The Heart of Darkness in Barnes & Noble or The Ramblings of a Mad Man

I'm in my last quarter at Robert Morris University, and I am taking a Literary Analysis class. I enjoy reading and opening my mind. I like challenging and relating ideas and concepts, and I also like to have a good time, especially with the arts. 

What follows is an email I sent to my literary professor about the challenges I encountered in my attempt to obtain a copy of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad in such short notice. 

Ciao Louis!

You might find this amusing. I certainly did.

Today I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy of Heart of Darkness in hopes of reading it sometime tomorrow or Thursday. I walked in with high hopes filling my heart so much so that a quirky smile was squeezed out from the top of it as I walked in. I've been wanted to read this book for awhile, and what better opportunity could I ask for then to read it for school credit.

As I pulled open the mammoth doors with ease thanks to the easy-flow hydraulic hinges a copy of National Geographic's Guide to National State Parks immediately caught my eye as I passed through the breezeway. Thoughts of adventurous hikes through the day, campfires with friends at night, and early morning rises with campfire coffee filled my thoughts as I glided past the Nook troll. As she attempted to avoid eye contact I zeroed in on her with my laser eyes, and through a shit eating grin I shouted out, "Good morning!" This forced a smile on her wretched face, and a mumbled response through gritted teach. "Good morning" she spit back as if prompted by cattle prods charged with memories of her childhood dog's death. I simply kept walking.

I made it past the horseless cavalcade of Christmas gifts, unless of course you count the book about horses, and arrived at my destination; the heart of darkness, the centrally located main help desk. I quietly waited as a long sinewy man in a trampled tan trench coat inquired about Robert Ludlum serial. I eyeballed the mountains of plastic doodads wrapped in more suffocating plastic, and started to feel a bit like Laura Palmer. Just before the waves of Christmas cheer could wash over me another portly book keeper emerged from the center and with her words, "can I help you?" she pulled me from the sea of jolly tidings before it's pomp could pound me.

"Yes! I am looking for a copy of Heart of Darkness," I gleefully replied. My jovial response was prompted by the earwig of plastic celebration swimming around me. For a moment I thought about how odd it may have looked to a passerby to see someone with such a happy disposition requesting such a tome of human despair and desperation. Then I realized there wasn't anything I could do about it. So I swung my head around slowly with a big smile and scanned for any witnesses. No one was around. I'm assuming the plastic sea of joy had taken them all away.

The help desk attendant swung around to the council like so much Jabba the hut sliding about, and after pulling her glasses down to scan the terminal presented me with a grimace of doubt.

"I'm sorry. It's not in the store. We'd have to order one," she sneered with a smile that could swallow a snake.

"Really? Not a single copy in the store?" I shot back with perplexity coupled with a cocked eyebrow.

"Well..." she doled out. Her pause hung with hope like the emergence of the north star on a cloudy night while I drifted along the windless abyss. Then like a fart in the elevator I was smothered with disgust when followed up with, "nope."

Like an emerging volcanic island in a complacent sea I fumed... quietly... to myself. Then I thanked her for her time, and quickly discharged myself from the disheartening foundation posing as a bookstore.

I spit the bad taste out of my mouth as I made my way to my car where I knew my engine would rev with comparative contempt. Sure enough, it did. Then I drove to the school in hopes of finding the book in the library. I had forgotten about the library being closed due to water damage over the summer. No access. Any books would have to be ordered from another campus.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I had to order my books via amazon, and they should be here in a couple of days. So, don't be surprised if my assignment isn't turned in until Sunday.

Ciao!

I hope you enjoyed my playful musings. 

As always there is more to come...

~3

3kalbian Journeys

I know it's been awhile, but I've been pretty busy getting ready for my stint in Italy to study abroad for a couple of months. Actually, I'm writing from there now. I am currently staying in Florence, Italy, a stunning city brimming with people from all around the world. 

