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It occurs to me beautiful picture books on paper will be much more scarce in the future. No doubt it’s why I have a yearning to design a book of late. Looking at a French travel picture book I used for a class reference reminded me of how remarkably well books can draw you in while in the digital world it’s a rarer thing. I like to think it’s in part because today’s information vehicle chooses democratization in the form of a sea of templates. The irony being that the last time design media was so heavily gridded we were living through the final instantiate of Swiss formalism. This makes it even more nakedly obvious that it’s the content or the story told that makes for the best stuff. And in the case of books the best get that storytelling trumps all and give us a good stories and rich context to lure us in.

Doing a quick search I found Chip Kid lamenting their end as well.

Hardly thought my first posting in some time would be about book design. But it does seem to support the creeping feeling that we are undergoing another revolution in media but yet to see see what’s the event on the horizon to do so. If you really think about the death of the book will in no way mean storytelling and communication are dead. And if you look at the fact a book is something that will not be found by archeologists a thousand years from now wouldn’t it be better to find a way to archive our stories past the life span of a slip of paper.Some Pretties

http://grainedit.com/tag/modern/

Wow a fantastic repository

http://bookcoverarchive.com/

November 5th, 2009 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

One of my most vivid memories of 2008 were election night. On a giant screen in one of my city’s most beautiful old theaters I got to join the jubilant celebration of hundreds of Obama volunteers watch the digital representation of the electorial college talley votes cast that very day. As the final mathmatically impossible to beat  configuration of blue and red states gave the network anchor the confidence to call Obama our next president a triumphant cheer rose up out of every person in that theater. The energy level was unbelievable, hundreds of people cheering, hugging, crying. It was an iconic event, a culmination of not just that November day when we universally make our voices heard at polling stations but a culmination of generations of people who had fought for equal rights for all citizens. It resonated deeply with me as some of my first vivid memories of the outside world were during the turbulent tragic days when Martin Luther King was assassinated. On that day school was cut short and the next day as well. There were whispers, saddness and unease emanating from the grown ups who didn’t know what to tell us. And for weeks and months after the tragedy with the lives of icons being cut short by violence it weighed heavy in my young world. This is the culmination of that history that no doubt helped shape Barak Obama into the icon he is now at this moment.

Four years before, on another chilly November night, at a downtown gallery opening I was dazzled by the iconic work of this then little know artist and poster raconteur Shepard Fairey. He’d made his bones with guerilla installations of one singular image of Andre the Giant with the words Obey. It had become a ubiquitous part of my art ghetto neighborhood. But there was definitely something more here where I could see a whole body of work with such a singular style. Mocking while reverential of the power of symbols and icons in propaganda imagery. It’s not that wrist slitting blood-shedding art, but it winks longingly at it’s commercial base origins in propaganda art. In 2004 no one was thinking about Angela Davis Bobby Seal and Chairman Mao, but here they were on the walls of the Gallery. This kid was not just reminding us about the power of art to influence for good and bad, but the art of it.

I spoke for a few minutes to simply say how much I like the show and how powerful the work was. He was very nice, very personable, very genuinely engaged and focused about his work. Somehow I was not surprised to hear he was the artist behind the iconic Obama imagery. The image was so genuine that it rose above being regurgitated over and over again in the media — testament to Fairey’s talent to recognize and translate symbolic images. Imitators now abound.

Ironically Fairy who was at the DNC for a gallery show and filming of a documentary was arrested outside the democratic convention with the posters in hand, wheat pasting them to areas around the convention. Riot cops came guns drawn. The police after finally convinced he meant no harm released him for $500 in bail. In an interview he said the sad thing was once they understood he had created the Obama image their automatic response was to assume he got a lot of money for it. Fairey donated all the money from the poster to the campaign.

It would seem a cycle has been completed, the United States finally has another iconic leader and the imagery that will be most remembered was created by iconoclast who started his art with guerilla tactics born of a new generation whose dissent and angst shapes their own generation.

January 22nd, 2009 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

Finally have seasonal music mix worthy of writing about. Though other things were much more earth shattering and would make a more insightful things to remember, having a summer mix of music is always worth writing down for the archival snapshot.

The one thing I’ve always easily spotted was music. Picking bands that would likely jump to mainstream if only for a short time or become cult heroes. My young adult life resembled the movie High Fidelity with many trips to the record store, reading and hitting the clubs. Now with the computer at my fingertips I don’t even have to leave the house the record store comes to me. Another thing you can blame on the computer for isolating us from each other in favor of hours in front of the machine. But onward to the mix it’s getting to the vampire hours again and this time i can’t blame it on work.

The standouts are folks like Earlimart and Beck. Song For and Gamma Ray are perfect pitch summer pop songs. Both by well established names. Good summer should have at least two strong songs by people at the top of their game.

The new finds were Chromeo and The Joy Formidable, We are Scientists, Inaction is another killer pop anthem Ladytron, in French? The Great Northern is there mainly because I am obsessed with the intro and the voiceover in the Nissan commercials. By the time I found the song I was tired of it since it seemed to be a campaign with the heaviest media buying power I’d ever seen.

