Happy New Year !

2020 is here! The year started off with a 2020 Visions art show and performance. It was great to celebrate with an awesome group of creative people. Venus made some beautiful cake art.

On January 10th, my friend and I went to the first Franklinton Friday of the year. Franklinton Friday is one of my favorite events in Columbus. On the second Friday of every month, galleries and studios open to visitors excited to celebrate creativity.

The first spot we went to was No Place Gallery for the opening of Jacob Mason-Macklin’s show PURE HELL. The show consisted of a series of paintings depicting deep beautiful characters.

“Flesh transforms into masks adorned with war paint and threads are razor sharp. The Night-Prowlers are dressed to kill. Paint runs like an out-of-tune solo; a last-ditch frenzy caked on like cheap make-up. Brushstrokes animate the monkey on the back and record the unscratchable itch. Underneath PURE HELL is an urge to unleash. The house has burned down and what’s lying beneath the ash is waiting around the corner.” - No Place Gallery

Next we saw Exploration, Experimentation, Exploration, Explanation! works by Nikki and Matt Swift at the Vanderelli Room.

The Education Continues

My first six months out of college have been spent discovering who I am, what I’m interested in, and what kind of career I want to build for myself. I’ve explored filmmaking, event coordinating, media making, coding, UX/UI design, writing, virtual reality, digital marketing, design, and more. What I’ve found is that I like all of these things! In fact, I think all of them connect in some way that I’m trying to figure out. Part of this journey has been continuing my education with online learning tools like Linkdin Learning, Udemy, Freecodecamp, and International Design Foundation. I recently finished two courses at the International Design Foundation and want to share my experience with you! 

The International Design Foundation (IDF) is an online school based in Denmark that teaches courses on User Interface and Experience Design. They offer 25 courses and counting, each one being seven weeks long. Their courses include diverse learning materials such as video lectures, articles, multiple choice and short answer questions, projects, and group discussions. The first two courses I took were called “Become a UX Designer from Scratch” and “Designing for Augmented and Virtual Reality.” I found that the courses cover a lot of information in a way that flows well for the learner. The mix of videos, reading, and activities is also helpful. Below are some notes I took during the course.

I was inspired to learn more about UX/UI design after a workshop I took at Denison through the Red Fram Lab. The workshop was hosted by a local designer from Columbus who taught the group the basics of the process. It was perfect timing because I had just had an idea for an app that strengthens artist communities called GallerWe. Learning more about the design process with IDF has inspired me to continue with the idea and develop the design further. If you’re interested in signing up for e-learning with IDF, you can click here for a personal invite. E-learning is a great opportunity for people to take control of their education, to dabble or dive deep into their interests at their own pace.

Sharing VR

Since my first class in virtual reality (VR) last fall, I’ve had the pleasure to lead multiple VR workshops in both Columbus and Kentucky. My interest in VR and mixed reality (XR) has grown a lot over the last year and I am realizing that I want to make it my career. I love the infinite possibilities of XR and know that it’s going to change the world. The industry is growing at a rapid pace and is virtually unrecognizable from its early launch in the 90’s. The development of hardware is especially impressive. Compare 2014’s Google Cardboard to the Oculus Quest, which came out this year. In just five years, we went from putting cell phones into recyclables to full blown wireless headsets (with hand tracking in 2020). Amazing! If you’re interested in learning about the origins of VR, check out this video on history of Virtual Reality, which surprisingly has its origins back in 1838.

On October 8th, I had the pleasure of presenting alongside some other artists working in VR at VR Columbus. I started attending the Meetup around last year and have met some really awesome people interested in the technology! I shared my mixed media work as well as some of my newer immersive illustrations from the series Other Realms. One of the artists I presented with is Jeanne Dunlap. She creates beautiful animations and shared a project she’s been working on that combines storytelling and meditation in a VR experience.

On the 22nd, I hosted a VR workshop at the Boone Youth Drop-In and Safe Space. We explored Cartoon Network Journeys VR and Late Night Cafe on HTC Vive as well as played Virtual Virtual Reality on the Oculus Go. I also demo-ed how to create 2D illustrations for VR.

