Surprise, Surprise

I spent last night in Carson City and I was a bit surprised….it was FUN!

I’m staying true to my last post. Carson City as a whole is just okay, but certain events make this city fun.

I went to Fridays at 3rd. Gator Beat was the headliner. They were great! I saw my aunt and uncle there and they are huge fans of this band. They have seen them 10 times in the past 10 years. I guess they perform in Mammoth a lot.

Have a listen!

Here’s a pic of what a usual Friday at 3rd looks like:

It definitely wasn’t as busy as the above picture, but it was still a blast.

There was even somebody behind the backstage that brought their exotic birds. All of the birds were pretty nice, but there was one feisty green macaw that snapped, barked, and laughed at everyone. He was also a head-banging rocker. He danced to Gator Beat all night. He was quite the entertainer.

There was also a girl that brought a hoolahoop to the show. She was really good at keeping the hoop up while dancing the night away. She asked if I wanted to give it a try and of course I said yes. I’m not a master hoolahooper like she was, but I must admit, I was pretty dang good. Ha.

Anyway…good night. Music, drinks, birds, and hoolapoops. A great mixture of entertainment.

I’ll be at the next one, for sure.

My Thoughts on Carson City

Many of my friends ask me, “How do you like living in Carson City?”

I take a deep breath and exhale, “It’s ooookkkaaaayy.”

Okay is exactly the way I would describe Carson City. It’s not exciting. It’s not boring. It’s just okay.

Carson City is the capital of Nevada. Yes, everyone, Las Vegas is NOT the capital.

Carson is a cute, little quaint town 30 minutes outside of Reno and about 25 minutes from the most gorgeous place in Nevada, Lake Tahoe. Reno and Tahoe have so much to offer. Reno entertains the college/outdoorsy crowd. It has bars on every corner of the street, nightclubs, shopping, the Truckee River, big events like the The Great Reno Balloon Race and Hot August Nights, and it’s known for its art and culture. It has almost everything you could possibly want and need. Check out what Reno has to offer. Tahoe has the lake. That’s all it needs.  And, Carson…well…it’s in the middle of Reno and Tahoe.

Honestly, Carson is not a dead city, it’s just kind of lame.

1. Have you seen its mall? You probably have but just didn’t realize it. It has nothing important in there, just a few antique stores. The only good things that come out of that place are Charley’s Grilled Sub and Paul Schat’s Bakery.

2. They have a bar/lounge called Plan:b. Really? Really?…Really? Naming a bar after a form of birth control? Doesn’t seem right.

3. Not enough young people. Every inch of this town is covered with old people or politicians. One or the other. I know there must be young people out there. Please stop hiding! I want to make some Carson friends.

4. No entertainment, whatsoever. When my boyfriend and I want to have a date night, we go to dinner and a movie each time. There’s not a lot of options out there. I guess we’ll have to be creative, but I wish Carson made it a little easier.

5. The speed limit throughout the entire town is 25mph. Kill me! My Jetta and I love to drive fast!

I did say that Carson City is okay. So here are things they should be proud of:

1. The food. It’s been nothing but amazing here. The Basil, Kim Lee’s Japanese Restaurant, Floral Vineyard and Khristopher’s Cafe, Lily’s China Bistro, La Taqueria La Salsa, Lady Tamales, and more. Yum! The food keeps me going!

2. Comma Coffee

3. The Capitol building. It’s beautiful.

4. Trader Joes!

5. Easy to get around town.

6. Close to Tahoe.

The only things that Carson needs are a cool hang-out for mid-20-year-olds, good shopping, more younger people and a frozen yogurt place.

So…there you have it. Carson City in a nutshell.

