4" x 6" Art

This was the piece of art that I created for the 4" X 6" Art Swap over at Craftster. That was the only requirement--that the art created has those measurements. This was different than other swaps in that we didn't know who was going to be receiving our package--so we had no clue what they liked, what their interests were. We really were creating what we liked and sending it out into the world.

I found out yesterday that the swap organizer--alteredmommy--was the receiver of my piece, above.

It's called "How I Spell Craftster" because it's made with:
C--rubber stamped
R--ribbon
A--acrylic paint
F--fabric
T--twig
S--safety pins
T--twine
E--metal stamped
R--rubbing (pencil on paper over sisal rug)

Aurora's Junior Prom

Aurora and her prom date, Jilani. 

Ellie, Aurora, Faith and Amelia

Abby and Joe, center.

Amelia, Aurora, Jalani, Sammy

Amelia, Aurora and Moriah

Ellie and Lizzy

Congrats Toy Design 2012 Graduates!

I have been teaching Game Design at NY's Fashion Institute of Technology for about 20 years. There's only two universities in the U.S. where students can get a degree in Toy Design and FIT's is a very very rigorous program. This was a really wonderful class. It was an honor, really, to teach them.

Today was graduation day and the Toy Department had a breakfast for the graduates, their families and faculty.

Jordan, me and Karen.

Kei, Vince and Karen.

Jiyhe and Scooby!

The students embellished their caps with toys to distinguish themselves from the fashion and marketing and textile, etc.  graduates.

Kei had a pinwheel on his--in school colors.

Jordan created a very Lego cap.

Ashley balancing a pig from Angry Birds.

Alexa gets a hand from Ki. The doll on Alexa's cap looked just like her.

Keysha and Alexa

Jiyhe, BK and a friend of BK's.

Ashley, Karen, Jordan and Enrique. Enrique made his cap topper out of  perler beads.

Judy Ellis, the chairwoman of the Toy Design Department, with Scott.

A table in the toy lab where we teach. Family passing time before going to graduation which was at
the Javits Center this year.

Room with a view. Jason: producer and actor and critical part of the program.

Ashley, Jiyhe, Scott and Bobby.

Just a section of the fabric samples available for students to use in making their plush.

Guerilla Art

As a bit of background I created the program for my church's Women's Health Day which was last Saturday. It was the first time that I created a program-style sheet--8.5 X 11 folded, booklet style. I was pretty excited about it--like overly excited. That I couldn't stop printing and looking at it, that when Michelle G. ran it through the church's printer on pretty blue paper stock I might have finally seen Heaven. So when that was over I was thinking that it might be fun to make up, like, fake programs for events that never happened. I overly like that idea. Adding to that was the fact that I'm getting pretty ticked off that NJ Transit's so-called "Quiet Cars"--the first car going into NYC and the last car leaving--are getting flipping noisy. I googled NJ Transit quiet cars today and what the heck, I find out they were put into effect on my train line on May 11, 2011. Soooo, I get the idea to make a small program for that anniversary and then, here we go, to leave a small amount on the seats in the quiet car!

 I made it up, printed a few out and I put one just like this  ^ on like the 7th seat and then I sat behind on like the 12th seat. The numbers are more or less. I'm not a numbers' person. I'm just trying to give you a visual.

This was the first cover design ^ that I made. Since I had a few, I also put one of these down as I was getting off at my stop.  

I expect to put maybe 4 or 5 out tomorrow, maybe more since I'll have the train going in too. And a bunch more, if all goes well and I don't get arrested, on May 11.

Here's what I printed inside. It's not like the funniest thing in the world but, in context of me Ninjalike putting them on seats and people thinking that it's from NJ Transit--oh, yeah, that's funny enough. And since I only have 7 people subscribed to this blog and two that read it for real and they don't even live in NJ never mind work for NJ Transit--well, that's the benefit of not having any readers, I guess.

Suddenly my commute is a lot more fun.

I need to mention now the book "Guerilla Art Kit" by Keri Smith which I read a while back and which I know paved the path to this. It's a very very cool book. If you are at all interested in doing some kind of art on the sly and just putting it out there, get this book and be a bit artistic AND subversive.

Montclair Film Festival

I love this program cover for Montclair's first Film Festival.

I went to one event tonight called The What Is It?:
Don’t miss this one-time-only event. Stand-up comedians Rory Albanese and Adam Lowitt (executives on The Daily Show) host and comment on a collection of strange and esoteric film clips. The event is co-presented by the Orphan Film Symposium, an organization dedicated to preserving neglected films including educational shorts, home movies, amateur productions & more. Orphans curator Dan Streible is assembling a collection of bizarre, surprising and unforgettable works for Rory and Adam to give their comic interpretations.

And I have tickets to two events for tomorrow's closing day/night:
Brooklyn Castle
The Audience Award winner at SXSW, Brooklyn Castle looks at how chess transformed an inner city school where a majority of students’ families live below the poverty level. The school I.S. 318 has the most winning junior high school chess team in the nation. But a series of recession-driven public school budget cuts now threaten to undermine those hard-won successes. The film follows several of the school’s players and makes us acutely aware of why schools deserve greater resources.


Michael Moore: On Film and Community
Michael Moore has an Oscar (Bowling for Columbine), an Emmy (TV Nation) and a recent best-selling book (Here Comes Trouble). He also co-founded the Traverse City Film Festival that brought significant cultural and economic improvements to upstate Michigan (and serves as an inspiration to Montclair). MFF director Thom Powers interviews Moore about the transformative power of film. Since Moore is never short on opinions, there’s no telling where this conversation will go, especially during an election year.


Looking forward to both of these!