done.

Some pages from my portfolio for spring semester. I'm finished!

suddenly, summer

L to R: me, my sister, my uncle Tony

Dear goldforever,

I remember this photo, and although the circumstances are hazy, it must have been shortly after we went to the (Monterey Bay?) aquarium, because I'm holding Humphrey, the humpback whale I got as a souvenir. I'm wearing my favorite t-shirt at the time, a crazy cat, painting & making a mess! I just remember it was me, you and Uncle Tony running through the waves, as the other adults stood on the beach out of the water watching. For once I didn't care so much about finding shells, I was just happy to be running in the waves with you and our favorite uncle.

This was a glorious time, thank you for sharing it with me.

I love Mom

My mom when she was about my age (20).

Things I like love about my mom.

1. How she hates how I call comic books "graphic novels."
2. Her strange, passionate obsessions - of late, Pyrex vintage glassware & vintage dresses.
3. Her unrelenting, persevering, hardworking person.
4. How she is always straightforward with me; I know when I ask her a question I will get her honest opinion/thoughts.
5. How she embodies everything I want to be - an amazing artist, mother, and person.

Thanks Mom.

I love grapefruit

One of my favorite family pastimes is eating grapefruit. Funny huh, because it wouldn't seem so much a pastime as simply going through the motions of eating fruit, but with the unique construction of a grapefruit, it becomes this great ritual. The thick rind of the fruit forces the group to sit with bated breath as they watch the person peeling it. Sometimes when it's really thick we score the skin with a knife before hacking away the great pithy rind. Then, peeling away the bitter white fluff to reveal juicy ruby (or yellow) sections is the kicker! That, or we eat it breakfast-style, cut in half with the sections scored out for spooning into mouths. yum yum yum. grapefruit.

reasons I love home #4

It's more exciting to boil water for coffee or tea in vintage vessels.

charrette starts...NOW

inspiration board.

Namibia desert | snakes | bird spikes | Air Force Academy Chapel | Corten steel | armadillo lizard | Sandra Backlund - Ink Blot Test | Frank Miller's Sin City | Lucy & Bart Exploded View

working on getting my semester-long studio project done. it's due May 1st, so less posting for now, unless I manage to squeeze in some quickie posts (which I usually end up doing).

FREEDOM(ish) in 7 days.

reasons I love home #3

There's always orange juice in the fridge.

light study - fins

Some abstract (and rough) renderings of light and shadow studies for my studio project - a civic building in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. Skin system composed of pre-fabricated louvers of corten steel and glass. roof not yet resolved. yum?

reasons I love home #2

flowers, flowers everywhere.

edward muybridge

Edward Muybridge, an English photographer from the late 1800s, is most well-known for having captured the movement of humans and animals, thus allowing people to truly understand how these things move. He also invented the zoopraxiscope, an early device that could display motion pictures, which was just the next step after his pioneering of sequential photographs of movement.


So I bring this up because this sort of cinematic storytelling, this sequential line of views, can be taken into architecture, especially with the project I am working on. Vague and unhelpful, as I don't have photos of it to explain what I mean, but anyway, just wanted to note a current inspiration.

Oh and apart from all that other stuff he became famous for, look at how freaking beautiful this is. Edward Muybridge. Innovative and freakin' talented.

reasons I love home #1

Waking up to the smell of homemade meatball soup in the morning.

hummingbird adventures

In the middle of our project reviews there was a commotion - a hummingbird had fallen out of a tree and was frantically trying to take flight and return home. I don't think the flock of students trying to get a better view of it was helping, and after some time it tried flying again, when it flew into my face then crash-landed on my canvas bag. So a friend and I took the hummingbird away from people and tried "feeding" it a hibiscus flower. In the end we were able to get him back into his tree. Hope all is well, little fella.

an alphabetical list of things in my room

Things in my room starting with...

A: autographed Hellboy headshot
B: books (graphic novels, architecture, leisure)
C: cup of chamomile tea
D: dust bunnies
E: embroidery floss
F: flannel
G: giant bouncy ball
H: hand sanitizer
I: I ♥ Jim post-its
J: Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski
K: keys
L: Land Camera 230
M: moleskines
N: Netflix rentals
O: old slide film & polaroid
P: Polaroid SLR 680 SE
Q: quilt (slightly worn, thanks to dogs)
R: record bowl
S: Sennheisers
T: Tera Melos poster
U: USC plush pillow
V: V5 & V7 Precise Rolling Ball pens
W: water bottles
X: X?
Y: yesterday's socks
Z: Zicam

favorite kisses

Because for the larger part of my life I had covered my eyes during kissing scenes, and on the whole had not been particularly moved by the man kissing the woman and vice versa, most of these are from the movies I've seen in the last 2-3 years! Selection bias for the win!

Casino Royale (2006)Eva Green's Vesper Lynd, shaken after seeing Bond (Daniel Craig) beat up some baddies, crawls into a shower, cleansing herself mentally (and physically) of what she has just witnessed. James, in a curiously sensitive, unprecedented (I think) move, climbs in next to Vesper and sits in the stream of water, and ever so gingerly sucks the water? blood? off her fingers. Man, after this scene I was SO sold on the re-imagining of the 007 series.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)To be truthful, I couldn't remember from reading P&P if Darcy and Elizabeth had really encountered each other on the moor in the wee hours of the morning (for shame!). But for the film it made for a sacred series of moments - each caress building with the rising of the sun and as it breaks over the horizon, the cheeky meant-for-you's finally lock lips!