RENOvate Creative at 2010 National Student Advertising Competition

Being on the University of Nevada, Reno’s AAF National Student Advertising Competition team – RENOvate Creative has been one of the most stressful (want to pull out my hair kind of stress), to the most rewarding and memorable experience I have had in my life. It tested my ability to think beyond what I thought I was capable of. It tested my ability to work with such a diverse, talented group of people. And, it’s even tested my own fear of public speaking. This class and the people in it has shown me how I can overcome any fear or weakness. It has taught me more than ever that with determination, commitment, practice, and CREATIVITY, you can solve any challenge that presents itself.

Here are the details of the case we worked on:

Client: State Farm Insurance

Case: Change perceptions of 18-25 year olds about State Farm Insurance.

Our Campaign: Live ON. With reliable State Farm agents, you are able to live your life the way you want to.

Successful: We think so.

Competition was fierce. In districts at San Jose State, we competed against schools such as UC Berkeley, University San Francisco, and Chico State. We won first place. Such a great win for such a long semester of endless nights of work. Read a story on our win!

We went to Orlando for nationals. Even though we didn’t win big, we felt confident that we had done the best that we could have done…we still felt like rockstars!

Here we are right before our presentation: (We presented at 8am Florida time….5am Nevada time.)

I feel like the luckiest gal because of all my teammates. They were absolutely amazing! Shout out to all you guys. I will miss you all so much! We’ll be seeing each other soon. Reunion is in call…SanFran, maybe?

Live ON RENOvate!

Inherited Space by Katy Govan

Katy Govan, a MFA student at the University of Nevada, Reno, created her MFA exhibition, Inherited Space, in the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery. Her exhibition was open April 19 – April 30.

After reading a biography of Katy, I learned that she is focusing on the field of book arts. During my spring semester in 2009, I took the class “Book Arts” with Bob Blesse. It was an amazing class. Learning how to create a book from scratch was a tedious, yet rewarding task. Sculpting your design, cutting your fingers in the process, sculpting again, then setting the typography, rolling the ink, testing the design, and then going back to fine tuning everything gets old after a while. It takes a certain person to continue the process and master it. Katy has.

Her books were perfectly crafted. Not just for the looks of it all, but also to tell a story. Her worked presented the ideas of personal past memories, inheritance and loss.

Along with the numerous books, she set up the gallery as if it was her own home, a home filled with family inheritances. She had an eclectic collection of figurines on bookshelves, side tables, magazine racks, and more. I can’t remember all the objects…my memory is failing me. However, I did notice a Beanie Baby. I collected over 300 Beanie Babies when I was younger, and now, they’re in a closet, locked up for no one to see. Since they’re not worth anything anymore, my children (whenever I have them) will most likely inherit them so that they can be put into better use than as closet stuffers.

Wild tangent. Back to the books.

The one book display that I found the most interesting was the secret book display. She created a display of at least two hundred pieces of paper folded up into little squares, creating tiny one page booklets. The directions said to pick out a booklet and write a secret on it, and then put it back in the bunch. If you picked up one that already had a secret on it, you could read it, then put it back. I thought this was a clever interactive piece. It invites the viewer to recall their memories/secrets and to share them in an anonymous way.

Each of her books, from what I recall, had something connected to it that was from her home memories. I felt she was trying to get across the message that you can make new memories while reinventing or remembering the past.

Here are some of her book designs that I pulled from the Internet:

Great job, Katy! The exhibition was perfectly executed and the books were beautiful. Knowing how long it takes to perfect a book gives me that much more appreciation of your art. I look forward to seeing more of your books in the near future.

1000 Journals Project

Brian Singer, the creator of 1000 Journals Project, creative director of Altitude Associates, and AIGA president in San Francisco, came to Reno to present his work at the Nevada Museum of Art on January 29.

His work was my biggest inspiration this semester. He mixed his knowledge of advertising and digital media to create a fully interactive art piece – 1000 Journals Project.

