"All's Quiet on the Western Front," Well, Maybe Not

Was December just two months ago? Seriously?! It feels like another lifetime that I went to school.

Northern Illinois University Graduating Class of December, 2013
I'm the one that turned around just as the photo was taken.

Graduation was awesome. I went back to school to get that single sheet of paper, but it ended too soon. I don't think I'll miss living on Mountain Dew and just three hours sleep a night. I will definitely miss the creative atmosphere, the supportive and kind students and staff, and just the ability to create my own pieces every. single. day. 

Me, with my BFA in Illustration!
3.45 GPA overall  |  4.0 GPA since I went back!

I've been productive in those two months, just not on the art side of life. My son and I moved out of the apartment and lived at the Motel 6 for a month → it sounds bad, but was a blessing because at the end of the month I moved into MY NEW HOME! I can't even begin to express how amazing it feels to clean my own floor, cook on my own stove, and paint walls in a COLOR other than white! The finished basement will be my very own studio!

"The Nolan's"

The most blessed thing of all is that everyone in my family has done some hard work. Each of us has looked deeply into our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and failures. The black hole that we entered two years ago has brought us to a new and better place. We have learned and are moving forward together. People have shown us who they are, their true nature has been revealed → some for better and for worse and those lessons will not be lost. 

We are moving in slowly after we each caught the cold going around town. While I haven't been doing outside work as much or as often, I have been doing some pretty cool things with my co-workers. We got together and decided to try to recreate the movie poster for Star Trek: Into Darkness. That way we could work on our lighting, typography, and special effects skills. Here is the progression: 

ACTUAL POSTER

ORIGINAL PHOTOS ON GREEN SCREEN / TYPOGRAPHY RECREATED

FINAL: AFTER SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE ADDED

How cool is that? I know! Awesome, right?!?! I was also able to help out the Family Service Agency, by working with them to get an updated website. I wrote about this project on OC Imageworks' company blog. 

Personally I was really pleased with the results. FSA currently serves as the um FSA currently serves as the umbrella for a variety of essential community programs: Big Brothers Big Sisters, Children’s Advocacy Center, Center for Counseling, and Senior Services.  They serve as a “hub” of services, organizing the efforts of many local agencies to provide the best care possible to every generation found within my community. I love that I was able to assist such a worthy cause. Here is the before and after website screenshots:

Family Service Agency Website: Left = Before | Right = After

I worked on a marketing campaign for Chad Luberger at Plum Bottom Pottery. He was interested in ramping up his brand identity with a new version of his logo as well as a new color palette. Chad creates both sculptural and pragmatic porcelain and invites artists of other mediums to show in his gallery space. One of those artists is Amanda DeWitt and her Silversmithing. Her jewelry is shown in the ad I created below, but you can read a bit more about her and view her work here. 

Ad for Plum Bottom Pottery & Gallery in Egg Harbor, Door County, WI

Whew! I guess I there was a lot more going on than I thought! I didn't even write about everything. I'm humbled and praise God for his abundant and generous blessings.

NIU Asian American Center Demonstration

Demonstration, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

This demonstration of Moku Hanga was sponsored by the Asian American Center at the Gallery Lounge in the Holmes Student Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.

I was a comfortable crowd of interested persons. They all duteously took ntes as I was speaking. As soon as a noticed this, my self-confidence took a beating. It was so important that I share the information completely and exactingly so as to not make a mistake. 

A cold had just taken over and my voice was about to go out. I was still feeling good, so I just carried on despite the coughing.

I started by talking about why I choose to do an "outdated" ancient art form. I feel that when a person creates art by hand, his or her humanity shows in the finished piece. I wouldn't say that it is direct opposition to digital technology because I use the computer at times when developing a composition. When creating a print I use all my senses. I smell the inks, feel the texture of the wood, and hear the brush as the ink is applied. There is something meditative about the process. It forces me to slow down and gives me time to think.

Hiroshige
From the Series:
 “One hundred famous landscapes from Edo” 

Van Gough
Japonaiserie Bridge
in the Rain

I then spoke about the history of woodblock printmaking in the east and the west and how the styles played off one another in the mid 1800's when Commodore Matthew Perry opened the doors between Europe and Asia. I especially like showing the example of Van Gough's Japonaiserie Bridge in the Rain which uses a print by Hiroshige as "inspiration" - ok he just copied it and added a border.

I gave my demonstration. I had kept everything from the mini rabbit print from reference photo, to sketch, to inked tracing on tengucho paper, carved blocks, etc. So every step was there for the demo.

Afterwards, I invited everyone to come up and try the block on newsprint. Woodblock printmaking sounds easy, but when people try it for themselves they see how difficult it is to get an even impression. It teaches them appreciation for the art form.

The absolute best part was a little girl, maybe about 4 years old. Her mother tried printing and was happy with her results. So, I asked her daughter if she would like to try. She was so shy. I told her of course she could do it! I didn't want her to have the entire ink bottle (Akua Kolor) so I asked if she would count out the drops so I would know how much ink to add. In a tiny, sweet, quiet voice she counted, "one... two... three..."

Next I gave her the brush. It barely touched the ink and she swirled it around slowly afraid that she would break something. So I took the other brush and asked if I could help. Next think you know we were racing our brushes back and forth along the block, crashing into one another as we did so. She was laughing.

For the paper, I held down the one corner next to the kento and held the opposite diagonal corner. I asked if she would lay the paper down. She patted it gently with both hands as I laid the newsprint in place. I gave her a black plastic baren. Again, her touch was so gentle and slow. I let her do it for awhile, then asked if I could try. I burnished it hard and fast, then told her I think I may have done it wrong. Could she finish it up so it would be right? Again, slowly, delicately, she barely touched the paper.

