Out the Other Side

You Never Know Who's Paying Attention...

2010-04-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a week! To say that the past 7 days have been insanely amazing, crazy, surreal, awesome, jaw dropping , kick ass and above all busy would actually be a gross understatement.

It's been all that and then some, kids! ;)

I'm still trying to catch my breath but in the meantime, let me fill you in on one of the most awesome moments from this past week.

First a little history:

For the most part, Out the Other Side gives me a great excuse to (among other things) talk about fellow creatives and creative things that I adore. Occasionally , I have been known to talk about music video directors that inspire me. Frankly, I am a bit of a music video junkie. I think that music videos as an artistic medium (as well as an entertainment vehicle) are just fascinating to analyze in depth. I am even reading a book that highlights the finer points of music video history ("Money for Nothing: a History of Music Video from The Beatles to the White Stripes" by Saul Austerliz. It's a fun sunny day read ;).

I'm particularly fond of directors (or artists in general) who aren't afraid to be edgy, unique, boundary defying, unapologetically weird, interesting, or willing to say something visually different.

This brings us to Maria Juranic and how she single handedly made my week/life! :)

Several months ago, I wrote a post about Juranic and her fascinating body of work. She is something of a professional hero of mine, so it was totally my pleasure to do the write-up on her.

Now, when I write this little blog that I call Out the Other Side , I seriously don't believe that my readership goes very far beyond my amazing group of personal friends (many of which are talented artists in their own right) a few other amazing creatives that I get feedback from on occasion, and possibly a few drunken college kids in Sweden who click on this blog by mistake.

I believe that to think otherwise so would a require a level of confidence/cockiness that is, frankly, just not in my nature. ;)

Anyway, never in my life did I think that I would be getting a personal email from Maria Juranic herself thanking me for the write-up I did on her! Never!

Not only did Maria send me an incredibly sweet email thanking me for showing her work some love but she also told me that she loves my work as well! :)

I'm not sure if she was just being polite, but I think that compliment almost caused me to have a small stroke out of excitement....haha.

Wow! I have nothing but an enormous amount of respect and admiration for Maria and her approach to her craft. As I said , she's a hero of mine, so to have her compliment my work at all really means the world to me. I don't even have the vocabulary to express how amazing that is.

What can I say? I'm a little star-struck. ;)

In any case, I want to extend a HUGE thank you to Maria Juranic for taking time out of her busy schedule to send such a cool email. She seriously just paid me one of the most amazing compliments that a girl could hope for! She is a class act, an amazing talent and if you haven't gotten aquatinted with her work yet, then what are you waiting for?

Below is my favorite Juranic clip : "Optimist (We are Not for Them)" by P.O.S.

Check out Maria's official page HERE and my aforementioned blog post on her HERE. :)

Also, thank you to everybody who has become a fan of Out the Other Side on Facebook! If you haven't started stalking the new fb page yet, feel free to get to stalkin' right over HERE! ;)

Andy Rehfeldt May Be My New Hero

2010-04-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

Do you think that Metallica and smooth jazz make for strange bedfellows?

Well keep reading. ;)

Today I have been cooped up inside (on a beautiful day, mind you) because I have been putting together a reel of motion pieces for a student art show (which opens on ~~Monday~~ Wednesday).

I'll admit, being stuck inside on a pretty day just to meet a deadline kind of sucks. However, this is actually a fun gig. I've basically been handed a stack of DVDs with several student's motion pieces and have been put in charge of stringing them together so that they can be looped during the show.

Simple enough.

The interesting thing is that one of the pieces prominently features the classic Metallica track, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

For the record, Metallica happened to be one of the many staples of my high school music collection, so I still have a warm, fuzzy spot in my heart for them.

Despite the fact that I think that Lars Ulrich is a certified douche, I pretty much believe that The Black Album and much of what predated it account for some of the most masterful heavy metal music ever committed to tape.

Getting back to the art show reel, For Whom the Bell Tolls certainly falls well within the era of Metallica that I can gleefully tolerate.

However , as a consequence of tweaking this reel for several hours today , I have had to hear that song repeated many, many times. Quite frankly, it was starting to make me a little crazy.

Imagine my surprise when (after finally finishing the reel) I stop for a "Twitter break" and randomly stumbled across this beauty :

No -- Metallica hasn't suddenly morphed into a jazz fusion act. However, after seeing this, there is a part of me that now secretly wishes that they would!:)

The musical mastermind behind the re-dubbing of Enter Sandman (and many other metal classics) is Los Angeles based musician, Andy Rehfeldt. He has been recently featured on MTV's Buzzworthy blog (which you can find HERE). You should also should totally check out his Twitter page HERE and his Youtube page over HERE. ;)

Not only did this effectively clear the pallet from the marathon repeats of For Whom The Bell Tolls, but it also just made me smile like an idiot. Granted, this may not do anything for some of you metal purists out there.

However, it definitely made the metal head, jazz nerd and lover of general oddities that I am a very happy girl. ;)

Andy Rehfeldt.....you are now officially my new hero. Bravo, sir! ;)

Year One

2010-04-01T17:20:00.000-07:00

First things first. Lets get one little thing out of the way....

You're welcome. ;)

In other news, today has just been crazy awesome for yours truly.

Today I was briefly mentioned on (former Tonight Show) blogger Aaron Bleyart's blog. I was a finalist for a contest to name the Macbook Pro that Bley will be blogging from on Conan O'Brien's Not Legally Prohibited to be Funny on Television Tour.

My suggestion ("The iBley") unfortunately didn't win. However, it was apparently cool enough to be a finalist and to get a mention on his blog (which you can check out here). Apparently, I am also getting some sort of (possibly questionable) snack from Bley's Matt Damon lifetime achievement awards goodie bag as a runner-up prize.

Seriously -- I'm kind of way too excited about this! The mention + the Matt Damon snack have got to be one of the coolest slices of random that I've ever been somewhat a part of. Well....at least not since I saw Sylvester Stallone getting in trouble at customs in Sydney, Australia.

No -- I'm not kidding.

Anyway, it's still pretty awesome and I'm pretty stoked about being a runner-up. Thanks Bley! :)

Today I also got another piece of news that was so good that I almost thought it was April Foolery. I got a call-back for a potential internship in Los Angeles, California!

Needless to say, that phone call pretty much made my day! The company is called i am that girl and they deal with (among other things) the promotion of females being passionate, beautiful and strong on their terms. It's very cool stuff and (as I said before) I am incredibly excited to get a call-back from them! We'll definitely have to see how things go with regards to that offer....but I'll keep you guys posted. ;)

Finally, not only is today April Fools day (hence the completely creepy 'Rick Roll'), but it was also one year ago today that I officially launched Out the Other Side!

Wow....my baby's growing up so fast! Seriously, were does all the time go?

A year ago I started this blog as a sort place to spew randomness / quasi-portfolio / bouncing off point for all of my creative inclinations. I sort of put this thing out there on a half-whim and have been pleasantly surprised to see that people are still interested after this long. That's nothing short of being completely miraculous to me and I am insanely thankful to every one of you who check this blog out and have given feedback over the last 12 months.

The coolest thing about posting on Out the Other Side is that it has allowed me to connect to so many other fabulous creatives. Hopefully I will continue to inspire you guys as much as you have me. :)

Anyway, in honor of Out the Other Side's first birthday, I have taken the liberty of giving the header (and color pallet) a little overhaul. My twitter page has also gotten a fresh makeover, so if you haven't checked that out yet, then you can do that over here. ;)

I hope that you guys dig the new look. I initially wasn't so sure about moving to an all white background for this blog. However, the longer it stays this way, the more I really love it. I'm pretty excited about brightening up the blog (in my own morbidly special way) just in time for spring and summer.

I also wanted to share my new favorite song with you guys. This is "Strapped for Cash" by Fountains of Wayne (from their 2007 album Traffic and Weather). Seriously -- why did I never pay attention to these guys after "Stacy's Mom"? This song is brilliant!

Anywho, given the fact that I am preparing for a big move within the next month or two, I figured what better way to usher in springtime than with a funky, upbeat, horn drenched, energetic ode to being broke.

Think about it. It totally fits. ;)

In any case, enjoy!

42nd Annual Juried Student Art Show

2010-03-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Wow. This past month has seriously been all sorts of crazy!

Between applying for summer internships, planning a major move, padding out/fine tuning my portfolio and dealing with excessively strange weather "mood swings" here in the southeast, things have certainly been eventful for yours truly.

Hopefully, that at least partly explains my sporadic posting here on "Out the Other Side" as of late. ;)

In any case -- a call for entries went up for Western Carolina University's 42nd Annual Student art show this week so I decided to submit a chunk of my newer digital pieces.

Among the stack of things that I submitted were several illustrations including Takin' out the Trash (see above). I also submitted my Breathe & Bleed and Buggin' motion pieces (see below).

The judges are currently picking pieces to officially be displayed in the show and honestly, I pretty much have no real expectations in terms of weather or not any of my work will actually make the cut. Experience tells me that this is probably the most healthy attitude to have about the whole thing. We'll just have to see what happens.

Wish me luck and I'll post an update {when time permits} when/if anything actually makes the cut. ;)

In the meantime, here are all of my art show submissions:

Buggin'

Breathe and Bleed

Mother of Violence

Self-Medication Gone Wrong

The Sharkbait Tango

Life Drawing

CoCo and the Chin in Late Night Hell

New Illustration: "The Princess and the Pea"

2010-03-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update -- here is the finished-ish version of "The Princess and the Pea" children's book cover illustration that I first previewed here a couple of posts ago.

You can check out the first rough version of this one right over HERE. ;)

I'm pretty pleased with how this one ultimately came out. I tried to stay with a more pastel color palet than some of my previous work and did what I could to keep black out of the equation altogether (although it does pops up in a few places here and there. ;)

The night sky (which was originally a very bright blue) wound up getting toned down considerably. When I went back and compaired this version to the rough one that I posted to "Out the Other Side" earlier, I'm wound up being really glad that I kept the sky muted. I figured out quickly that the pale pastels on a much more understated background just helped everything pop a lot more. The sky is actually my favorite part of this piece now. :)

The only thing that I'm not 100% trilled with is what the princess' eyes are doing in this illustration. There's something a little scary/hypnotic going on there that I can't quite put my finger on at the moment. I tried really hard to give her a facial expression that came across as frustration or unhappiness (due to the giant-ass pea in her otherwise cozy bed in space).

However, I think that she just looks like she's in some sort of spooky little trance. I believe that I am going to go back into this one later and work out the issues with her eyes.

Ultimately, since I've been working on this one for so long now (nearly a month and a half on and off) I'm kind of ready to move onto another project entirely right now.

I've noticed that this often happens to me. I sometimes get really ambitious with a particular project but ultimately I'll get to the very end and discover that the project is so ambitious that the time it takes me to make the damn thing is way long the original spark of ambition...haha.

Leave it to me to spend so long with a project that I ultimately bore myself. This is why I run into a lot of projects that I ultimately have to call "done enough" just so I can move on. If I didn't do that, I would ultimately obsess over projects that I'm already tired of for months and months.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?

I dunno. I think I'm just weird like that *shrugs*. ;)

New Illustration : "CoCo and The Chin in Late Night Hell"

2010-03-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Wow -- talk about being extremely tardy to the party! Is my newest illustration even relevant anymore?

Well... based on all the suspense surrounding Jay Leno's tragic return to the "Tonight Show" a few nights ago and all of the excitement still being generated on the 'I'm With CoCo' Facebook group (and elsewhere), I'm going to say 'yeah'.

'Yeah' -- this is still pretty relevant. ;)

Let me first apologize for being a bad 'COCOnut' and not posting this one to the blog sooner. I actually leaked it to the aforementioned "I'm With CoCo" Facebook group about a week or so ago. However, as I prepare for an internship this summer and a big move shortly thereafter...lets just say that life sort of got in the way of posting anything substantial about it here at "Out the Other Side".

Damn that life -- keeping me away from writing my blog and reading CoCo's sweet tweets :

(Click image for larger screenshot ;)

Oh well...

This whole illustration originally came about through an assignment I was recently given (and ultimately, went a little wild with ;). We were challanged to look at old broadside literary and/or political posters and then create one of our own.

With a world full of real-life problems, there was certainly a lot of heavy subject matter that I could have dissected and used as fodder for a poltical-type poster. However, I decided to keep the overall theme fairly light and instead opted to use 2010's epic late-night war as a bouncing off point for something potentially awesome.

Awesome or not -- this was a lot of fun to do!

Not only did it give me yet another excuse to drag Conan kicking and screaming into another one of my art pieces, but I also seized the opportunity to try out some new things technically/visually.

I embraced a lot of hand-drawn type and an intentionally sketchy/ hand drawn look in this piece. I believe that if nothing else, the end result is a great deal more organic looking than some of the stuff I've done in the past.