Momento360 | View and share your 360 photos and 360 videos, on the web and in VR

On November 3rd, I taught a workshop at the Wexner Center for the Arts teaching students how to create immersive artworks by creating 2D images and converting them into a sphere using a headset. The results were really awesome! Check them out in the YouTube video below.

UnBound - Issue 1

Things are going well! I’m excited to share the release of the first issue of UnBound: a digital zine highlighting feminine/nonbinary/trans voices! It includes a collection of art, essays, and poems made by a diverse group of creatives. The project is the brainchild of my friend Lashonda Love and takes aim at unnecessary limitations and roadblocks people face based on how their identity.

My contribution to the zine includes four mixed media illustrations that combine photography and digital illustration. They are inspired by the contrast between the timeless beauty of nature and the newness of our digital world. Our society is experiencing a technological (r)evolution at an exponential rate. So much has changed in the past 20 years, let alone the last century, and it’s showing no signs of stopping. I’ve been reflecting on this while living in the mountains of Kentucky. People joke that it takes 20 years for Appalachia to catch up with the rest of the world, but perhaps the mountains protect the region from dependence on tech’s rapid growth. Not everyone has a smartphone here, or internet at home. This is much different from my home in Columbus, Ohio, which embraces tech with open arms. Which is great! I love being from an aspiring tech city! I consider myself to be an aspiring techie. But, being a tech city definitely shapes the culture. It’s important to be aware of this, especially if we hope to evolve into a healthy and balanced society.

Grow On

September has come and gone so quickly! I feel like I have grown so much these last couple months. Recently, I’ve been working with an organization called the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI). I’m helping them with the re-launch of their youth drop-in and safe space. I’ll be hosting workshops, film screenings, and yoga classes there! I will also be interning with an organization called All Access EKY, raising awareness about reproductive health in the region. I’m excited, it’s the first time I’ve been able to do community work like this and its so fulfilling.

Re-Launch (1).png

Last week, I visited my hometown of Columbus to see my family and attend an event at my alma mater called ReMix. The event was for Denison alumni, specifically entrepreneurs, to meet and discuss their life paths after Denison. It was inspiring to see how different people’s experiences are after college. It’s been four months since I finished school and I don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m rolling with it.

On September 20th, I got to attend an opening reception at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Their newest exhibition, entitled HERE, features installation pieces from three well known Ohio artists: Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, and Maya Lin. In the artist talk preceding the opening, the artists talked about the similarities and differences in their work, as well as the impact they hoped their work would have on the audience. All three artists are known for addressing global issues, particularly climate change and class inequality. The scale of these issues is demonstrated in the scale art itself. Walls of the galleries are covered in text, flooding the viewer with powerful statements and ideas. The exhibition is consuming, it swallows the viewer up in its devastating reality and spits them back out into the world, urging each visitor to DO SOMETHING.

Transition

My Kentucky adventure has officially begun! I moved in with to the mountains last Wednesday. I went shopping and bought my first coffee maker, a landmark in my adult life. It has an alarm and brews just in time for me to grab a cup and go back to bed. So far, the journey has been magical and inspiring. I’ve met a lot of people, and found a state park called Kingdom Come. At the top of the mountain, a tree is growing from the rocks on the cliff side. The scene looks out onto the mountains and is truly a beautiful sight. Below are some lovely pictures from Oakley.

Oakley and I are making a film together this summer and have been watching stuff for inspiration (Check out his website here). So far we’ve played the first Life is Strange game as well as watched Mommy Dead and Dearest and Zombieland. The movie we’re making is called Invisible Scars. The movie tells the dramatic story of Daniel, a trans youth, who is struggling to find his place in his Appalachian town. Most of our days so far have been driving through the mountains scouting for places to shoot scenes for the film.

We are also working with local musicians, taking photos and making music videos. A couple weeks ago, Oakley and I met with Nolan Slone to film. He’s an awesome uke player and it was a blast to work with him. We also met with Cody Socio, an Appalachian black metal artist, to plan for a music video and take some photos.

As far as my personal practice, it’s been going pretty well. I try to do a handful of things daily, like draw, practice languages on Duolingo, and exercise. Sometimes it feels hard to find enough time in the day, but I do my best (-: