My New Year’s Resolution for 2010 is to start something. Whether it be start making Friends Make Prints more official and steady, start getting my artwork into galleries, or start ideas that never leave my brain. The goal is to just start because that’s the only way I can get on the path of where I want to be.

Here’s a look at 2009:
Became USU Art Guild President
Volunteered at the Sundance Film Festival for the first time
Attended Southern Graphics Printmaking Conference in Chicago
Sheila and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary
Broke up with a boy and moved out which resulted in -
Lived in the Boathouse which is the coolest house with the coolest girls in Logan
Graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design and Printmaking!!
Took a Harmonica class
Started internship at Fluid Studio which resulted into a job
Took 2 Letterpress classes via BAP and fell in love!
Visited my best redheaded friend in Atlanta, GA
2 real and successful freelance jobs
Went to New York, and visited Fire Island (what an experience)
Live completely by myself in SLC
Bought my first press – a Kelsey Excelsior 6×10
Took a Holga class which resulted in-
Met and befriended Eva of Sycamore Street Press
Met a boy with a girl’s name
Went to San Francisco and checked out The Renegade Craft Fair
The series of unfortunate events close to a close…?
Still vegetarian
Still living life

Just got these lovelies back. I’m starting to think I should start experimenting with cross processing. I love how these turned out, but I love the wild colors Holgas can capture.

This last one is the one I had mentioned I couldn’t wait to see how it turned out. I just love it. She totally wasn’t keen to get her picture taken, and I’m so glad for it. Hah!

Come to think of it, I’m diggin black and white film… but I did get lucky with a lot of rainy days.

Even though my family didn’t celebrate Christmas, we all surprised each other with small gifts. I got a few great books and the best thing of all: help restoring my press. Thanks papa! Hopefully we can get it looking like this:

It still won’t be until it gets warmer out for proper ventilation.

With the short time I had between getting back from San Francisco and dinner with the family for Christmas Eve, I painted a new holga camera to give to my cousin Britnee. With the first stroke of purple paint, I immediately regretted this decision. Her boyfriend Mark had been secretly helping me decide which holga to get her. He said anything purple or pink. I could’ve made things easier on myself and just bought a purple or a pink one but I just couldn’t do it. I hate color and even though it wouldn’t be mine, I just couldn’t stand the thought of it. So I decided to just add some purple. With the black and silver, I felt like it was toned down enough to not look crazy. I didn’t put a finishing on it, didn’t really think about it and it’s already chipping. Maybe for her birthday I’ll repaint it. Maybe.

Sorry Britnee.

Just got back from a much needed vacation to San Francisco. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I stepped into the building in the bay area for The Renegade Craft Fair. It was amazing and overwhelming at once. After 3 1/2 hours of browsing, making lists of what I wanted and negotiating with my wallet, I got a business card holder wallet by Eleven Eleven, earrings (oh how I wish I could remember the artist), a necklace from Oh Hello Friend, a mobius scarf – something I’ve wanted for a very long time – from Archicraft, and dishtowels from O Califauna!

I also got a lot of feedback from the very beautiful Eva of Sycamore Street Press, on her experience. This was their last craft fair out of 3 in the past 4 weeks. Not to mention being an etsy seller the previous week, they have been busy. And I can only imagine. Being there and talking to Eva just made me more excited and antsy to become apart of such a fabulous community of hand made art. Every body there was inspiration.

The rest of the trip was very relaxing. Went and visited my Aunt, Uncle and my baby cousin Natasha in San Jose and also had a day trip in Santa Cruz. There’s one photo I took of Natasha on the boardwalk which I’m dying to know how it turned out. But I will be patient. Film is being developed now.