I am definitely excited about the prospect of utilizing more organic / hand drawn elements into my finished pieces. I think marrying these aesthetic ideas with things that I've done in the past will certainly make my visual vocabulary that much more richer in the end.

Now -- lets get back to the "I'm With CoCo" Facebook group for just a second, shall we?

Personally , I think it's just incredibly cool how all of Conan's fans have taken to the internet in force (and I'm including myself here) to show their support of Mr. O'Brien and his staff.

I believe that the whole "I'm With CoCO" movement (which was initiated by LA based artist Mike Mitchell), is about the coolest and most productive way for Conan's fans to come together and weather the 7 month drought without our favorite ginger kid.

I know that for me that the Facebook group dedicated to this cause has both been a tremendous source of entertainment and nostalgia.

It also happens to be insanely distracting ... but whatever.

I'm just going to have to learn to have my CoCo fixes in moderation, I guess. ;)

Anyway, I do want to say one thing about Conan's fanbase overall. Not only are Conan's fans some of the most intensely passionate around but it particularly strikes me that his fans are also some of the most creative , fun and intelligent kids that you could hope to run across on the internets.

I'm pretty sure that's why I felt compelled to dedicate part of a blog post to their ever-growing Facebook group. I sincerely believe that the continued fan support of Conan online is the truest testament to how moronic NBC really was for giving us "The Jay Leno Show: Part II".

If we ever needed any more evidence on how out of touch Jeff Zucker and company really are, then this this is probably it. Nearly a million fans (and counting) can't be wrong.....right?

I also believe that Conan (who has recently taken to entertaining us on Twitter) is a very smart man for taking advantage of social networking in his own right. In a world of webcasts and general internet entertainment, Conan should definitely use his online resources to his advantage. There are plenty of ways that Conan can play his cards in the next 7 months that would continue to keep him viable and comedically limber.

While Jay continues on with his very safe late night show, Conan could take the next 7 months to reinvent his act for a new network while continuing to build his fan base in various interesting, innovative and hilarious ways.

That's not even touching on this possible Conan O'Brien stage show that I keep reading about.

Obviously -- Conan is going to be a-okay in the long run, as will his loyal fans. I'm positive that in the coming months that he's got many fun surprises up his sleeve for all of us. I seriously can't wait to see how the "CoCo Online Saga" eventually unfolds.

In the meantime -- here is a list of ten of my favorite CoCo clips that have been happily circulating around the web recently.

Watch em' now before the trolls over at NBC make em disappear! ;)

#10) Conan and the 'Super Mario Set'

#9) Oscar Party Photos (and impromptu strip tease ;)

#8) CoCo vs. Stripper Pole

#7) Conan Bobs for Apples

#6) Robot on the Toilet Malfunction

#5) Norm ruins CoCo's promos

#4) Labamba drinks Tofurkey Soda

(Sorry about the crappy video quality, but it's totally worth it:)

#3) Jeff Goldblum and Conan Exchange 'Eye Jelly'

#2) Conan 'Takes it Off' for Mary-Kate Olsen

#1) Conan REALLY Likes the Lower Back Tat!

Work in Progress: "The Princess and the Pea"

2010-02-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

The idea to do my own illustrative take on the kid's story, "The Princess and the Pea", more or less stemmed out of a kind of necessity.

I actually began the initial sketches for this piece about a month ago. I began work on it in tandem with re-launching the process of tailoring my overall portfolio in a way that (I hope) will broaden my appeal to a wider variety of clients.

It recently was brought to my attention by a couple of well respected fellow creatives that , to date, my portfolio has yet to include anything that would not potentially frighten a small child.

Point taken. ;)

I'll be the first one to admit that a bit of what influences me harkens back to my own favorite viewing experiences with kid-centric entertainment. I definitely spent a lot of my formative years watching countless episodes of "Tiny Toon Adventures", "Darkwing Duck", "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" -- among many other kid's cartoon shows. Being a somewhat overgrown child myself, it's hard for those types of influences to not creep into my own work from time to time. ;)

However, I'll also be the first to own up to the fact that despite the fact that much of what kids are exposed to today is tame when compared to some of my work, my target demographic isn't necessarily young children.

This posed an interesting challenge for me when it came down to researching potential internships/jobs that are known for more kid friendly fare. Even though my aesthetic sometimes has more to do with bizzare demented cuteness with a little splash of cynicism , I'm not completely against catering to a slightly more innocent sensibility.

In fact, it's been kind of a fun challenge for me to work on a project that is just cute for cute's sake. I'm sure I'm more than capable of illustrating to a younger clientele while keeping a look and feel that is distinctively my own....right?

Well, is what I am currently trying to figure out. This notion leads us to the above illustration in progress. The above illustration is actually the first in a series of 3 children's book cover mock ups. The other two book cover designs will be for "The Ugly Duckling" and " The Pied Piper".

Like I said before, it's thus far been an interesting challenge to create something that is geared towards smaller kids while still keeping my own design sensibility and without making it somehow disturbing . ;)

"The Princess and the Pea" book cover pictured above is far from done. For one thing, I'm not totally sure that the color pallet depicted above is going to be the same when I get to the final version of this piece. I have a feeling that some of the colors will definitely change along the way.

All that I know for certain in terms of the color pallet is that I want to use a lot of pastels. Overall, I want to keep the color much softer than what I would normally use for a more personal project.

In any case, this hopefully gives you a fair idea of where I am headed with this thing. Although I am keeping the 'children's book' series fairly straight forward concept-wise, I have been working hard to find new ways to compositionally frame the key character(s) in a different way from other book covers that I've researched for the same story.

I'm not sure if I've been completely effective thus far in doing that. However, this is (at the very least) giving my creative problem solving skills a much needed work-out. I can't wait to unveil the finished illustration set when everything is finally done. :)

"When Arrows Don't Penetrate ... Cupid Packs a Pistol" ;)

2010-02-14T13:26:00.000-08:00

Happy silly pink hearts, premium chocolate and cheap red wine day! ;)

Also known as :

Old Self-Portrait

2010-02-09T13:57:00.001-08:00

Not a whole lot of new stuff to report on today. However, I did stumble across this old self portrait that I did around a year or so ago that I wanted to share.

It's a digital re-do of an old pic of me in my "punk" Halloween -- circa a few years ago.

Honestly, I kind of thought of of this one as sort of a 'throw away' personal piece (whose primary function was mostly to pretty up my Book o' Face page ;).

However, after not seeing it in many months...I'm kind of diggin' it now.

One of these days I may re-visit this again. It would be really cool to give this one a little bit more context at some point. I suppose it's a nice stand-alone piece, but it would be awesome to use this as a jumping off point for something a bit more substantial.

A new building block for yet another personal website design, perhaps?

In any case, I just thought I'd share this with you guys. :)

Halftime Highlights with The Who....and a Very Intriguing Super Bowl Commercial

2010-02-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

So it's definitely no secret (especially among those who know me personally) that I have been practically giddy with excitement since hearing that The Who were going to take the stage at Super Bowl XLIV.

Their performance tonight certainly did not disappoint! :)

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townsend and company blazed trough an electrifying 12 miniute set of classic Who hits that included "Pinball Wizard", "See Me, Feel Me (Listening to You)", "Baba O'Riley", "Wont Get Fooled Again", and "Who Are You?".

Although there were really no surprises in terms of the set list (not that there needed to be), the performance was energetic and a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

It's almost hard to believe that The Who have enjoyed a career that has spanned nearly 46 years and counting (wow!). However, don't let the age on these guys fool you. Tonight, Townshend and Daltrey (along with Pino Palladino on bass and Zak Starkey holding it down on drums) ripped it up and more than proved that they can out-rock youngins more than half their age.

Add in a state of the art LED light show to the mix (which harkens back to the band's 1970s hey-day when they incorporated a grandiose laser show to their live act) and you have one of the more electrifying Super Bowl Halftime shows in recent memory.

All this....and not a wardrobe malfunction in sight (unless , of course, you want to count Pete Townshend repeatedly flashing his belly button as a 'wardrobe malfunction'. ;)

Oh, and did I mention that Roger Daltrey was looking fabulous as ever in world's cutest jacket?

Because he totally was. *Melts* ;)

All in all, a great performance that left me a very happy Wholigan.

Brand New Illustration and THE WHO!

2010-02-04T19:46:00.001-08:00

The title of this blog is a little bit deceiving. This illustration is not exactly shiny new. I've actually been noodling around on this one since around mid-December.

However, for some reason, it taken me until now to get it fine tuned enough to show off. ;)

Anyway -- while I'll be the first to admit that this piece re-treads over a little bit of conceptual territory (check out the blog header ;), I was pretty excited about experimenting with new digital techniques here.

I started this piece (which s currently entitled "Life Drawing") shortly after I received my beloved digital tablet over X-mas holiday. Needless to say, the tablet has definitely opened up my work in terms of texture and shading possibilities (see image detail below).

Very exciting stuff. ;)

Even though this was basically a 'test illustration' that I did while getting used to my new tablet, I'm pretty happy with the end result. I can't wait to see what else I can accomplish with my new gadget. ;)

Meanwhile, I am practically beside myself with excitement because of this weekend's Super Bowl halftime line-up:

Mmmmmm.....Roger Daltrey. ;) <3

*Ahem* -- At any rate, the remaining members of THE WHO are going to rock Florida's Sun Life Stadium off of it's foundation this Sunday. Because of this, I could not be a happier Wholigan right now! ;)

I seriously haven't been this excited about a Super Bowl halftime since Prince did his thing in the rain back in 2007. ;)

Anyway, lets check out a couple of my many favorite live moments with Pete, Rog, John, and Keith :

Christy's {Not Quite Infinite} Birthday Playlist!

2010-01-25T21:59:00.000-08:00

Between you and me -- if you take into consideration that I'm 800 years old today, I think that I look pretty damn good ;) :

So (as the blog title implies), today is my birthday. For once, I actually don't have a whole lot to say about that. This year marks the first in a while that I didn't exactly make any definitive "party plans" (not that I do much partying anyway). This may sound kinda sad but lately I've been so stressed out over school-related things, future-related things and a little depressed about my upcoming b-day that I was debating doing anything remotely celebratory at all.

However, since I happen to be blessed with some of the most amazng friends on the planet, I will be having a small, intimate b-day dinner this evening with a few of my favorite people. Specifically, my friend Michelle is the main mastermind behind all this.

I cannot thank that girl enough for being sweet enough to pull together some of the usual suspects and lovelies just so I wouldn't wind up being a hermit on my own birthday. I also cannot thank all of my friends in general for being consistently amazing (and putting up with me even when I'm sick of me...haha ;).

Yes -- it takes very special, wonderful friends to deal with this much Christy. ;)

All in all, I am blessed to be able to call some of the most genuinely cool, amazing, and talented people my friends. It sounds ho-key, but an evening spent with some of my favorites is pretty much all the birthday gift that I really need. I love my friends very much and it will be very cool to chill and hang out with them this evening. I can't wait! ;)

Okay - with that said, I have been trying to figure out what would be a good way to celebrate my b-day here on "Out the Other Side". In the end, I figured what better way to celebrate than with music! Music is such a big part of my life so why not celebrate with a few of the tunes that are making me move right now?

Without further ado, here is a (relatively random) selection of the tracks that will be on serious rotation on this birthday girl's ipod today;)

Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopez -- "The Block Party"

Matthieu Chedid ('M') -- "Machistador"

Femi Kuti -- "Beng Beng Beng"

Spoon -- "Written in Reverse"

The Ting Tings -- "That's Not My Name"

White Rabbits -- "Percussion Gun"

The Talking Heads -- "A Clean Break (Lets Work)"

Elbow -- "Grounds for Divorce"

The Grouch -- Artsty

Passion Pit -- "Sleepyhead"

Michael Jackson -- "Mega Remix"

Prince -- "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker"

Ironically, that Prince performance is one of the few things that I can actually cut Jay Leno some slack for. However, I'm still rollin' with 'Team CoCo'. ;)

Good Night (For Now), Conan.

2010-01-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Conan O'brien's last as host of the "Tonight Show". Although it was (for good reason) a bittersweet moment for me as a longtime fan of his, I will say that I laughed a lot and was very happy to see him making the most of an unbelievably tough situation.

More than that , though, Conan left "Tonight" with southern rock cool and a hell of a lot of class.

Conan had every right to verbally hammer the final nail into NBC for everything that they have put him and his staff through. He had every right to be angry on-air. He had every right to be openly bitter and cynical about his future.

He was none of these things. Instead, he honestly acknowledged the differences that he and NBC are currently happening.

He then, with no outward sense of bitterness or sarcasm, thanked the network for giving him any opportunity at all and for being his TV home for nearly 20yrs.

After it was all said and done.....Conan left "Tonight" on his own terms while taking the high road.

A real class act to the end. :)

Because of that, I've never been more proud to call myself a true fan of Conan O'Brien than I am tonight.

I sincerely look forward to what the future holds for Mr. O'Brien and his staff. It will, no doubt, be a rough 7 months for me without that fabulous pompadour lighting up my TV every night.

