Fashion Week: Animal Makeover (Wolf)

Well, Fashion Week: Animal Makeover edition has come to another exciting end. We leave the animals of the Pacific Northwest behind and wish them luck as they try to look fashionably good for reasons other than their pelts. The last to walk the runway is the Wolf - known as much for be a loner as he is for hunting cougars in packs (and I don't mean the animal). Now this lady hunter can give his cunning instincts a rest and just sit back, play it cool, and let the prey come to him. This ain't your Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf here - this is the Duran Duran version: Hungry Like the Wolf.

Fashion Week: Animal Makeover (Bison)

The bigger they are, the harder they fall... in love with these Gortex Parkas! Out all day grazing and roaming in large herds where everyone looks the same and does the same ol' thing. Well, those days are over. A bit of a shave and some hair product, as well as a few layers of additional warmth, will keep you out grazing until the cows come home.

Fashion Week: Animal Makeover (Bald Eagle)

Our national bird and the symbol of the United States! This bird of prey became quite a rare sight to see the past few decades - not because of being on the brink of extinction, but because they were embarrassed about their receding hairline. Well we fixed that! Sharp, casual business attire for the normal workday, along with an urban cap that screams I'm young and having fun. The only thing heading for extinction now are those lonely nights in the nest.

Fashion Week: Animal Makeover (Mtn. Goat)

We turned this billy goat gruff into a billy goat buff in no time at all. After trimming and combing his fine wool beard, we added an Italian parka (made with Peruvian alpaca wool) for added warmth and style. Also, no more clapping the mountainside in those loud hooves - a leather pair of sporty Clark's should do the trick.

Fashion Week: Animal Makeover (Kodiak)

Fashion Week is back and we're sprucing up the animals of the Pacific Northwest. A few months ago the Serengeti had their makeover, and now the rugged, wild west of the Americas will get the same treatment. Our goal is to turn the mossy forests and craggy cliffs into sexy catwalks. Here we have the Kodiak - the largest bear in the world (along with the Polar Bear) with a mean streak to match. This snappy suit and racing gloves signify his bad-boy attitude and displays an animal just "cruising" for trouble. Watch out ladies...

Thoughts Over Coffee

There are no correct answers, only complementary oppositions. People always argue one side of the coin, but forget that the coin wouldn't exist without the other side. To clarify, they are both part of a greater whole. One cannot define black without white, male without female, happiness without sadness. Understanding one means that there needs to be an opposite to define it by. Therefore they are interdependent and need each other to exist.

Things get trickier with the mention of God and the advancements of technology. Heaven and Hell, life and death, and reality itself. This is where logic can be used to deduce a thoughtful response - just falsify it. Taken from Wikipedia (since it sounds more eloquent than myself), falsifiability is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment. That something is "falsifiable" does not mean it is false; rather, that if it is false, then this can be shown by observation or experiment. A religious person may believe God exists and a quantum physicist may claim that there are infinite realities existing at the same time. Both cannot be falsified, therefore both cannot be proven false (or true for that matter).

From an evolutionary standpoint, humans evolved from apes, most closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos. Chimps are known to be violent and aggressive, while bonobos alleviate tension in groups by showing love or by having sex. Humans have seemingly adapted both traits and are capable of both altruistic behavior and violent wars. People have always theorized and thought ideologically about how to improve humanity. Wishing for world peace or eternal happiness are both wonderful ideas, but due to many variables these are unlikely to happen. In the end, morality itself is a man-made invention.

We can only define happiness because we know what sadness is. To get rid of sadness would be to get rid of happiness as well. If this is true, then one should embrace sadness in order to experience happiness. You can relate this to any emotion or experience you've ever had. So the best option in life is to do what you believe in and let others do the same, because you aren't right or wrong, just different. In the words of Nietzsche: You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Thoughts Over Coffee

Love is one of the hardest words to say and one of the easiest to hear, and explaining it lies somewhere in between. One can "love" a book, a pet, or another person. Seemingly all of those types of love are very different, however I would like to propose that they are indeed extremely similar - and that love itself is a universal feeling no matter the subject.

Reading a book one loves creates a connection with the story that relates to your own life. Understanding the author or hero brings us joy and comfort, knowing someone else out there feels the same way we do. When one loves a pet, they love the connection that animal displays to its owner, even if it's just anthropomorphic. Fetching the morning paper, licking your face, or laying by your side are all signs of devotion. The animal most likely associates you as someone that provides food and security, thus a symbiotic relationship forms between the two. Most of us realize this but don't mind - as long as it feels good.

