TROY AND BRIAN’S JOURNEY TO MANHOOD

HAHAHA. watch the whole thing

PHOTOS BY TROY GROVER

while Brian, Aimee (my sister), troy (her boyfriend) and I are in the seattle area and just hanging out. We decided to do some engagement photos. Here is a fun one while we were in downtown. thanks troy grover photography.

CHAD AND NICOLE: MATERNITY

YAY FOR BABY!! Nicole and Chad are my dear friends that I used to live with. They were kind enough to let me come live with them for about 6 months. They are an awesome couple. I had so much fun spending time with them. I got the boot because baby was on the way. I am stoked for them. Its a funny thing because when i first moved to AZ i lived with a couple named Jason and jessica untill THEY GOT PREGNANT. hahaha. People around the office starting calling me the fertility goddess. haha. i guess chip and amy are next. haha. i hope you enjoy these. She is a beauty.

HOME FOR THANKSGIVING AND MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I LOVE BEING HOME. I flew into seattle last night and AM soo excited to be home for 10 whole days. The fall trees are beautiful and seeing the family is amazing. Woohoo. I am stoked to be here. Brian, my sister Aimee and her boyfriend Troy come on Wednesday and it will be too fun. I am truly thankful for this thanksgiving and excited for the holidays, more family, and wedding planning. ha. Anyone else traveling for thanksgiving??

ART SHOW UPDATE

The Flood art show was Awesome. It was a great. This whole art show at Cornerstone was a complete experiment. It has never been done before… so i wasn’t sure what to expect. i actually didn’t think there would be many people. Little did i know that hundreds of people would come. The night was filled with people crowding the halls talking, enjoying great live music, and yummy desserts. We decked out the lobby, re-organizing the furniture to allow for a casual lounge atmosphere. Thanks to Chaz, Andy, Rebecca, Andrew, Jude, Brian and a few others, we pulled it off.

The art was sold as a silent auction with a starting bid price. We had around 40 art pieces in the show that catered to just about every audience and style. There was truley something for everyone. The 4 art pieces below are my contribution the show. Acrylic,and mixed media.

Chaz came up with a stellar idea to have the featured music artists that night write a specific song for flood and record, burn, and sell them the night of the show. Above is the packaging that Chaz did for them. AWESOME. The featured artists were: Molly Nass, Ryan Axtell, and Phil Tipping.

above is a painting featured in the show by Chip Neal. The blending and color use is amazing.

above: wood panel printed graphics by chaz russo.

above: T-shirts designed and printed by Chaz russo.

We will be doing an art show again soon. It was a complete success. Keep updated and consider entering for the next one.

happy birthday brian

SHEAR PERFECTION: DESIGN WORK PROCESS

This is a new series coming up at Cornerstone. I had a very interesting time with this process. I thought it might be cool to let you in on this one. The Teaching is going to be about how God is the vine and we are the branches. God is constantly shaping us and “pruning” us to be more like Him. Sometimes the pruning is painful, and can be misunderstood if we are not seeking Him and abiding in Him. The title is “shear perfection”. Using His shears, He is shaping us into His perfection.

I started the design with hand drawn vines and leaves. The vines started looking too feminine and the plant growing from the ground up wasn’t exactly depicting the point of the message. It’s a hard balance to render an illustration not to literal (so its boring) but also convey the meat and meaning of the message. I tipped the plant upside down to give it more of a “pruning”/vine look.. oops still fem. looking. looks like women’s ministry.

Considering that we are designed and made for FRUIT. The team decided we needed to run out a comp incorporating fruit. We needed to illustrate that God clips the bad thorns in order to produce fruit in us. Oops we need more green… AND you can’t really prune strawberries. Dang it. I am liking the look more though. Its getting more masculine… kind of like a packing fruit/crate warehouse.

Chis loope had the idea of incorporating a heart into the design to show that God is pruning the soul. I really really loved that concept and tried that idea. I drew the vine on the right side coming out of the vein of the heart. There are sprouts of plants growing out of the viens and arteries. Some need to be pruned and others are good to grow.

Linn (the Pastor) got a hold of the design at this point.. and said that their needs to be more greenery.. because as it is, it looks like God went to town with the shears and there is nothing left of us. Good point. He also suggested there be fruit. Again enter the strawberries and greenery. Because of the elaborate design there needed to be more of a simple thick dark text to weight the design at the bottom.

This is the final design. Front of the promo card. and then the back of the promo card. I kept with the crate and fruit packing feel. I think this really works.

One of the concerns was that the heart is to stark and medical looking. It was said that the congregation is not ready for such a risky rendering. Kind of graphic looking? maybe it does not scream heart as the soul?? any thoughts?

FOUND INSPIRATION

Here are some found images that i have collected for inspiration. I find // collect them over time.. so i dont have names to work. Pipe up if you know who’s who. There are some really beautiful pieces here. I love to see such a wide variety of images taken out of their original context and placed next to each other. They really compliment each other well. Any favorites?

PANDORA RADIO: ROCKS MY LIFE

okay… so i know a lot of poeple know about this station online. but many of you may not. well…. All i have to say is PANDORA ROCKS MY LIFE. it makes my work environment so much better. for all of you that dont know about Pandora you need to go online to:
PANDORA.COM
It will change your life… well kinda.you pick and artist or song.. and it will only play songs that sound like that. how awesome is that? no commercials, listen to only what you want. You can rate the song or artist and if you hate the song, you can select “never play again”. It will learn and understand what you like. wow. They also make an iphone app for it. here is the professional write up:

Create a unique station based on a single artist or band
Save your radio stations to your profile, Share your radio stations with your friends
Pandora is a web radio station based on the Music Genome Project. By analyzing the essence of music and capturing aspects such as melody, harmony, rhythm, arrangement and lyrics among other musical identities, Pandora and the Music Genome Project are able to predict musical interests based on a sample selection.
This is a departure from musical social networks like Last.FM that use people with similar interests to find possible interests in music. Pandora is the perfect destination for anyone who wants to listen to Internet radio catered to their interests and their particular mood at the time. Feeling melancholy? Type in “Pink Floyd” and let Pandora take you on a wistful journey. Have a little pep in your step? Find out what bands Pandora thinks are similar to the Beatles.

SENIOR PORTRAIT AD.

hey. just designing for a print ad. senior photos. fun fun.
that beardy guy looks a little too old if you ask me.