However, I'm sure that I'll manage. There's always Letterman and Craig Ferguson over on that other network, I suppose. *shrugs* ;)

In the meantime, lets take a look at Conan's momentary television farewell from earlier tonight. Fair warning, you may need a box of tissues standing by after this video, kids. ;)

Until later.....'Good night, CoCo!' ;)

Peter Gabriel and "Music for Relief"

2010-01-22T00:48:00.001-08:00

This evening has been a little bit crazy over on my end so, unfortunately, there will will be no music video director spotlight today. Thank you everybody who has commented on those posts, though. I was pleasantly surprised that so many of you dug those pieces and got something out of them. They were certainly a hell of a lot of fun for me to write. I may bring those back periodically in the future....so stay tuned and thank you again. :)

What I did want to touch on really quickly is this video that I just stumbled a bit ago.

Peter Gabriel has been one of my all-time favorite musicians for years now. He's definitely up there on my top ten. ;) I'm not only a fan of his musicianship but I also look up to him as an innovator in his craft and a staunch supporter of world music and humanitarian concerns.

To that end, it definitely piqued my interest to see this very somber cover version that he did of David Bowie's "Heros" show up on CNN.com this evening. The track is currently available for download at www.musicforrelief.org along with previously unreleased tracks by All-American Rejects, Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morrisette, Linkin Park, Slash, and more.

I strongly encourage all of you to take a moment, go to musicforrelief.org and download some great music for FREE.

Not only will you get an opportunity to add a few excellent tunes to your digital music arsenal, but you also have an opportunity there to say 'thanks' for your free musical gift by donating to the on-going Haiti earthquake relief effort. 100% of all donations that come into musicforrelief.com go straight to the Haiti earthquake victims. Seriously, what better deal can you ask for?

As I said, please check out Music for Relief , give what you can and get some amazing tunes in the bargain. On a related note, please also check out the "Hope for Haiti" concert that will be simulcast this evening on pretty much every major network (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc) as well as several cable outlets (MTV, VH1, etc). Check your local listings.

Meanwhile, lets take a quick look at this gorgeous Gabriel updated Bowie classic, "Heros", against the backdrop of some of the more devastating and heartbreaking photos from the Haiti earthquake aftermath.

MV Director Spotlight : Maria Juranic

2010-01-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

You know, I'm always excited to see any up and coming directors (or creative people in general) doing their thing and doin' it well. However, when I stumbled upon the innovative and sometimes flat out bizarre videos of Maria Juranic, I was especially excited to see a fellow fabulous female making some absolutely FIERCE visual statements on the screen!

Seriously -- her stuff blows me away. I'm pretty sure that if I could ever get my motion work to be half as cool as her videos, then I would be a very contented kitty. ;)

At any rate, there is something very fresh and organic about her videos that makes them incredibly fun to watch and analyze.

Juarnic's use of cut and paste graphics, bizzare morph effects, stop motion and childhood trappings lends itself to a lot of intriguing possibilities visually. What's more is that the conventions that she typically uses are pretty simple. These aren't 'Avatar' style effects that she's employing here and it doesn't need to be. Every video definately employs a very D.I.Y. , cut n' paste, artsy, gritty, punk rock feel.

My absolute favorite Juarnic video is "Optimist (We Are Not For Them)" from Minneapolis born hip-hop artist, P.O.S.

I first saw this clip about a year ago and have been a big admirer of Juaric's work ever since. I think that the first thing that struck me about the video is that it was certainly a refreshing departure visually from the bulk of the hip hop videos in rotation right now. I believe that it is also to P.O.S's credit that he let Juranic do her thing creatively. The end result was brilliant and ultimately gave a little bit of an alternative face to the hip-hop music video altogether.

"Optimist" was less about bling and more about making a visual statement which I thought was incredibly cool. It shatters some of the traditional hip-hop conventions and I believe that the risk taking here visually was well worth it. There is definitely a cut n' paste punk sensibility that Juranic plays with throughout the video which I believe is a fairly unique visual approach for a hip-hop video. As a matter of fact, those who know anything about P.O.S. would not find the punk undertones surprising at all. P.O.S. (who's given name is Stefon Alexander) actually started out as a punk rock musician well before he was ever an MC.

Personally, I believe that mixing punk and hip-hop visual sensibilities makes for a very unique and irresistible visual experience in the end. Throw in some stop motion and a few of your brother's toy cars, and the whole thing starts to make you think of childhood play with a little funk rubbed all over it.

That's totally my kind of music video! ;)

What I feel is even cooler than all of that is how Juaraic can pull off a decidedly cut n paste, animated visual style and then seamlessly switch gears altogether to create something like her short "Phantom" demo piece. That one is (literally and figuratively ) a whole other visual monster.

It's gorgeously creepy and deliciously disturbing. You seriously don't want to miss this one, kids! (see clips below).

In any case, check out "Optimist (We Are not For Them)", "Phantom" and several other fabulous Maria Juarnic creations :

P.O.S. -- "Optimist (We Are Not For Them) -- (2009)

Eyedea & Abillities -- "Junk" (2009)

Eyedea and Abillities -- "Smile" (2009)

(Demo Piece) -- "Phantom" (2009)

MV Director Spotlight : Chris Hopewell

2010-01-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

Dark, quirky, funny, sometimes campy and always deliciously British. That is perhaps the best quick and dirty executive summary that I could give you for UK's own Chris Hopewell.

Hopewell's name may not be as readily recognizable in the states as the aforementioned Mark Romanek (who , himself , is something of a master at lending artful quirkiness to his videos).

However, Hopewell's work in increasingly getting more and more attention in the states and worldwide. His music videos tend to reflect a darker, brooding British perspective that is undercut with a lot of irony and kitch (kind of like any original recipe Peter Gabriel-era Genesis track). There often seems to be a gloominess to his visuals overall, but even within the gloom there is a definite sense of humor.

Also, I absolutely love his use of color , textures and animation in his work. His videos often read as odd fairy tales gone gloriously wrong (which is a sentiment that I can sort of relate to. ;)

I first fell in love with Hopewell's work after seeing Radiohead's epic "There, There" for the first time. That video (which still happens to be one of my all-time favorites from ANY director) never ceases to blow my mind each time I watch it.

Granted, some of the techniques emloyed in that particular video (especially in regards to animation) are pretty old hat at this point. However, I believe that (coupled with the dark 'Alice and Wonerland' vibe that's going on) is part of that video's charm. I've read that the concept for that particuar video came from a poplar British kid show that lead singer Thom Yorke and his daughter watch called 'Bagpuss'. Hopewell certainly paired a certain whimsy in this video that would be associated with happy fairy tales and kids stories with a certain amount of darkness . The end result was not only incredibly effective but completely mesmerizing to watch.

Another Hopewell video that happens to be a particular favorite of mine is "Dark of the Matinee" by Franz Ferdinand. ;)

On that note, let's check out "There, There", "Dark of the Matinee", and a few of the other gems in Chris Hopewell's arsenal:

Radiohead -- "There There" (2003)

Franz Ferdinand -- "Dark of the Matinee" (2004)

Persephone's Bees -- "Nice Day" (2005)

Mylo -- "Destroy Rock n' Roll" (2005)

The Offspring -- "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" (2008)

Music Videos Exposed and Mark Romanek (again ;)

2010-01-18T20:05:00.000-08:00

Well, at least one television channel is doing something that I agree with. ;)

This Friday, VH1 Classic is debuting a new half hour weekly series entitled "Music Videos Exposed".

When I first heard about it, I knew that it immediately sounded like something that I would dig a whole lot. ;)

The premise of the show is that they are taking a deeper look behind the scenes of some of the the most iconic music videos around through the eyes of the directors that created them. The directors themselves dish on on everything from concept development, tedious shoots, temperamental artists, special effects (including now seemingly archaic rotoscoping that was used to create A-Ha's still amazing "Take on Me" video), and more.

Initial shows will take a look at classic 1980's video staples. A few of the videos that will be featured include "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits, "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles (which was the first video to ever air on MTV back in 1981), and Michael Jackson's ever-iconic "Billie Jean" .

As I said, this is *TOTALLY* up my alley! ;)

I any case, I figured that since this is certainly a show after my own heart that I would share a few of my very own music videos with you guys. Instead of shining light on the inside dirt of each video (which I honestly feel utterly under-qualified to do), I wanted to share my feelings on each video's respective parents (directors).

In the spirit of celebrating the art of music video (which I feel is one of the most intriguing and ever-evolving creative mediums out there), I plan on showcasing the work of a few of my own favorite music video directors and talking a little about what titillates me about their work.

First and foremost, there is a name that has been brought up several times on this blog before -- Mr. Mark Romanek (see above photo).

Romanek's work is a overwhelming favorite of mine and since I have said a good bit about his work in previous posts (namely HERE), I wont go too far into his history right now.

However, one point that I would like to reinterate about Mark's work is how impeccable he is at visual story telling. Music video today, (in the age of video vixens and bling) is a medium that can certainly come off as superficial if handled in the wrong way.

Sometimes superficial cheese is what you want. I agree whole heartedly that just because a video cannot stand alone as a work of art , that doesn't necessarily make it bad. I happen to like quite a few blatantly (conceptually) bad or vacant videos. Lets call them my 'guilty pleasures'. ;)

However, I do think that , as in everything, a certain amount of craftsmanship is put forth in music video directing, then the end results tend to be less commercial fluff and more breathtaking.

Mark Romanek's level of craftsmanship and skill behind the camera almost always results in something breathtaking. Romanek (who has also directed documentaries and tv commercials) knows how to push visual boundaries in all the right ways.

I have always admired the level of technical ability that is evident in his vidoes but more than that I love how Romanek's videos all operate just as effectively as stand alone art pieces as they do a promotional tool for an individual musician.

He knows how to weave a rich, tactile visual narrative better than almost any other director in the business.

I believe that this is a big part of why Mark Romanek has continue to thrive at his craft for so many years and just one of many reasons why I love and want to emulate everything that he does.

Mark has an uncanny ability to create whole new amazing and crazy visual landscapes with every new project. More than that, he does so while remaining fresh and exciting. Because of that, he never ceases to intrigue me and and is a heavy inspiration for my own work.

Always a fearless innovator, one thing that Mark Romanek is not is stale nor boring.

Lets check out a few examples of why I think he's utterly brilliant, shall we? ;)

Madonna - "Bedtime Story" (1994)

Lenny Kravitz -- "If You Can't Say No" - (1999)

David Bowie -- "Jump They Say" (1993)

Red Hot Chilli Peppers -- "Can't Stop" (2002)

Michael + Janet Jackson -- "Scream" (1995)

Johnny Cash -- "Hurt" (2002)

All They are Sayin'.....is Give Conan a Chance!

2010-01-18T18:49:00.000-08:00

This was the cry of many, many rain-drenched CoCo fans and anti-Jay protesters this afternoon in Los Angeles.

Today, NBC and Conan's people wrap up negotiations revolving around his untimely exit (his last "Tonight Show" is scheduled to be taped this Friday). However, this did not stop a large swarm of his fans from coming out in force and rallying around NBC Universal in LA today....in the RAIN, no less!

I'll admit, if it were a tad more convenient (and not economically ridiculous) for me to fly out to LA myself, then my fluffy behind would have DEFINITELY been standing outside in the rain to show my support.

Is that a lil insane? Perhaps.....but then again, you're talking to the chick who painted this 6ft tall Conan painting when she was still in high school:

Needless to say, I've always been a long-time team CoCo member. Having said that, I'm not particularly convinced that all of the rallying is going to actually change the fact that Conan's "Tonight Show" will be no more after Friday. However, I'm sure that it's cool for Conan to see that his unorthodox legion of fabulous followers have his back....no matter where he winds up.

On a related note, Jay Leno is set to tell his side of all of this mess on "The Jay Leno" show tonight. Although I'll be sad to see Conan go this week, it will be interesting to see how this whole disaster pans out in the long term for both men.

We shall see. :)

Meanwhile, check out a few of the highlights from today's rainy pro-CoCo fan rally :

Please Contribute to the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort

2010-01-16T14:15:00.000-08:00

The earthquake that occurred about a week ago in Port au Prince Haiti is an undeniable tragedy. The loss of life and general destruction that that country has sustained has been indescribable. Right now, there is a desperate need for immediate assistance to treat the wounded and dying (since most of their primary medical facilities and hospitals have been destroyed). Also -- the need to get aid money, food, water and supplies to them is critical as is the need to evacuate everybody who can be safely evacuated (particularly the critically wounded so they can have a better chance at proper care.)

As people there scramble to find alternative places to live and scramble for food, the struggle to survive is leading to the people of Haiti to even become violent amongst themselves in order to survive.

I realize that in the broad scheme of things, "Out the Other Side" is just a silly (and practically microscopic) art/entertainment blog that exists in the vastness of cyberspace. Generally, I view my function within the blog community as an artist and a sudo-source for entertainment and comic relief. I try to bring fun , engaging, and sometimes completely irrelevant content to this thing whenever time permits .

However, that being said, there are obviously bigger things going on in the world that we should be aware of. The tragedy in Haiti is something that we should all be paying attention to (if we are not by now). It may take years for Haiti to rebuild it's beautiful country and obviously , emotional wounds and aftermath from this will take much longer to deal with.

I pretty much have no power or influence whatsoever (given that I am just a student with a blog). However, if I can do anything to do my part financially or in terms of raising awareness among my fellow creatives on how they can help contribute to the short term and long term relief efforts going on in Haiti, then I will certainly do my part.

If you are interested in contributing money or time to the Haitian rescue relief, here are a few places that I encourage you to check out as soon as you can:

--To contribute to the Red Cross effort in Haiti, Text 90999 to the word "Haiti" to donate immediately the relief effort.

You can also go to www.redcross.org for more information or call 1-800 -REDCROSS to see how you can contribute/ help.

--Also, check out Unicef (where you can make a secure, tax deductible donation to the relief effort). You can go on line or call 1-800-367-5437 to donate by phone.

-- You can also go to Habitat for Humanity's website to see how you can contribute to the rebuilding of Haiti. Call (212)-991-400 for more information.

If you are currently reading this from NYC, you can contact:

The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City

Once Centre Street,

23rd Floor,

New York, NY

10007

You can also call 212-788-7794 to see how you can contribute to Haiti tough the Mayor's Fund to Advance NYC.

Actor Ben Stiller has been lending his efforts to both the general earthquake relief and has also set up a website to rebuild schools in Haiti called "Stiller Strong" (think Lance Armstrong and "LiveStrong").

In any case, if you would like to check that out and make a donation to the Haiti relief effort, go to www.stillerstrong.org and make a donation.

Other things to look out for :

-- Actor George Clooney and MTV are teaming up to host a relief telethon. On Friday, January 22 (next Friday), Clooney will appear in a bi-coastal telethon and fundraiser on all MTV network channels (which includes CBS, NBC, ABC, and all associated cable channels). All proceeds will go towards the relief efforts in Haiti.

-- Also ( for all of you fellow "Pro-Conan O'Brien" kids out there), Mike Mitchell, creator of the artwork for the "I'm with CoCo" online movement (see art below), is also lending his support to Haiti. He currently has some "I'm with CoCo" t-shirts and prints up on his website and $1 from every shirt purchased will go to Planet Peace (which will in turn, go straight to the Haiti recovery effort.

There will also be several "I'm with CoCo" rallies in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle. Also, there will be specific "I'm with CoCo" benefit for Haiti coming up in the next week. Any money collected at any of these events will go to benefit Haiti. Click HERE for more information on these events.

-- You can buy an "I"m with CoCo" t-shirt HERE and you can donate directly to Planet Peace HERE

Thank you all for your time and please , if you have anything that you can spare (no matter how small the amount), please contact one of these above organizations and give to the Haitian relief effort as soon as you can!

No Mo' CoCo on the "Tonight Show-Show" ?

2010-01-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

Seriously -- did you think that I wasn't going to jump on my soap box about this one?

What are you smoking, NBC?!

As I have faithfully maintained in several other posts here on "Out the Other Side", I am definitely on team Conan. Much is being written about the whole Conan/Leno latenight contraversy right now and I can assure you that I believe that NBC is making a heinous mistake.

It's not even just because I happen to be such a big fan of Conan's. As I have stated before, I hold a certain amount of admiration for the man. I not only find his quirky brand quick witted humor incredibly entertaining and funny, but Conan has a work ethic and a dedication to his craft that I have always respected.

However, I believe that regardless of my affinity for the lanky, pompadoured prince of late-night, I believe that NBC is trying to make it's affiliates happy and pander to Jay Leno's selfishness.

Their first mistake is trying to pander to both parties. If you want to appease the affiliates, tell Jay to take a hike!

If he's not funny at 10pm, why on earth is he going to be any funnier at 11:30pm?

I do not think that Jay Leno (as much as he did for the institution of "The Tonight Show") should be catered to by NBC. His show was completely stale and unfunny and besides that, HE made the desision to walk away from his talk show. That was his stupidity. I understand how he must be kicking himself in the ass for walking away from his bread and butter, but don't punish Conan (and NBC viewers , for that matter) just to kiss Jay's ass.

Conan may have had a rocky start with the "Tonight Show", but to jerk him around (as well as the "Tonight Show" institution itself) is just beyond ridiculous. He didn't even get a proper chance to develop his "Tonight Show". He has only been host for 7 months.

Conan O'brien works his ass off and pours his bone marrow and DNA into these shows every night. He was promised "The Tonight Show" gig over 5 years ago, moves his kids and wife out to LA only to have it ripped out from under him. All this just because Jay Leno's stale prime time "experiment" is so painful to watch? Really?

Also, all of this talk of possibly shortening the "Tonight Show" to 30 minutes, or moving the show to a time-slot that's not even technically 'night time' anymore is insulting to the long legacy of the "Tonight Show". This show has been around since the 1954 tenure of Steve Allen and is a cornerstone of American television. To have the show bounced to a crazily late time slot is not only a serious snub to Conan, but it is also a slap in the face for "The Tonight Show" in general.

Johnny Carson must be rolling in his grave by now.

As for my feelings about Conan's possible move to Fox (or some other network), I believe that he will be a big asset whereever he lands. He already has his staff and writers in place and a long history of doing inventive, weird , quirky and highly experimental commedy on his "Late Night" show. He also pulls in a younger demographic than both Jay and Dave and also has a cool, nerdy, and energetic Gen Y appeal.

Above all else, Conan is a class act (unlike Jay, who could have bowed out gracefully to allow Conan a fair chance to host "Tonight Show").

This whole situation is just a very dark chapter of American television history and for "The Tonight Show" legacy. I understand that (like with most things) that business is business and that the almighty dollar is playing a big roll in this whole situation. However, the fact that NBC insists on all but destroying the integrity of "The Tonight Show" franchise is completely disgusting.

Seriously -- somebody at NBC needs to be slapped right about now.

I ultimately wish Conan, his staff, and his family well....where ever they go. I hope that where ever Conan lands that he and his staff get the respect that they deserve and I hope that he gets carte blanche to do what he does best.....write, host and entertain.

One thing is for certain -- whatever channel Conan winds up on, I will definitely follow.

Check out this video of Conan as he ponders his options on Monday night's show:

[Edit] -- Conan just released an official statement regarding this whole mess. The bottom line is that he is not taking NBC's deal to push his "Tonight Show" to a later time.

While this makes me sad....I can't say that I blame him.

You can read the full statement HERE. Truly a class act til the end. As sad this is, the way he is handing it all gives me yet another reason to admire and respect him.

I love you CoCo! :)

Tonight I'm Gonna Party Like It's......

2009-12-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

....ten years ago? Oh well....

Happy New Years, Everybody!! ;)

Playing with My New Toy...

2009-12-29T22:46:00.001-08:00

So as a belated Christmas gift to myself (and as sort of a reward for surviving a particularly challenging semester/year), I treated myself to a new digital drawing tablet this year!

Is it a Wacom?

No...it is not. However, I love it just the same. ;)

Unless, I would like to put a substancial dent into my "ATL Apartment" money, a Wacom (or at least one of any substantial size) is just not financially in my future at the moment. Seriously, in this recession....is it really in anybody's price range right now?

However, thanks to a little research and a holiday sale that is currently going on at Computer Geeks.com (and you know you want to check that out right over HERE ;) I got an amazingly good deal on a nice starter tablet.

I wound up settling for an 8x6'' Digipro Drawing Tablet, and while it doesn't contain all of the bells and whistles of a Wacom Tablet (or even the insanely soupped up new Apple Tablets that are about to debut in a few weeks), it does it's job.

For the cheap-ish price tag ($44), I have [so far] found the Digipro to be a nice alternative to the Wacom for beginning tablet users (such as myself) and starving artists on a tight budget.

The pad also boasts 512 levels of pen pressure. Even though this pales in comparison to the Wacom Intusos four's 2048 levels of pen pressure, you can still do a lot of cool things with the limited pen pressure. Honestly , if you know how to manuver your advanced brush settings in Photoshop (plus your flow and opacity levels) you can still stretch the Digipro's Pen a bit further than you may think for the price.

Ultimately, what made my descison to go cheaper was size. While I could have gotten a smaller Wacom Intuos (or even a Bamboo model) the only sizes that I could afford were ....well....teeny-tiny.

Since I really more space than a large index card to draw on (and didn't want to pay upwards of $300 for the privelege) I decided to take a gamble on a cheaper (but larger) model.

So far, I'm pretty happy and incredibly excited about my new pad.

It may not be all that fancy (and possibly a tad ghetto) , but it's totally functional and does what I need it to. That's good enough for me at the moment. ;)

Besides, there will always be plenty of time for an upgrade later. For my first tablet, I couldn't be more happy with my purchase. In fact , I'm practically dancing with excitement because the bottom line is that owning a tablet at all is going to open up my digital work so much. This little tablet could just be what the doctor ordered to get me out of this end-of-year creative rut I've started to get into lately.

Speaking of the tablet, the above two images are a couple of 'test sketches' that I did with the Digi pro while test driving it. I must say, it feels really liberating to just.....um....skribble! ;)

Needless to say -- I've been having a lot of fun playing with my new toy *ahem* ;)

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T01:53:00.000-08:00

From "Out the Other Side" and from the bottom of my heart -- I just wanted to quickly wish everyone a very happy (and safe) Christmas!

I also wanted to thank all of you, the readers of this blog, once again for all of your love and continued support. Since launching this blog in April, I have been very blessed to have many of you leave encouraging comments and share your own amazing work with me. For that, I continue to be inspired and incredibly grateful .

Thank you guys for taking this ride with me. It's honestly the greatest Christmas present that I could ever ask for. I cannot wait to bring a lot more cool things in the new year (not only to this blog but also on the upcomming "Out the Other Side [dot] com" official site ... still in progress ;).

Without further ado -- here are The Waitresses with one my all time favorite Christmas songs, "Christmas Wrapping"! ;)

Original Motion Content : "Buggin'"

2009-12-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

The above piece is not only my latest creation but it is also a little exercise in creative restraint (believe it or not).

"Buggin'", while still as wildly experimental and colorful as some of my past pieces, is an exercise in restraint because I am continuing to work hard at containing my motion art to a minute or less.

Picking up the pace has certainly presented itself with it's own set of challenges, but ultimately, I am more satisfied with this end result than I was with "Memories". This should have been a no-brainer to me before, but an average person's attention span is not particuarlly accomodating to long, lingering, dream like motion epics. In an age where commercials and televison are full of quick camera edits and lots of breakneck action, anything much longer than 30 seconds is just going to get boring. Period.

As discussed in the previous post, pacing in motion work is a skill that I need to work on (well....that is if I don't want to unintentionally put my whole audience to sleep. ;)

Now that I've started to become more confortable with cramming more visual information into a smaller time frame, my next big challenge is to tell more of a visual story in a shorter time. While this particular piece is flashy and was a blast to work on, I still think that it's lacking a good bit in the narrative department.

However, even if "Buggin'" bears no real story line and is possibly still a hair too long, it think that giving myself time restrictions was ultimately a very positive thing. I certainly intend on further working on pacing and the length of my pieces and I cannot wait to share the results of said experiments soon on "Out the Other Side". ;)

That's about it for now. However, before I wrap this post up, I wanted to share with you guys a little of what inspired the style and color pallet of "Buggin'".

The following music video is entitled "Y a Dez Zazous" . It is by French avant garde legend, Brigitte Fontaine and the very funky multi-instrumentalist, Mathieu Chedid (aka "M").

Chedid has become something of a musical obsession of mine lately (and he will be discussed at length in a later post;)

In any case, as kitchy and strange as this clip is, I found it to be delightfully bright and graphical. I think it was a nice reminder for me of how employing simple, graphical elements into a motion piece in the right ways can lend it's own sense of depth and sophistocation to a piece. Lets check it out, shall we? ;)

Original Motion Content -- "Memories and Hallucinations"

2009-12-19T04:13:00.000-08:00

Finals are finally done for the semester and I (due to an unexpected east coast blizzard) am currently snowed in on campus until tomorrow. What a perfect time to take a little nostalgic look back into my artistic past.

Sit down in your coziest chair, grab a warm tasty beverage, and check out the long belated debut of "Memories and Hallucinations":

Regular readers of this blog will most likely notice that I've talked a pretty good game about this one already. As a matter of fact, this piece was the subject of the very first post here on "Out the Other Side" (which you can check out HERE. ;)

"Memories and Hallucinations" (with it's surreal Mark Isham soundtrack) has been regarded as 'epic' by some and 'far too long' by others.

Honestly, I agree with both of these assessments. It's an incredibly long and somewhat surreal display of digital excess. I'm not blind at all to this fact.

