Funky Promolios

It is getting crazier and crazier everyday at the illustration studio. Everybody's studio space is piling up with boxes of promotional postcards, business cards, portfolios, prints of artwork, funky promotional items and all the galore. PATZO!

We have couple of upcoming events for us.

Next Wednesday, we have our Open House Portfolio Day. All the design students are going to get together at the Warehouse and display our portfolios to the visiting art directors and alumni. It's really more of a test run for Lubin House. Lubin House will take place May 10th & 11th in NYC. It's the same thing except it's going to be bigger and more people will show up to see our work.

Last night I finished making a calendar for my promotional item. In addition to that, my professor Roger suggested that I make business cards in the shape of the glasses I wear to class every week. I bought these cheap plastic red frames at San Lorenzo in Florence last year. I punched out the lenses and wore them to all my critiques. I started to wear them on Wednesdays here at SU, which happens to be the day I have Roger's class. To be honest, I don't know why I wore them. Roger fell in LOVE with them and told me to wear them all the time. Now he wants me get them die cut at the warehouse with my information on it. At first, I thought it was a bit absurd but now I think it's very different but more importantly, me! It may be a hassle to get it done but I'm sure it'll be worth it. Now I just have to think of a catch phrase to go with it.

I'm getting food coma. peace.


-g

Poster Project

Hey yall,

Here's a follow up on the haiku poster project I wrote about last semester. Some of my classmates and I won the contest and will get our posters displayed on the poster panels of downtown Syracuse. This is really a community project where we get local poets and artists to collaborate their talents together and bring visual awareness of the history and present time Syracuse. Last Thursday, we had an opening day where we invited local Syracuse townsmen to celebrate this years poster. I was really excited to meet my poet, Wendy Moleski. She was such a sweet woman and we got a chance to talk about her haiku, our interest in art, and her childhood growing up in Syracuse. One of the poet's name is U.V. Ray. How freakin cool is that?!
Anyway, I was a pleasant evening and a great time to take a break from working on our portfolios and appreciate art with other people.

Here is a link to my poster:
http://blog.syracuse.com/cny/2010/04/the_syracuse_poster_project_haiku_challenge_day_6.html

Mine is the one on the bottom called, The Last Dish.


I gotta get going.
Lator Gator!


-g

I Can't Go to Work Because...

For my research illustration class, we are going an alphabet series with a theme of our choice. Some of the themes mentioned in class were: animals, celebrities, myths and urban legends, alice in wonderland, etc. Initially I wanted to do benign childhood diseases... wait for it.... I know it sounds disturbing but I wanted to make it whimsical and silly so that kids won't be afraid to go to the doctor. But let's be real now, it is exactly the way it sounds-- sick and depressing. That and I couldn't find a disease for every letter.

So instead, I made up my own diseases that sound like the ones we know. Some of them have the actual names but different symptoms. Technically we only need to do 4-5 paintings but I decided to do the whole alphabet so that I can make a lulu book out of it.

Here is my list of made up diseases:


I can't go to work because I have...
Artsy-ritis: So artsy to the point your bones look like art
Bronc-hitis: I look like a broncosaur... my cankles won't let me walk.
Chicken Box: I saw a box shaped chicken and got too distracted.
Dye-arrhea- I dyed my hair too many times with weekend and my head looks like a waterfall.
Ear Infection- I eat an infected corn.
Fever... Night Fever: You know how to do it.
Gone- arrhea:
Hemophobic: Team Jacob
Influence-ya: I'm bound to influence too many people at work today
Jaw Pop & Lock: My jaw is doing some sick dance moves
King Kongiritis: I'm kind in the inside, but I will destroy you.
Lice-nse Mania: I got caught for selling too many fake ID's this weekend.
Men-in-tight-ous: I took me an hour getting into my pants. Now I can't get out.
Narcasiritismanirrhea. Same thing as Narcissism
O
Pnemon-ica: I was playing the harmonica and now I don't know how to use pnemonics.
Q-Fever
R
S
T
U
V
Whopping Dance Moves: Whoppa!
Xenaphobia: On saturday, I watched a xena marathon and now I want to punch her in the face.
Yellow Bieber: I have bieber fever and now I'm turning yellow.
Zoolandiritis: See N.

I forgot O and R-V. I have them in my sketchbook at my studio.



