Mutants

X-Men: The Last Stand won the box office over the first summer weekend. And yes, they got my money as part of it!

I liked it. There were some holes, but overall, a fun summertime movie romp. As my friend and I discussed, do you have to be good looking to be a mutant? I always thought being too good looking made you a mutant!

What mutant power would you have (if you could chose, typically the mutation choses you)?

Gimme Your Stuff

Gimme Your Stuff is like trading baseball cards. I have something you want and you have something I want!

So what do I have you ask?

Well, in Chicago, we are known for some epicurean delights like deep dish pizza, hot dogs, and Garrets Popcorn, just to name a few.

Sports? We are the home of Michael Jordan and the CHicago Bulls and the World Champion Chicago White Sox.

We are a major city on a lake so I can even send you some sand from our beaches!

What do I want? Let me know what you have. Right now I would love some lollies from Suga in Australia (sorry, you can keep the vegemite)!

Figure Drawing Friday

Daytime Talk Shows

It seems I have well shaped and proportioned eyebrows!

Three points determine this.
1 - Your eyebrow should start at a point determined by a line drawn from the center of your nostril to the inside edge of your eye.
2- The eyebrow should end at a point determined from a line drawn from the center of your nostril to the outside edge of your eye.
3 - The highest point of your eyebrow "the arch" should be from a line drawn from the center of your nostril through your pupil.

Who knew!

Designer of the Year

While some musicians have reinvented themselves as cartoon characters - Michael Jackson and the Beatles - it took the launch of Gorillaz in 1999 to challenge expectations of what an animated band could accomplish.

Through a wealth of printed and onscreen presentations, Jamie Hewlett, cult comic artist and co-creator of Gorillaz, produced a fiction-as-fact illusion of a band. His detailed storyboards and character profiles have brought to near-life the group's four members - Murdoch, 2D, Russel and Noodle - and made the virtual group Gorillaz a real entity in the international music industry.

Jamie Hewlett has been named Designer of the Year. For more information check out Design Museum - London

Spring has come!

Those barren pots shown on March 25 have been filled with the bounty of spring! Purple, white, and of course green was my color palette this year. Geraniums, coleus, sweet william, petunias, imaptients, daisy and much more, even a pot of fresh herbs now call my back porch/steps home. I even have three hanging baskets with purple and white double petunias!

Paper and a blade

Alexis McQuilkin lives in Chicago with her partner in crime, a perpetually cluttered studio, two cats, and a collection of overpriced toys that fight for shelfspace with her collection of underappreciated books on critical analysis of politics and modern culture. she is employed as an illustrator/muralist/signmaker for Trader Joe's.

She has a BFA in illustration from Columbia College Chicago, is a card carrying member of the Graphic Artists Guild, and was recently awarded honors by the Pfeffer-Odim political cartoon competition.

Alexis was one of my students this past semester. She does these amazing papercuts, the teapot is one of my faves! She is having an opening at Las Manos Gallery tonight. She is not listed on the official invite as the gallery owner invited her into the show immediately upon seeing her work!

Halk-Nekkid Thursday

With all the talk of the Da Vinci Code movie and the Louvre, I thought what could be more right on a Half-Nekkid Thursday!

3 lines on a page

WOW! The power of three little lines. I am in the middle of doing final grading for this semester. It is the worst part of my job. I know what grades mean once outside of the academic world…NOTHING! No potential employer will ever ask to see your grades or your transcript. You could be a terrible book student but a pretty damn good designer. It is pretty much all in your book, either you have it or you don't.

The talented students are very much aware of this. But the ones that are in class for a grade, they can drive you crazy, and most often do! I tell them at the beginning of the semester where I stand on grading, wishing it were all pass/fail. I tell them at the start of the semester they all have A's and it is up to them to do the work to keep it. They are in complete control. I give them their A and they decide if they want to do the work to keep it. But some insist that it is I that gives them the grade at the end of the semester, not them that either maintained it or not.

In the end it comes down to three little lines and how they are arranged. They could be arranged to form an A. Curve a couple and it could be a B. Mix em up and they can be an F. It is all up to them how the lines get arranged. For me, it is just three lines on a page.

Graduation - Columbia College Chicago style!

