bliss

June 26th, 2011 I got married to the best, most beautiful, and absolute funniest man I've ever met. Here are the details and the photos to prove it. We had a family-union/re-union and it couldn't have been more perfect.

The highlights:

First, we rented Cobblestone Farms in Ann Arbor (2 barns for the price of one!)

Then, I printed my own invites at Pistachio Press' place and used her gorgeous stationary for thank you notes (below).

Buy them here!

Instead of RSVP return cards we got ourselves a wedding website through onewed for RSVPs.

We rented everything except stir sticks and thrifted frames/lace.

Next, we spent decades making drink tags, printing magnetic poetry sets, painting frames, folding favor toppers, making guestbooks, and designing cootie catchers.

I hand lettered roughly one million chalkboards.

(If you do this, use chalkboard paint and a chalkboard PEN!)

We went to the farmer's market for flowers and my former-florist/current-mother-in-law made our bouquets day-of.

We trusted our photographer, Holly Green to document the day.

And left our simple cake to a (paid) friend but stole the idea for our cake topper.

Then the day was upon us! Eighty one of our favorite people showed up and one Bible reading, one Darwin reading, and NINE MINUTES later... we were married!

Next, we ate and ate gourmet pizza from Pizza House. 

SO GOOD.

And a friend (who we hired as day-of coordinator) made salads for each table following these awesome guidelines.

 

We (all) did  The Twist.

 

We talked and drank (thanks to Ann Arbor Brewing Company, wine.com, and wineshopper.com)

Then we talked more and drank more (the Snickerdoodle flavored coffee was a hit)

And then we left! Whew!

at least that's what we say we are doin'

found on Quotenik, my new favorite thing:

“Even the hardest of the sciences depend on a foundation of metaphors. To be aware of metaphors is to be humbled by the complexity of the world, to realize that deep in the undercurrents of thought there are thousands of lenses popping up between us and the world’” 

—David Brooks

the sky grows dark (if you're looking up)

"Please use one word to describe yourself" 

"What word would others use to describe you?"

I had a job interview last week. It was over the phone. I'd never really thought about it before but without the personal contact I felt the extreme strangeness of the situation... boiling yourself down to a few phrases and events and presenting it in a way that you think might make someone else interested... it's absurd.

I realized that these two phrases are a nice example of what I'm interested in and where my work comes from. The answers to these questions both successfully communicate something and fail to really say anything. They highlight this tension that I find so fascinating and the way we bridge the gap between us and other. We try and try and try and sometimes it works out. It's just so beautifully human.

Though, I'm not really expecting a call back any time soon. 

I used the word "determined"

i would show you off like a trophy

I've got the itch: I want some new clothes! In order to save our bank account now and in the future, I decided to get back into the habit of altering clothes and making my own stuff-- first stop: cyanotypes! Following this tutorial, I hope to print something like the things above on some scarves or maybe even a T-shirt if I decide to make my own. 

Something else: there's this new book you can win on Design*Sponge and it's filled with nature drawings like the one above (right). Enjoy!

If you've never tried making a cyanotype yourself, give it a shot! It's always a blast.

the state I am in

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am perpetually nervous about the significant influence my scientific studies have on my art. As a firm believer that natural phenomena are beautiful in their own right, I struggle with how often I appropriate these naturally arresting images.. and yet I'm continually drawn to them as aids in dissecting less concrete phenotypes. Relationships seen in nature can be immensely useful, insightful, and powerful. I seek to harness those qualities, adding to the inherent beauty and progressing toward greater understanding.

Currently, I'm obsessed with chick embryos in culture

Image taken from Rita Levi-Montalcini's nobel lecture.

the night plays games

Like everyone else nearing the end of something, nearing a deadline, nearing an important date, nearing a big move-- I'm struggling.

In my work I am struggling with the boundary between too personal and not personal enough, with the difference between telling a story and trying to relate a specific set of events, and with trying to dig through my personal experiences and find those things that are relatable and interesting.. I'm trying to find a story in my own, ongoing narrative.
It feels futile, like writing a book about the Cold War in 1980. 

But Amy Casey does these things well. She took a recurring dream and has managed to pull years of quality work out of it. Not only that, but I actually like these pieces: the feel, the tension, the hesitation, the fear, the confidence. They're quietly beautiful.

This is personal done right. 

 

Damnit.

Don't ask for the water.

Anna Betts

I really like these pieces.

I love that this is "student work", that they're so simple, so quiet, and so bold. They're really just so... everything-that's-good-about-Etsy. 

 The same woman who makes these tiles also happens to be my new favorite blogger and etsy shop, so check it out!

Sh-Boom

Sarah Morris

I like this.

and this.

and this.

and this.

Meanwhile, I'm making this:

It seems anti-climactic... but I'm starting to think that it's not. I've always loved line, pattern, repetition, and anything that confuses the eye (or, more accurately, the brain). I'm interested in the difference between what exists and what we perceive-- and the differences between the collective "we see" and the individual "I see". One could argue that these differences are easiest to discuss through op art but I think it trickles down through the styles and is important to each individual viewing experience, regardless of genre. As an artist, I recognize people's differences in perception and I'm acutely aware that I view the world through a different filter than everyone and anyone else. I desire to communicate visually with others both because of and in spite of these differences. 

These pieces remind me of this struggle and remind me of these ideas more acutely than a lot of other work and this reminder enriches my other viewing experiences.

Brown Sugar

Melanie Bilenker

picture taken from The Jealous Curator 

She uses her hair to capture and create moments in jewelry, Victorian style.

(Roughly) in her own words:

The Victorians used ground hair and pigment to secure the memory of a lost love. "In much the same way, I secure my memories through photographic images rendered in lines of my own hair, the physical remnants"

I love these. They're intimate, precious, careful, well-crafted, and beautiful.

All I want is you

Emily Eveleth

It's no secret that I love doughnuts. I blame it on watching too much Twin Peaks.

I also happen to be continually mesmerized by fat and the body. It's malfunctions and disfunctions and proper function. As a scientist, I've dedicated my life to figuring out how things work and how we work on a microscopic level but this obsession has made me prone to romanticism of the body as a whole. 

 When the complexity of something small like a cell is so overwhelming, it's hard to comprehend an entire body working, short of magic. For me, these paintings capture that magic and question the relationship between our bodies and what we put in them.

To me, the body is gross and gorgeous. What we do to it and feed it is equally gross and gorgeous. Gross and gorgeous is really my thing. and it appears to be Emily Eveleth's thing, too.