Christmas is Over and the New Year's Almost Here ...

Hey there! I haven't posted in a while and I must confess that my blog was started because of a class project. But I've enjoyed it so much that I've decided to continue. So after a small hiatus, I'm back and ready to roll again. Hope you all had a great Christmas by the way. Mines was great!

Have you ever found yourself envying other people to the point where it actually made you totally miserable? The neighbors, friends, celebrities, even family members all seemed to have something I wanted but didn't have. Whether it was the perfect body, the perfect height, the perfect job, a good looking man, money, popularity.  I've found myself in that position lately and it was getting to a point where I began to feel really bitter. Everywhere I turned someone seemed to be flaunting something...something I couldn't have. Urrgh!

Case in point my sister bought a brand new Macbook Pro recently and while we were on a Skype call with her, she pulled it out as a surprise. I wanted to die, especially when she said the capacity was 500GB. I looked at my old macbook laptop that I've had since 2010 with its 250GB (the white one that I got when snow leopard was the new OS). I've been dreaming of the new Macbook Pro with all its new features and capabilities and trying to save up for it for what seems like forever. To make matters worse my brother kept calling out and identifying all the new features as he looked it up on the internet. I repeat, I wanted to die. I really need it too...being a graphic designer it's an ideal piece of equipment for my line of work. She's not even a graphic designer, she's an accountant. Why does she have the good stuff??? WHYYYYYYYYY????

Maybe I'm being a little over dramatic but this is how its been for me for a while now. Always seeing other people with things i'd like to have or even things I feel more entitled to and suffering those pangs of envy that can eventually drive one insane if they allow it. Lucky for me I found an escape route away from this vicious, ongoing cycle. I tend to over think things a lot and sometimes it has a way of working in my favour. As I sat thinking about my battles with envy it occurred to me that there are many people in this world who are destitute and without even basic necessities. For every one person who made me bitter because of what they possessed, there were probable 20 people who didn't have half the things I possessed like a good education, a roof over my head, clean drinking water, a loving family.

The thought made me feel extremely grateful for what I had in my life but the more I thought about it I felt ashamed too. Here I was envying others for what I believed I was entitled to when there were people out there who were in need of things I took for granted. I knew right then that I wanted to help the unfortunate in some way. If I did something to help them I believed it would definitely take my mind off of envying others and at the same time perhaps bring fulfillment that would remove all bitterness and replace it with a healthier outlook on my life.

A NEW YEARS RESOLUTION

In the tradition of making new years resolutions, I'd like to publicly make one today. In light of my
current situation, I want to use my talents and skills to make the lives of others better, particularly those who are destitute for even the most basic necessities of life. Throwing out the envy and instead using what I HAVE to help others. As time goes by I'll give updates on how I progress with this and hopefully you may feel inspired to do the same. So happy New Year to you all and I hope you find a new year's resolution that you will meet with much success and that will bring you maximum satisfaction. New beginnings are always something to enjoy!!!

Collaboration with Face-tuh-Face and Artful Trini

Two brilliant, humble girlies sat before me as I prepared myself for an interview with them. Throughout the past few weeks I observed in awe and fascination as real, raw talent flowed from their blogs. Two fellow graphic designers yet students like myself. It was an opportunity I could not pass up and so I asked and they accepted to collaborate with me in a sit down interview.

Shanice Vitals of the "Face-tuh-Face" blog and Allison Padillia-Alexander of "Artful Trini": - two rising stars in the graphic design industry. I asked about their earliest memories in reference to art and they revealed to me how those memories shaped the start of a journey on which they now find themselves. As I listened to their stories, I understood their respective roads travelled and the discovery, excitement, fear and triumph that is inevitably attached since I too travelled a similar path.

Shanice's work speaks in edgy, rebel tones. She is determined not to conform or blend in with what she sees around her. On her blog she stated that her blog was a means to discover her own artistic style and in the process, find herself.  From my observations she is surely on her way to achieving that goal if she hasn't done so already. The concept involves depicting her self portrait in the styles of the artists she admires. Choices she makes in her prefered artists give insight into just how good and gifted an artist she has already become. One such artist is Sara Golish - a prominent up and coming artist.

