Last week Dessa of Doomtree gave a presentation at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in MPLS. I listened to it last night and just had to share it. She is a very inspiring and driven person. Her presentation was on the rap and hip-hop community and it's social/moral issues of oppressing groups of people with the language and lyrics. It made me want to go through my iTunes and delete all the mainstream trash in it no matter how catchy it may be.
The biggest thing that hit home to me was the portion about where you come from affecting where you end up in life. Dessa talked about these artists making it sound like just because you come from 'the hood' or whatever that means your life is going to end up a certain way and you're going to act a certain way. The stereotypes of growing up in a certain neighborhood. When in fact, there are plenty of people who are growing up in unfortunate situations who are turning their life around and making something positive of themselves.
Why is it okay for songs to degrade and humiliate people with horrible language and words? Why do we listen and endorse it?
"If the choices are: feel discomfort for sharing
well-considered, fundamentally held moral views, or feel discomfort for
NOT having shared well-considered, fundamentally held moral views, than I
choose the former discomfort."
Props to you, Dessa, for speaking your mind and being an inspiring person.
P.S. If you look back at any old posts and see a doubled signature, just ignore it. I figured out how to have it automatically put in and didn't want to go through over 300+ posts to take out the original...
I think it's Skate Week here at Inspire Me. I revisited some of the "Shoot All Skaters" video series on The Berrics tonight and definitely got inspired by Mike Blabac and Chase Gabor's interviews.
Blabac talks about how he would sit and study his photos after he got them developed to figure out how to achieve the look he wanted. And then once digital photography came around how he felt it was cheating because those techniques became a lot easier. The challenge was taken away. But he chose to use it as a strength instead and push a bit further.
Something in his interview that particularly struck me was when Blabac reflected on some of the great photos he's taken. He said,
"It's just those rad moments that you don't always get to capture that if not significant now, 10 years from now when you get to look back on them, or 20, that you're just like, 'Oh my god, that's such a sick image.'"
Have I posted that image before? Maybe...Either way how true is that? I love little moments when I realize that I absolutely love what I do. Love it.
I think I am starting to realize its the moments when I feel a bit more stressed out and take a step back when I realize how much being a designer really means to me and what it has done in my life.
Are you drawn to passionate people as much as I am? I like to listen to people talk about their profession when you can just hear how much passion they have for it. It's kind of something I've been thinking about after visiting some friends a few weeks ago. I am starting to notice more and more how I've surrounded myself with people who truly care and have a love for what they do.
I challenge you to find your passion and make it your life. It's amazing how you feel once you do what you love everyday. Life just sort of makes sense.
Have you ever heard of Skillshare? It's this neat little community of teachers and students who all have a passion sharing knowledge.
"Skillshare is a simple solution to the problem our education system
faces today: people aren't learning in a way that inspires them. We
believe passion should dictate curriculum, not institutions. Currently,
there is only one acceptable way to get an education and 'succeed' in
society."
I stumbled across these videos tonight and I wanted to share them. I love hearing people talk about what they do for a living when they have such passion and interest for it.
Wow, another year is pretty much gone! What a year, what a year. On my 3 1/2 hour drive home for Christmas and the 3 1/2 hours back I had a lot of time to reflect on 2011. And just even the last two years since college graduation.
This year I am not making a formal list of resolutions. Some people say
that writing goals down is the best way to make sure you complete them.
I'm starting to find that when I look back at that list (after
forgetting about it 2 months in...) I am disappointed in those things I
wasn't able to cross off. And that tends to be more of the focus than
the things that were accomplished. Because many times those
accomplishments weren't planned goals.
For 2012:
Greet every opportunity to grow and learn
Keep on track and stay focused
Enjoy time with friends and family
Have more grand adventures
Continue to learn and be curious about the world
Keep finding who I am
Enjoy whatever comes my way
So those are my list of resolutions. For the little things like getting healthy or save money or whatever, I am just going to keep these thoughts in mind:
Challenge myself but start by taking baby steps
Understand that results don't happen overnight- they take time, patience, and hardwork
Here's to another year ahead. Twenty Twelve- Bring it on!
I am across Christian Gideon's photography a little while ago and his work is so wonderful. He does such a fantastic job of creating timeless photographs. You can really tell he puts a lot of thought into how he wants to capture a moment. It's photography done with love and passion.
Yesterday I listening to this incredibly inspiring podcast from The Pixar Podcast. It a fan-based podcast for Pixar. The particular interview I heard was with animators Austin Madison and Chris Chua. Chris worked on Wall-E, Up, the upcoming films Brave and Cars 2. Austin worked on Wall-E, Toy Story 3, Up, Ratatouille, and the new short for Brave. Talk about living an animators dream!
One of my favorite parts of the interview was when they talked about their education at Cal Arts. I had images of my college years flash before my eyes the whole time. Sitting in the labs for hours and hours surrounded by nothing but computers and fellow designers. They mentioned that some of your greatest teachers are your peers. And how true is that? As much as I loved and learned from my professors, I learned so much from the kids in my classes. We really had to rely on each other to learn new techniques, get critiques and feedback, and just for moral support. I really love the community in the design world. It's definitely a profession where everybody has each other's backs and are very supportive.