It also doesn't exactly host a concrete narrative. In a world were 10 and 30 second commercial clips are the norm, this is just crazily long. It's easy to get lost in in and it's easy to get bored by it, unfortunately.

I believe that since this piece took me so long and was such a labor of love (I even drew and digitally manipulated every stitch of this by hand), that it has taken me a long time to come to grips with the fact that this is simply not as successful as some of my other work. It really is my baby and I suppose that it's hard to admit that your baby totally sucks. ;)

However, one thing that working on this piece has taught me is that just because you labor over something and devote large chunks of time to a piece....that doesn't automaticly equal creative success.

That's kind of a hard pill to swallow, but hindsight is 20/20, I guess. ;)

On the plus side , despite the excessivly long length and quasi-dream like feel, this is still a piece that I can still look back on as a success -- of sorts.

In the end, this was a big technical exercise for me and even if I went overboard with the length and the neverending visuals, I definately learned a lot within the process. Working on this piece (which took nearly 4 months to complete) taught me a lot in terms of the more technical aspects of of creating motion art with After Effects and Illustrator.

I believe very firmly that there is no better way to learn and to grow in your knowlege of Adobe suite programs (or anything, really) than to just imerse yourself and play. Nothing builds your technical ability and know-how faster than just digging into the programs, combining different settings and effects and seeing what you get.

This , of course, is assuming that you have unlimited time to do such a thing. Who the hell has that these days? ;)

Thankfully, the next few weeks will allow me some time finally sit down and just create art without expectations, immediate deadlines, or mandatory critiques. I'm hoping that despite the fact that I will have 'no limits' that I will create work (both motion and illustration) that are punchier and much more accessible but still contain my DNA.

A Christmas without artistic limits? What better present could you ask for? ;)

A Hiatus, the Good News and the Not So Good....

2009-12-09T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well , it's officially crunch time folks and it's looking like any new "Out the Other Side" content will have to go on the back burner for a little bit. With final exams coming up for me on Monday, I felt that this would be as good a time as any to take a small hiatus from blogging so I can concentrate on final exam preparation fun-ness. Oh yay! ;)

However, before I close up shop for a little bit, I do have a few huge updates to share with you guys.

This has been a huge week for me and for "Out the Other Side". To say that it's been kind of a surreal whirlwind is a pretty gross understatement. For one thing, I am am still hard at work putting together the epic that is "Out the Other Side {dot} com". It's been an ambitious project and a lot of sweat and hard work have gone into putting it together. However, I'm really proud of the end result so far and cannot wait to go live with the official site sometime soon-ish.

Having said that, I am not making any promises about the official launch date as of yet. I would ideally like to have the site up and running before the new year. We'll have to see how things look after I get done with finals and assess the amount of work that's still needs to be done. Stay tuned for more on all that later. :)

Meanwhile, this week in particular has brought with it an amazing opportunity, a little bit of unexpected drama (that I'd actually rather not get into here) and possibly some unfortunate news for yours truly.

However -- first the good stuff. As of Monday, I found out that I officially have an interview with Primal Screen in Atlanta Georgia. Primal Screen is a multi-platform design firm that creates animation, dynamic interactive media and motion graphics (among many other amazing things) for the likes of Nickelodeon, PBS Go, Sprout, the Sundance Channel and others.

Oh yeah....this is pretty huge stuff! I cannot tell you how excited I am about landing this opportunity and I look forward to having the guys at Primal Screen look over my stuff and (at the very least) give me some constructive feedback on my current body of work. I can't wait!

Now for the not so fun part. If I am selected for this internship, the only time that they can take me is the summer. The sad bottom line for me is that this will cause me to graduate later than expected and leaves me with 6 months between now and June that I will technically not be doing much of anything with myself due to the fact that I have already satisfied every other requirement for my undergraduate degree program.

Six months of inactivity while waiting on an internship is just not going to be great for my creative juices (or my sanity).

I'm already pretty upset over this sudden change of plans and that I will now have to wait until summer to graduate. I was banking on having my degree by May. I really had my heart set on promptly moving on to a stage in my life that wasn't so directly governed by class schedules and academic advisors. More than that, I'm scrambling to try and figure out what the next 6 months are going to have in store for me. Honestly, I am strongly considering registering for one last semester at my university and just biding my time working my day jobs, saving money, going to class and taking freelance gigs when I can.

At least that way, I won't suddenly find myself being grossly unproductive and unemployed for 6 months. I'm painfully aware that the economy is still pretty lousy right now and frankly, I'm skeptical as to weather I will find even a grunt job within 6 months with no degree.

However, I currently hold down two day jobs at school. In a way, if I'm going to be stuck somewhere....wouldn't it be nice to be "stuck" somewhere were I can still earn some green in the meantime?

As much as I want to try and put a positive spin on the possibly delayed graduation, it's still a little sad for me that sucking it up for one more semester may be the best option both financially and logistically for me at this time.

However, I'm not sure if you guys got the memo, but I'm kind of a workaholic. That may actually be an understatement in my case. ;)

In other words, 6 months with nothing to do would pretty much kill me. I could always try to chance it and try to get something off the ground in my (very small) hometown for those six months. However, the chances of me finding a job are far worst there than if I were to stick close to the university. Then there would be the gross lack of fellow creatives to interact with and creatively stimulating fun to be had. Not fun at all, kids:/

The bottom line is that if staying in school for a little while longer is the only way that I can get to Primal Screen and get a real shot at my dream (without loosing my damn mind in the process), then that's a personal sacrifice that I am willing to make. What's a few more months in school just to keep my sanity intact compared to a chance at a dream job? The choice seems pretty clear cut to me. ;)

Is this situation ideal? It is if it will help me get an opportunity to really reach my full potential and and really make something of myself. I've come too far and have worked too hard already to not move heaven and earth to make this work somehow.

I realize that life is all about sacrifices and trade-offs. Sometimes you have to be uncomfortable for a while to get to those opportunities that will (hopefully) ensure that you will be living much more conformably in the future. The cool thing about sacrifice, though, is that when you finally struggle for so long ....the prize at the end of the rainbow is just that much more sweet. Following your passions, I feel, is well worth any struggle. Isn't that what being a "starving artist" is all about? ;)

A chance to intern/work at Primal Screen is definitely worth any discomfort that I may have to go through in the meantime. It's a dream gig and I'm certainly not too far gone to recognize that those dream gigs are more than worth fighting for. It's not like they come around everyday. :)

In any case, despite my disappointment over suddenly extending my college stay way longer than I originally intended to, I am truly more trilled and grateful about the interview (and possible internship) than disappointed. This is still a huge opportunity and I would be a complete idiot to not jump through whatever hoops I needed to to make sure that I give myself a fair shot at landing an internship with an amazing design company that could really catapult me way past being just another 'starving artist'.

Wish me luck and we shall see in the coming months if this all ultimately pans out in my favor. I sure hope that it does. ;)

Meanwhile, check out Primal Screen's site HERE and get excited. I know that I sure am! :)

Sneak Peak: "Out the Other Side {dot} com"

2009-11-29T17:23:00.000-08:00

So it should probably come as no surprise that I have been (as always) a very busy girl this past week while on "vacation". Check out the evidence below:

Recently, I have been hard at work designing the layout for what will eventually be "Out the Other Side's" official website. It's taken me a several re-designs and a good bit of time, but I think that I'm finally getting around to developing a look for the official site that's really.....me. :)

There's still a hell of a lot of work to be done (including the tedious tweaking of the navigation on the interior pages). However, I'm pretty happy with how the buttons on my opening page are turning out (which is what you are seeing above). I ultimately wanted something splashy, colorful, graphical and fun that showcases some of my strange little characters. I believe that I am well on my way towards meeting all of that critieria thus far. ;)

In any case, I'm getting pretty excited about the fact that "Out the Other Side {dot} Com" could actually look.....well....professional!

Me? Professional? Who would have thunk it? ;)

Seriously, my ultimate goal with the layout is to give off a professional and polished vibe while still leaving some of my own funkiness and personality intact . I want to show off my craft in a way that also showcases my technical skill, some level of professionalism and (as always) my ever present kookiness. It's a fine line to walk but I'm hoping that my design (to date) is beginning to reflect a little bit of my own controlled chaos.

Counting My Blessings....

2009-11-26T11:47:00.000-08:00

As I close in on graduating college during a massive economic crisis, I would be lying if I said that this year hasn't been quite a challenging one for me (as well as millions of other Americians). However, despite this having been one of the most emotionally trying semesters of my college career, I certainly have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Above all else, I am thankful to have a roof over my head and to have some the most genuine, creative and beautiful (inside and out) people in my life. I am fortunate enough to have a motley crew of fabulous friends (who also double as my surrogate family for the most part). They love me, put up with me and keep me from thinking too highly of myself. ;)

I love them all madly. <3

I also have two wonderful parents who love me (despite the fact that I turned out to be a nutty artist ;).

Here are some other things that I am thankful for:

- My Macbook Pro / child

- Adobe CS4 (in particular -- Illustrator, Photoshop and

After Effects ;)

- Twitter

- Prince, Peter Gabriel, The Who, and Mathieu Chedid

-Hagen Das Coffee ice cream

-"Just My Size" clothing (for keeping me truly "fluffy n' fabulous" ;)

- My infamous rainbow converse

- Hot tea with cream and sugar

- Memories of seeing Sydney Australia from an airplane

- Funky music

- My own tendency to pursue the ambitious,

innovative and eclectic in my art

- Chris Milk, Mark Romanek, Spike Jonze and any

other music video director who inspires me with their craft).

- A certain foxy, ginger-haired angel :)

- Fake eyelashes (the longer, the better )

- Jaco Pastorious with the lights turned down

- L'Oreal Feria Hair color in Ruby Rush

- Conan O'brien and his fabulous hair

- My little blue ipod nano / window to my soul

- Ruby red lipstick

- 'House MD'

- Being able to dig my way out of a depressed funk

- Having my creative fire back

And last but not least....

I'm thankful for each and every one of you guys who read "Out the Other Side". Being the author of this blog has given me an amazing opportunity to network with so many incredibly talented, creative, and insanely wonderful people. I am happy to give you guys a little piece of me with every post that I write and I am incredibly thankful for all of the positive response and all of the kind comments that you all send me. You are all a wonderful audience for my madness and I look forward to continuing to bring you entertaining and thoughtful content for a very long time to come. :)

Thank you all for all of your support and once agan, have a fantastic Thanksgiving! :)

Kreativ Blogger Award

2009-11-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

So this is incredibly belated, but about a month ago "Out the Other Side" was graciously awarded it's first blog award!

I honestly feel horrible that it has taken me so long to acknowledge this but think it's safe to say that other commitments have distracted me from properly mentioning my "Kreative Blogger Award".

To that end, I must send a big shout out and sincere thank you to my fabulous fashionista friend and fellow creative, Ciara. She is the beauty, brains and brilliance behind StyleFuss (which you should totally check out ASAP). She is also the wonderful lady who gave me this award. I cannot thank her enough for giving me this recognition and for just being an incredible friend in general. It makes me feel pretty good to think that maybe I'm doing something half way right over here! :)

Here's how the award works :

1. Tell 7 things that you don't already know about me

2. Name 7 other blogs to receive this award

3. Leave a comment on each of the blogs I nominated

4. Thank the person who gave you the award

Things you may (or may not) know about me: Christy of "Out the Other Side"

1. I've always been a little...um....different. ;)

2. I am the proud owner of naturally curly/frizzy hair that occasionally has a mind/zip code of it's own.

3. I secretly want to be a jazz singer/rock star who happens to design stuff. I used to sing a lot at talent shows, bad karaoke nights and college open mic nights. However, I gave it up after it was brought to my attention that I'm probably a better artist than I am a singer. I still sing when no one's looking, though ;)

Here's a video of me randomly belting out Gershwin's "The Man I Love". :)

4. I studied abroad in Australia a couple of years ago. I lived there for six months and it was one of the most amazing and life changing experiences of my life. I would love to go back there for a longer engagement some day. :)

Here is my favorite of all of the many pictures I shot of the famous Sydney Opera House:

5. My mom is one of the most genuinely sweet people that you could ever meet (and it's beyond me how she puts up with/loves me despite how I turned out to be such a little monster in comparison ;).

