Photo Via: Crosby Doe Associates
My producer pal Xan and I had a late night viewing of A Single Man on Friday. I had really been anticipating this picture, because of my interest in design– I like stylized artistic pieces and place a lot of weight on sets and wardrobe. It is entirely possible I went the wrong route in filmmaking, as upon returning to school I almost went to study industrial design and did time working in and around architecture. I might secretly be a scenic, and I have a very small award for costuming under my belt.
The piece is set in what would qualify as my dream home and of course aids in lots of symbolism regarding the house– come and go as you please, glass houses– a home that is “queer” and set apart form the neighborhood– and yet is situated in its natural surroundings almost seamlessly– another theme from the film that “we are invisible.”
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Another theme of the film is that notion of gut-punch big love that leaves you as a zombie, a half-human when its all over. I admittedly sat in fascination as a young couple in front of me did the first-date dance of hand holding to lingering kisses by the time the house lights had come up. I wonder what they’ll remember of the story. I wondered if they were on a journey. Then, I felt really old.
Via http://awesomeimages.typepad.com/awesome_images_blog_artwo/2009/02/best-and-worst-valentine-cards-of-2009.html
Happy love times, folks. In honor, I thought I’d compile my favorite love stories from the indies:
Trust: Maria is a homeless, pregnant teenager; Matthew is a brilliant television repair man who hates television. Together they learn to be compassionate and tune out their circumstances. They learn that love is respect and admiration.
Once: Guy and girl find each other by way of vacuum cleaner repair and one of the loveliest scores in modern cinema is created.
Harold and Maude: Harold, out of love with life and hardly an adult falls for Maude who is filled with life and at the end of hers.
Classic Scarry Illustration
In my botanical illustration lab, we have been asked to select works from the rare and endangered species exhibition at Chicago Botanic Gardens that captivate us for whatever reason. I chose a plate from Smithsonian illustrator Alice Tangerini. Her plate interested me because I enjoy technical drawings that typically involve cross sections and dissections of the plants involved. I also enjoy using pen as my tool of choice, but given I’m not an artist by training found myself questioning our instructor over ink and led weights. I didn’t know that the “H” on a pencil meant “hard” yet, “B” means “soft”.
Most the students in the class are art teachers, botanical illustrators by profession and one student is even responsible for the “1-2-3 Draw” series of books you may see in the children’s section at Border’s. It’s a neat class with neat pupils, and I am very likely the youngest student by twenty years. It gives me a bit of a chip on my shoulder at times.
I don’t have any illustration experience other than sequential art– comic panels that I have always done for fun, or storyboards for my films that are never made. I do however have an affinity for drawing upright animals in suits, driving cars– which is no doubt influenced heavily by my all time favorite illustrator Richard Scarry. Particularly, a recurring character in my own stories and panels is a cat in a suit who is a newspaperman. I’ve perfected him.
I have to stifle a chuckle in class because when my work is being critiqued our instructor will say things like “I can tell you have a great deal of illustration experience” and while that is nice and definitely helps me to keep moving forward — I realize that my only training are animals in business formal attire.
On the first day of class I was asked for my portfolio (which does not exist)– luckily, the prior weekend I had drafted two flowers from house plants and a wilting bouquet on my coffee table which was able to be critiqued. It was good enough, but I fear someday I will be asked for more and it will be a phone book that rivals Busytown. (As Tina Fey/Liz Lemon would say “I want to go to there.”)
Here’s to trying. I guess, I specialize in plants and “animals”…
Supplementary:
Here’s a great NPR piece an photo essay on Tangerini
The Richard Scarry papers at University of Conneticut (Special Collections)