I think as designers we always sit in front of our work and think or hope for perfection. Chris talked about his sophomore year while taking a class and feeling down on himself. We look at our work with such critical eyes and wanting to push ourselves to make something better and better. But he received some advice from a professor about how the people we strive to be like, our role models, it took them years to get there. So if we just keep pushing ourselves and striving to reach that level of greatness we will get there. Never stop pushing yourself and your work. It can always be better. Design is always a learning process and the work is never going to be absolutely perfect. There is always somebody out there who's better.
"Don't be under the impression that this should just be a cinch. If it's coming real easy to you, you're probably not doing it right." Chris Chua
These two guys were somebody I would love to sit down and have a conversation with. They are very humble and appreciative of their success in the field. And you can hear the passion in their voices when they are talking about what they do.
They have a monkey running around. A monkey...
Monsters Inc. is one of my absolute favorites.
What an amazing place.
. How do you know that a person is a great animator?
"They're probably either acting their scene out in front of a mirror or they've got headsets on and their eyebrows are deeply furrowed. Whatever mouth shape their characters are making, they're slowly making that mouth shape. So basically you can tell who is a good animator by who looks the most deranged and completely lost in thought." Austin Madison
How true is that? Very.
Pixar's next movie? Cars 2.
Want to listen to the interview? Click here. Austin Madison has a blog you check out here and Chris does as well that you can find here.
At work today, a co-worker sent me a podcast. (Check out his blog here.) It was an interview with the amazing Chase Jarvis. He is a commercial photographer and director from Seattle. I thought I wrote down the address to the interview...but I guess I was wrong. Dang it. I will have to post the link next week. But I am going to continue to talk about Jarvis.
via YouTube
Check out his website to view his amazing photography.
I discovered his work a few years ago, and this interview made me like him even more. He has a book called The Best Camera is the One That's with You. Basically, it is using the phone on your iPhone, Blackberry...The photos are inspirational. I think most people think you need to have a big fancy DSLR in order to be a great photographer. This puts that myth to shame. He talks about how you don't need something that has the highest megapixels, the best sensors, the greatest lens. It is just looking more carefully and observing the world around you in a different way. You don't need a fancy piece of equipment to take gorgeous photos. People tend to forget that.
One of the quotes in his interview that stuck out to me was:
"What good is a picture if it is not shown to the world?"
It reminds me of an episode of Work of Art: The Next Great Artist where an artist talks about how he has never had his work critiqued or look at by outside eyes. Maybe it is the designer in me, but that drove me nuts. Why create something and keep it down in a dark, damp basement?
He was talking about how his imagination goes from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed. It's amazing to hear things like that. I suppose you would expect this from a creative. Not true. I've heard horror stories about laziness and people who just throw things together. (Heartbreaking.) He states that "within 10 meters from you are 10 photographs waiting to be taken." Truth. Design and photography run through my blood. I would probably die without it.
Towards the end of the interview, Jarvis was talking about his response when people ask, "Should I do it?" referring to pretty much anything. His answer was "YES." obviously. I want to live like this. I want to just do whatever I want, haha. Just stop what I'm done and start on my own. Wander around the world with my computer and camera.
So then, while I was waiting for my render to complete, I took a sneak at his blog, it had been awhile since I was on there. I found another quote (I love quotes):
"I never set out to become anything in particular, only to live creatively and push the scope of my experience through adventure and through passion."
I haven't heard somebody talk to passionately about what they do in awhile. Hearing his excitement for his job through my headphones was amazing. I love to listen to and talk to people who talk about what they do and their lives with such enthusiasm. It reminded me of my visit to Duffy and Partners, listening to Joseph Duffy talk about the company, their work, and what they do. It's like inspiration being passed on and you hope it keeps going.
After listening to the interview, you can just tell that Jarvis loves what he does and is appreciative for his skills, the experiences he has been given, and his life. My life goal right there.
Speaking of photography, for my upcoming engagement photo session, I will be purchasing this lens...Probably tomorrow.
I am a Canon user. Have been for years. This is the Canon 50mm f/1.8.
This weekend and next week is supposed to be nice with temps in the 30's! Hell yeah. So now, after listening to the interview, I am going to break out my camera and hopefully take many pictures. It's been awhile since my camera has see good sunshine.
"A photo of a person you would like to trade places with for the day."
Chase Jarvis Photo via here and Yvonne Photo via here
Funny enough, I didn't even look at what today's photo was supposed to be. What a way to integrate the two together! I would love to trade places with him for a day. I love the process behind things and being on a set like that would be such a great experience. Plus, to have the chance to play around with all the amazing photography equipment...To die for.
And of course, if I could have to chance to visit the set of Chuck, that would be so sweet. Once again, like with visiting a photography set, I have always been curious to know how the set of a TV show works. I'm such a nerd. I like to know how things work. And I would love the chance to kick some bad guy butt. I think I said it in my first Photo Challenge post...Hollywood intrigues me.
I also am trying my hand at some homemade no-ice cream-machine ice cream. It is currently in the freezer and we will see how it turns out a few (or many) hours from now. If it's good, I shall post a recipe tomorrow so keep your eyes on the lookout. It's a super simple, anybody can make it, recipe.
Now, I am off to watch some interviews Marlon sent to me this morning of Joe and Joseph Duffy. It is the weekend. Thank goodness.