Enjoy.

-g

Not Much of a Blog

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine.

I got a love, and I know that it's all mine.

Oh....................ooo WUH oh.



What a terrible song...
but I'm feeling the weather here at Syracuse.


I'm letting my urge, to prance around the quad, out in about 2 minutes.

see ya there :)


-g

The American Way

My amount of work is exponentially increasing at the rate of people wearing shorts on campus (yes, we hit the 50's this week). I'm not going to lie, I've been nodding my head a lot during lectures due to lack of sleep but I'm enjoying the stress. It's good stress! I'm stressed physically but not mentally. I can confidently say this because our guest speaker for symposium, Sam Viviano, who by the way is the Art Director for MAD Magazine, told us about how he has friends who are 88 years old and still illustrating their butts off. Reminded me once again that I am not working to live, but living to work.

I get really excited whenever I find similar themes or common threads in my different classes. Currently, I am working on an illustration piece for A-Line (Asian-American magazine on campus) about how Bollywood is becoming image conscious. Indian women in Mumbai are losing significant weight to look more westernized. They have shows such as "India's Next Top Model," which try to model after America's image of women and their culture. To me, it makes no sense because India is big on modesty and highly values tradition. The idea of diversity is not to force everyone to be the same but to appreciate the differences between people and cultures. The beauty of Indian figures is that they tend to be more voluptuous and have all the right curves. It saddens me that women harm themselves in order to look like someone or something else. When I think about Bollywood, I picture big and graceful contours, accessorized with gems and sheers of vivid colors. To contradict this idea, I'll probably illustrate a group of Bollywood dancers with sharp, jagged bodies that can barely hold up their saris.

It's interesting because in my psychology class, we had to read an article called, "The Americanization of Mental Illness." The first two pages talks about a Chinese doctor who thought that anorexia was just an American illness but he realized how many Chinese women were starting to drastically lose weight and become more obsessed with images from the media. Two questions came in mind: Is China adapting to western illnesses? and, Were Chinese women getting diagnosed according to the AMERICAN standards?

This article and the article from A-Line interested me a lot. Not that both articles are totally related, but it really made me think about how much America influences other nations and cultures-- not just through images but through the way they perceive.
shrugs.


-g

#1

I am honored to have been a part of Syracuse University for the past four years. Why? One word:

Basketball.

Believe it or not, in high school, I used to be a cheerleader. Yeah, if you know me, my sarcasm and my awkwardness, it's really hard to believe that I was involved in such sport. To be honest, I was in love with all of the basketball players in high school. Jericho basketball team was #1 in the county when I was a cheerleaders so it's pretty exciting to experience that again in college. Of course,hands down high school basketball is nothing compared to college basketball. On contrary, my high school football team was ranked 2nd to last in county. Sound familiar?

February 27, 2010 was an epic day.

Our Syracuse basketball team played a crucial game against Villanova. Tickets were sold out INSTANTLY! There were 34,616 fans at the Carrier Dome and of course thousands of more TV's turned to ESPN. In the midst of post-snow storm, people were more than eager to go to the game. I saw people who made igloos in order to have a place to wait for the game. Villanova has always been a tough team to play. It was a perfect game to watch because they were both very good teams and our boys put so much into defense. We ended up killing Nova and it was GREAT! I heard the crowd from South campus! With Purdue losing on Sunday, we are now ranked #1. CHYEA BABY!

I went to my last Syracuse Basketball game yesterday. It was very bitter sweet. We said our farewells to our senior starters, Arinze Onuaku and Andy Rautins. I am so proud of them. They played a GREAT season!

My professor, John Thompson gave us Seniors a lecture about going to a game before graduating. He was saying how that's the beauty of going to a University rather than an art college. There are so many extracurricular activities and events going on. There is nothing bad about other art schools but I concur with John in that if you come to university, it's probably because it was set apart from other schools. You might as well be a part of the opportunities here.

Gina's Advice:

If you are an incoming freshman, BUY BASKETBALL SEASON TICKETS. (Football is optional... it's not my preference though the package deal is pretty good). Freshman year is the year to explore. Workload my be harder than high school but freshman year is the most flexible year. It is up to you to get season tickets after freshman year but at least you experience it ahead of time. As a senior, I couldn't make it to many of the basketball games because I became too busy and had bigger priorities. Don't be the senior that says, "wow I wish I went to more throughout my years here." I wish I went to more games but I don't have too many regrets because I've been to numerous games in the past. IT IS WORTH IT.