Although completely unrelated to any form of art, this was the one and only time I experienced something like a true Christmas moment. Tracy and I were on our last stretch home with just an hour to go. It’s dark and starting to snow. I see a car off to side and thought of nothing until less than a minute later saw a man walking. I yelled, “Oh no, should we help him?!” Instantly Tracy pulls over and reverses until we can ask the man if he needs help. He just ran completely out of gas and the next station was 4 miles away. We take him and he thanks us and salutes us goodbye as he gets out. But it’s still dark and cold and he’s still more than 4 miles away from his car let alone would be carrying a gallon of gas. Of course, we surprise him again and take him back. In the small chit chat we had he discovered we weren’t part of the LDS church and that he was a BYU alumni now living in San Jose and then we briefly talked about the football game the University of Utah was playing. That was that. I wished him a happy holiday and that now he’ll get home on time for dinner and we got another thank you and salute. We drive off feeling pretty good until I look down and see $20 on the arm rest. “Noooo! He gave us money! Should we turn around and give it back?” Both of us feeling bad that he had given us money when we really didn’t feel opposed at all, we concluded that he probably just wanted to return the favor that we gave him. Then Tracy gets a brilliant idea. We’ll buy $20 worth of food and donate it.

Talk about paying it forward. What a good feeling.

I don’t sew. I want to sew. But I don’t.

A couple of months ago, I snuck behind my friend Jen of Sparrow Original’s back and bought some patterns from her shop. She is amazingly talented. While I was visiting in Logan last October she let me stop by with my sewing machine and fabric from Yellow Bird Fabrics, an amazing local fabric store in SLC, and gave me a one on one sewing session. Once again, I don’t sew. Time ran out and she had to go to work as well did I have to hit the road. During my hour drive home I decided to make it a goal to finish it that day.

Well, today I actually finished it just in time to have it carry 2 holgas (one for color film and one for black and white) as we journey to The Renegade Craft Fair tomorrow. Not too shabby for never sewing something from scratch before, but you can totally tell it’s handmade. I think it’s what makes me love it more too.

Thanks Jen!

Yessssssssssss.

Just on time before I head out to San Francisco, my new Holga 120N. I sold my old one to my old roommate Di. I have high hopes she has patience to not only fix the built-in flash, but to grow to love the process like I have. She hasn’t picked it up yet, so it might come along and some how have black and white film in it. I’m really excited to experiment with a stronger flash! Holgas are my only source of documenting my trip. Photos to come soon.

Yay!! Sycamore Street Press is a Featured Seller on Etsy! Check it out guys!

Here’s a little somethin’ somethin’ from the interview so you can start getting to know them:

“We are Kirk and Eva Jorgensen, and between the two of us, we have lived in 4 countries, 7 states, and over 2 dozen cities. We started Sycamore Street Press from our dining room in Columbus, Ohio, where we were living while Kirk attended Ohio State. About a year ago, while on the road to Art vs. Craft, we decided that we wanted to make this little letterpress company of ours a long term family business. To do so, we knew we wanted to settle somewhere that was beautiful, affordable, and close to family. So after Kirk graduated in June, we moved to the small mountain town of Heber City, Utah. We love it here. We finally feel like we are grounded — and like we have found our home.”

Remember when I said I got inspired from my Impressive Kiss print to print completely blind? Well, here it is in all it’s glory. Once again it’s a play on printing. Can you guess what I titled it?

17 3/4″ x 12. Printed on Bleached Lettra, wet pack.

The Salt Lake City Chapter AIGA had an event this evening called AIGiveA at Frosty Darling. Four local letterpress shops, The Mandate Press, Mr. Letter’s Press, Tryst Press, and White Elephant donated an edition of 100 holiday cards for AIGA to sell. The President of (SLC) AIGA is the Creative Director at my work, Fluid. Working with him has its perks. And this perk had some serious potential. There was some talk that me and my business partner in red could participate in this year’s event. Obviously they wanted to go to more established companies because if they allowed one person to do it, why not another? But it gives me a goal by next year, be established.

(My desk at work is filthy. Don’t judge me!)

Bring food donations to Frosty Darling through the entire month of December and (SLC) AIGA will deliver all the goods to the Utah Food Bank at the end of the month.

Check out the events going on with the Salt Lake City Chapter AIGA. And become a fan on Facebook here!