Here are some rising stars of the Class of 06 from Columbia College Chicago. Many of whom I have been honored to have in my classroom. From the left: Myles "V-Neck" Bosack, Eric Burman, Chris Gallevo, Kari Belsaas (sorry for the bad picture, but you do look quite animated!), Tom Oddi, and Garrett Hansell.

One of the great things about Columbia College Chicago is the amazing roster of honorary degrees we give. When I graduated, 1987 we had sportscasting great Jack Brickhouse, Lawrence Grossman, President of NBC News, and James Hightower, Texas Agriculture Commissioner. We have also honored Victor Skrebneski, Irv Kupcinet, Russel Simmons, Tony Kushner (whose speech made it to the internet), Alan Arkin, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sara Paretsky, Ben Vereen, Rosa Parks, and the list goes on and on like a whose who of whats what! This year, music legend Buddy Guy was honored and as a speech he gave an acoustic performance of Hootchie Cootchie Man. How's that for entertainment.

Graduation is always a happy sad time for me. Glad to see the new crew beginning their careers. Sad to see them go. Fall semester is always odd with many of the old familiar faces gone. But new ones will soon fill the gaps.

Congratulations Class of '06!

What will $651 buy these days?

Well, if you are the Student Design Group it will but all the food and then some for their CANstruction produced this past Friday at Manifest, the senior celebration at Columbia College Chicago.

The theme this year was the 80's, like that was soooo long ago! The group decided to build a three-foot Rubik's Cube from canned food and then donate the food to Heartland Alliance for all the work they do.

Here is what the money bought…

54 Cans of Spinach
54 Cans of Peas
54 Cans of Carrots
54 Cans of Corn
80 Cans of Chicken Broth
18 Cans of Spaghetti and Meatballs
36 Cans of Bite Sized Ravioli
54 Cans of Sloppy Joe Sauce
54 Cans of Pumpkin
66 Cans of Salmon

That all cost $270. With the remaining money, Heartland asked for personal hygiene products…

78- 10 pack of Razors
24 Bottles of Baby Shampoo
31 Bottles of Shampoo
36 Tubes of Toothpaste
43 Toothbrushes

It was a fun project that helped many people!

Thanks to all our generous sponsors! Cube Sponsors ($20+) The Art + Design department, Sabina Ott, Chair, Kris Dabu, Mario Di Sandro, John Dylong, Ivy Marketing Group, Dana Kraska, Dorian & Laurie Kraska, Lisa Ryan, Richard Zeid Design, Dr. Michael Schwartzman, Students In Design, George Thompson, Village of Monee CAN(s) Sponsors ($1 - $19) Danielle Altmin, Audrean Been, Kari Belsaas, Myles Bosack, Holly Bradly, Mario Castillo, Claudia Cavanagh, Joevanny Duran, Sallie Gordon, Galen Gulick, Brian Kenney, Laura Kesselring, Niki Kraska, Josh Lefley, Jim Lienhart, Marlene Lipinski, Ben Liss, Lynda Roddy, Heather Rounds, Lilly Ruvolo, Katie Sheridan

Figure Drawing Friday

Nature's Art in KC

While watching Pink run around a pedestrian bridge near the City Market along the Missouri River and counting trains, I looked down and saw this. It is nothing more than some construction rubble and refuse but nature I am sure had a hand in blowing some of it around washing away some stuff and adding others.

Shuttlecocks

I said cocks!

But seriously! While in Kansas City, MO not KS, I visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Their sculpture gardens are great and filled with Henry Moores. But one of my favorites is Shuttlecocks by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. There are five that I counted around the museum's grounds.

They are also doing an amazing expansion using channel glass that at night will be lit. Looks really exciting.

I am still snickering to myself about saying cocks!

State Line Road

Called so because the road is the border between Missouri and Kansas all while being in Kansas City! We are driving on the Kansas side back from Oklahoma Joes. Missouri is on the left.

State Twofer

That's right! This past weekend, I knocked two more states off! With a visit to my friend Paul Diamond, I made it to both Missouri AND Kansas. And I adhered to all the rules. I spent time there, stimulated the economy and have photgraphic evidence which will be shared over the next couple of days.

First, time spent. I stayed with the Diamond family in Kansas City, MO, so that state is covered. We had lunch at Oklahoma Joe's, a gas station turned BBQ stop on the Kansas side, fulfilling the time spent in Kansas.