My dad, on the other hand, is a big goofball just like his daughter. :)

6. Once upon a time, I met a man named Henry. Meeting Henry Rollins (Black Flag / Rollins Band) was seriously one of the coolest moments of my life. I gave him a copy of a poster that I made for him (see photo) and he even signed a copy for me. VERY COOL! :)

7. Miss. Amber of Ezriah Designs is my creative soul sister , my best friend and pretty much one of the few people who can decode the craziness that comes out of my mouth. ;)

I adore her, admire her and I miss her like you wouldn't believe! <3

....and there you have it! You now know entirely too much about me. :)

I would like to award "The Kreativ Blogger Award" to the following bloggers:

Jared at "Design Something"

Damion over at "Damion' Artwork"

Eamo at "Eamo's Knuckle Sandwich"

Chris at "Chris Wahl Art"

Deborah at "Everybody I Shot is Dead"

Jesse at "Raw Toast Design"

Patrick at "Patrick Freeman Illustration/Design Blog"

Lauren at "Nymphont"

(I know -- that's more than 7 blogs. However, I it's hard for me to pick just seven when there are so many amazing and exciting bloggers out there...so there. :)

I hope that everybody has a wonderful (and safe) Thanksgiving and thank you again, Miss. Ciara! ;)

Work in Progress: "Chelsea Interactive Dress-Up Doll"

2009-11-21T13:35:00.000-08:00

First things first : go ahead and click on the clothes below and drag them over to Chelsea so she's not roamin' around in her underthings. ;)

After an amazing (and highly productive) weekend, it is with much excitement that I present my newest work in progress! However, before we get into the piece, here is a little aside:

Anyone with insight into my creative process can tell you that despite my ever growing proficiency with most things Adobe, Flash and I have had a particularly rocky relationship for some time now.

More specifically -- my relationship with Action-Script is a particularly difficult one.

I realize that in my last post that I said something similar about my working relationship with Adobe After Effects. This is slightly different though. After Effects and myself took a small break despite the fact that working with that program is generally joyful for me. Flash and I, on the other hand, have practically gotten restraining orders from each other and refuse to answer each other's phone calls.

Bottom line -- outside of being able to create some fun stuff involving roll overs and some stop-motion pieces (that could have just as well have been created in After Effects), my magical powers in regards to exploiting Flash's interactivity are painfully limited. :(

Recently -- I got really brave and decided to work towards changing that a little. :)

It has always been a big dream of mine to do something interactive with these bizarre little characters of mine. However, interactivity usually goes hand in hand with having a decent command of Action Script (at least....where Adobe Flash is concerned).

I am notoriously horrible when it comes to working with Action Script! I'm not even going to try and sugar-coat that fact.

I always manage to screw up little things in the code (which , if you have worked with Flash, you know that this isn't hard to do). My clumsiness with the code usually leads to a lot of tiny mistakes. This usually leads to a piece where nothing works and a good bit of irritation from yours truly. ;)

That brings us to the above piece -- The "Chelsea Interactive Dress-Up Doll" (in progress).

If you go and start dragging around the items of clothing on the piece, you will find that you can "dress" Chelsea in several different configurations of clothes.

Conceptually, it's not much (and yes, I do realize that this is about the third or 4th time that 'Chelsea' has made an appearance in one of my little experiments. What can I say.....I dig her;).

However -- I am beyond proud of the fact that (with the help of one of my professors and a Flash tutorial book) I managed to figure out enough Action Script to make all of those clothes drag around the screen. That's a pretty big technical milestone for me if you really think about it.

I could not be happier that I've managed to pull this simple effect off. It makes me kind of excited about how far I can go with Flash in the future. :)

In the meantime, feel free to click, drag, and explore the "Chelsea Interactive Dress-up Doll". It is my sincere hope that this piece is the beginning of many more exciting things to come! :)

Original Motion Content -- "Breathe and Bleed"

2009-11-15T15:07:00.000-08:00

So after a long 7 month hiatus from creating any time based art, I decided to kiss and make up with Adobe After Effects and invest some time into a little experimentation.

If you happen to recall my very first post here on "Out the Other Side" (which you can find HERE ;) , I talked at length about my "Memories and Hallucinations" project (which has yet to have it's official debut on this blog). That particular project is approximately 5 minutes long, completely drawn/digially illustrated by hand and took around 4 months to complete.

I carefully and painstakingly fussed over every detail of "Memories" and to say that it was an ambitious undertaking is a gross understatement.

It was such an ambitious undertaking that I kind of didn't want to touch After Effects for a very long time after that. :/

Don't get me wrong -- motion graphics are definitely among my many artistic passions. However, I believe that after 4 months of working on the same thing....I just got a little burnt out. It happens, I suppose.

"Breathe and Bleed " is no where near as technically ambitious (and can honestly use a little more fine tuning), but it is very loose and experimental. More than that - it's much shorter than most of my moving creations. Anyone who has seen some of my motion work can tell you that this is a pretty big breakthrough for me. I really tried to challenge myself to visually say what I needed to in a minute or less. I'm kind of proud of myself for actually self editing for time and am quite pleased with how I managed to shape this into a somewhat compelling piece on a very tight work schedule.

I'll admit, self editing my work is a skill that I need to spend a little more time on. Artistically, I tend to thrive on eclectic extravagance, but it's pretty amazing what you can do when you give yourself certain limits. With time and practice I hope to one day get better at setting those creative boundaries for myself.

As for the concept behind "Breathe and Bleed" -- I'm just going to leave that up to all of you to interpret it. It's a pretty open ended piece and I have my own thoughts about were I was at personally and mentally when I was working on it. However, I don't really want to get into all of that now. I just hope that everybody has a good time watching it. :)

In Progress - " Kelly Tries to Catch a Freddie"

2009-11-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

The above image is a rough digital idea "sketch" of the newest addition to my "Kelly and Freddie" screen-print series.

More than that, this is also a good example of how leaving me with an entertaining concept and a request to "digitally enhance" certain body parts can get hilariously out of hand in a hurry.

That's right...Kelly wanted her illustrated alter ego to have bigger boobs, and bigger boobs are what she got.

Seriously -- be careful what you wish for.

In any case, this particular look into Kelly and Freddie Mercury's imaginary love life is currently in it's infancy. I seriously cannot wait to develop this as a full color screen-print in the near future. However, this digital version made me giggle so much that I just had to share it with you all. :)

Now, let's watch Mr. Mercury himself rub some funk on the stage in this show stopping live performance of "Another One Bites the Dust". :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T13:40:00.000-07:00

In celebration of my all time favorite day of dress-up (and the fact that I just saw "This is it" at the local theater last night....which was FABULOUS!), here are a couple thrillicious videos for your spooky viewing pleasure.

Everybody stay goulish, fabulous and (above all) safe this fine Halloween evening! ;)

"The Celtic Knot"

2009-10-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

So, in my unbelievable rush to complete design projects admist the giant dust cloud that is my life....it totally slipped my mind that I had one third of a bar and beverage hospitality project due on Monday.

Ooops.

Thank goodness for my lightning fast design skills. ;)

It's a group project in which we are suppost to get together and essentially create an imaginary bar (from the floor plan to the advertisements and the job application....EVERYTHING). It's daunting work, but since I happen to be the only artist in the group, I suddenly found any an all "artsy stuff" being delegated to me by default.

Part of my job was to create an advertisement for our faux bar (which is what you are seeing above). It's a fairly quick poster mock up and considering how quickly I did it ( under an hour or so) , I'm pretty proud of how it came out.

The bar concept is pretty much for an Irish pub. I had no real input on what type of bar this turned into, by the way. I suggested a graphic design themed wine bar / dance club and my group members said 'no'. Oh well...

In any case, my group members (neither of whom are particularly artistically inclined, apparently) pretty much told me that since my schedule is not going to mesh with theirs anytime before the Monday due date, to just make whatever. They're only instructions were to make it green , gold and "pretty".

"Pretty" I can do. ;)

Since I was never really allowed to voice my opinon over what type of bar we were creating, I decided to at least find subtle (or not so subtle....you tell me ;) ways of creating an atmosphere with my poster that suggested something a little more modern than a traditional Irish pub.

The dark purple and the glowing beer glass actually make me think of more absinthe bar than Irish pub....but I kind of like it anyway. :)

The nice thing is that this giving me hope that I'm still capable of accomplishing something design-wise beyond my characters. The tragic thing is that this has the beginnings of being one of my better digital projects of the semester....and it's not even for a design class. Oh bother...

By the way -- the ultimate irony of me creating a poster for an Irish pub is that I'm actually not a big fan of beer. I'm more of a red wine kind of girl if you want to know the truth. ;)

Work in Progress: "Freddie and Kelly"

2009-10-23T02:42:00.001-07:00

Before I get into the details of my newest little creation (in progress), allow me to level with you guys for a second. Let me begin by stating that this next to last semester of school is officially kicking my ass up the street and back down it again. :/

With only a little under 3 months left before I do my internship and another 9-ish months til graduation, I would be lying if I said that things aren't getting a little crazy for yours truely right now. Between the pressures of satisfying graduation requirements, my own inner desire to create innovative/ quality work and the ultimate dream for a post undergrad life that doesn't include me living in a nicely painted box on the street ...well.....I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed contemplating how I'm going to make all of this happen.

I know that a lot of other people/ artists go through similar uncertainty all of the time. Transitions are a part of life (and particularly a big part of the life of a creative) and I've certainly experienced my fair share of big life transitions already. However, I'm not entirely sure why graduating college is freaking me out as much as it is and why I'm seriously beginning to question weather or not my current portfolio is going to help me blow up as a professional creative person or leave me with that whole painted box scenario.

Okay....open confessional over. I just needed to get that off my chest. :)

On to "Freddie and Kelly" :

This relatively quick digital "sketch" is actually the bare bones beginnings of my newest screen-print series. This whole thing started out because, for one thing, my fabulous friend, Kelly, has been requesting that I somehow put Queen's Freddie Mercury (the love of her life ;) and herself together as a "couple" in one of my illustrations.

I have been promising her that I would do this for a while but, it was only recently that I started seriously toying around with how I could do this in a way that would not only satisfy Kelly's romantic fantasy quota but would also be a piece that is funny, could stand on it's own artistic merit, and could (hopefully) become a really hilarious screen-print / illustration series.

It didn't hurt that the thought of having Kelly and Freddie Mercury canoodling in a weird alternate universe made me laugh.....which is something I haven't done enough of in the past couple days. Ah, stress.....

In any case, the above illustration, admittedly, doesn't look like much. It's not that much. There's no sugar coating it, kids. ;)

The above illustration is basically an illustration of Freddie (circa 1991) and an illustration of Kelly (circa.....whenever ;) placed next to each other. Theres a little bit of prospective starting to happen here (that I'm pretty happy about) , but not enough hot n' heavy-ness going on between Kelly and Freddie to write home about.

Frankly, if this is suppose to be Kelly trying to get it on with Freddie Mercury (which, of course, could ONLY happen in an alternate universe for several reasons ), then this piece frankly suffers from some serious issues with believability.

However (in my defense), this is a quick n' dirty illustration that I did for for a screen - print for a critique. It's nowhere near "finished" to my standareds....but considering recent time constraints, it was "done enough" for the critique. ;)

Despite having brought an admittedly half realized idea to a critque setting, I was actually happy to get feedback that is turning out to be a big catalyst for pushing this little "sketch" to an insane and interesting level (both technically and conceptually). The idea of having Kelly chase Freddie around with a butterfly net , for instance, is just something that is just too funny and ridiculous to not bring to fruition somehow. ;)

I also get to bring joy to Miss. Kelly who not only gets to play house with Mr. Mercury in my alternate universe, but also totally got an illustrated boob job and tummy tuck in the bargain. It's my pleasure to bring these two crazy kids together.:)

Speaking of Mr. Mercury -- here is "I'm Going Slightly Mad". This is video that partially inspired the illustration and also just happens to be my all-time favorite Queen video. :)

Now that I'm thinking about it, it's also a pretty pitch perfect summation of life on "Planet Christy" at the moment, as well.

Hold on to your soul....we've got a long way to go. ;)

Oh -- one more thing : Did anyone else realize that Elton John is in the gorilla suit? That just makes me giggle ;)

"California"

2009-10-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Seriously -- how in the world did I nearly forget all about this video? This clip is practically artistically orgasmic!

In any case, Spike Jonze is one of my music video heros. Furthermore, I sincerely believe that "California" by Wax (circa 1995) is one of his most epic creations. Let's watch, shall we? ;)

Work in Progress: "Gangsta Octopus" ?

2009-10-11T22:43:00.000-07:00

So would you believe that this (as yet unfinished) character is the end product of me practically banging my head against my sketch pad and listening to a lot of Queen?

Okay --- so maybe a little N.W.A. and Tupac snuck in there too.....but seriously, it was mostly Queen. ;)

I'm going to level with you guys for a second. Lately, I have been having such a hard time trying to mine my imagination for something new, conceptually challenging, or at least fun in terms of my digital bread and butter.

It's not that I hate creating digitally. I just feel as if (especially since being back in school and having so much on my plate this semester) that I'm beginning to just go through the technical motions of creating digital work without actually producing anything that has my heartbeat in it. I really hate that because then I begin to feel so detached from my art.

I strive to create characters and worlds that reflect facets of who I am as an individual. I'm not claiming that my creations are genius or anything. However, without that unique voice -- my characters would be as cold as the digital media that they are produced in. That's just a completely unacceptable outcome to me at this stage of my artistic development.