I am participating in a study abroad program at the Florence University of the Arts. During my time here I have traveled through Italy for a week before settling in for classes at Florence. I am currently taking a cultural class, and in a couple of weeks I will be taking an advanced digital photography class and a graphic arts internship/externship. 

For my Humanities 200 class back in the states we are writing a blog. I have set up a new Wordpress account specifically for this occasion, and to document my further travels around the world. Unfortunately, the internet has been spotty at best at the apartment. I'm currently in talks about how to resolve the issue and/or find a more reliable wifi source. 

My posts have been a bit behind, but they are coming... with photos... and I'm looking into adding interactive maps. 

For the time being I will only be making posts to that blog. 

Please join me on my travels at...

3kalbianjourneys.com

As always there is more to come...

~3

Approved By The President

I know it has been awhile since my last post, but I've been hard at work at school, and with that a new website that I'll be unveiling shortly. All that hard work is paying off though. See? 

I made the President's List! 

I'd like to take a moment to congratulate all my friends that made the President's list beside me, especially my friends in the Graphic Arts program; Rachel Douglas, LaDonna Toler Wilkin, and Shonna Sprous. I know it hasn't been easy, but if life was meant to be easy no one would try for anything. 

I personally want to thank all my friends and family for their support during my time at RMU. I especially couldn't have done it without the amazing staff and fantastic teachers at RMU. I've learned everything you've had to teach me, and I will continue to do so regardless of my grades. 

I've sacrificed a lot to be here, and toiled endlessly while I have been here. In the past I've made Dean's List every quarter (all 3 that I've attended) while at RMU. Every quarter I look at the classes, and think , "I got this," and every quarter it (classes and life) just seem to get harder. However, every day I eventually wake up, and work hard. This quarter has been particularly trying because of a lot of financial and technical setbacks. 

However, next month I'll be spending next quarter (8 weeks) studying abroad in Italy. I've worked hard for it, and I'm very excited about it. I have two big projects planned while I'm there. I'm going to trip to Germany one weekend to see some old friends and capture footage investigating my ancestry towns, and hopefully track down some living relatives in the area. I'll be spending another weekend in Dublin, Ireland to shoot footage for a music video with the extremely talented Christopher Maxey, who is being featured on a compilation album to benefit depression alongside many greats including Glen Hansard. While I'm in Italy I'll also be working at a graphic arts internship that I'm very excited about, and I'll be tasting and investigating coffees and coffee techniques while I'm there to help out William Van's Coffee House when I return. 

Crazy and exciting times. I've sacrificed love and suffered loss to get where I am, and I don't see any point in stopping or slowing down. Sometimes there are some walls. These walls create lulls in progress, but as long as I keep working they eventually fall. Thank you all, and keep up the great work! As always there is more to come.

~3

Superexposed Superheroes

So, for my photography final last quarter I had planned on shooting a series with people in front of graffiti-laden walls. I was going to create movement in horizontal panoramas by moving my camera down the alley and capturing long exposure shots of my subjects moving, and short exposure shots of my subjects standing still as they progress through the panorama. The idea was to create an image that looked as if the person was moving really fast as they graffiti'd the wall. 

However, due to scheduling conflicts and technical difficulties, but mainly the scheduling, I wasn't able to to get the shots done. So, instead I had to improvise the night before. With the help of my lovely assistant, Sarina, I was able to recreate this process. Even though it wasn't with the best tools and certainly not under the best circumstances I did what I could do with what I had in the time that I had. 

These are my results. I'm making a conscience effort to share all of my work with everyone. All I really want to do is work creatively and share it with you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and everyone! 

So, without further ado here's my Superexposed Superheroes (even though one of them is a villian). 

 Here are the originals. There was a lot of manual stitching and melding in photoshop. All of the blurs are from the long exposure. I just had to blend them into the photos. I wish I had a picture of the setup we used. It was a janky tripod that we attempted to attach the figures to, but they kept falling and moving. Then we set up a couple of light sources, one was a flashlight on a ladder and the other was Sarina standing somewhere with a flashlight while moving the tripod because it wouldn't always stay secure. To reiterate, it was janky. Then the background was a few pieces of paper that I printed a brick background onto. Ha! 

