing in LasVegas. The movie was about Hunter.S.Thompson and his trip to lasVegas in search of "the amercian dream". Starring my favourite, Johnny Depp as Hunter. Another movie to watch and get a sense of the real life of Hunter is Gonzo:The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S.Thompson.

Heres a nice little video of Ralph Steadman that will give you an idea of what hes about.

As for my project, the concept behind it was my struggle of living with chronic bitchface. When people first meet me their first impression is that I'm stuck up. I am not stuck up. I just happen to have the type of face that looks naturally bitchy when in a relaxed, non smiling position. So here's my self portrait, Ralph Steadman style.

Cliches: as bad as Disco (Tattoo addition)

You can call it an act of rebellion or a dumb trend but I think tattoos are going to continuously grow to be accepted. I don't even think tattoos can be considered a "trend" since there has been over 5000 years of the art. Sure, back in the day tattoos were reserved for sailors, criminals and circus freaks but in modern times its more common to have one than not having one. I got my first tattoo at the age of 18 by going against my parents advice that I would regret it and that I am too young to make permant desicions.

It was only a small one on my wrist. An homage to my childhood and the ever popular Harry Potter series. I wanted to avoid any type of cliche, been-done-a-thousand-times-before, designs. Of course there are a lot of Harry Potter tattoos out there and sometimes its hard to be original. My first thought was the classic deathly hallows symbol. I googled deathly hallows tattoo, and over a million results showed up. Being as stubborn as I am, I couldn't bare having a tattoo that over a million people have already. As an artist I like to think that I'm pretty original and creative and to have a cliche tattoo would ruin that reputation. I ending up getting Sirius Blacks Azkaban number on my wrist which when I googled, I could only find about 3 people with that tattooed. I figured 3 is more original than 1million so I went with it.

When people say tattoos are addicting, I believe it. It's been not even a year since my first and I am always coming up with new plans for tattoo designs. I consider tattooing as a serious possible career path for myself at times. Ultimately though I question if I could handle giving people tattoos that I wouldnt want to see. To help you out if youre thinking of getting a tattoo, below is a list of tattoos ive seen a thousand times and are as bad as disco.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS
1."Live, Laugh, Love"
2. Tinker Bell, Betty Boop and Winnie the Pooh. (specifically on middle aged women.)
3.Butterlies
4.Infinity symbols
5.Deathly Hallows symbol
6.Tribal armbands
7.Chain armbands
8.Anchors
9.Naudical stars
10.Browning buck and doe symbols
11.Feathers and arrows
12.Dandelions with bits blowing off
13.Feather transitioning into little birds
14.Any design that looks like a temporary tattoo
15.Made in "........"

I've never actually seen anyone with a heart and banner combo with the word "mom" inside, but if i did, I'd give them props.

De-stress

Going into the last three weeks of my first year in college, the projects are piling up with deadlines left and right. As each project gets put on my massive to do list I can feel the stress building up. Listed below are a few simple things that help me to de-stress, maybe they'll work for you too.

1.Take a long shower ... or a bath perhaps? Just steam the troubles away.

2.Get a relaxing playlist on that will mellow you out.The Songza app has some great playlists with all genres. Personally my favourite chilled out playlists are, "Mellow Indie", "Sleepytime Indie", "Mellow Electro" and "Indie Make Out". As you can tell, Indie is pretty relaxing to me. Acoustic works as well. The "Majestic Casual" Youtube channel has a good playlist of atmospheric sounding music.

3.Light a candle. Candles make your room smell good and have a pleasant relaxing glow.

4.Tidy up. Not having to look at all the mess that you're eventually going to have to clean will ease your mind.

5.Pamper. Do something small to treat yourself. For example: paint your nails, put a detoxing face mask on or tweeze those eyebrows.

6.Drink a hot beverage. I prefer chai tea or apple cider. It'll make your insides all warm and cozy.

7.The last piece of advice I have is to just get that work done. It may be a struggle but checking stuff off that list will feel fantastic. And in the end, the only real cure for stress is conquering the direct cause.

What NOT to do.
1.Open your laptop. This may seem like a great idea at first but actually, this is a terrible idea that will lead to endless scrolling on Tumblr most likely. Or even worse, you'll start watching a new series on Netflix and next thing you know, school has finished and you somehow managed to watch all 200 episodes in a row.

Jeffery Campbell: HOMG Platform Sneaker

Unfortunately it's still not dry enough outside to take out my Jeffery Campbells :(
Last summer I was obsessed with these sneakers and debated buying them for over a month. Finally the shopping demon inside of me decided that I should just buy them as a gift for myself for finally getting a job. This post will be a review of the shoes themselves as well as my overall experience ordering them from the website NastyGal.

Before ordering them I did my research on where I could find them and reviews on the quality of the shoes. I ended up choosing NastyGal because it seemed to be a trusted website and I felt confident that I wouldn't get a knock off brand. As for the shoes themselves I read a ton of great reviews and they looked pretty versatile when paired with a variety of outfits. The sole of the shoes are obviously huge and look very heavy, reviews told me that they really aren't as heavy as they look.

Now onto the actual ordering,
The day I decided to order them there was only one pair left! Like a sign from God, they happened to be my size. I ordered and it came to around 90 dollars after taxes and shipping. I was later emailed that the original box they came in was damaged but the shoes were fine. They notified me that they would be put in a different box and gave me a 5$ store credit for the inconvenience. I forget how long it took to actually receive the shoes, but it felt like forever. When they finally arrived just by looking at them I could tell that they would be too small. And sure enough they were definitely too small for my feet even though they were my regular size 9. Since I bought the last pair they restocked fully. It cost me about 35$ just to send them back and them I had to re-order to a size 10 and wait some more. After all that hassle the larger size fit perfectly.