This illustration doesn't fall into that category for me and that's major a relief. As simple, unfinished, and crude as this is -- I'm honestly just glad that I'm back to actively producing *anything* that actually feels like me.

In a way -- I lose interest fairly quickly in projects that I can't seem to bring my own personality and flavor to. Tragically, that has been the case a lot lately and this tragedy has been leading to a lot of creative second guessing on my part. That second guessing has led to what I feel is a loss in substantial creative output from me lately. Frankly, that's a dangerous place for me to be creatively this close to graduation and I know it.

Hopefully this little octopus sketch is the beginning of end of my creative dry spell.

As for this particular digital sketch is concerned, I am excited because it's been the first of my characters in a while that's so insanely silly and preposterous that I can't stop giggling at it.

That's usually when I know I'm at least half-way onto something....if I can amuse myself with it. ;)

In any case -- I have big plans for this little guy. He's one piece in a much larger (and equally silly) narrative already in progress. However, for now, I'm going to keep the details of that to myself.

Why a 'gangsta octopus' ? Why not?

You guys are just going to have to wait and see how this one all pans out. ;)

In the meantime, here is a fantastically random selection of a few tunes that I seriously just can't get out of my head lately :

Too Busy for Halloween? Say What?!

2009-10-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

I hope not.....but it certainly seems that way this year. :(

Anyone who knows me personally knows that Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday. Not only does October 31 satisfy my love of all things creepy n' kooky, but dressing up for Halloween usually turns into an epic event that's usually months in the making.

I've definately been known to start planning for a Halloween costume in Ausgust or September. For the most part , it's a pretty massive (and time consuming) process :)

Unfortunately, being that this is my last semester in school, a lot of my time, energy and money are being tied up in landing some sort of job, a quasi-comfy place to live after school and maybe something with wheels to roll around in.

In short -- real life issues are trampling all over any chance of me glorifying my inner child come the 31st. It's a little depressing, isn't it?

It's actually pretty sad for me that we are almost three weeks away from Halloween and I really have no clue what I'm going to be! That pretty much never happens. I always, ALWAYS have my costume pretty much set in stone by this point (unless I'm purchasing /searching for some final finishing touches).

This year -- so many other things are gong on that I seriously almost forgot that Halloween was upon us. How lame is that? :(

In any case -- I'm not sure what I will be able to pull together for Halloween this year (if anything). I have a couple of things that may work on the cheap / with limited time....so we'll see.

In the meantime, lets take a quick trip down my (recent) Halloween costume memory lane :

Halloween 2006 : Prince

Halloween 2007: The Magician

Halloween 2008: The Punk

"Angry Black Artist" Screen-Print Series

2009-10-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

Say hello to some more of the work that I have created on my way to 'screen-printing nirvana'.

Remember that little "Angry Black Artist" doodle that I shared a few posts ago? The one that is now prominently featured in "Out the Other Side's current header?

Well....the little guy now has a home of sorts. ;)

There is a lot that needs to be worked out with this series . I think that it could be conceptually pushed more. I also eventually want to re-invent this series of smaller prints into a series of much larger -- poster sized prints.

However, besides the things that could be worked on...I am pretty proud of just being able to pull this one off technically speaking in a little over a week. The entire thing is comprised of 13 individual tasty layers and a lot of extra hours in the print studio to work out the bugs.

Not bad for a first run, but I'm really itching to see how far I can push this idea . There's still plenty of ink to be slung, my dears. ;)

Stay tuned for more from this series, and in the meantime, enjoy these other selections from the series!

Screen-Printing : My Sweetest Escape

2009-10-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

My senior year of undergrad has not only brought along with it a crazy workload (and all of the stress that comes with that) , but also a blessed opportunity for me to get down and dirty in my art department's printmaking studio.

More specifically, I can barely contain my excitement about spending part of my last semester on campus screen-printing. I have been given almost total carte blanche by my fantastic print instructor to screen-print to my heart's content and I seriously couldn't be happier about that.

I LOVE screen-printing!!

It's not that I love creating with digital media any less. On the contrary, I actually have an incredible interest in integrating old school printmaking techniques with current technology.

I greatly enjoy how digital media can inform and influence the traditional techniques. I also like seeing how traditional printmaking and digital imaging can diverge and take separate (and sometimes , complementary) paths from each other.

Having said all that, however, I must say that I really just like getting covered in ink and seeing what happens. ;)

As much as my Macbook Pro is my baby and I am certainly a digital girl at heart...here is a physicality to digtal art processes that is definately next to non-existant. I firmly believe that screen-printing is a nice remedy for that.

A lot of people (particularly those of us who fancy our computers more than paint brushes) aren't so keen on having to deal with the time-consuming and often messy nature of screen-printing (or traditional printing in general). Isn't that part of the charm of being a digitally based artist? You get to emulate the print techniques of old without the fuss and mess. What more could you want?

I , on the other hand, am really enamored with the fabulously dirty process. For me, the screen-printing process is a big part of the reason that I'm drawn to it so. I seriously believe that screen-printing satisfies the same part of me that was drawn to Play-doh and finger paints as a kid. In short -- screen-printing is not just another medium. It just so happens to be my current favorite escapism.

Also -- I think that the process as a whole is pretty cathartic and relaxing. Lately, I've been finding myself in the print studio more and more when I am heading towards critical mass with the rest of my life.

For me there is nothing like being elbow deep in screen printing ink in a darkroom with my ipod on or slinging ink on a screen and building an image by hand.

Music blaring. Creativity flowing. Great stuff. ;)

In any case, here is a couple of close-ups of my first big "warm-up" screen-print of the semester. More fun stuff from this medium to come, I assure you.

(And yeah.....it's Michael again ;)

My First {Complete} Motion Graphics Project

2009-10-03T00:46:00.000-07:00

So this one is a pretty big blast from the past for me and another retro treat for all of you guys. :)

This video is the end product of final project assignment that I received in my first undergrad motion graphics class in around 2007-ish. The gist of the assisignment was that we were to take our favorite book and pretend that said book was being given the big screen treatment. We were then suppose to create an opening title sequence for said imaginary movie.

That's pretty much how "Kiss Me Like a Stranger" (THE fake MOVIE!) was born. ;)

"Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art" is the autobiography of actor, writer, director and all-around comic genius Gene Wilder. It is a very earnest, funny, sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes brutally honest re-counting of Gene's incredible life. It also just so happens to be one of my favorite books to this day.

When I was told that we were making a make-pretend title sequence based on our favorite book, my book of choice was a total no brainer. If you haven't read it ( or heard of it) , you really should check it out. It's certainly an intriguing and engaging rainy day read. :)

Getting back to the motion piece -- this certainly marks my first completed end product of ambitious Adobe After Effects noodling. Because of that, it permanently resides in a nostalgic soft n' squishy spot in my heart. :)

Unfortunately -- I believe that the fact that I was practically an "After Effects virgin" at the time that I created this piece is painfully evident.

I can count a million technical issues that I wish that I had the time to fix right now. I know that it's not excactly akin to a Tim Burton or Chris Milk production or anything. I'm not going to pretend that it is.

However, despite the tech issues ( plus the cold hard fact that the soundtrack needs to be swapped out for an original creation a.s.a.p), I'm pretty proud of how this came out overall.

For a first major effort in Adobe After Effects, I think that it's basically sucessful considering how green I was to the software when I created it.

I employed both good old fashioned stop-motion animation (which took FOREVER) with a few photos of Gene and a few basic effects. I think that in the end the marriage of all of these elements was a happy one (despite the need for fine-tuning).

The song used in the piece is "L'eclipse" by Sean Lennon (featuring French pop juggernaut, -M- ). It should also be noted that this motion piece was featured in Western Carolina University's 31st annual juried art show.

Unfortunately, it didn't win anything. Oh well...

I may come back and further explore/self critique this piece (good and bad) in future blog posts. In the meantime, sit back and check out my "Kiss Me Like a Stranger" opening movie titles.

In the end -- it was a lot of fun to do. I hope that you guys enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed working on it.

Also-- stay tuned for more of my original motion pieces here on "Out the Other Side". :)

Work in Progress: "Kate"

2009-10-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

Allow me to introduce you to my new character (still in progress) , "Kate".

"Kate" is the first character illustration that I have done since around late August. I recently began sketching / digitally manipulating her and although she is still in the beginning stages, I'm pretty pleased with how she's turning out.

What do you think?

In the end, I hope to showcase "Kate" in a big way in my forthcoming "Out the Other Side" portfolio website.

Stay tuned for more details (and the completed version of "Kate"). ;)

Conan O'Brien Had a Great Fall...

2009-09-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-09-21T04:30:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

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

Coming Soon!

2009-09-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

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

Get excited! ;)

Bittersweet Birthday...

2009-08-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

As everyone must know by now...he would have been 51 today. So sad. :(

May he finally find the peace of mind in death that always eluded him in life.

I can't wait!

2009-08-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I seriously think that I was born in the wrong decade.

I really can't wait to finally see Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" (which hits theaters tomorrow).

Sure, I may have been born a little late to experience the original Woodstock concert firsthand.

(F.Y.I. --I was born in 1984. Okay, so maybe I was way late ;)

In any case, thanks to the fact that I'm technically a child of the '80s, I missed out on this particular piece of pivotal rock n' roll history. However, thanks to the miracle of film, that original festival of peace, love, and music is now a living diary of a serene oasis amid the end of the otherwise tumultuous 1960's. It is also the source of some of my all-time favorite music and live performances.

Speaking of which...

Happy Birthday, Moonie!

2009-08-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today would have been Keith Moon's 63rd Birthday. A wild man who happened to come equipped with drum sticks, Moonie will always remembered as much for his lunacy as he will be for his artistry and genius behind the drum kit. Behind not only one but TWO full drum kits he seemed to be a hyperactive flash of waving limbs. He seemed to approach the rest of his life with the same type of reckless (and ultimately, self-destructive) abandon.

However, the unique rhythmic structure and personality that he gave to The Who is something that is often imitated but never faithfully duplicated. "Moon the Loon" was truly one of a kind (in more ways than one). He was the Jackson Pollock of the drums. More than all that, he was the heart and soul of The Who.

Despite having only lived a tragically short 32 years, Keith left behind an undeniable musical legacy that will continue to influence and challenge musicians for decades to come. His unchallenged acrobatics behind the drums and incredible showmanship are just a tiny percentage of why his contribution to the music world will live on for years and years to come.

In celebration of Keith's birthday, I am posting a pretty quick (but nice) summation of Keith's life by non other than the members of The Who. It's a pretty good glimpse into why Keith wasn't just your average percussionist. My favorite part of the first clip is where they break down "Behind Blue Eyes" to just Roger Daltrey's vocals and Keith's drum fills. You can hear how Keith really turned basic drum fills into little works of art.

The second clip is the recording session for "Who Are You?" from The Who rockumentary, "The Kids are Alright". This was one of Moonie's last recording sessions with the band and I think it's a beautiful way to remember his incredible warmth, humor and genius.

"Takin' Out the Trash"

2009-08-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

So Monday morning marks the beginning of my last semester on campus as an undergrad.

It's all over but the intership, dah-lings. ;)

Wow, is it really the middle of August already? Damn...

Actually -- despite the fact that the next 10 or so months are going to be beyond busy and hectic as I fight and claw my way towards my projected graduation date (May 25, 2010), I'm pretty excited to get back into a regular college/work routine.

That's not to say that there aren't still plenty of funky n' fabulous things up my sleeve this fall for "Out the Other Side". I've still got a couple of aces left for the future which include --

- More original illustrations for your viewing pleasure!

- Original motion graphics pieces to be featured on the blog (both new and old)!

- More of my commentary and ramblings on music, movies, and everything else that inspires me to do my thing!

- The grand opening of the brand shiny new "Out the Other Side" official website!

- The grand opening of the brand shiny new "Out the Other Side" online store! (Coming Soon!)

- and Much Much MORE!

In other words -keep your eyes glued to "Out the Other Side" for all sorts of new fun content ! ;)

In the meantime, here is one last new illustration before I pack my bags to head back to uni for one last go-round. It's entitled "Takin' Out the Trash". It's vibrant, funky, and bloody and it was a hell of a lot of fun to work on. I hope you guys dig it as much as I loved working on it. ;)

(Feel free to click on the image to see a larger version.)

Typography Tastes Good

2009-08-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

Now why couldn't they just show us this video during my typography class? ;)

Oh, Coco ...

2009-08-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

This one never really gets old for me! :)

Between this and the well-recieved "Twitter Tracker" segments (also a favorite of mine), you can certainly tell that the motion graphics geeks over at the new "Tonight Show" are plenty busy helping Conan bring good old fashioned silliness to the masses.

Looks like a super-fun gig! ;)

"Last Day of Magic"

2009-08-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

So here is my newest artistic contribution to this little blog o' mine. :)

(Click on the image to see a larger version )

It's entitled "Last Day of Magic" (as the blog title implies;) and was inspired VERY loosely (conceptually) on The Kills song of the same name.

