petrified

i got a little obsessed with the petrified forest logs when i was there. i took loads of loads of photos. just every log i went by looked better than the last and deserved a photo. there are just so many colors in the stones, and you can see the details of bark in some. they are incredibly beautiful, and ridiculously heavy.

a little bit of elvis

we went to graceland, which was a large tourist trap, expansive, and didn't even have a great gift store. and i am not crazy crazy about elvis like some people, (i like johnny cash more). but, it was cool to see his house, we couldn't drive by it and not stop and see it. we were in a bit of a hurry, so i didn't take in as much as i probably should have. his house was lovely and amazingly tacky. and there was a museum with all of this awards, gold records, outfits, photos, and great posters. i just thought the posters were so funny, so that is what is above.

road trip

I drove across the country with my mom, from maryland to california. we went through virginia, north carolina, tennessee, arkansas, oaklahoma, texas, new mexico, and arizona. it was very fun. we saw lots of countryside and could see how the land changes from state to state. these photos are a select few. i am working on uploading all of them to flickr, but i have too many photos for my monthly limit so i have to wait until next month to upload the rest.

smoky mountains

the fantastic wallpaper at the b & b we stayed at in ashville, n. carolina

the biltmore

yummy biscuits

graceland, a elvis disneyland

72oz steak

old home of camanches, palo duro canyon

cadillac ranch, texas

chile peppers in new mexico

the painted desert

petrified forest logs

this is why there are flash floods in the desert

sedona, arizona

cathedral rock and that red river

website update

woo hoo! finally completed updating my website. i have added some new projects and have rephotographed some other projects. you can see my website here.

action camera

i got this cool lomography action camera and finally got a chance to use it this summer since it has no flash and requires direct sunlight. i took a lot of photos of the clouds and these flags blowing in the wind, which the first two are of. i haven't scanned them all yet but those top two are a taste of it. then there's a photo of me jumping and my friend john waving where those two you can clearly see the action.

here is what my camera looks like:

freeways, finally

this book took me forever to finish. it was started an embarrassing year and a half ago when i was in london. they were so lax about everything there that i technically didn't have to finish the book, meaning put it all together. that was also the hardest part since i wanted to have these much larger pages that fold out of the book, referencing a map. so since i didn't have to finish it then, and because it was a challenge for me to figure out (also because i am not a book binding master or anything near that), AND because school then started again which means lots of other work, this book was just left unfinished. until now, i have FINALLY finished this book. it got a bit of a makeover from what it was way back in london, but it is bound and photographed and beautiful.

besides the making of this book, the content of the book is making los angeles freeways, the very impersonal pieces of concrete, into a more personal experience using stories from people i know. living in la, we spend a large amount of time driving on freeways. freeways are incredibly ugly, and mostly full of traffic, but we have to drive on them and everyone just deals with it. but it is part of our life, and we do have experiences on freeways. this book is trying to make these personality-less freeways into a something that has personality and life in it, which will then make driving on them a happier experience.

here is a story i collected for the book:
"I had to meet my dad for dinner after work and we agreed to meet at home. As soon as we got on the 5, I decided to see if I could beat him home. I merged onto the 2 thinking I was so clever, and when I excitedly turned onto the main road, I saw my dad pulled over by the cops because his fog lights were on. And then I laughed because I won."

four years

four years is a personal book that is describing the last four years of my life through diagrams and illustrations. it is pretty much my crazy book. the book is expressing inside of my head, with organized clarity mixed with visual chaos. it has pages in there about the freeways i have gone to, houses i have lived in and where, desserts i have baked, and shoes i have bought. all of which is within the last four years of my life, since those are the years that i have experienced the most change out of my entire life.

bday cards

these are just some birthday card designs. there are a bunch of people i know with birthdays coming up, and whenever i go look at stationary i always think how i can either do better or can make them myself. so i decided to make some cards of my own and then just print them out on my printer. that was before i realized my printer is a bastard and won't print nicely anymore. new printer time yay!

scarves

here are some scarves i designed for Ellen Allen Annapolis who I have been working with for a while.

wooooo

well, it's pretty exciting, i made it into the top 6 favorite urban forest banners. the closing event is on saturday at mica, and they are giving away 250 posters with the winning banners on them. these 250 posters i will be signing, with the others who won. when i get that banner i will post it for you all to see.

vote!

everyone, being the five people that actually look at my blog, should go to this website and vote for my urban forest banner. i guess they choose some of the banners for people to choose their favorite, which will then be a part of a poster at the final event. so vote for me!

design*sponge

i am on design*sponge! it's very exciting. you can see it here. wooooooo!