The variants involve Photoshop'd logos into the backgrounds. 

Anyway, I digress, please enjoy my silly and laborious work. 

As always, click to embiggen.

The Originals 

Captain America

Colossus

Venom

 Logo Variants 

Captain America

Colossus

Venom

As always there is more to come...

~3

The Big Noubowski Part Deux

It's finished! The Big Noubowski watercolor I did has been through some processing, and I am finished with it! 

*puts a fork in it*

This is a follow up post to my previous post The Big Noubwoski. As we all know it was an assignment for my Design History class at Robert Morris University. I forced myself to sit down one day, and in 6 hours I went from rough to finished watercolor. I haven't worked in watercolors in years so this was a personal challenge that I was willing to take on. 

I'm quite impressed with the results, and learned quite a bit. I look forward to working with watercolors again. I think next time I'll spend more time rendering. 

However, after I finished the project I took her through the Photoshops and after applying some variant filters and textures and touching some things up I am now finished with it. 

Enjoy! 

As always there is more to come...

~3

Dropping the Bass on Conn's

For my Design History final we were given a selection of artists, and asked to pick one. Then we had to distinguish their style, and pick a local business to create a poster advertising that business in the style of the artist. 

After a quick fire round of trivia I was allowed first pick, and I went with the one and only Saul Bass. His movie poster work, and simplistic design has inspired so much art. I've always been a firm believer in the cleaner the design the better, but I also love a little texture here and there. Saul Bass was my first pick, but I felt confident I could create a piece in a style of any of the other artists, but, like Alphonse Mucha, I absolutely love his work. 

I've been in and out of Springfield for quite some time, and tasted and experienced quite a bit of what it has to offer. As of right now my favorite place to be in town is Obed & Isaac's, their beer garden, and William Van's Coffeehouse. I also love the bed & breakfast in town called The Inn @ 835. They all are owned by Conn's Hospitality Group. So, I decided to do a Saul Bass inspired poster for all that Conn's Hospitality Group has to offer Springfield, Illinois (Obed & Isaac's, William Van's Coffeehouse, Inn & 835, Widow at Windsor, and the annual Springfield Oyster & Beer Festival)

I did a sketch first. All of my projects start with sketches. I play with layout, design, and then dabble a bit with color before jumping into a digital transfer. 

rough sketch

The digital product is 11" x 7". I created all the shapes in Illustrator, and laid down a font for placing. Then I used the pen tool to work over the font in order to recreate that cut-out feel. I grabbed images from online to use as resources, and, using the pen tool, I cut them into the shapes to create the images within the blocks. After I was pleased with that I exported it all into Photoshop and applied a few textures with some burning and dodging to add some depth. 

digital work in progress

I'm very pleased with how it came out. With every project I learn a little bit more, and am able to apply that knowledge into my next project. Art is very exciting like that, and so is life. 

final product

As always there is more to come...

~3

Gonzo from the Future....ism

For one of my Design History assignments we had to design a Futurism-inspired poster for our lesson on Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurism movement using a quote. During this assignment, this week actually, I've been processing a lot of visual styles, and learning a lot about my style as well.

Expressionism is where my core is, but it's gated by Graphic Design. I like meshing the random, organic, and at times, chaotic, Expressionism with design elements from Art Nouveau and anything from Modern Design (Constructivism, De Stijl, Bauhaus, Plakastil).

As soon as I get some free time I feel my next personal project is going to be something amazing. There's a strange passion bubbling inside of me, and it's just waiting to attack a canvas.

However, here's the Design History assignment.

We had to create it in Adobe Illustrator.

The quote I used is from Hunter S. Thompson.

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the people that have gone over.

~ Hunter S. Thompson

As always there is more to come...

~3

Eagles Go Kaaaaa!

I'm part of a student mentor program, Eagle Scholars, for my school, Robert Morris University, and one of the first projects we undertook was designing T-shirts within our groups, and then having everyone vote on which design they liked the best to be put on the T-shirts for everyone to wear. 