I AM PROUD TO BE AN ORANGEWOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


-g

It 's Chili

Today is February 5th, 2010 and I am having my second snow day here at SU. The first snow day was during the 2nd semester of my freshman year. Classes were canceled after 12:30 pm and I remember finding this out AFTER I got out of my two morning classes. Today, classes are canceled after 2 pm. Guess what? I had one class today and it was from 9:30-10:50am.

That's right.
You are reading the blog of a diligent student.
I should write that on my resume: WILLING TO GO TO WORK DURING A SNOW DAY.

Luckily, work study students get out early today so that's a plus.
On my way to delivering something today, I stopped by a chili contest located in the pathway of the HBC building.

Charlotte, one of the workers at the recruitment office entered her chili recipe today and it was DELISH! It had the perfect amount of meat and wasn't too spicy. It was perfect to eat chili outside in a day like this. I got to enjoy the panoramic view of Narnia in our quad while eating a warm bowl of chili.

GOOD LUCK CHAR! I HOPE YOU WIN (***WAVEEE!!***)

Let's S L O W D O W N

The Winter Olympics have been really fun to watch. My personal favorite is the Men's Figure Skating. I was rooting for Plushenko (AMAZING quadruple axle) but I think Evan Lysacek really deserved gold. When he was chanting to himself, "yes!" after finishing his routine, I wanted to cry. Well deserved. Though women skaters can be more sensual and fluid with their bodies, I found that the men skaters are better performers. I don't know why that is. Something about their weight on ice or something.

I feel that all my assignments and exams have been nothing but a countdown to graduation. I really want to learn how to be prompt yet feel challenged and enjoy the things that I am doing. In my advanced illustration class, we now have the liberty to do a 5-7 series of paintings of our CHOICE! For the first time I was thinking about what I actually like to illustrate. Until the end of last semester, I always felt that I am a fine artist and that I should stick to painting. Painting is still my first love but recently, I've really grown fond of collage, graphic art and design. Regardless of my medium, I never had a subject that I was in love with. I enjoy problem solving and just doing whatever is given to me.

I decided that I want to do a series of the top psychological disorders. It is a dark topic but I think there are a lot of emotions that can be captured. Something like obsessive-compulsive disorder can be very whimsical. Of course, I have do this very accurately according to the symptoms, without being offensive in anyway. I'm pretty excited. This is well linked with my psychology minor.


-g

McQueen, Art and the Fear of Losing Creativity

As many of you may know, last week, designer Alexander McQueen passed away. I didn't know how to react other than repeating, "oh my god" every other minute. My roommate is a fashion guru and McQueen happened to be her favorite designer. She wore black and mourned for the rest of the day. Of course other things ran through my mind such as, "who is going to take over his company," "how much will his clothes cost now," and, "will his last collection in Paris be displayed to the public?" I think what concerned me the most was that, McQueen's avant-garde designs that were already changing the world will soon come to an end and perish.

Yesterday, I talked to one of my close friends back at home (we'll call her Chloe), who also happens to be a fashion fanatic, and asked her how she felt about the death of this international prodigy. What she said changed my whole view on this artist's death.

Surprisingly, Chloe wasn't upset at all. She claimed that she was, "just okay." Then she explained that McQueen had a lot of "shadowers" that worked diligently next to him and learned a lot about his techniques, craftsmanship, and flamboyant designs. I was comforting for me to hear because it assured me that McQueen's designs and creativity will not go to waste but be farther expanded in the future.

How does this effect me as an artist and illustrator? When my roommate first told me that she was bawling in her room, I initially thought it was a little extraneous. The only way I could relate to her was to think about my favorite artist or illustrator dying. The death of McQueen made me realize the beauty of artists passing along their creativity and influencing the future creators. Not that we should all mimic or imitate current artists just in case they die but it really is important to make sure that "good art" spreads like wildfire.

I've become really appreciative of internships and jobs that work under different artists. I know a lot of my friends and I complain about internships and jobs because many of them are non-paid and they end up becoming an humbling task. Now that I think about it, it's really a blessing in disguise. Especially when you are working for or under an artist, you could only learn and stimulate your creative mind.

