Inspire

I went to an AIGA workshop this morning at the Santa Fe Complex. The topic was "Expiramentations in Typography"and it was a kind of photographic typographic scavenger hunt for letterforms around the rail yard area. Each of us had to look for and photograph the 3 letter forms, which we drew from a pile on the table, around town. Some of the replicas people found were surprisingly identical in font, color and composition. We shared everyone's around the table in conclusion.

In addition, we were asked to form a chosen word through photography. The project example given was writing the word orange with a bunches of oranges in the supermarket and photographing the result. As a group, we decided the word of our workshop would be "inspire". These assignments all sounded quite familiar to me and off I went feeling like I was doing my MFA coursework again. I found the letters inspire in shadows. Shadows of grass stalks and bike parts and fence posts. I could almost have done the entire word in bike parts and would have had there been time or if my piece had been for a bike company.

Afterwards, I migrated to a cafe with a few of the other participants. One woman I talked to a lot was from Northern Ireland, has operated a successful graphic design studio in London, sustains herself on design work in Santa Fe now and satisfies herself with sculpture and art work. It was great to talk to them all. We bounced around the idea of starting a design collaborative studio in Santa Fe. How necessary this is! And members could be any kind of designers, not just graphic designers. There are so many freelance designers in Santa Fe. It would be fantastic to share a space, maybe one of those modern lofts over on Second Street. We could all share ownership of the building and work stations, help each other out, bring clients in, collaborate on fitting projects, pass along work to others who would be better at it or when we were swamped. There would be a healthy competitiveness and motivation, but no possessiveness. I want to be involved in creating such a design co-op and I think it will happen! It would also allow designers to have a base to come and return to when they need to travel and recharge (me!). I don't know why, but I feel incredibly idealistic and full of ideas today. A chandelier suspended from the ceiling of the world. 

Oh, and I found some awesome awesome shoes on sale today during my "inspire" search! There was a 70% off side-walk sale at "On Your Feet" and I could not resist Fly London shoes made in Portugal, regularly $163 on sale only for today for $52, and so comfortable and different! Look, see:

Two times to meet someone

I went to a mix event for young professionals in Santa Fe this week. It took place in a train car with pizza for all. The rain started coming down hard outside. I didn't really meet anyone.

The next night, I went to an art reception at a young, contemporary gallery at the Eggman & Walrus. Immediately I made a new friend. The funny thing is, she was at the mix event the night before at the exact same time I was, but I did not see her there. We are going to meet again soon to share design portfolios and ideas. She's a graphic designer too and recently graduated from a diploma program in Vancouver BC, where I just visited and loved. Collaboration and inspiration and sharing will be good.

Today, I went for a solo hike. I started at the Borrego Trail up toward the Santa Fe ski basin. And went to the left to Bear Wallow. It was so beautiful walking along the creek. I decided to go on a loop. I assumed it would circle back around to where I started, but just to make sure I asked a nice couple and they confirmed my hope. So I continued. But somehow I missed the turn-off and found myself going back around the same circle where I ran into the same couple again. They recognized me from before and were heading the way I wanted to go now so I talked and walked with them the rest of the way back. I think I made another friend or interesting connection. The lady I walked with studied at RISD 20 years ago and she and her partner just moved to Santa Fe 8 months ago. She told me about her spiritual quest and the energy work that she does and how nature called her to it and time in massage therapy school helped her to not only see energy, but also set boundaries. When we got back to our cars, she gave me her business card. It reads "Intuitive Reader/Angel & Guide Portraits."

It took me two encounters to meet these two people. Interestingly they both represent my dual paths: design/career and the spiritual/life.

After hiking, I went to the cultural, art event happening at the rail yard park. I love how there is always something like this happening in Santa Fe for me to do. Up and coming artists presented innovative booths. I went to the Art See booth to get my free pass to see the last day of the current exhibition at Site Santa Fe. Biology/art-like hand-made flowers, mushrooms and other botanicals were pinned to black walls. From a distance, they reminded me of reindeer lichen on a rock; they also made me think of jelly fish in the depths of the sea or cells under a microscope.

I just picked up a c.d. C at my CAC internship this past summer gave me. Its been sitting on my shelf. And I just looked over and thought I should listen to it now so that's what I'm about to do. Its by a poet David Whyte and called "Finding Courage and Clarity through Poetry."