the [jamaica] sketches

as i mentioned in my previous post, the best part of the honeymoon was being able to spend 10 days with my wife.  however, another wonderful benefit of taking time off to do...well...nothing... was having time to sketch.

now, i'm not a great sketcher, but i LOVE to practice. you may remember my sketchbook experiment i blogged about here and here.  a true vacation to me is when you have time to drink two full cups of coffee in the morning with no one bothering you and also having time to sketch what's around you. with very few decisions to make every day and being in a new environment, full of interesting scenes to sketch, i was thrilled.  the two full cups of coffee also helped this.

before we got to jamaica i made a vow to sketch everyday of the trip.  sometimes i would take my sketchbook with me and sketch on-site, while other times i took a photo of the scene so i could sketch later that evening. what started out as an exercise to simply sketch more while on vacation, turned into a sort of visual diary.  when you sketch a scene, your eyes trace over the objects in great detail in a way that seems to ingrain it deeper into your memory.  looking over the drawings, each sketch takes me back to the day i drew it and i can picture myself with my sketchbook in my lap and my feet buried in the warm sand. the faint smell of rum from the strawberry daiquiris that spilled on the pages also helps.

anyway, i was very happy with the way the sketches turned out so i thought i would share them with you on here.  i hope you enjoy them as well.




day 1 - arriving in the afternoon, we had little time to explore our first day, so i sketched the first thing i saw; the view from our hotel room.

day 2 - our first full day at the resort was spent almost completely at the beach, allowing me to sketch this without leaving the lounge chair.

day3 - the resort had a large pool with a swim up bar which is where we spent most of this day.  there WERE more people there than this sketch shows, but you get the point.

day 4 - part of the beach was reserved for sailing and paddle boards.  walking past these sailboats, perfectly lined up that day i knew i had found my sketch.

day 5 - on one part of the beach, locals would dock their small boats and ask you every time you walked by if you wanted to buy souvenirs or go fishing with them.  although we didn't partake in their offerings, watching one of the boats head out to sea provided a gorgeous scene.

day 6 - the day we hiked dunn's river falls.  what i discovered, hiking and sketching waterfalls are harder than i planned.  even though i feel liked i changed how i sketched the water halfway through this drawing it turned out to be one of my favorites and reminds me that we actually did complete the hike.

day 7 - we spent most of the day by the waters edge again and watched the staff set up a canopy on the beach for a wedding that was going to be held their that evening. a sweet little reminder of our own wedding 10 months earlier.

day 8 - we walked the same path to the beach everyday, so i wanted to capture that well. it also gave me a chance to draw lots of palm trees...which are fun to sketch.

day 9 - i couldn't leave our honeymoon without sketching my beautiful wife.  here she is on the balcony of our hotel room standing exactly where i told her to stand so she was perfectly framed by the palms.

day 10 - i was a little worried about what my last sketch would be.  i walked all over the resort trying to find the perfect final sketch, when stumbled across this scene.  it was near the end of the day, the light was perfect and i loved how the trees seemed to perfectly frame the beach.  there actually was a man sitting in the chair, but in a lot of ways i felt like i drew myself into the sketch; looking out to the horizon and thinking back on the past ten days.

[copying] originality

like most people, i’ve been a fan of flag design ever since roman mars did a podcast introducing the world of vexillology to millions of 99% invisible fans. coupled with the fact that i’m proud to be from wichita; a city in a renaissance of flag appreciation due to the fact its own flag was voted one of the best city flags in the country, and it's easy to understand why i might be hyper-aware of flag design.

since moving to maine, i found myself searching for a way to embrace and support my new state in ways other than rooting for the patriots.  a few months ago the local paper did a story about a company in portland making and selling the original maine flag, a design that is arguably better than the states current flag which is your very average an unoriginal, seal on a blue background. upon seeing the design of the original maine flag i fell in love with it's simplicity and immediately went to the companies website.  not only were they making flags, but i saw they also sold patches. this spurred an idea. i thought, what better way to embrace my new home state and promote better flag design then to buy a couple of these patches and put them on hats, so that’s exactly what i did. i bought some patches, a couple of hats, and found someone to sew them on for me!

proud of my new accessory, i immediately posted my new hats on instagram,. since then, i’ve been proudly wearing them around town, with several people asking where i bought them.  it’s no surprise to anyone that knows me, i was thrilled to have a completely original hat and more than happy to tell people who asked, i had in fact made it.

it should also be no surprise to you to understand the absolute shock i felt when i saw someone wearing my EXACT SAME hat just a few weeks later.  same color, style and everything! i couldn't fathom it!  my wife was trying to hold conversation with me but i i kept looking at this guy in my hat! my mind was racing.  is there some company already making this hat? has this been around a while? was i not as original as i thought I was!!! I was all flustered. it got so bad my wife eventually told me to go over and ask him where he got.  

so i did. 

i approach a strange man in a bar and asked him where he got his hat, to which he said,  he made it.