Amelie (2001)The entire movie is chock-full of magical moments, so when we get to the face-off between Amelie and Nino, it's surprisingly... simple. I think that's what makes it work though. Amelie's finally stepped out of her solitary fantasy world, her protective shell, into the real world to tackle love and give it a chance. Nino and Amelie start with reciprocal, childlike kisses which then lead to much more...

A Knight's Tale (2001)I really don't have to say much more than how cute Heath Ledger was when his character Will's bright smile and crinkly eyes appear in triumph and in awe of Shannyn Sossamon's Lady Jocelyn. So in the overblown and cheesy kiss they share at the end of his winning joust everyone cheers and yells, but in the quieter, private kiss they share everyone sighs happily/wistfully and wishes for a Will/Lady Jocelyn of their own.

Donnie Darko (2001)After presenting a hypothetical science project in class, some of Donnie's classmates cruelly tease the new girl Gretchen Ross (Jena Malone) about her dark family history, which in turn causes Gretchen to run out of the classroom. Donnie runs after her, apologizing for their behavior, and all she does in response is reward him with the hungriest, anguished, most grateful kiss ever.

Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)Zia and Mikal are in a strange purgatory world, a world where suicides are doomed to inhabit. Their search for the "people in charge" - to find a way out or at least to get an explanation, brings them closer together. In one scene on a beach, with no dialogue and beautiful atmospheric music, we see Zia and Mikal flirting, hovering close to each other, speaking softly to each other, then we see the softest flutter of a kiss land between them. Really perfect in depicting a first kiss scenario.

Secretary (2002)It's an exhausting series of scenes to watch. Maggie Gyllenhaal's self-harming character Lee Holloway, who has come to depend on the domineering tendencies of her boss E. Edward Grey (played by James Spader), has been sitting palms-down, legs apart for days - because she has fallen in love with him, dominant qualities and all and cannot bear to leave him. She never wavers, and after three days, he tenderly carries her away from her ordeal in the sweetest, gentlest instance of him that we see in the entire film.

Jules et Jim (1962)Best friends Jules and Jim both have feelings for the lovely, enigmatic Catherine. Catherine marries Jules, so Jim can only admire her from afar, secretly. Year later, upon a visit from Jim to Jules and Catherine, Jules notices he might be losing Catherine to Jim - and so he bestows his blessing to them as he would rather lose Catherine to Jim than lose her forever. As the new lovers embrace, the narrator murmurs "Their first kiss lasted all night." Sigh.

Rebel Without A Cause (1955)James Dean's character Jim Stark, the new kid in town, meets Natalie Wood's Judy, who stands there as her friends make fun of him. Later she apologizes for the way she acts when she's with her friends, to which he says nothing but kisses her lightly on the side of her forehead. She asks "Why did you do that?" And he goes "I felt like it." Wow.

The Fountain (2006)Hugh Jackman's Tommy Creo is an oncologist, searching for a cure for brain tumors, which his wife Izzi (Rachel Weisz) is dying from. In this scene Izzi is taking a bath, and Tommy watches from the doorway. They talk about his work, etcetera, and in a fit of passion showing his determination not to lose her, her leans into the bathtub, and they kiss, and kiss, and kiss.

Eastern Promises (2007)Viggo Mortensen's Nikolai says farewell to Naomi Watt's Anna, because he admires her strength & humanity, and most likely because he will never see her again.

Becoming Jane (2007)My favorite parts of this movie involved shots of James McAvoy (as Jane's love interest Tom LeFroy) gazing intently at...whatever in some very becoming 1800s English clothing, hehe. This candlelit kiss shared by the film's eponymous Jane (Anne Hathaway) and Tom made my heart go all a-flutter when I first saw it.

Cashback (2006)Cute, arty film with Sean Biggerstaff as Ben, a student artist who develops insomnia after a terrible break-up and so gets a job at a supermarket to help pass the time. In a funny twist he realizes he can freeze and unfreeze time, a skill he finds useful when wooing the girl he realises is the girl of his dreams. Here, he stops the snow. :)

what you looking at?

What you looking at? (Maxie)

What you looking at? (BB)

What you looking at? (Maxie again!)

requisite tools - pens

Pilot Precise Rolling Ball V5 (Extra Fine)
I'm in love with the Pilot Precise Rolling Ball pens. How do I count the ways in which I love thee?! First, for their price their quality is amazing - I have yet to have a pen explode ink all over the place, or leak on me. The handy dandy "window" to show the ink supply lets me know when my pen is running low (though I carry several at a time everywhere I go). They also come in tons of colors - I mostly just use black, red, and blue. The V5 is perfect for note-taking in class (it doesn't bleed through the pages as much as the V7) and finer detail sketches...

Pilot Precise Rolling Ball V7 (Fine)
...The V7 is fantastic because the stroke is nice and BOLD. I use it for shading, but also when I want whatever I write or doodle to YELL off the page. I forgot to mention - the Pilot Precise Rolling Balls flow amazingly, they pretty much melt onto the page. Mmmm...

Sakura Pigma Micron
I love the Sakura Pigma Micron in 005, 01, 02, 03, 05 (haven't used the 08). The 005 is probably the thinnest pen I have encountered, and it has a good lifespan, though daily use definitely takes its toll and grinds down the tip to a dry, sad nubbin after some time. I stopped liking this pen when the graphic text on the barrel would degrade to a gummy mess on my hands, but I now use this just for when I need fine, fine lines; this is definitely less of an everyday pen and more of a "special occasion" pen for me.

STAEDTLER Pigment Liner
My favorites of the Staedtler pigment liner - 0.05, 0.1, 0.5 and 0.8. I favored these over the Sakuras for a while, but each one feels different and it really depends on the mood I'm in for when I grab hold of one to use it. Most of the time it's when I want something sturdier than a Sakura. I don't quite know how to describe it...!