My opinion,
If you order these shoes, definitely order a size up because they run small. As for the weight issue, when you pick them up, yes, they do feel lighter than you would think. BUT, wearing them on your feet all day, you can feel the weight giving you a bit of a workout. One day I was going on vacation and I decided to wear these shoes on my feet so they wouldn't take up so much room in my luggage. Unfortunately that was a terrible idea because I had to walk 15 mins to catch my bus. All I can say is, I don't think my thighs have burned that bad before. Other than the slight weight issue, they are pretty comfortable and great quality. The perfect sneaker with a little extra something to stand out. And of course I ordered black because black goes with everything.

Spring, if you ever return.

It's officially spring here in Ontario, Canada. I live in a mining town in northern Ontario and by looking outside right now you'd never guess that its "spring". April starts in a few days while there is still ample amounts of snow outside. Just thins morning it took me ten minutes to brush the foot of snow off my car. It wasn't the fluffy stuff either; it was the heavy, damp stuff that instantly turns into one thick mountain when you try to move it. I have to admit the temperature outside was quite nice considering the condition of the roads. Even though it was probably +2 degrees Celsius outside I still had to get out my heavy duty winter boots to trudge through the fresh snow.

By the end of the day everything started to turn into slush. By the weather reports it should warm up and hopefully spring might make an appearance instead of this "second winter" people are predicting. Spring happens to be my favourite season for a multitude of reasons. Instead of making another list like I've done in most of my posts ill describe a short spring time scenario which describes exactly why I love it.

The morning is gloomy, making me feel drowsy and yet I have the will to get out of bed due to the enticing, unfamiliar sound of birds outside of my window. I am finally able to take out that light leather jacket in replace of the heavy, hooded, fur trimmed coat. Stepping outside doesn't require nearly as many layers and preparation. Breathing in the damp air without the struggle of that harsh cold that makes your lungs hurt feels refreshing. The sensation of being able to comfortably go for a casual walk around the block. The sun finally beats down on the newly revealed pavement. The sound of water running down the street drains. The dry patches of road sprinkled with dirt from covering the slippery winter roads and the sound it makes when you drag your feet across the pavement. Then comes the rain again. The calm taping on the side of your house from another drizzle. And finally the search for that fly that you keep hearing buzzing faintly by the window sill. Where it came from? you have no idea. Sneakily hibernating in your house all winter. The precursor to unveiling my summer wardrobe.

"Black is such a happy colour"

In design class we discuss colour a lot and the many types of combinations. Complimentary, analogous, triadic, split complimentary, etc. Eventually we got into the topic of wearing colour. Since we're a group of artists and graphic design students you might think that we would be bold and eccentric with the colours we wear. That is not the case. In fact when we looked around the class most of us were wearing neutrals and a lot of black.

I am a culprit of wearing black 99% of the time. My closet is more than 50% black. I happen to be a very picky person when putting outfits together. I tend to wear just one pop of colour and everything else has to be neutral, and by neutral 90% of the time that means black. For example, most people wear blue jeans on a daily basis with any colour of shirt and its a normal part of society. If you see me wearing blue jeans it is a very rare occasion and I'm probably at camp. Something in my mind tells me that blue jeans do not match with anything, unlike everyone thinks it does.

I took the challenge my teacher gave us and wore colour for her next class. Not to be dramatic, but, it took everything I had to put this outfit of colour together. So, I pulled out the pair of pastel yellow jeans from the bottom of the drawer I never open and paired it with a electric blue sheer top with a daisy pattern bandeau underneath. I happen to have my hair dyed magenta at the moment which made this outfit even crazier. I felt pretty uncomfortable for most of the day. Moral of the story: Wear what you feel comfortable in, no matter what, even if it happens to be all black.

Here is the colour combination together. The grey was the colour of my boots.

Terrifying.

StarWars Virgin

Recently I have watched the Star Wars series for the first time. I managed to go almost 19 years of my life without watching a single star Wars movie. I finally caved and decided that I was tired of the overwhelmingly shocked responses when I told people that I've never watched them before. Since Star Wars is a big part of pop culture and one of the largest sci-fy movie franchises, I was already familiar with the characters.

Suggested by a friend, I watched them in chronological order according to time within the world of StarWars instead of based on the release date of each film. I managed to watch four in one day and then later had two more sittings to watch the last two. I've heard from others that the storyline in a little confusing to figure out but with the previous knowledge I picked up I basically predicted everything while watching the first movie (The Phantom Menace). Everyone knows the classic line, "Luke, I am your father.", unless you happen to live under a rock. With that bit of information it was not hard to figure out what was going to happen.

First impression was a little overwhelming because a lot of information and characters were thrown at me at once. There is no lack of action and dilemma in this series. Overall the first three that I watched were pretty impressive on the grand scale. I had an issue with the graphics used to create Jar Jar Binks. I know that the species in StarWars are obviously supposed to be unique and aliens but his character moved in a way that was not natural feeling along with the colour to a point were I could tell he was animated into each scene. Later I found out that basically no fan of StarWars actually like Jar Jar Binks character in general.

I was more impressed with the last three I watched, which happened to be the older ones, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I personally prefer the old school special effects and costumes to animation. Although costumes sometimes look a bit cheesy; the look and feel of something actually being there interacting with the actors appeals to me. A few things that stuck out to me were:

1. The strange rat creature that was attached to Jabba the Hut.

2. The scene where Luke finds out Darth Vader is his father is pretty comical due to the weird chipmunk face Luke made when he freaked out and found out.

3. Chewbacca would spaz out in every situation.

4. The transitions were varied and looked like they were made by a grade-schooler using iMovie.

5. The excessive amount of arms and hands that were chopped off.