Conan O'Brien Had a Great Fall...

As most of you who read "Out the Other Side" are probably aware, I've always been a pretty big fan of Conan O'brien. I have a big soft spot for the lanky , pale, Irish guy with the shock of red hair, and quirky sense of humor. I've certainly made no secret of my admiration of him on this blog, at least ;)

He's made me giggle for many years (both on "Late Night" and now with "The Tonight Show").

Whenever possible (which sadly , is next to never these days), I love to end my eveninngs of class, work, and general artistic noodling with the new "Tonight Show" .

Imagine my surprise when I read online that he had sustained a fairly serious head injury while taking a scary fall on the show last Friday. Watch as Conan explains the situation himself :

(Be patient -- this may take a moment to load ;)

Ouch! :(

Bless his heart! All I've got to say to that is while I admire him for trying to be a trooper and push through when he was obviously in no shape to continue hosting a show -- I'm incredibly glad that he got checked out at the hospital.

At least he's fine and able to laugh about it now.

Leave it to Conan to find the humor in minor head trauma. That is just one of many reasons why he's one of my favorites! :)

More Milk...

Photo by Chris Milk (Kanye West: Complex Magazine 2009)

Chris Milk : The guy so nice, I had to blog about him twice. ;)

Here are more of my favorite examples of Milk's phenomenal moving and non-moving body of work. As I mentioned in the previous post...his eye for visual narrative is just incredible (regardless of medium).

I really can't sing this guy's praises enough. ;)

Seriously, if you haven't checked out his official site....check that out NOW. :)

Meanwhile -- here is a little more Milk :

Photo by Chris Milk (Courtney Love - 2004)

Photo by Chris Milk (Barack Obama - 2008)

Directed by Chris Milk ("Mono" by Courtney Love - 2004)

Directed by Chris Milk ("Jesus Walks" by Kanye West -2004)

Directed by Chris Milk ("Gone Daddy Gone" by Gnarls Barkley -2006)

The Amazing Work of Chris Milk

So recently, a fabulous friend of mine turned me on to an amazing (if not incredibly disturbing) music video.

The clip was for Gnarls Barkley's "Who's Gonna Save My Soul". I have been a Gnarles Barkley fan ever since "Crazy" and "Smiley Faces" hit MTV. I went out and bought the "St. Elsewhere" album almost immediately. (I can also go on for pages about that fantastic Kam Tang illustrated album cover....but I'll save that for another post;)

However, not only do I believe that Cee-lo and Danger Mouse have certainly outdone themselves with this soulful and tangible ode to heartbreak, but the video is also beyond sensational.

(Check it out above ;)

I've heard a lot of people call the clip 'disgusting' or 'over the top'.

I respectfully disagree. I believe that this is one of the most beautiful , frank and truthful personifications of heartache that I have ever seen committed to film.

Furthermore, one I watched this clip a few dozen times, I simply had to know more about the director -- Chris Milk.

Chris certainly has an exquiste knack for experimental visual storytelling. Not only are his works visually striking but it is obvious that he looks for new ways to assemble his story so that there is a humanity on display that digs right into your heart muscle (no pun intended. ;)

Chris finds darkly humourous and fasinating ways to depict the human condition. It's like having a visual I.V. full of truth and emotion. I love every second of it! :)

Here is another example of how Chris's unprecedented style and visual language tell the story of someone's full life in a mere 48 seconds.

It's probably the most gripping 48 seconds that I've had the pleasure to lay eyes on in a long time. :)

If you dig the two clips above, pleae check out the rest of Chris' fantastic body of work HERE. He is definitely worth further investigation if you are looking for someone who is visually pushing the envelope. :)

"Angry Black Artist" on a Crazy Rainy Day

Yesterday -- work was 9hrs long, fairly boring, and took place on a miserably rainy Sunday. I worked on this little sketch during the lulls:

Not the happiest little guy....but I kinda like him. :)

Speaking of rain -- the unfortunate water damage on the top of this sketch (which occurred today) is due to the flooding blast of rain that has been recently been dumping across western North Carolina. The rain made me and my bag (which had the composition book that contained this sketch) a soggy mess despite my being under an umbrella when the bottom dropped out.

Although my wet notebook left me somewhat mortified, I'm glad that I was able to save this little sketch from floating down river, so to speak.

At least it wasn't my beloved Mac that got wet (which was , thankfully, safe and sound in an art department locker during the storm).

In any case -- I'm currently in the process of spending the next couple of rainy days turning this little sketch into a series of screen prints.

Stay tuned ;)

A Younger Version of Me....

Once upon a time....I guess that I was kind of a cute kid :


Yeah....that's me on the left cheesin' it for the camera. I guess I always was kind of a ham....even when I was 7-ish. ;)

At any rate -- I ran across this photo of myself in my senior highschool yearbook and decided I'd like to share a little nostalgia with you all on this rainy Monday.

Unfortunately, due to a house fire which occurred when I was younger ... a lot of my baby/childhood pictures literally went up in smoke. This is a pretty rare glimpse into the very limited visual proof that I was actually....um.....a child ;).

Wow, just think -- this picture was shot around 17 years ago. Seriously...where does the time go?

Sneak Preview: Cullowhee Quik-Tan Project

So, for those of you who may be wondering .... no -- I haven't suddenly fallen off of the face of the earth.

I have just been extremely busy lately (which would account for the recent gross neglect of this blog and my poor Zazzle shop).