The work of Sara Golish

Our collaboration involved Shanice agreeing to do my portrait in the style of this amazing artist. Here are the results.

Allison's talents are also undeniable. The detail in her drawings are mind-boggling and has earned her compliments and high praise among her peers. A particular work of art produced by Allison entitled "Aquatic Globe" caught my attention because of the concept. It made me realize that she could quite easily become a concept artist. It's a glass globe (the kind that usually has a winter scene in it with the snow falling) but with a beach scene. The vivid color and the details were so magnetic. She revealed to me in our little chat that she sometimes dreams about the concepts of her art projects before fleshing them out. I was intrigued by this since I would give anything to be able to dream in such a way. Allison's talents include arts and crafts where she not only draws but makes things with her hands and also looks for objects on which to express her unique style. As with Shanice, Allison also agreed to do my portrait in her own style. Here is the result.

I really love these two portrayals. For more on these two rising stars, watch the video below of our chat together where many things about these artists are revealed.  Definitely something to enjoy!

Enjoyable Collaboration with Crafty Food Bloggers!

Marina's delicious carrot bread and tuna dip

Delicious, nutritious food. Who can resist! The thought of hooking up with some of my fellow food bloggers for a collaboration had me so excited, I could hardly sit still. I love food, especially when the food is not only savory and appetizing but also vibrantly healthy and good for you. I wasn't alone in my passion for this topic. Leston Paul of the popular blog "Creative DiversityTT" shared my excitement in doing the collaboration. Last but not least, the very talented photographer Kieron Anthony of the blog "Roadtoprotog" became a welcome addition as we came together to create a very special video about food!

We filmed the entire event as a food-show with two very eager hosts and two very talented cooks/foodies. Our guests were Marina Rivas
of the blog "Marisol Cooking" and Krystal Leah of the blog "Trini Vegan" (Hoorayyy for vegans, the healthiest people on the planet!). The video is packed with information about a healthy lifestyle and cooking with passion.

All the bloggers and collaborators

We really enjoyed making this video and hope you will enjoy learning from it as much as we enjoyed making it. Coming to the end of the video Leston and I tasted the dishes and both were so good that I couldn't stop eating. It was really a treat learning from these talented chefs and I will definitely be trying out the recipes they shared on their blogs. Let me know if you can relate to what our two food bloggers were saying in the two part video below and if you have any questions, feel free to post in the comments section!

Krystal Leah's amazing Vegan Pizza!

YOU CAN VIEW PART 2 OF THE VIDEO BY CLICKING HERE!

Interracial Relationships Part 2 - Fun Collaboration with 'ABC Storytelling'

Yes folks! This has been a long time in coming but it's finally here. The second part of my exploration of interracial relationships focuses on interracial relationships right here in Trinidad and Tobago. This time around, zooming in on this issue in my own country gave me opportunity to collaborate with a fellow blogger by the name of Anietha Charles. She is an amazing storyteller and hugely talented illustrator. I'll talk a little more on Anietha Charles and the collaboration in a bit. Such excitement!!!

I decided to explore IR's in Trinidad and Tobago because while doing research for part 1, I realized that there is very little said about it here. The most I could find were a few articles (about three) and they were from students like myself. There was probably one newspaper columnist who dealt with it as well. Videos were also scarce. I found one youtube video and it was from a UWI student. I couldn't say anything about how Trinbagonians feel about IR and so I chose to research the information by conducting interviews with the people of Trinidad and Tobago and recording it, thereby raising more awareness on the subject. This led to the video below, which can be seen as a general snapshot of how people in this country feel about IR's.

Over 30 people were interviewed in the course of one day and while the responses were varied, the prevailing attitudes were very similar. My camera guy, Zamfir Khan (a really cool guy. Please check out his blog) and I traversed COSTAATT university (College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago) and also the streets of down town POS to conduct the interviews and found many compliant folks who gladly gave their opinions. I really enjoyed the process.  I learned a lot and that day. After a hard day of canvasing the streets and conducting interviews I can say I am truly proud to be a Trinidadian.