At the very least -- the song was looping in my head quite a bit while I was creating this. ;)

I had originally planned on making this into a much darker piece both conceptually and in terms of color pallet.

(Believe it or not, this whole thing started out in shades of dark olive green and black)

However, after a little bit of experimentation (and after deciding that my characters were looking more "sickly" than anything else under the weight of all of that green) , I ultimately began playing with a more sunset meets pretty apocalypse color theme and the outcome of said experimentation is the end product you see above.

Below is the song that inspired this piece: "Last Day of Magic" by The Kills.

Also -- I'm throwing in a little Regina Spektor for good measure. Her recent video for "Laughing With" is just a beautiful exercise in surrealism and a perfect way to (musically) round out the beginning of the end of the summer

I have certainly had iton repeats quite a bit in recent weeks.

I encourage everybody to pick up her most recent musical contribution, "Far", (if you haven't already). It truly is an incredibly beautiful and compelling album from start to finish :)

Funky! Funky! FUNKY!

2009-07-30T02:54:00.000-07:00

Oh, Nina Simone -- where have you been my whole life?

As this sultry summer keeps rolling along, I figured I would rub a little funk on this blog in a big way.

Not only is this track a ferociously funky stab at a triflin' fool of a man , but "Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter" also bears one of the most fantastic song titles that I've ever run across.

So expressive, don't you think? ;)

Anyway -- Nina (who recently passed away in 2003 at the age of 70) commands the mic and growls the lyrics with an urgency that lets you know that she's walked down that road too many times (and seriously -- what woman can't relate?).

However, she didn't originally pen the tune.

This track originated with Allene Bollock -- who is the sister of Anna Mae Bollock.

For the uninitiated, Anna Mae Bollock is the birth name for the equally fierce, foxy n' funky diva in her own right: Tina Turner!

Ike and Tina would be the first ones out of the gate to record this track in 1971. It first appeared on their album "Workin' Together" (and later on the 2002 Ike and Tina compilation disc entitled "Funkier than a Mosquito's Tweeter")

You can check out the Ike and Tina version HERE.

I have incredible love for Tina Turner (Ike? Not so much ;).

Tina Turner certainly lent a fine level of sass and soul to "Funkier than ...". (How could she not? She's Tina Turner! )

However, I believe that it wasn't until Nina Simone released the above live version of the track on her 1974 release "It is Finished" that it really started living up to that wonderful song title.

Nina's version just drips with disgust and frustration, and FUNK. As I mentioned before, you get the feeling that this track is just saturated with personal experience.

I'm sure that it was to some degree.

I feel that Nina's version also swing's a lot harder than the Ike and Tina version. The groove sits on an African rhythm section that just makes me want to take off my shoes and dance around my living room with the blinds open.

Now what could be better than that? :)

"Anna and the Spiders"

2009-07-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Another day, another illustration, more Photoshop fun and spiders that resemble.....KITTENS?

*Shrugs*

Okay -- so maybe I got a little carried away. ;)

"Michael" -- and My Adventures with Digital Painting

2009-07-11T10:40:00.000-07:00

As if the market isn't already saturated with all kinds of MJ news, criticism, tabloid sensationalism, tributes and art .... here I go adding one more small tribute.

Believe it or not -- I hadn't really planned on doing any more Michael Jackson related art beyond my original post-mortem tribute for the reason that I alluded to above -- it's being done to death right now.

However, I sketched out this little stick figure-ish version one day while I was tuned into the news (and the marathon Michael Jackson death coverage). He's a quirky little thing -- not unlike the real MJ -- but I liked him enough to go ahead and flesh him out in Photoshop.

I'm kind of excited about how this one came out. As I continue to play around with Photoshop and digital painting techniques, I am having a pretty good time trying to find new ways to re-interpret old ideas as well as trying to find ways to use Photoshop and Illustrator together to begin pushing my work in entirely new directions.

This illustration recalls a little bit of Mark Romanek's eerie deep space isolation that was conveyed in MJ's "Scream" video. Honestly -- that was a happy accident on my part.

I wasn't really looking at one particular Michael Jackson video or era whenever I began filling in the line art for this one. I just played with idea that Michael was much leaner (some have reported "emaciated") towards the end of his life and added in his usual iconic underpinnings (the white glove, the mask, the aviator shades, and the black loafers).

If it happens to bear any resemblance to "Scream", then I feel good about that-- but that was not what I originally intended. :)

As I continue to delve into more and more pixel based (as opposed to vector based) artwork , one tool that I am wishing that I had more than ever is a Wiacom tablet.

I do not currently own a tablet , but now that I am working in Photoshop more and experimenting with creating textures (such as hair -- which is damn near impossible without at least a mouse) I find myself running into issues in that department.

I don't even currently own a mouse --everything that I have done to date involving digital shading and texture is being done with the touch pad of my Macbook Pro. While I am making do with what I have on hand for now, my wrists and hands certainly begin to lose momentum after several hours of manic shading.

Plus -- without pressure sensitivity and the control that a tablet would afford me, it's difficult to do some of what I would like to do without the tablet.

For right now, I'm window shopping for a tablet (although, I may not actually purchase one until my finances improve some). Hopefully, I will have one in my creative arsenal before too long . :)

Meanwhile, I am *not* going to post the "Scream" music video (because seriously -- who hasn't seen it?).
What I am going to share is one of my very favorite live Michael Jackson moments. I apologize in advance for the extremely horrendous quality of this clip.

However, this break-neck synthesizer drenched live version of The Jackson's classic "This Place Hotel" (also referred to as "Heartbreak Hotel") is by far one of my favorite memories of seeing Michael on TV as I was growing up. :)

"Honnou"

2009-07-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been re-visiting some older musical loves of mine that have, sadly, not received the attention they deserve on my ipod in recent years.

One of these tragically neglected albums is "Shousso Strip" by Japanese composer, musician and Jrock chameleon, Shiina Ringo.

One of Japan's most iconic and quirky popular musicians, Ringo's entire solo discography (as well as her work with her band, Tokyo Jhien ) are a must listen if you get the opportunity to check her out.

However -- "Shousso Strip" and specificly the single "Honnou" were my first introductions to Ringo several years ago.

Ringo (who counts Bjork, Madonna, and the recently deceased King of Pop as just a few of her Western musical influences) is also known for her incredibly iconic music videos that are always incredibly fresh , visually striking and innovative.

Shiina Ringo's musical scope is also quite extensive. Throughout her career (both solo and on Tokyo Jhien projects), she has dipped her toes into every style from alternative rock, jazz, swing , pop and everything in between.

It should also be noted that her vocal delivery is also quite a departure from a lot of her Jrock contemporaries. She is well known for rolling her "r"s when she sings, which is an incredibly unusual characteristic for a Japanese singer altogether.

After re-watching "Honnou" for the first time in years, I decided that I had to pay a little homage to it and just one Ringo's many incarnations (see above illustration).

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure how I feel about how this illustration came out. At one point, I became incredibly frustrated and desaturated the entire piece (see below).

I believe that it may be a stronger piece without color than with but then again, maybe the original (color) version may hold a little truer to the original inspiration.

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this one -- but feel free to comment and share your opinion about either version if you would like. :)

In the meantime, below is the music video for "Honnou" (which is the original inspiration for the illustration).

I am also sharing her video clip for "Le Salle de Bain" -- just because it is just an incredibly beautiful clip and just one of the many examples of how Shiina Ringo continues to push creative and musical expectations (which is something that I deeply admire).

Good Morning, Jaco....

2009-07-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

Well as final exam day is upon me today (Jazz Apprieciation class), I decided that I wanted to share this beautiful gem with all of you.

Entitled "Portrait of Tracy" it is one of the most beautiful and moving electric bass guitar solos that I have ever had the pleasure to lay ears on.

Pastorius was a true innovator in his craft -- utilizing harmonics on his fretless bass to turn the bass into a melodic instrument. A big part of Jaco's genius is that he could make the bass "sing" unlike anyone that I have ever heard of. Previously the bass had largely been a rhythm instrument -- but with Jaco , it was the main attraction.

It is not surprising that he was recently voted "The Greatest Bass Guitar Player Who Ever Lived" in a 2006 issue of Bass Guitar magazine.

The above track is taken from his self-titled debeut album (1976). I have been listening trough a lot of the tracks on that album and have just been completely blown away and moved. If you want to hear something that will take your breath away -- then I highly suggest looking into this classic album (and his full discography for that matter -- it's all amazing stuff).

Pastorius moved on to create more amazing music as the bass player for jazz mega-group, Weather Report.

However, drugs, alcohol and severe mental illness shortened his life and career tremendously. Jaco was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder in 1982, but had since been nursing a bad alcohol problem well before that diagnosis.

Towards the end of his life he was living on the streets -- pretty much out of his mind from all of the drugs and the mental instability. He died tragically in 1987 as a result of head injuries he received in a fight with a bouncer at the Midnight Bottle Club (Florida).

He was only 35 years old.

If there really is a fine line between insanity and genius -- then I believe that Jaco ultimately personified a life spent tip-toeing on top of that line.

Still -- there is no denying the musical legacy he left us with. His technical innovations opened up a world of possibilities for bass players and musicians everywhere and the music that he left us with is just astounding.

Definitely pick up this guy's albums and do a little homework on him some time. He's definitely worth the listen and the investment of your time. :)

Just Remember the First Time You Saw the Man Dance....

2009-06-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

I know I will. :)

I have been a long-time fan of Michael's for going on 16 years now. My very first album (ever) was his 1987 release "Bad". I was around 8 years old at the time -- and I recalled lying on my bed with one of the older school cd boom boxes propped in my window. As the sun went down, I would turn off the lights and click on this tape and play it for hours and hours...

Tracks like "Bad", "Speed Demon", "Smooth Criminal" and "Liberian Girl" melted the night air....

It was magical.

Later on I would collect his albums, attempt the moonwalk (unsuccessfully ;), and become inspired by his music videos, style, determination and work ethic.

My beautiful mother (who bought that first MJ cassette for me) even told me once that she thought that it was made in the stars for me to be so into Michael Jackson. It just so happens that I was born the very same day that his hair caught on fire in that Pepsi commercial (January 25th, 1984).

Mom told me that she watched the news coverage on the TV when she was in the hospital with newborn-me and informed me with a laugh that that was really what started my admiration for the man. ;)

On Thursday evening -- she called me to tell me that she had burst into tears when she heard that he was gone. :(

Am I saying that I believe that Michael Jackson was some sort of saint?

No....absolutely not.

As everyone in the press has pointed out (and will for many months to come), Michael had a lot of demons.

He was a supernova of a talent who was plagued by bad judgement, low self esteem, distorted perceptions, and a shady inner circle that enabled him to self destruct.

I'm not denying this.

However....that's not the way I want to remember him.

I want to remember the first time I listened to "Bad" all the way through or the electricity I felt the first time I saw "Scream" for the first time or how badly I wanted to dance the way he did in "The Remember the Time" video.

I want to remember the way I felt the first time I saw the man DANCE.

For all of his glaring flaws, the man has left me with a lot of joyful and -- yes -- magical memories that I'll keep forever. Like a lot of other fans, I am beyond shocked and heartbroken and without the words to really express what his music and artistry meant to me.

Where words fail ...I tried to fill in the gaps with my art. I don't know if that effort was even remotely successful, but just know that it is coming straight from my heart.

Below is my all-time favorite summation of the amazing legacy that Michael is leaving behind:

Sad Day....

2009-06-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson

1958 - 2009

Farrah Fawcett

1947 - 2009

Thelonius Monk and Alice (take two;)

2009-06-25T06:24:00.001-07:00

Here is one more example of some of the fun I've been having lately in Photoshop (above).

This is the alternate version of my "Go Ask Alice" header. Let's just call it the "Think Pink" model. ;)

(Click on image for larger version)

I think that I kind of like this one better than the original, actually. Hmmm....

Anyway -- in all of the jazz heavyweights that I mentioned in my last post, I somehow completely forgot to include an example of Thelonius Monk.

Monk was not only a prolific piano player/bebop composer (pioneer of an extremely sparse/angular playing style) , but also an extremely eccentric human being. Notoriously strange both off stage and on, he was actually plauged by mental illness the majority of his life (a lot of sources that I've looked at have theorized that he was probably schizophrenic).

One of the more famous examples of his.....well.....kooky behavior was the fact that the man would play just one or two notes and then randomly stand up in the middle of playing a set and spin around randomly in circles while the rest of his band carried on behind him.

The man certainly marched to his own drummer -- so to speak.

Anyway, it kind of surprised me that the vast majority of my class didn't like or "get" his music at all. I thought he was an interesting character and a great player.

So interesting, in fact, that I am doing my final presentation/paper on the man -- which I will probably be spending the vast majority of my time this weekend finishing up. I'll certainly have to update you guys in the future on how that turns out.

In the meantime -- here is a clip of Thelonius Monk from the documentary, "Straight, No Chaser".