Lovely Shade of Thanksgiving

Every year, I spend my Thanksgiving with my bf's family. His parents are avid gardening enthusiasts and have well over 42 rose bushes in their garden. This year, they decided to adorn the dinner table with some of their beauties. These coral ones were just absolutely beautiful.

Ridiculous Cat Lady

A few days ago, Fieldguided released their dreamcats calendar for 2012. It's nothing short of graphically beautiful and I totally want one. To have one in my possession will cement my crazy love for cats.

You can purchase them here or here.

Opposites Attract

In a few weeks, some of my friends are graduating from our BFA Graphic Design program at Cal State Long Beach. They'll be moving on to bigger & better things, but first they'll have to survive the super hectic next few weeks. To celebrate, they're throwing a really big & awesome show. Here's the promo video to their upcoming show for your viewing pleasure:

Be sure to check out their bios and a sneak peek at some of their work over at oa-show.com. And don't miss the show, up December 9–11 at MADhaus Gallery!

Signage Sunday!

Wednesday Want: Pendleton Point Blanket Cape

I'm totally obsessed with this Pendleton Point Blanket Cape available at UrbanOutfitters.com. Pendleton is most known by their vibrant colors and high quality wool. I just love the boldness of the stripes and the overall minimal look.

Getting Ready for a Long Winter

I have been talking about this for sometime now. That this winter will be my final year of producing knitwear. And that decision still stands. I am both relieved and sadden by this decision, but I feel that it is quite necessary. The time and energy I've been putting into it over the years just isn't worth it anymore. I'm tired of having too much yarn and bins full of finished product occupying every single inch of my very tiny room.  So I've started knitting up all my yarn in preparation for UniqueLA. Even if I don't get in, at least everything will already be made and I can just post it all to Etsy.

So what does that mean for the future? As some of you may know, I've been exploring the realm of laser cut jewelry. And although it has been received quite well so far, I don't see it as being a very permanent thing. It just doesn't really feel like me. I feel like this is just what people expect from me based on their perception of me/becausemaybe/whatever. I've been thinking about going back to my roots in writing and curating. Mostly writing about music and pop culture, with a touch of nostalgia. And that would carry over into the curation and sale of vintage items.

I spent a lot of my summer in self-reflection. I looked back at the early years of becausemaybe and even went as far back as the high school years. I thought about what inspires me and what drives me. I reminisced about old hobbies and old interests. I've been searching deep within myself to find what it is I really love. And what really makes me happy. And I don't know the answer to that anymore. I feel like I've strayed very far from where I started and not so much in a good way. I feel like I got distracted somewhere along the way and lost sight of things. 

Several of my friends have asked me this week about my experience interning at American Apparel so far and if I would ever consider working there. I told them, "If they want to pay me to be there, I would have no objection to that." Sometimes I wonder if this economy has made me desperate, because I know deep down inside the real answer to that question is "No." Sure, the environment is laidback and some of the employees are cool to talk to and hang out with. But the actual job itself, isn't really my thing. They don't really have anything to offer me in terms of what I want out of a job. 

So what do I really want to do? I still want to move to Minneapolis and live out there for a few years. Just be away from things for a while. Spend some alone time. Or maybe that's the problem. Maybe I already spend too much alone time. But at this age, everyone's always too busy: trying to startup their career, getting married, having kids, or just plain trying to graduate. Everyone's always too busy for everyone else. Right when you think you've found people you really connect with, it's already time to say goodbye. 

Life always manages to catch you by surprise. But I don't wait around for life anymore. Because every time I've been patient, life served me some disappointment.

Weekend Recap

So over the weekend, I originally had every intention of taking a trip to the LA Printer's Fair at The International Printing Museum. But I woke up late (just a little before 1PM). And being that I had to be back in Eagle Rock at Leanna Lin's Wonderland by 5PM, I decided that wasn't happening. 

Luckily, Gallery Nucleus was hosting the SC3 Party in collaboration with the Southern California Classic Collectors. There were over 30 classic arcade machines available for game play and with that, of course, comes BurgerTime!!!

Anyone who knows me really well knows that I have some serious beef with BurgerTime. (pun intended? sure!) Growing up, I had it on my original Nintendo NES console and I remember it being really hard. Well...now as an adult, I still think it's pretty damn hard. And even harder on a classic arcade machine that isn't as quick and responsive as it was in its prime. 

For those of you who have never played it, you play the role of a chef and the goal is to build burgers but in the process you're being chased by eggs, sausages, and pickles who are trying to stop/kill you. And your only weapon is pepper, which you get limited quantities of and it only stuns them temporarily. You also have to run across each layer (bun, patty, lettuce, bun) to get them to drop down. But they only drop down by one level each time, so you gotta repeatedly run over the layers to get them to drop. Sounds difficult? Yeah, I know.

Does that sound confusing? Here...why not watch some gameplay....

Then when I was done totally done with losing to BurgerTime, I moved on to the next machine to my left...Oh Hey! What do you know...it's Paperboy! I think we were all totally falling for the sweet novelty handlebar controller. But once playing it, we all realized how much it sucked. And I mean SUCKED! I don't think anyone spent more than 3 minutes with this machine. Too bad. It had the potential of being awesome.