There were, of course some sad discoveries. One of the students from the college mentioned that she had a friend who was a girl of East Indian decent who was romantically involved with a boy of African decent and that the parents of the girl were "kicking against it", as stated in the words of the student.  I won't pretend to be totally naive. I am aware of the racial tension between the people of East Indian decent and the people of African decent in this country but what I found to be interesting is that this mindset is primarily with the older generation. The young people of both races aren't thinking like their parents and grandparents. The younger generation have no hangups, no divisions and no reasons to be divided. They opt for unity and togetherness and that is very promising for us as a nation. So overall I must say that compared with other nations like the US and the UK, we are doing pretty good on the racial front, particularly where interracial relationships are concerned.

Collaboration with Anietha Charles

Anietha - a graphic design student - is such a talented individual. When I discovered her storytelling capabilities in addition to her artistic abilities, I was blown away. During my interviews I allowed the interviewees to tell stories about how IR couples they knew, met each other. I asked Anietha if she could illustrate these stories so that I could add them to the video. She did a fantastic job and I was so glad for the opportunity to work with her in such a way. As mentioned above she also writes a blog which is entitled "ABC Storytelling". Check it out here and look out for other fun collaborations coming soon. 

  

Street Harassment and A Funny Way to Deliver the Message

Shoshana Roberts 
(Source: news.com.au)

Remember the blogpost I did entitled, "The Way Women are Treated by Men in Sweet TnT"? In that post I spoke about the negative way some Trinidadian men approach women in our country and in return, received many responses from Trinidadian women who said they could relate to the issues raised. Well this is a follow up to that post. I recently came across a video of a woman who, in an attempt to raise awareness for this issue, walked 10 hours through the streets of New York as a social experiment. With a hidden camera on the back of a man who walked in front of her, recording every moment of the daunting 10 hours, the results were overwhelming, far reaching and ongoing.

The director of the video was a man by the name of Rob Bliss and the woman who agreed to be the bait for this much needed exposé was Shoshana Roberts. I found out that in America, the issue is termed "Street Harassment" and has been the source of public conflict for some time. But that conflict reached its climax when Rob Bliss and his team released the video of Shoshana to raise awareness that would hopefully put an end to    street harassment.

The video seen above shows Shoshana walking through the streets of New York as several men try to get her attention with unwanted responses ranging from a simple "hello" and "smile" to men following her and asking for her number. Men so bent on getting her attention that when they said something to her and they didn't receive a  response from her they began asking her if the reason she didn't talk back to them was because they were ugly. The video depressed me so much that I knew I had to address it. This is an issue so profoundly disturbing because it infringes on a person's right to walk the streets in peace without being bombarded. It's kind of like being ambushed by a swarm of bees or mosquitoes. But these aren't unruly insects, these are men, people who have no regard for a person's right to privacy, and no respect for women or themselves. Shoshana herself agreed to be in the video because she has been a victim of this many, many times.

I used to respond when I was younger but when I realized my level of comfort while walking the streets ebbing away I knew something was up. If you are saying hello to one random person then you should say it to all.  Why not say hello to every single person you see. Old men, young children, the homeless, businessmen in their shinny suits ... EVERYONE! But no. You single out one person who is attractive to you and then, whether she likes it or not, you make sure she sees, or hears you. If she exercises her free will to not respond, then something is wrong with her.

The video is linked to a movement to end street harassment called "Hollaback!" You can learn more about the video here and more about Hollaback here.The director of the whole experiment said it was exhausting to be around and to watch as guy after guy targeted Shoshana. The worst part of this for me was observing the comments of the men who viewed the video. It has been reported that after featuring in the video Shoshana recieved rape threats. Here is a small indication of what men think of the video. After featuring a snap shot of the video on my facebook page to promote the post, I received this unwelcome comment from a fellow facebooker.

In addition to these comments were the video parodies that mimics the original in a bid to make it sound as if women are making a big deal about nothing. I really laughed at this one.

Here is the best responce to the video above.

So to all the parodies I have some video responses of my own. Check out these videos. The first is a link to "The Daily Show" where he addresses the topic of street harassment using one of his associates - Jessica in a segment called "Jessica's Feminized Atmosphere". Click here to view. (Wait a few seconds for the commercial to finish) The second video below is aptly named smile and hails from a youtube channel entitled "The Get Go".