When one loves another human being, it becomes much more complicated. You can love a wife, a mother, or a friend with seemingly different levels of emotion. But is it actually different? Our developed brains use reason to ask questions and look for answers. We have the ability to look for meaning in the Universe, but ultimately we fail, which leaves us frustrated, confused, and alone. However, we are social creatures and therefore we find solace and comfort in two forms - through the love of others and through the creative arts. We look to others (a wife, a mother, a friend, or an author/artist) to trust in and rely on, creating a connection or feeling of completeness.

We search for love in its many forms so as not to be alone in the meaningless, absurdity of it all. Take the Universe for instance - its the Mother of all mothers and the most beautiful, grandest creation ever. I can barely fathom what I know about it, and realize there are so many things I'm not even aware that exist within it! Therefore I love the very thing that makes me feel alone in the first place. A Catch-22 of sorts, which by the way, is a book I love.

Thoughts Over Coffee

Wisdom does not come with age automatically, but more accurately comes about with an accumulation of experiences. Age is an inevitability whereas experiences are infinitely acquired or missed. Obviously as people grow up they experience many things - riding a bike, tasting chocolate ice cream, visiting a foreign country, falling in love - the list goes on and on. Until someone reflects on these experiences and what value it holds to the self, they have only gained knowledge, not wisdom. Knowledge is then just the information gathered throughout one's lifetime through had experiences.

The world is full of knowledgeable people - auto mechanics, doctors, and academic professors are just a few specialized groups with an acquired set of information and skills that we trust and rely on to help society function properly. Being a knowledgeable mechanic, doctor, or professor does not necessarily make one wise. Wisdom goes further to explore deeper questions and what they mean to the individual, as well as the greater sphere of human life (or even the Universe). The more interested in a topic one gets, the more they research and seek out information (ie, the more knowledgeable
one becomes). When that person finally realizes that the deeper he searches for answers, the more questions he finds in its place, something new has blossomed.

Wisdom begins here, when the individual embraces the notion that he actually knows very little. Therefore wisdom does not rely on age, but tends to come later in life when the individual has had enough experiences and time to reflect on the mysteries of space, time, and the human spirit. This explains the classic description of how we envision wise people - they are old yet childlike, talk profound yet simply, and even sometimes reply with another question answering nothing at all. Wise people embrace the absurdity of the Universe and its inability to provide answers (in regards to humans making any sense of it at least).

We are floating through space on a giant rock without a road map.
So just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Thoughts Over Coffee

Happiness in life is something we all strive for. If stripped down, there are two basic routes to achieve this. The first is to conform and the second is to do what you want in life. If you conform, you then have a typical career and many friends (since conforming means that you'll share the interests of many people). Someone who conforms would rather overlook their own interests and passions in order to create an idea of what others think their happiness should be about.

The other route in life is to do your own thing, which tends to be a self-satisfying happiness that's deeper and more meaningful. People that work for themselves are far happier, and it is said that the average person would have to earn two and half times as much to be as happy working for someone else as he would be working for himself. More than twice as happy!

Most people do not go to college to learn an array of subjects. Most people take the bare minimum number of credits to graduate and only work hard enough to pass. Most people go to college to get a degree so they can get a job, so they can earn money, so they can buy things. They dedicate a major part of their life (their career) to something they don't actually enjoy or care about.

As social creatures, we need societies to survive, and therefore we rely on others. As nature would have it, we have learned to conform and sacrifice. Instead of pursuing our own loves/hobbies/interests, we tend to abandon them to secure a path in life that will give us a sense of security and happiness. Thus, the ultimate sacrifice is of ourselves. If we throw away our own personal goals and ideas for the greater good of society, then are we ever truly free?

Coffee Cup

Here's a weird sketch for you guys...

Tree Rings

Okay, so I was out last night making big plans that will affect the rest of my life and therefore not able to bust out a new line of grid-based, weird-looking animals. I apologize. I actually really enjoyed working on them and will most likely continue to play around with them. So in the meantime you get a sneak peak - I'm working on doing some tree ring illustrations. This is just a mock-up, but I'm slowly figuring out the poetic nuances of dendrology.

Bears

Okay, so I learned that I can't draw panda bears very well... Well, let me rephrase that: I learned I can draw Evil Panda Bears from the Future extremely well. :P

Safari Animals

Farm Animals

Grid-based, these animals could one day become emoticons or funky designs for a tapestry of some sort.

Nuclear Fishin'

Night Pint

Eye Candy

Morning Crack

Oh My Darjeeling

Welcome back and happy 2010. Hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays. I've been away from all things design and computers for a while, so this week I'll be playing with simple, colorful images to get me back into the swing of things again.