James Taylor's cat

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I do not currently have the energy to resize this to the width of the blog space... so...whatever. I'm hungover, it's James Taylor's cat.

Sketch-A-Day

I lack discipline.  I took the required intro to drawing class last fall, and while I've always been a bit of an illustrator, my discipline in the subject absolutely stinks.  The one art I've actually devoted years of time to is singing, but I can practice that all the time! (In fact, I'm pretty sure I do.)
Taking a class was great practice, but I forget to sit down and look at things and try to interpret them through the marks on a page every single day.  My favorite thing about the whole artistic process are those tiny "aha" moments.  You know when you hit that high note that you never thought you could or the pastel goes down on the page exactly as you intended.  It is in those tiny fleeting moments that you realize you've learned something about making art.

In an effort to continue my illustration outside of the discipline of a syllabus, I shall try to post a sketch every couple of days or so.  Perhaps nothing too horribly exciting, but I'll get there.

And now, toadstool.  He ain't great, but it's a start...

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I'm a terrible blogger...

I suppose if I really wanna do this blog thing justice, I should post more frequently, but that may or may not happen.  Today I am eating pastries for breakfast and wrapping up the editing on this photoshoot.  This is a work in progress:

Thought I'd go ahead and put that somewhere.  Yes, it is VERY edited in photoshop/illustrator.  I know that as a photographer, my life will be made easier with more editing done in-camera, but I'm just not there yet.  THAT being said, photo is definitely an essential tool for me as a stop motion animator and documenting installations and such, but it is not my primary focus as an artist.  With this project I actually put more work into the staging and lighting and my post work was much cleaner and faster, but I want you to know that you are looking at something that has more design in mind than photography.  

Perhaps I'll get to converting my bathroom into a darkroom again one of these days, but until then "ce n'est pas une pipe"...

Creative Allies.

www.creativeallies.com  is an amazing website that hosts design contests which bring together up and coming designers with bands.  (Posters, album covers, logos etc.)  

This is for the 2012 Digitour, a festival/tour which puts our favorite viral YouTube videos on a stage.  This is my entry.  You should go vote for me so I can win some monies.

Just silly.

I made this video in my first year of film.  We were presented with the "Knock Off" project in our intro to Time-Based media course or "Final Cut 101".   Art School loves this concept: choose an artwork which exists in the world and create work inspired by that piece.  Sometimes you get work that is "inspired", but a lot of the time, you get work that is...well...ripped off.

I decided to try my hand at stop motion and would animate the "Puttin' On The Ritz" scene from Young Frankenstein.  I love claymation and I figured this approach would distance the work enough from the original although the soundtrack is direct from the film.  

It's just a silly thing and I had lots of fun making it on my mom's coffee table.

Accessorize your feet!

So, I landed a photo gig in my elevator last week.  I happened to have my Nikon as I was on my way to the Art Institute.  I've never been paid for work before, and I gotta say that this feels REALLY cool. :)
The Client is a designer of shoe clips/accessories and I'll post a link to her site as soon as it's up and running.  I've only got the first couple shots done, but this is as "all out" as I've ever been with a photo project before. (Proper backdrop, lighting and all that jazz.)  After a day of hungover shooting I think I've figured out how to light this thing properly.

Here are the first two shots.  What she's selling are the chains wrapped around the boots.  The clips will be for pumps/flats and I'm shooting those later tonight and tomorrow.

Hello!

My name is Meg and I design things sometimes.  I take pictures of things and animate vectors for instillation art pieces.  I'm still in undergrad, but I'm 28 and a half so I believe I've got the tiniest bit more idea about who I am as an artist.

I've done some work with a non profit theatre in Indianapolis and am now finishing my degree in Chicago because really, I just want to be in grad school.  I don't really know why I'm writing this blog entry like a cover letter for a job, but there you go.  I want to work in non profit and teach art to kids whose schools have cut funding for art, music and theatre programs.  In an ideal world, this would function in a non profit gallery with a performance space to showcase up and coming artists and musicians.  On the upper floors of this wonderful, imaginary space, would be artist studios and spaces to teach.

I am grateful every day that I went to a large high school where bullying and violence was not tolerated and we had access to various forms of art and performance.  I don't know that all of us in the Thespian troupe, speech team, choirs, and bands...would have survived high school without each other.   Sure we all deal with the same growing pains, but I don't see why the football team should be so glorified in their outlet to do well and kids who are great performers, artists or singers should be denied such opportunities.  I want a company which focuses on positive reinforcement whether they are good at sports, math, dancing or underwater basket weaving.  There is a place for all of us so long as we are all good to one another.

And now, the smart ass banana:

Wonderful, I hope you enjoyed my test post.  I'm going to do my damndest to keep up with this thing.  I'm building a portfolio website as I figure out how to code it properly.  This place is here to show off as I continue to explore my life long quest of defining myself as an artist.  Thanks for tagging along!

-Meg H