These videos made me laugh so hard! Anyway, after all the hollaballoo, let us remember that at the base of this subject matter is the issue of human dignity and respect. The women who support the street harassment movement are ordinary women. They love to be complimented and told they are beautiful, but compliments have their place and time. Let's learn to respect and honor each other as we go through this journey called life.

The Joys of Animation

Those who are amateur animators like myself or even the professionals will know that there is nothing as thrilling as the process of creating an animation. There's nothing as satisfying as pouring blood, sweat and tears into a project and then standing back to watch the whole beautiful production unfold. Like a composer with his musical composition at a piano, like a painter in front of his easel, like a master chef accepting the compliments of his customers - the final product is everything and when it comes out exactly right or better then expected, there are no words to describe the thrill.

I was first introduced to animation when I took a class entitled "Intro to Motion Graphics" as part of my Graphic Design course. It was exciting moving into a new area of the program but nothing could have prepared me for the absolute obsession that possessed me once I began learning different techniques and the step by step process to reach the goal of a completed animation. Its hard work but its enjoyable and satisfying work. The lecturer of the course, Seon Thompson, was an excellent teacher. I would recommend him to anyone who wants to learn all things animation. He also writes a blog which you can find by clicking here. 

Of all the animation techniques, I love the stop motion animation the best. If you've ever seen the popular "Wallace and Gromit" films "Chicken Run"or even "Flushed Away" which is a blend of computer animation and claymation, you've seen stop motion animation at its best. For those of you who have never done animation and are interested (or at least curious) to see how stop motion animations are made, click here.






















The video below reveals the outcome of the first animation I worked on as part of a group for the same course. I used the image sequence option from Quicktime Player 7 to put the images together and I used imovie for the final editing of this 30 second film. The assignment was to somehow advertise products distributed among the groups in the class through the use of an animation technique. The product we were given were Fruity Gel Cups.The story behind the animation is that of a kindergarten teacher doing her best to cheer up her sad little kindergarten class.

This second video is one I did on my own and combines traditional animation with stopmotion animation. No claymation was involved.

Here are a two more projects I worked on. These aren't completed animations but can be referred to as animatics which is more like a moving storyboard or something that let's you know what your animation can look like as a series pictures.

I really enjoyed working on these projects! Let me know what you think of the videos and also if you think animation is something that annoys or something to enjoy!

When Art Comes A' Roaring

In the words of singer, Jazmine Sullivan, "I'm not scared of lions and tigers and bears". Only in this case its lions and tigers and leopards. Yes folks its time for yet another art blogpost showcasing the subjects that inspire artistic desire. Once again I'd like to share some art pieces that were good fun to depict. These pieces, like the portraits of the previous post (Why I Love Portraits) were my first time attempts at depicting animals.   

This tiger was a bit of a struggle for me since there is so much going on. He's supposed to be coming out of some water and shaking himself dry so I tried to capture that movement. This was done in acrylic paint on canvas.

This white leopard was done mainly in pencil. I used chalk pastels for the colour in the eyes, the nose and the tongue. I really tried to capture the intensity in his eyes. There was so much mesmerizing tension there. I also used charcoal for the darkest areas. The drawing was done on cartridge paper.

This sleeping leopard was the most adorable subject. I borrowed a book based on wild animals from the library and the pictures there were so beautiful. When I found this leopard, I knew I had to paint him. This was done with acrylic paints on cartridge paper.

This lion was a bit difficult for me as far as getting proportions right. If you hadn't noticed, the nose is a bit twisted but considering how hard I worked on it I was quite pleased that I found my way to the end. This was done quite a few years ago so I want to try another one soon to compare with this and see how my skills have improved. I may have a lion depicting contest coming up in a future art blog between me and a few other artists. If you want in on the contest let me know in the comments and I'll arrange to have your best depiction of a lion in that particular blogpost. Here I used acrylic paints on cartridge paper.

Just as a little bonus I'd like to post two more paintings. As you can see they aren't animals but they are paintings that reflect the nature around us. Both animals and nature are definitely something to enjoy!