Come Up to My Room 2011 | Jan. 28–30

I'm crazy-excited to be in the heat of preparing for this design show! I have a small paper installation to contribute and am incredibly honoured and nervous in equal parts to be participating in Come Up to My Room 2011 at The Gladstone. 

If anyone is in town, please come by because I want to see your lovely faces!

{Room by Allyson Mitchell.}

Escape wrapping paper

I still have an amazing amount of joy whenever I wrap a present for, well, almost anyone. But, the sober understanding that most people throw wrapping paper into landfills has squelched my wrapping joy (but not my card fetish, that will never go away). Consequently, I haven't had to buy wrapping paper in many, many years. I do miss going to the store and picking out a pattern that someone has lovingly designed. Here's some fictional wrapping paper, based on some fire escapes I made quite a while ago. Cute repetition always makes me happy.

Wedding Invites

I was lucky enough to be in the wedding party of two dear friends who got married (to each other!) this summer. I had a tonne of fun making their custom wedding invitations and all the other little things that come with. Not only are these two a lovely couple, but they also have great taste so I was extra-excited to collaborate. We decided on a type treatment and muted palette because the two are amazingly well-read and also embody understated elegance without ever being snobby.

Hand screen printed, two-colour cover.

An imperfect heart shape gave the cover some extra depth.

Main invitation.

Info. card: the bride has a way with words
so the copy was adorable!

Thank you cards that were tied to homemade sugar cookies,
which were gobbled up before I could take their photo!

Detail of the type pattern.

The Walrus Illustration

I had the unique privilege of illustrating an article for The Walrus magazine. The piece, "The Indie Rock Swindle" is beautifully written by the talented Alex Molotkow. She examines the Polaris prize and the so-called indie Canadian music scene. You can read it in full here, but might I suggest you support your Canadian writers, illustrators and artists and buy a copy? It's on newsstands now. Or better yet, subscribe!

Conceptualizing and crafting the image was an amazing process, skillfully guided by Paul Kim, senior designer and Brian Morgan, art director at The Walrus. Once I worked through my angst and heeded the wise advice from a friend to "enjoy the process" I was pleased with the result. The experience reminded me of the importance of allowing freedom to explore and play with ideas while they solidify.

The three-dimensional illustration is composed of paper, string, glue, one knitting needle and several late nights.

Found

I found this scrap of a street poster the other day. To me, it's a rad policital statement about mental illness.

For all people, no one is ill.

Vintage Buttons!

I've been MIA from here but, I assure you, not missing from action in general. There is a lot happening that is exciting and new! Right now, I'm researching and starting to play with some ideas for a brand redesign that has brought me, of all places, to vintage buttons.

How freakin' great are these? I'm likely late to the party of appreciating these stupidly amazing pieces. If I ever come across one of these precious little fasteners, I promise I will proudly make it into a necklace charm that I wear at least once a week because, seriously, I never knew I needed a shirt with cigarette buttons until I found this wonderful book. (Source to follow.)

More Chicago collage

I've continued to play around with my Marina City building images from last year. As with most things that I do, the process seems very slow. Unlike the rest of my life, which seems to move quickly at times, I take full liberty to move as slowly as I feel like my personal projects deserve. I'm at a bit of a standstill right now, as I've been working through translating the photo to a collage to a screen print and now am not quite sure how I should finish.

I've learned a tonne about screen printing so far, though! Right now I want to introduce the right amount of depth to the final images so that the image sits comfortably on the plane between real and abstract. Hopefully I'll make some more progress in the coming months and if I happen upon a solution I'm really excited about, I'll be sure to share.

Source photo taken in Chicago last year.

Resulting collage that took what seemed like forever!

Rubylith stencil based on shapes inspired from the collage.

A screen print done with three layers of Rubylith stencils and doodles over the ink.

Brain on the brain

I'm so funny! But seriously, I've been thinking about the brain lately. The band An Horse has a great song (I don't remember the title, I swear that my ipod actually makes me less aware of what and who I'm listening to) with the lyrics "I've had too much to think," which perfectly characterizes my over-analytical nature. Being able to think things through a bit too thoroughly can be inebriating. It doesn't always leave room for free and simple doing. I digress, of course.

One of my more profound thoughts? The brain looks neat. Case in point, this beautiful anatomy book I borrowed from the library and never want to return.





source Human Anatomy by Rifkin, Ackerman and Folkenberg

PS Somewhat unrelated but amusing: My first date was with a boy named Brian when I was in grade six. We went to go see Look Who's Talking, Too with another "couple" and did not touch eachother for the entire movie. Whenever I wrote notes to him, as 11 year olds do, I always spelled his name as Brain by mistake. It really pissed him off.

Comings and goings

The winter in Canada has been strangely mild, thanks to our good friend global warming. For the first time, I decided to experiment and not buy a TTC metropass. Instead, I bought tonnes of tokens.

I'm trying to save money and walk more. I definitely walk more than I ever have but, let me tell you, it's much, much easier to convince myself to take a cab to work when I'm running late when a token costs $2.75. So saving money? Probably not. It's likely worked out evenly. But, thwarting the monopoly the TTC had on my winter travelling in past years made for happier cold months filled with discoveries I never would have had if I'd succumbed to the pressure of buying a monthly pass.

Another bonus? I have new material for yet another project. I found myself with layers and layers of paper transfers lining my coat and purse pockets. To paraphrase from a woman in a promotional ad for Hoarders, "I don't consider myself a hoarder, I consider myself a collector of things." It's a fine line, sister.

All these little pieces of paper serve as an interesting record of my city routes and I'm excited for bike season to start so I can complete my jar of winter TTC transfers and get started on turning them into something.

Medusa

One summer when I was 18, I saved every penny I got my hands on, then went to Europe for three weeks. While there, I did a bunch of things including going to the Anne Frank museum slightly stoned. What can I say? I was 18 and in Amsterdam for only a few days. I wanted to pack everything in; some things don't change.

I also saw Medusa by Caravaggio

I was in awe of the anguish on her face because she looked so much more raw than the cartoon version that lived in my mind.

I'd forgotten about my childhood obsession with the myth of Medusa until I got the best gift I've received in quite awhile in the mail on Monday. I love the idea of a woman being so powerful as to be able to turn people to stone from a mere glance. Fitting then, that I finally own a jellyfish necklace that I remember eyeing at City of Craft in 2008. The Meduse necklace by mynta, a jewelery designer from Montreal who I met at this year's show. She made me a version with brushed silver tentacles and a longer chain, which I absolutely adore. Who knows? Maybe wearing it will give me superhero powers.

The photo is from mynta's etsy shop as it turns out the jellyfish is really difficult to photograph!

UPDATE: Did you know that Meduse is the latin word for jellyfish? I learned something new today!