And the Results are In!

As you may know, last summer I had the amazing opportunity to intern with Lilly Pulitzer (there's a nice long post about the experience here). For a print designer who likes flowers and bright colors, Lilly was a paradise. By end of my time there, one of my prints, "Hush", had made it into the Fall 2012 line. And I have been waiting eagerly for this August when it would finally hit stores!! A print that's 100% my creation being sold to Lilly-lovers everywhere. It's things like this that remind me why I love creating prints. Here it is, from artwork to print to product!

Anniversary

When I first moved here I would sporadically go for walks (usually in my Brooklyn neighborhood but sometimes in Manhattan too), exploring with one of my film cameras. I spent about three months slowly building up a roll of haphazard double exposures. It's a technique I stumbled upon accidentally when trying to do a simple double exposure a while back. Photos like these are my pattern-orientated brain's answer to photography. It's less about composition and lighting and more about layers, depth, and a story, a bundle of experiences in one frame. I finally got my roll developed at the end of last week and it was very serendipitous timing because this past Friday was my 6th month NYC anniversary!! It's been a jobful and adventureful 6 months. So thanks New York for being my best Valentine ever.

Here are some of the photos, check out my flickr for more!

On NOT Being a Maker

This past weekend, my coworkers and I were given a surprise Friday off. As I left work on Thursday, my brain was abuzz with all the projects I could accomplish in those extra hours. I would finally be able to pull out some of the art supplies I haven’t touched in months!

What did I actually do on Friday? I lazed in bed watching some movies as it thunderstormed, talked to my mom on the phone, and feebly attempted to paint and to cut some stencils for screen printing. Not the grandly and creatively busy day I had dreamed of. Maybe it’s a copout excuse to say that I wasn’t inspired, but I just could not get my mind going in an innovative vein. Everything felt trite or forced. I sat here at my desk frustratingly trying to do SOMETHING of “merit”, I couldn’t help but wonder the definition of merit and if this is really what I want to be doing with my free time?

I spend my weekdays making. Sure it’s making something for someone else in a particular style that’s only sometimes in sync with my own, but it’s still making. Also, my work is often relatively solitary. While I talk and laugh with coworkers, majority of my work time is just me, some music/podcasts and Photoshop. I have been finding that when I come home at night, I don’t want to make. I don’t want to sit at a desk by myself some more. I don’t want to make more patterns. What I want to do is socialize with friends, explore the giant city at my fingertips and relax. As with most things I crave a balance, a little bit of everything. 

While that is fine and dandy, the problem comes in that I feel guilty or wasteful for wanting not to make? Almost like a traitor to my Fibers degree? In art school making is what you do. It is what everyone around you is doing, and it is very clearly defined. Having been through that, there is this pressure to keep having ideas and developing myself as an artist. Why am I not doing that? Am I doing that? Is developing myself as an artist different from developing myself as a person? I wonder sometimes if it’s not that I am not making but that I am making in different ways. Different, still valid ways. I tend to get ambitious with cooking, trying new recipes or even making up my own. I still am shooting on my film camera, even though I have not been prolific with that by any means (a whole roll of multiple exposures takes a long time to fill up). I sometimes keep this blog up to date with a curated selection my outfits and adventures. Maybe these aren’t traditional markers of making, and maybe they are more recording what’s in front of me than building something new. Or maybe it’s time to define what making means in adult life. In MY adult life.

Scenes from the Life of a Working Girl

Well hey there, little blog. How have you been lately? I have missed you sorely. You see, July was a rough month for me. It started with an nice but extremely hectic vacation and ended with two 80 hour work weeks. And life managed to throw in plenty of negative and stressful addendums along the way.

Now that my evenings and weekends are once again my own and I have somewhat caught up on missed sleep and adult-life things, I have grand plans in the works. My screenprinting supplies are sitting eagerly in a corner, waiting to be used. I've got a roll and a half of film to develop, ideas in my head, and plans to do so some exploring.

Although, there are a couple things I will miss about spending all my waking hours at the office: spectacular sunset views, dancing barefoot late at night around my empty office, and the midnight taxi ride through manhattan and brooklyn.

Cheers to having free time again.

And the Living is Hot

It's really really hot outside (and inside my apartment). That is all.

And the Living is Easy

My first NYC experience was a hot summer weekend spent running around doing touristy things. My second was an even hotter summer weekend spent doing less touristy things. Now that I live here, there's something comfortable about New York in the summer. It feels simultaneously more like an place I am visiting and more like home. My favorite part is that there is so much going on that weekends can turn into a mini summer vacation: hot, dirty and full of adventures.

Ease

This skirt is probably one of the most worn articles of clothing in my closet. Dressed up, dressed down, cold weather, warm weather. I feel like there is some sort of merit in buying pieces that you can wear time and time again, that never feel old or exhausted.

In Transit

Lately, I've been neglecting the whole "record my life in pretty pictures so I can show the internet" thing. But not because I am bored with it or have no interesting content ideas, but because I'm enjoying the moments I'm living so much and living way more of them lately. I have found time to take a few instagram photos along the way, quick photos taken in transit too or from a place. So much of time here is spent getting somewhere else, and these photos are a reminder that sometimes that's when you see the most beautiful things.

Color, Pattern, Doors

Somethings start with a dream, a wild idea that you had once and think about constantly and finally get motivated to act on. Last weekend my roommate Allison and I did just that. We painted the doors of our apartment. Not without struggle though. For those of you not in the city, temperatures on Memorial Day weekend were the hottest they have been all year: 90 degrees and sunny with high humidity. Being proper New Yorkers living in an older apartment, we don't have air conditioning, nor did we have any fans yet. We were sorely unprepared for this sudden spike in temperatures. Unwilling to let that stop us, we sweated through our project with sheer will and determination. And it was definitely worth it.

Oh, and of course my door is in repeat.

Versus

I originally started this blog with the intention of keeping a daily (or nearly daily) record of what I wear. My intentions have grown since then, but I still think there's a lot of value in how people chose to present themselves to the world on an average day. Not to say that one outfit can sum up a person, but it can give some insight. This is a weekday look for me: polished, feminine, quality clothes, cute but city appropriate shoes, etc. It fits my life of commuting to Manhattan and working in crisp, clean office. Sitting here on a Saturday afternoon looking at these photos, I've realized that this is not how I dress on the weekends. Simple, comfortable silhouettes, disheveled hair, minimal accessories, barefoot as often as possible. I rarely take pictures of this look because it feels less creative/interesting, but I think it's equally as me as this one.