It was done! I told her to lift up the paper. You should have seen her face light up! She did it! I could just see how proud she was of her work. I asked if she would like to sign her name on it and gave her a technical drafter's pencil to use. She drew her squiggly lines that symbolized her name. She was such a little dear.

My son took the photos of the demonstration and helped me pack everything up and take it to the car. His suggestions? Don't say "and" so often and don't apologize for using my notes. He said to tell the audience,"I'm going to look at my notes now-get used to it!" He cracks me up.

Huskies On Parade: Completion

Where to begin when the project is already completed? (View the documentation here.The time has flown by in a haze of Mountain Dew and sleeplessness and thanks to Robayre and Onnanoyume the project is finished...dated and signed...on time. The night it was done, I felt like crying. How can a person grow so attached to an inanimate object? But, in the morning, I was excited to see how the client would receive it. All morning at work people were talking about it congratulating me on a job well done and that made me feel pretty durn good, but a little embarrassed by the attention. I am proud. It was hard work and I am happy with the results. This is the largest project I've taken on since, well, since forever. All the stress in coming out as a migraine tonight. Was it worth it? Oh, yeah, baby - was it ever. Well, ON TO THE NEXT PROJECT! CHARGE!

NIU - Valentine Day Shooter

Shooting at NIU: 7 dead, 22 wounded


The constant hum of helicopter motors is strange for this small town.

The big question is why? In cases like this there is no reason, no logic. There is no why. In my mind the why doesn't matter. Seven people went to school this morning, young full of life, never dreaming that they wouldn't make it home that evening to share Valentine's with their loved ones.

Parents sent their children to school, offering them everything they had so that their children could be offered every opportunity to be successful. Now they are crying, wishing they had never sent them away from home. A parent's job is to keep their children safe and healthy and to love them always. They will continue to love their children, but they will not see them again in this lifetime and never again have the opportunity to keep them safe.


Life is fleeting and precious, but who among us understands this fact unless something like this happens? Then, in time, this feeling will fade until it happens again. I felt awful when I heard about Columbine, about Virginia Tech, but to be honest that was "somewhere else." I had prayed for those families in earnest, but the shock I felt yesterday made me physically ill. I had difficulty focusing, my hearing was muffled. I felt a disconnect between reality and what I was viewing. It was the same feeling I had on 9•11. "All those people." I could feel the suffering of the people caught, jumping, their families... true suffering, not just a heart ache, but a soul ache.

I heard the news through a co-worker whose friend had called him on his cell to say that he was locked in the Holmes Student Center basement because there had been a shooting. It was difficult to look at my co-worker's face. I could see the concern, disbelief, and sorrow. His other friends started calling, the news kept getting worse. I felt badly for him. He is a young guy and this is probably the first time he has had to deal with something so tragic as an adult.

Is it so difficult to try to be good. Even if you think about doing something bad, is it so difficult to say to yourself, "No!"? When I was young the world was black and white. The older I get, the easier it is to see the grays. It is more confusing, but I still have a sense of right and wrong, black and white... and now red. Society today doesn't see the gray. They only acknowledge the black or white after the fact. Little by little, slowly and imperceptibly, like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water, society had gone insane. Drug addicts, drunkards, liars, those materialistic ideals - those are the people society raises up as "successful." Think about the celebrities we and our children want to be like. Are they good people? Do we really want to be like that? Does their plight entertain us? Should it?

Morality is not based on the highest common denominator any longer. We have lowered ourselves so that the basest among us rule. If you tell someone they are wrong, it is someone else's fault. If you say what they did was bad, you are being judgmental. If you notify authorities, you are interfering. Following the law or obeying rules is for "someone else." Everyone feels they are the exception. Society cannot function in this way.

In the end all we can do is try to be good ourselves. Try to do good for others, maybe that kindness and generosity and loving will rub off onto them. I know that when a stranger does a kindness to me, my faith in humanity is renewed. It is the small things in life that build on one another. Smile at a stranger. Open the door for someone behind you. Let an older person have that parking space close to the door. Tell those close to you that you love them. Play peek-a-boo with a baby who is crying. It doesn't a great person with unlimited funds to change the world. It takes you.

Ayomi Yoshida - YEDOENSIS

Yesterday The Makers Art Group went on a field trip to see Ayomi Yoshida's installation YEDOENSIS at the NIU Art Museum. It was created with close to 100,000 woodblock print sakura, or cherry blossoms. It was incredible to see wall after wall covered in these 2"x2" squares of prints. Each one was an individual, some subtly pink, others using mica. After reading her artist's statement, the concept made more sense; but there was one line that stood out most to me:

"It (the installation) also allowed me to demonstrate how small, single acts, when piled one on top of another eventually amount to something larger."

This singular point is how I try (keyword: try) to stumble through my life. Each act of kindness, of love, of care when piled one on top of another gradually lead to a greater path. In this way a person's life becomes more than the here and now, it becomes a movement to change the world. It changes people's perceptions. Remember back to a time in your life when a stranger did a kind thing for you. Maybe they opened a door for you, maybe they let you have the parking space, maybe they allowed you to go first in line. Did it reinforced your faith in humanity. How did that make you feel? Not everyone is bad. Not everyone is in it for themselves. Just think if everyone practised this philosophy. Think if that was the norm and not the incidental surprise? It would change the face of humanity.