As you may know -- I am currently in the midst of my senior year of undergrad and their really aren't words to properly express how completely crazy my schedule has been lately. Between researching internships, shopping for a new car, apartment hunting, homework, class and two day jobs....lets just say that if I happen to have any residual time to either sit down and/or pop into the screen-printing studio to let off a little steam...then I feel like an incredibly lucky woman.

Add to all of that the fact that I have been taking on (limited!) freelance engagements lately -- and you can pretty much throw out that whole "sitting down" thing altogether.

In all honesty -- I can't complain too much. Especially with the economy the way it is right now -- I am incredibly grateful to even have a(ny) job(s) at all. Times are obviously very tough for everybody and I've been sitting on every penny that I can make lately in an attempt to ensure that I won't be living in a brightly colored cardboard box come May 2010. I'm just feeling very physically worn out, is all. If there is a part of my body that doesn't ache or hurt in some way right now... then I don't know about it. ;)

That brings me to the two pictures above. Say hello to my newest side project (already in progress ;).

For the past few weeks, I have been re-designing/repainting a massive road sign for a local business ("Cullowhee Quik-Tan"). It's been a lot of fun...but definitely much more physically laborious than strictly designing things on the Mac all day. (I have the sore muscles to prove it :)

However, painting for money is not an opportunity that comes my way often enough...so it has been my pleasure to convert a sign that originally looked like it tumbled out of the tackier end of the 1970's into something a little punchier and a LOT more legible.

The boss over at "Cullowhee Quik-Tan" (Louanne ) is really a dream client. She came to me with her color pallet already picked out and a rough idea of she wanted. That almost never happens!

The concept was for the sign was to be bright , simple , and legible (three things that the original sign definitely wasn't).

Above are a couple of the process pictures from this particular gig. In between the type that's on there now will go the salon's slogan in safety yellow -- "Sun Your Buns". Cute, eh? :)

In any case...the entire thing should be done by today (I'm actually headed over there in a few to spend another 8hrs finishing it up ). I can't wait to see it when it finally gets placed in it's permanent home just outside of the "Cullowhee Quik-Tan" shop.

I will definitely post pictures of the finished sign (and pics of the disaster that was the original "Cullowhee Quik-Tan" sign) up on the blog as time permits.

If you happen to be one of my lovelies who currently live in the Cullowhee/Sylva area -- feel free to head over to "Cullowhee Quik-Tan" and check it out in person when it goes up (hopefully, sometime next week ). I would totally love to hear any and all feedback :)

New Online Store and Another Sweet Surprise!

So, all kinds of fun things are happening lately! Yesterday (on 9/9/09 no less!) marked a pretty big milestone here at "Out the Other Side". A those of you who follow me on Twitter probably already know, I finally debuted the brand shiny new "Out the Other Side" online store at Zazzle (which you can check out HERE! :).

Now all of you guys -- the much beloved and wonderful followers of my art -- can own a little piece of "Out the Other Side" for yourselves.

This may sound a little bit cliche', but despite the fact that any money that I may pocket from the sale of merchandise from the shop will certainly make my bank account pretty happy (especially these days), there are definitely plenty of other reasons that I am excited about bringing "Out the Other Side" to Zazzle. I'm actually just as excited at the prospect of people wearing, drinking out of or (in the future) even skating on my art.

I really dig the idea of applying my...um....interesting visual aesthetic to something as ordinary as a coffee cup.

That may sound odd , but there something about that thought that makes me a pretty happy girl. When/if the store really gets rolling (which I realize could take some time. We are in the middle of a recession, after all) I'm going to be pretty interested to see if what I am doing creatively is something that people are willing to pay money for. In any case, I will be updating the "Out the Other Side " online store from time to time (so check the store regularly, kids ;)

The initial response has been pretty warm, so we'll see how this new venture goes. For right now, I'm just extremely excited to see the store finally up and available to all of you out there! :)

Meanwhile -- I am happy to report that not only is the new "Out the Other Side" online store officially open for business . I also have one other fun new surprise that I have in store for you guys.

Those of you who follow my Twitter account may have noticed recently that not only have I added a new URL to my sidebar for the Zazzle shop....but I have also added one to my new video channel as well! :)

After much debate with myself over the last several months, I finally broke down and upgraded my existing account at Vimeo to a "Plus" account!

What does that mean for "Out the Other Side"?

Up to this point, I have by and large only posted my illustration and design work (with a few sketches and paintings thrown in there for good measure ;). However, I also have a few motion projects that I have really been itching to drag out of the vault, dust off and give a proper showing here on the blog.

This is why I invested in Vimeo Plus. Although the folks at Vimeo are amazing and allow you to post 1GB of video/motion content to their site for free, most of my current motion pieces take up quite a bit more memory than that (despite my best attempts and pairing down the file sizes. Unfortunately, that's what being overly ambitious gets you sometimes. :)

Thankfully, Vimeo Plus gives me 5GB/month to play around with, embed links (which will come in handy here), and all of it in delicious HD! Oh yeah....I'm excited. ;)

At any rate, I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that my motion projects (both past and future) will finally see the light of day on the web. Not only will you be able to see any past or present motion work on my Vimeo channel (which is currently looking a little empty at the moment ;), but I will also start posting my original motion art content right here on "Out the Other Side" very , very soon! :)

Speaking of Things to Get Excited About...

Oh yeah -- I'm too excited about this! ;)

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon ~ the "Out the Other Side" Online Store :

Get excited! ;)