After doing a bit of research on the school this is the design I came up with. 

I've provided both my original sketch, and the Adobe Illustrator vector. I plan on adding colors, but that will have to wait until next week or next weekend due to final projects I'm working on this weekend. 

Dollar dollar bill y'all

I asked my group members what they thought the Eagle Scholars program meant to them. The response I got was "open-mindedness, trust, and responsibility." So I ran with it. I took those values as my springboard and moved forward. I wanted to create an image that was immediately familiar, resonated Robert Morris University, visually encapsulated the aforementioned values, featured the year of the program, and our particular campus in Springfield, IL. 

My immediate thoughts went to familiar objects with eagles on them, and then BAM! It hit me. What eagle is everywhere? The one on the dollar bill! The Ramones knew this.  So, I moved on from there. 

Eagle eagle logo y'all

I had my layout now I needed to incorporate my values. I immediately changed the eagle head to resemble the eagle head of the RMU logo that the school is identified by. I added a circle around the back to signify a circle of trust, and from that circle I branches out ten throngs along top to create a crown of open-mindedness while at the same time representing every campus location the school has. Then I utilized the stability of three, and gradual extension to incorporate three throngs on both sides of the bottom circle. By curving them I aimed to create the recognizable caring curve of caring hands that instill responsibility because they are placed at the bottom, almost cupping the logo. After that I just threw the program name on the shield for honor, the campus location on the papyrus in the eagle's mouth, and the year of the program attached the object of values. 

rough sketch of design

vector of design

P.S. Blogger's restrictions are starting to irk me. I should have more free time next quarter so I'm going to try and get a webpage put together. 

~3

"Hello" with After Effects

We had to put together a video of us introducing ourselves and then displaying some basic skills we've learned in Adobe After Effects for my Motion Graphics class at Robert Morris University. 

This is that video. 

The video quality isn't that great, along with the sound. 

It was a quick and dirty recording. Give me a break. 

HOWEVER, I'd like to share it with you nonetheless. 

I've really been digging on After Effects. I learned a lot by putting this together. I'm looking forward to spending a day plugged into a computer and tooling through AE tutorials. I've got another video I did of a faux movie intro using only still shots. As soon as I get it rendered I'll post it. It's currently being held hostage on one of the school computers. I'll hunt it down though. No problem. 

So, without further ado enjoy this ridiculous video that I made. Adieu!

P.S. I'm a better actor than this. What the hell, Blake?

As always there is more to come...

~3

Annie Leibovitz’s 'Pilgrimage' Through American History

I am currently doing many things right now, and one of them is writing for a journalism scholarship for school. My first article has been printed in their paper, which is distributed to ten campuses statewide, including Chicago. 

The article was a write up about the Annie Leibovitz exhibit currently here in Springfield, IL at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. 

Pilgrimage Sign, Taken by Rachel Douglas, Springfield, IL, 2014

It comes in three flavors, Original Print version, and Spicy Digital format of the print version, and the Bite-sized Facebook Post via the RMU Eagle News Fb page. 

And look at this! I've conveniently aggregated the links to all of them for you. 
(print version only available in person while supplies last)
(Facebook version includes pictures of the exhibit and pictures of pieces from the presskit)

Digital Format of the Print version  

Facebook Post via RMU Eagle News Fb page

Exhibit with Visitors, Taken by Rachel Douglas, Springfield, IL, 2014

Exhibit, Taken by Rachel Douglas, Springfield, IL, 2014

The “Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage” exhibit premiered on February 8, 2014, and runs through August 31. The exhibit offers more than 70 photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection.

If you have a chance pop into the Abraham Lincoln Museum and check it out!


Big thanks to everyone I spoke with that helped me out on this article, including Gabe House for helpful peer review, Rachel Douglas for dragging her always-chipper ass out to snap some photos, and Crystal Saint for pointing me in some good directions. 



As always there is more to come...

~3