Then came Sunday which is Kevin's day off (he works Tues–Sat. it's the typical art gallery schedule), so we took a trip over to Nickel Diner in Downtown LA (most known for their bacon donuts).

I love that the Nickel Diner serves bottled sodas...no soda fountains to be found here! Unfortunately, I didn't realize it until after the waitress brought out my Coke that they had Dr. Pepper. But it's ok, bottled Dr. Pepper is only 8oz. whereas the Coke is 12oz.

Kevin ordered the Biscuits and Gravy (comes with 2 poached eggs) that's only available on Saturdays and Sundays. The gravy was a sausage gravy which made it 10 times more delicious!

And I got the 5th and Main (which is spicy BBQ pulled pork on potato hash with 2 poached eggs). It didn't look like it was a lot of food but it was really HEAVY. But equally delicious. 

I want to eventually go back to try their Irish Car Bomb donuts, Strawberry Crumble donuts, and the Dutch Baby. They also have really great homemade poptarts!

At the end of my weekend, I came home to this:

Sebastian was super bummed out that he had to stay home and miss out on all the fun.

Exercises in Writing

I've been dabbling in the idea of dedicating time to running Quiet Tiger. I think of this as a creative outlet for my writing. As a counter-balance to design. But like all things, it takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work. I have every intention of branding Quiet Tiger. And this week, I came closer to narrowing down what exactly it will be and what it will do. I felt like what happened over summer when I started Quiet Tiger was that I was taking a shot in the dark. I didn't know what I was doing or what I wanted. And unfortunately, that resulted in the failure that is The Fabrication Dept. But now I feel like I'm finally on track. I need Quiet Tiger as much as I need becausemaybe. And with that, I'm going to commit a portion of my time to making this work out.

It's a Small World!

Back in late July/early August, I was invited by Joey Chou to contribute to the It's a Small World show.  I met Joey one night when I was stopping by Flock Shop to drop off some new items on consignment. It just so happened that it was the same night as the opening of his solo show.  We struck up a conversation about Comic Con and cats, and how much we love Mary Blair...and the next thing I knew, I was invited to take part in this show.

Well, that show is finally here! I stopped by Gallery Nucleus yesterday, and all the pieces look amazing. You'll just have to see for yourself in person.

The Opening Reception is tonight from 7PM–10PM

Timed with the release of illustrator Joey Chou's latest children's book from Disney Press, a select group of talent will contribute work paying homage to this beloved and enduring theme of global peace. The book features Chou's illustrations interpreting the Sherman Brothers classic song written for the popular Disney park attraction.

This is an all-ages event. Meet some of the artists including Joey Chou who will be on hand signing copies of the new release.

Here's the schedule for the night so you'll know what to expect:

7pm-8:30pm: Joey Chou Book Signing

8pm: First Raffle Drawing - Signed copy of Joey's book and a new print from Seb Mesnard!

8:30pm: Patrick Awa, Israel Sanchez and Joey Chou start live painting demos.

9pm: Second Raffle Drawing - Signed copy of Joey's book and 2 signed Joey Chou prints!

10pm: Final Raffle Drawing - Finished live demo artwork by Joey Chou, Patrick Awa and Israel Sanchez!


Exhibiting Artists Include:

Joey Chou
Lorelay Bové
Patrick Awa
Brittney Lee
Becky Dreistadt
Patrick Hruby
Michelle Romo
Eric Diaz
Michael Fleming
Grace Lee
Brendan Wenzel
Justin Parpan
Israel Sanchez
Seb Mesnard
Griselda Sastrawinata
Rad Sechrist
Nellie Le
Pete Oswald
Mark Sperber
Winnie Ho
Olga Stern
Christian Robinson
Victoria Ying
Ryan Kramer
Alex Chechik
Kevin Chan
Sean Sullivan
Ryuku Uratsuji
Chris Turnham
Josh Parpan
Jesse Tise
Elizabeth Ito
Jing Wei
Ben Butcher
Brigette Barrager
Chris Sasaki
Claire Keane
Uwe Heidschoetter
Oliver Akuin
Edward Juan
Linda Kim
Jackie Huang
Patrick Raines
Eren Blanquet
Drake Brodahl

Rethinking Relocation

I've been considering for some time now, the possibility of moving to Minneapolis after graduation. I've grown tired of making dream job lists that just scream "Get the hell out of LA!" The fact of the matter is, most of the firms out here just aren't doing the kind of work I want to be doing. And the people who are doing that kind of work...they're kinda like a rare breed of individuals, who run their own studios and run in the same circle of friends as the other individuals who run their own studio. It sometimes feels like it's an exclusive club that everyone wants to be a part of but no new kid knows how to get into. The only logical explanation I can come up with is to move to Minneapolis, work at some of the places (or similar places) I want to work at, then come back and start my own gig. I'll always have a place in my heart for LA (or more accurately, LA county). Sure the cost of living is high, and there have been many things said about it being fake, lacking culture & a sense of history. But that's what I love about it. It doesn't care. It's as individual as the people who occupy it.