It’s been a long and lovely several days since my last post. On Thursday at our class i finished my first-ever oil painting, which i’m pretty proud of.
Again – i know it’s not perfect. The cloth in the background makes no sense because the still-life shifted from week to week and by the end i was just guessing at how the light had fallen on it when i did the under-drawing. I’m not very good at imagining that sort of thing, which is why i don’t draw from imagination.
On Friday Nathan and i drove to Chicago to celebrate Valentine’s Day away from home. We stayed at a lovely little B&B in Oak Park called Harvey House and took the L into the city. I did a bit of shopping but didn’t procure much. We had pizza at Gino’s East and Nathan decided that he prefers Felix & Oscar’s pizza here in Des Moines. I’m pretty sure i caught something by not using my hand sanitizer until after my first bite of the baked ravioli appetizer. Zicam is helping me fight it, though. I’m drinking a lot of tea, too, and will probably become addicted to it as a result.
Saturday we went back into the city to see Millennium Park and the Art Institute. It was awesome to see Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, one of Van Gogh’s “Bedroom” paintings, and some really beautiful Monets. But the painting that struck me the most was this one:
Nouvart Dzeron, A Daughter of Armenia by Ralph Elmer Clarkson, 1912
IT LOOKS JUST LIKE ME. WTH? Even my Mama agrees. But she says i’m prettier. 
We had a lovely dinner at a little place called Francesca’s Fiore in Forest Park and Nathan made me drink most of the wine since he had to drive back to the B&B. I ended up talking his ear off about Rome, my family and various photographic film formats. Best Valentine’s Day EVER.
On Sunday we visited IKEA and picked up some awesome stuff for the new loft before driving back to DSM. We’ll be moving in nine days!! I began packing yesterday. I know i’ve got a long way to go, but it’ll all be worth it in the end.
I cannot sit here and not sound off about PETA right now. Which is probably what they want, but whatever.
I was a vegetarian for two years. I started eating meat again because i felt like i was missing out on a lot that the world had to offer. But i still believe in the ethical treatment of animals. I hope i’m never associated with PETA though, because they’re complete idiots for what they’re doing right now.
I dismissed it when they went and freed a bunch of animals that wouldn’t be able to survive on their own. I chuckled a little at the “sea kittens” idea and moved along. But now they’re using sex to get attention, and it just doesn’t make any sense.
I’ve made my peace with porn. I’m okay with porn for porn’s sake. I like the Victoria’s Secret fashion show as much as the next person. Women are smart enough to make their own choices about what they want to do with their bodies. But seeing a naked woman holding a sign that says “i’d rather be naked than wear fur” galls me, because ANIMAL RIGHTS have NOTHING to do with sex. In fact, the correlation of the two is almost as gross to me as snuff films, which correlate sex and murder. I don’t want someone looking at my body and thinking of dead animals. Nor do i want someone looking at a steak and thinking of my body. Neither situation would do a fucking thing for PETA. In fact, the latter might work against them. And the former might drive me to burn them down.
It’s no secret that sex is used to sell pretty much everything – alcohol, chocolate, TIRES – but never so blatantly. Looking at photos like this, i’d think i was looking at an actual advertisement for Penthouse. Not for fucking ETHICS. Isn’t PETA in need of the attention of some pretty conservative people, anyway? Aren’t more conservative people likely to be disgusted by such liberal tactics? The only people likely to approve of these ads are extremely liberal – and probably already vegetarians. You know, maybe those people who carry around giant pictures of aborted babies should try this tactic. And maybe PETA should start carrying around big photos of slaughtered calves.
Come to think of it, maybe if i posted a photo of myself in pasties a lot of people would read my blog…
I’ve done a few posts now about bad design and bad English, so i think it’s high time i blogged about something i actually admire.
We picked up this bottle of Root: 1 wine at HyVee a couple of weeks ago, and i’ve just been staring at it ever since. It had a high rating, but more importantly, the design is beautiful.
The type looks like it was actually written to fit in this design. I can’t get over how beautifully spaced it is, how it looks even and perfect despite being force-justified, and the way it works despite that root running down the middle of it. The colors are simple and beautiful, and the illustration is also very simple yet very elegant.
The only small thing i would have changed in the design is the kerning between the two Os in “Root”, but seriously. If i had a more developed palate i’d tell you all about how the wine tastes, as well – but suffice it to say that it’s no disappointment!
I need another paragraph here… Hm… Oh! I won a free canvas print from my friend Niki Brown’s Design O’ Blog, so thank you Niki for that! I’m thinking of printing the photo i took of my charcoal self-portrait which no longer exists in hard from. I hope it will work well!