Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Creative Inspiration

Experiencing writer’s block? Not sure what to paint? Bored?



Keri Smith has a series of books perfect for sparking your inner imagination and creativity. While some might argue these books are for kids, we would like to disagree. In How to be an Explorer of the World you will investigate the beauty around you that is often overlooked. The goal by the end is to have created a series of artwork that you could display in your own private art gallery—creating art from found objects on your route home, finding objects in nature that match the random paints chips you may have lying around, or documentation of patterns you find around you. In Guerilla Art Kit you will learn about temporary art—infusing artwork in public spaces (that disappear obviously—no vandalism charges desired!). Perhaps you’ll craft Keri’s seed bombs and throw them into the nearby landfill or educate others with sidewalk chalk on a busy sidewalk. It provides recipes for temporary mediums to relay the message on whatever you might be passionate about.



About Keri Smith:
Keri Smith is an author/illustrator turned guerilla artist. She is the author of several bestselling books about creativity including the bestselling Wreck this Journal (2007 Perigee), How to be an Explorer of the World –the Portable Life/Art Museum, ( 2008 Perigee), The Guerilla Art Kit (2007 Princeton Architectural Press), Living Out Loud –Activities to Fuel a Creative Life (published 2003 by Chronicle Books), and Tear up this Book! :The Sticker, Stencil, Stationery, Games, Crafts, Doodle, And Journal Book For Girls!, (2005 American Girl). Her newest book, This is Not a Book will be released fall 2009 by Penguin Books. She is the author of the popular weblog the Wish Jar which attracts over 10,000 readers daily, and writes on occasion for a variety of magazines (including How Magazine). Keri spends her days playing with her husband and son, and divides her time between upstate New York, and the countryside of Canada.

As a free lance illustrator she has worked for a wide variety of clientsworldwide. Most recently Random House, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ford Motor Co., the Boston Globe, Galison/Mudpuppy Press, and Hallmark. In the last few years she has given lectures and workshops on a variety of topics for The Learning, Arts & the Brain Summit at Johns Hopkins University, the How Design Conference, the OntarioGraphic Artist’s Assocation, UC Davis, and schools across North America.She has been featured in How, Step by Step, Print, Bust, Wired and many more.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Season of Design Competitions

It's that time of year when various design competitions come to a close and the winners announced.

Here's a few we like to take note of:

Metropolis Magazine's Next Generation competition this year focused on creating a "small fix for the environment".



Everyone's been following the recent events of this year's ICFF. Take a look at the editor's winners for Best Booth, Body of Work, New Designer, Craftsmanship, etc. on Interior Design's website.



AIA recently released the COTE Top Ten Green Projects winners.



The 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge finalists have been announced. 30 semi-finalists have been selected out of 215 entries.

photo courtesy of Barefoot College

And locally, in case you missed it--IDI held their 2010 Chair Affair. Take a look at the winners!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Architecture for Humanity and the Abundance Project

Boise has a local Architecture for Humanity chapter and would love to get more people involved in the group. It is a fairly new group with a couple projects under its belt. If you've been by the Boise Bicycle Project, you would have seen a project that the AFH chapter and BBP teamed up on re-utilizing some of BBP's old bikes to create a new bike rack.



Currently, AFH is partnering with the Abundance Project and Kim Metez. The Abundance Project takes the extra food from your garden and partners with local farmers to provide food for the local refugee population. AFH is in the process of putting together designs for the bins that will be used at the drop off locations. The design incorporates the old blue recycle bins as drawers and will be incorporated into a wood structure from re-salvaged/donated materials. The next steps to come will be a painting party to put the Abundance Project's logo on the bins and prototype building. These prototypes will then be tested to determine a final design.

To get involved, check out the Boise AFH site: http://afhboise.ning.com/

To learn more about the Abundance Project, here's an article from The Boise Weekly:

Grow a Lot, Share a Little
Posted by Jennifer Hernandez on Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 10:36 AM

What started out as a book club assignment has turned into a mission to help feed local refugee families with the bounty that grows in Boise backyards.

After reading What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers, Boise real estate agent Kim Metez was inspired. Working to form a community project with other agents in her real estate office, she started asking for donations from people’s gardens that she could pass along to the International Rescue Committee, where for the last two years she has volunteered by helping a Burmese family adapt to their new life.

From the first boxes full of food that arrived on her doorstep in July 2009, donations steadily grew. The freshly grown produce was taken to the IRC office, where it was distributed to refugees as they came in for help with learning English, finding work, scheduling doctor appointments, reading bus maps and trying to function in an United States city.

As the 2010 growing season approaches, Metez is gearing up for another summer of sharing. In addition to donations of fresh fruits and vegetables from citizen gardens, she is looking for volunteers who can help with grant writing as well as master gardeners and master composters.

For more information visit the Abundance Project’s Facebook page. You can also call Kim at 208-871-9059, or email her at kimmetez@gmail.com.

Last summer, one donor was so enthusiastic about the project that he created a video to help promote it.


Abundance Project from Craig Clark Studio on Vimeo.