RockBlog

I'm going to work on a series of digital images transferred onto wooden postcards. I'm thinking of either doing a traditional postcard size of 4x6 or 5x7 or going for more of a landscape size with 6x11. I'm shooting for a series of 5-10 cards. The images will be a combination of sketch and digital illustration with maybe some photographic elements. Not quite sure yet. For a theme with the images I'm thinking of a Northern Minnesota type aesthetic, with deer, fish, pine trees, etcetera. Here are some links I've been looking at for inspiration:

http://www.davidhochbaum.com/gallery/index.html
http://www.deannecheuk.com/
http://www.inezstorer.com/
http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/
http://www.aestheticapparatus.com/portfolio.php?subsection=posters&page=0
http://www.nightowlpapergoods.com/home.php?cat=11
http://www.postcardy.com/article12.html
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6604229§ion_id=5840835

My body of work is going to involve memory. I will be creating an interactive model of a suburban neighborhood. The concept behind this idea is simple. Everyone has memories and retains them in the same way or at least very similar. The difference between me and the person next to me is that our memories are not going to be the same.
The way the interaction will work is it will have a full city view, then zoom into a neighborhood. Each neighborhood will look similar in terms of layout and function. However, the individual streets will be very different from one another. The street itself will have houses that look the same. This street will serve as my "memory lane," for lack of a better term at the moment. The difference between the memories will be in the houses themselves. Each house will have an illustrated window/front door that gives the viewer a little insight to the memory. For example, a plate of cookies will be a memory of baking all afternoon with Grandma. The memories will document my past in a way that hasn't really been done. I grew up in the country. That gives the idea of being free and never the same. However, my memories are the same. That is why I decided to put them into the suburban environment, because the memories are all mine, and the person next to me has their own "street" with their own memories.
The way that I will present the project in the final week will either be screenshots or an example of one that goes from zoom out to zoom in. What I hope to achieve is a place that can possibly in the future, have multiple users and become a place for people to share their own memories.

I'm working on a series of fantasy images with a slight autobiographical reference. They will have a simple accompanying story, that references the somewhat predictable plot-lines of children's fairy tales. But the characters will all be very peculiar and metaphoric to personal life experiences. I will be working in an 8"x8" format. My goal is to bind them in a hand-made book after they have been completed. The style will be photomontage with some drawing and painting mixed in. I have found the following artists' styles to be inspiring:

http://www.maggietaylor.com/
http://www.parkeharrison.com/slides-architechsbrother/index.html

For my body of work, I'm going to work on making tote/market bags. I am hope to be able to make 3-5 different bags, depending on how hard the actual crafting of the bag will be. I want to create watercolor paintings that are really loose and fluid and then taking them into Photoshop and either create a black and white stamp type image or create some type of outline around the watercolor painting. I'm not quite sure as to what I want the images to be exactly, but I do know what I want the watercolor paintings to reflect some sort of floral pattern and then I was thinking for the black/white Photoshop images, I was going to gear towards animal/plant life. Here are just a few links to websites I have been looking at for inspiration and tutorials:
http://www.fealingwatercolor.com/
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/confussion-m-mellon.html
http://www.filminthefridge.com/2008/08/28/to-market-to-market-a-market-bag-tutorial/

For my body of work I will be doing a series of images featuring different plants and their uses now and in history. A lot of my work incorporates plants and nature. The images will be possibly flyer size or a bit bigger. I want to use negative space and lots of graphics to create images that are alive. I'm going to try mixing photographs, illustrations, and different digital art to create images that have a collaged type feeling. I don't think I want the images to have text and spoon feed the view the information, rather be informative by only using images. I'm thinking I want the plant to be the only point of color in the piece, maybe with other small accents of color, but the rest will mostly be black and white.

http://www.vault49.com/

For my body of work, I'm creating a new design portfolio site. Which will focus on showcasing my design. What is going to make my site different from the average student portfolio site is that I want to combining of all my design work into one big interactive animation. This animation will showcase my work and give the viewers a introduction to who I am as a designer. You can look at my storyboards and rough drafts on my blog at

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/olsem340/benolsem/

You can also look at www.benolsem.com to see what I currently have and see why it needs to be upgraded.