As stated on the website, “The 1000 Journals Project is an ongoing collaborative experiment attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels. The goal is to provide a method for interaction and shared creativity among friends and strangers.” Singer made and packaged the journals in his small apartment in San Francisco. Each cover was unique. There were 900 different covers that were made by talented artists. Here are two examples:

1000 journals were passed to friends, family, strangers, and bums on the streets. They all had a different story to tell, whether that was in the form of words, drawings, photographs, or even all three. He left his address in each journal in hope to receive them when they were completely finished. He has received a good many, but majority are still out there, exploring the unknown.

The journals have reached 40 countries and every U.S. state. They were hidden in caves and stolen at gun point. They were found in bathrooms, buses, and on benches. Stories ranged from apologies and secrets to personal ads. (Pictures above and below are from www.1000journals.com).

This project is fascinating. To put the main goal of this project into other peoples’ hands is brave. You dedicate your time and money in something that you believe in, but are unsure if others do. You never know if people will interact with these kind of projects, but when they do, it’s amazing. You discover the creativity of others and possibly rediscover your own.

When trying to figure out my semester’s project for my digital media class, I wanted to adopt Singer’s platform. I wanted to rely on the interaction of other people to make a statement. I wanted to pass out disposable cameras to friends, family and strangers so that they could photograph themselves doing things that incorporated some type of play. I wanted to observe how others play and have fun in their lives. Sadly, I ended up not following through with this idea, but I am still very much interested in possibly doing it in the future.

Thank you for the inspiration, Brian.

Jennifer Schmidt: Embrace Beauty and Purpose

Jennifer Schmidt is a multi-media artist in Brooklyn, NY that came to the University of Nevada on Thursday, January 28. She often works with print media to create sculpture-like installations, video, and screen prints.

She mentioned that travel and new situations are her primary motivation to create the art she does. She is inspired by the everyday objects she sees, trying to find the beauty and art in the most mundane things. Instead of creating narrative art, she likes to pose questions instead of statements.

Here is a picture of one of her projects called Le Menu, a sandwich board that plays songs from French newwave films from the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s.

I’m not sure how engaging this piece actually was. It didn’t pose a question, but more so seconds of curiosity

Here is an example of a video piece called Psychedelic Swatch.

I enjoy seeing the different patters put together. It really does take a mundane object and expresses a simple beauty of fabric. Again though, I’m not sure how engaging this piece was. There should have been an extra component of interactivity in it.

My favorite piece Jennifer did was SCAN-TRON.

It’s so hard to believe that she took the time to color in dots on numerous scan-trons to make this piece work. The sound and movement compliment each other well.

I also wanted to mention a little about her presentation of her art. She read from note cards and past artist statements. She didn’t interact with the audience at all. Honestly, it was a bit boring. Her art would have captured my attention more if she seemed excited to present it. An artist has to be able to sell his/her art as well as they create it. They have to believe that it serves a purpose.

However, with that said, Jennifer has a great mind. To take objects such as fabric patters and scan-trons and find beauty in them can be difficult. But, she succeeded.  Now, she’ll need to work on the presentation of her material and embrace the beauty she found in the items, and believe that there is a purpose to it all.

Phoenix in Reno? What!!?

I know it’s a bit late to post something about the 1/27 Phoenix concert at the Knitting Factory in Reno, but it was way too epic not to even mention. And, as I always say, better late than never.

Check out the pics from the concert!

(Beautiful stage presence! Good job Knitting Factory).

(Whoa! Man flying in the air. A second later, he fell flat face on the floor. Epic!!!)

The Nevada Sagebrush also took a great photo. Check it out!

After the opening act and a few drinks, the vibe was amazing. At the end of the show, the crowd was invited to get on stage. Two things went through my mind when this happened: 1. This is awesome (although I didn’t get the chance to get up there) 2. This could get dangerous. The lead singer jumped on a speaker to protect himself from the raging crowd and continued on.

Phoenix performed like pros…they made it being in a popular band and looking so hip so easy. If only it was.

Anyone want to start a chick, Phoenix-inspired band?