(whoa buddy, that's my line) i thought to myself

i said,  “i really like it, i recently made myself a hat just like that a month ago!”

to which he said, “are you the guy that posted it on instagram?” 

“yeah, that was me.” I stated

to which he said “i own the company that makes the patches, and our next product idea is to make hats like the ones you posted.”

needless to say i want from frustrated to flattered really quick.  we discussed colors, styles and how best to sew the patches on.  at he end of the conversation i told him how excited I was to see how the hats turn out.

walking back to the table that night i did have to ask myself one question though; was i at the forefront of some great underground fashion movement eventually leading to the changing of the maine state flag...

or...

had my flag obsession simply reached some nerdy milestone.

only time will tell.

the [hunt] is on

after two years of renting a house, my wife and i are currently in the process of looking to buy.  if you take what we want in the house, factor in what we can afford and cross that with what's actually on the market, there's basically nothing out there.  every house forces us to look at our priorties and really dig into what we want out of a house....which is fun to do a couple of times, but after every single house, it can be a tad exhausting. 

please don't get me wrong, i'm very grateful that my wife and i have jobs and are even in the position to look for a house.  i'm just saying that like other moments in life,  this has been a frustrating process.  so as we check out house after house, weekend after weekend, i've come up with things i’d much rather go through other than house hunting in portland maine:


precalculus

facebook’s terms of service

moving into my freshman year dorm

a root canal

the perfume department at any mall

the directors cut with commentary of “gigli”

paying for a seminar on toenail fungus
 
my taxes

yanni’s entire catalog
 
a new england winter
 
1995
 
a plate of gas station sushi
 
drivers ed
 
my “frosted tips” phase
 
my “sweater vest” phase
 
any season of “the nanny”
 
oklahoma
 
puberty

just a few [b's]

the older i get, the less i need to be happy.


and it's not even like i'm *that* old (although this birthday puts me closer to 40 than i'd like) i think what i mean is that as life gets more complicated and sometimes more stressful, little things mean more to me than they use to.

all these thoughts came about when my wife asked me what i'd like for my birthday.  after some thought i told her, "bbq, beer and basketball."

one of the absolute best things about my birthday is that it falls during march madness and this year my alma mater was playing in the elite eight.  so for my birthday my wife took my to my favorite bbq place, found me a great spot at the bar right in front of the tv and with a little sweet talking she got the bartender to put on the game....which no one else in the place cared about.  upon hearing it was my birthday, the bartender even gave me a beer on the house.  so there i was, another year older, beer in one hand and a fork full of brisket in the other, a little bit of bbq in my beard, watching college basketball and grinning from ear to ear.

although my team lost, it was a wonderful night.  who knows, if this "appreciating the small things" trend continues, maybe all i'll need to be happy at 70 is an ice cold dr, pepper!

and for those damn kids to stay off my lawn.

a [part] of the community

a few months ago i entered a design competition.  it was to redesign an existing park to help it be more apart of the community.  the funny thing was, i didn't enter the competition to win it.

alright, that may not be entirely true, there was a little, tiny part of me that wanted to win, but it wasn't the main reason.  there were several other reasons why i wanted to participate.

first of all, i wanted to shake off some rust. unlike in school, in the professional world, very rarely do you get a small project, where you can basically do anything you want. also, i cant remember the last time i had to convey the entire idea of a project on one board.  most of my working life consists of putting together large instruction books for buildings which other people construct.  i was excited to get back to my "studio"roots and design a project and have to convey the idea armed only with presentation skills and a board.  since college, i've had the honor to attend several college "crits" where i comment on students designs but sometimes would also suggest to them better ways to present or show their projects.  i was excited to "put my money where my mouth is" as it were and see if i could present my entire idea in a simple and graphically pleasing way.  also board design.  i love looking at project boards and judging them.  some boards have a ton of imagery and wording and still tell me nothing, while others can minimally put together a few drawings and an image and it tells me everything.  i was very excited to dust off the graphic/board layout skills and see if i've learned anything.

next, i wanted to understand my new home better.  i've always believed architects should know their city.  coming to the east coast, there's a whole lot of history to catch up on.  nothing educates an architect more than throwing themselves into a project.  i'm now aware of the history of this site, the importance, the views, the grade, the transportation patterns and local business's in the area. it's only a small piece of town, but i feel i know it better.

lastly, i wanted to feel a part of the architecture community.  i was excited because i knew at the presentations i'd have a chance to meet other architects, landscape architects, artists and designers i wouldn't normally run into.  although i didn't officially meet many people that night, in the months since, i've encountered several people who have asked, "hey didn't you have an entry in the bramhall design competition?"  this usually turns into a great introductory meeting, and as geeky as it is, i've added several new colleagues to my "linked in" network.  which we all know is basically a digital first date in the professional world.

so much like this competition was designed to take an old, tired piece of land and freshen it up and make it feel more apart of the community; participating in the competition has done the same for me.