I'm looking forward to see fashion going to the next level. Not that clothes should necessarily look like McQueen's but like McQueen's, they should change, shock and disturb. He definitely brought wearable art into the fashion industry.

R.I.P Lee Alexander McQueen.


-g

Juggling

I've never felt so busy in my life. On top of studios, assembling a portfolio, and exams, I have interviews to prepare for. If I had all the money in the world, I would buy time.

Good news: I finally have a website domain! Yeah, I know, many visual art majors already have a website but this is a big deal for me! I only bought a domain name in class. I don't know how to function a website but I will soon. When I finally make everything, you can check out my stuff at www.ginakimart.com. Unfortunately, "ginakim.com" was already taken. It's sad because the gina kim from ginakim.com sounds sooooooooo cool. Apparently she's a famous film maker and won many awards for her accomplishments. I want to be Gina Kim.

Speaking of films, my friend Shane shared a cool film in class today. It is called, Civilization by Marco Brambilla. It shows different spiritual realms, starting with hell and ending with hell. Brambilla's interpretation of hell is pretty cool. If you watch the film carefully, it is a collaboration of many different clips and scenes collaged together. Check out Civilization on his website, http://marcobrambilla.com/home.html.
-g

You Know You're A Senior When...

1. Your next assignment is to make a postcard for the illustration portfolio postcard book.

2. You're not getting enough sleep AND no longer have time to do experimental artwork.

3. Your professor is not getting enough sleep because of his or her senior class.

4. Going on back to back interviews.

5. Your classmate asks a question about what name to use for a publication after you get married. (That just means you're getting old)

6. When parents start talking about marriage.

7. When your upcoming birthday plans do not seem interesting because your 21st birthday was last year.

8. When you're filling out applications for Lubin House.

9. When you hear your senior friends saying, "enjoy this moment while it lasts" while treading through snow.

10. When you find yourself wishing and dreading Mayfest at the same time. Wishing because of the great weather and fun times... dreading because the end is near.


MUST ENJOY EVERY SECOND OF MY TIME. JUST WASTED 10 MINS WRITING THIS LIST. I just wasted 10 mins of my senior year.


-g

O M G...

This my last semester. I am too busy to think about graduation but the fact that I am busy freaks me out because I know time is going to flyyyyyyy! Gah! Okay- happy thoughts.

Tuesday was the deadline for adding classes and now my schedule is final.
These are some my inputs after the second week of classes:

Illustration Concepts - Fun, working on collages and book covers

Research of Illustration - Background/ environment concepts.

Principles of Illustration - Working on a lot of editorial stuff.

Advanced Illustration - This is Roger DeMuth's class... we're working on 4 things at the same time, one of them being sanity. Don't get me wrong, I love his class.

Abnormal Psychology - We're learning about depression and anxiety. I know it's a depressing topic but it interests me a lot. I think it's because I had an anxiety attack last spring and in class, we are learning about the biological, cognitive and behavioral aspect of it. I know how to cope with it if it ever happens again. Also, I tend to be very skeptical when it comes down to medication but now I know what my doctor was giving me last spring. It makes a lot of sense after you learn about these things.

Cardio. Kickboxing - First day of class is tomorrow. I am super excited, especially since it's at the new Ernie Davis building.
____________________________________________________________________


The iPad.

First of all, my professor Roger made a prototype of the "iPAD" out of cardboard last semester. He brought it to every class and used it as if it were real. It was so goofy to the point I thought he made it up. The iPAD came out yesterday so can you imagine how many emails he sent us about the iPAD this past week?

But the iPAD is pretty cool. My roommate used to be a magazine major and yesterday we were talking about how it is going to change the whole media industry. Apparently, NY Times is going to start charging people to read their online articles starting this coming spring. This "iPAD" is going to be the next paperless read that everybody will be carrying around (this is if everybody can afford one of these $500 babies). It's helping the environment and compacting everything in one. By the way, the iPAD also works as an iPod which I think is hilarious. I wonder if people who own the iPhone use the iPAD as a phone by accident. Overall, this new gadget seems pretty convenient. I know that I'll be making fun of it for a while but frankly, I give it a thumbs up.

R.I.P Kindle

http://design-crit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Kindle-orig.jpg