My First Big Gig!

I’ve been given the opportunity to design identity packages – logo, business card, letterhead, envelope, and sign – for a long-time family friend Frank Coumou and his wife Lucinda Coumou. Frank is running for Justice of Peace, Dept. 13 and Lucinda is running for District Court, Dept. 28. in Las Vegas, NV.

Frank just sent me a picture of what his and Lucinda’s signs looks like when hung up.

(Frank said it was pretty cool that I was helping him. He’s known me since I was a little girl. Ahh…I’m growing up!)

Objectified – A New Perspective

As president of Ad Club at the University of Nevada, Reno, I was able to experience the planning and execution of the viewing of Objectified, a documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. We co-sponsored the event with AIGA Reno Tahoe.

The documentary expresses that design is many things. The four attributes that stand out the most for me are:

Design is…

1. Honest

2. Long-lived

3. Consistent in every detail

4. …as little design as possible.

Objectified brought light to the meaning of design. It’s more than just what you create. It’s the meaning behind the idea, it’s functionality, small details, how it’s used after you actually use it. Design is measured on how you stimulate peoples’ souls and minds. As Jonathan Ive, the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc. says, “It [design] is a bit obsessive.”

Consumers decide to buy things based off their needs and wants, and if an item leaves a lasting impression. Consumers like to have new things that are what’s in tomorrow. But, what could be in tomorrow may be out the next day. If something is designed well, then it shouldn’t have a short-life. In the documentary, they posed a great question, “Why do we have to buy 5 mobile phones in a 2-year span?” It’s simple. We like new things, which explains why everyone has to have an iPhone. The iPhone will be long-lived.

Design is a crucial part of life. It’s a part of who you are.

Check out the trailer for Objectified:

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I would like to pose a few question to see if I can get a reaction from my sporadic readers:

What makes you buy things?

What has value to you as a consumer? What matters to you?

Sven Goyvaerts’s One Year Life Performance 2.0 and Glenn Weatherson’s Sixty-Days: Using social media as a vessel for their art

Artist Sven Goyvaerts presented his social media experiment One Year Life Performance 2.0 at the University of Nevada, Reno on November 12, 2009. He began recording everything he does during the day on June 16, 2009, and sharing it through social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, vimeo, YouTube, and yes, even World of WarCraft.

This is an experiment that tests the ability of social media and whether it truly does work. Goyvaerts likes to say that his experiment is like a “reality show, coming to you, on each day, for one whole year, for free.” However, do people really pay attention to what is going on? Do you need to have a personal connection with somebody who is blogging, tweeting, or updating statuses to truly care about what someone is saying or doing? Is social media a form of art?

To answer the last question first, social media is not a form of art. However, social media is a vessel for Goyvaerts’s art. It is just like how a canvas alone isn’t art, but what the artist puts on the canvas is.

His project reminds me of Glenn Weatherson’s project called Sixty-Days. Weatherson created a video series on vimeo sharing his days while being stuck in an apartment on house arrest. He also shared his experiences on his portfolio, Flickr and Twitter. This can be considered art, but Weatherson had no intention to make it art. He started doing absurd things in front of a camera and shared it with his friends and family members. He would do things such as drink a gallon of Tampico orange juice and throw it up or rearrange his entire apartment to have all the furniture stacked up on each other in the center of the room.

Goyvaert and Weatherson’s projects are similar in their use of social media to promote their artistic ideas. What I have noticed is that they began promoting their projects through their friends, and then their friends helped them promote it, and then their friends’ friends sent it to their friends. It’s a chain reaction. And, there you have it… the power of social media.

I would like to see more art documentations such as these. The most interesting part about it all is to see how people react to them – whether they view, interact or participate in the work.

Great job Goyvaert and Weatherson! You continue to make social media a fascinating topic of conversation.

Check out their sites:

Sven Goyvaerts

Glenn Weatherson