The Chap’s Dror Frangi, is older but 3Hive had this posted on their July page and the weirdness of it got under my skin, not too mention I’m sure very few folks gave it a listen way back in 2003. Very weird tune in that strangely likable way. And Windsor for the Derby a fair pop song from another new band i know nothing of. OK, this may be a longer list than I reasonably want to post the first time back, guess I’ll have to do shifts.

Noticed some of the new bands on the Fall list were getting good press Son Ambulance were just through town. They were at the Record Bar this week. As usual didn’t notice till after. I think Earlimart were through town as well. I haven’t gotten myself out to any live music in the last year, i rather miss it.

There a couple of classic to round this all out. How I love a good pop tune.

We are Scientists Inaction 2:32 With Love And Squalor

Chromeo, Whitey vs Chromeo Fly Whitey Mix 01-whitey-vs-chromeo-fly-whitey-mix.mp3 4:06 Me & My Man remixes

Beck, Gamma Ray 02-gamma-ray.mp3 2:57 Modern Guilt

Ladytron, BlackCat ladytron-blackcat.mp3 5:09

Earlimart, Song For 01-song-for.mp3 2:32 Hymn And Her

The Joy Formidable, Cradle Cradle 2:49 Demos

Great Northern, Home 03-home.mp3 3:51 Trading Twilight For Daylight

The Chap, Dror Frangi 03-dror-frangi.mp3 5:08 The Horse

Old 97’s, Dance With Me Old 97’s, Blame it on Gravity 2:42 Blame It On Gravity

Elvis Costello and the Imposters, NoHidingPlace 02-nohidingplace.mp3 4:02 Momofuku

Windsor For The Derby, Maladies 02-maladies.mp3 2:44 How We Lost

Pete & The Pirates, Come On Feet 02-come-on-feet.mp3 2:39 Little Death

Violet Vector And The Lovely Lovelies, Can You Dig It? 01-can-you-dig-it_.mp3 4:24 EP 1

Orillia Opry, I Lied 02-i-lied.mp3 3:43 Lighthouse For Stragglers’ Eyes

Locust Avenue, Skeletons 03-skeletons.mp3 3:13 Three O’Clock Target

Film School, P.S. 03-ps.mp3 5:13 AlwaysNever EP

Big Star, I’m In Love With A Girl 24-im-in-love-with-a-girl.mp3 1:48 #1 Record/Radio City

July 22nd, 2008 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

03-home.mp3

June 22nd, 2008 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

It was a special mother’s day and there were many flowers to celebrate with. Spring came late, it’s been many years since lilac was still in bloom the middle of May.

June 21st, 2008 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

That was a long hiatus — so long all news is old news.

June 21st, 2008 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

June 21st, 2008 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

In mid-December my mother went into the hospital with heartburn. What followed was an 11 hour open heart hour surgery to fix an aortic aneurism that had dissected - two strokes and various other complications. She survived it all, and that is probably the most real Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten. But we know little yet if she’ll ever recover enough enjoy life as she had before.

She’d beat similar odds seventeen years ago when an aneurism in her right frontal lobe burst at the funeral for her sister. That brain surgery and the strokes from the trauma left her having to relearn how to re-circuit her short term memory. Then three years ago she underwent a quintuple bypass facing it all very bravely and soldiering on as she does. I only hope and pray this time she’ll make it back, to enjoy those things in which she took pleasure so we may celebrate how special that was next Christmas.

The gift which she shared most of all was her love and creativity. As a children’s book illustrator for many years and before that a jewelry designer, fine art painter, fashion sketch artist and a crafty mom who couldn’t keep herself from sewing exotic fashions, making all the Christmas decorations or painting toilet seats, it’s not surprising she passed on that passion on. It is to her I owe my dedication and creativity.

January 7th, 2008 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

I hate winter in my hometown more every passing year - when the light goes and the frigid temperature extinguish the last growing thing more efficiently than a fire I feel like abandoning hope it will ever return. This year with an overloaded end of year work schedule, unexpected family crisis and the onslaught of frozen precipitation of all kinds, hope is an extremely dim thing. So to make it through the darkness some my extra projects got thrown aside and blogging was one of the first to go. But something popped in my mailbox from an Urban Culture Project email blast that reminded me green and growing is around the corner.

These folks whomever they are, are here to raise a torch in this the season of artificial light to mark the shortest day which is fast approaching and I for one can’t wait to get to the other side of that astronomical event. It’s easy to understand why it is so celebrated buy Pagans, Christians and almost every culture that wasn’t based at the equator.

From the Urban Culture Project email blast: Carnal Torpor hosts MANAFEST: THE WINTER SOLSTICE

la Esquina / 1000 W 25th, St. Kansas City, MO 64108
Sat, Dec 22, 6:08 am - midnight

It is astronomically inevitable and geographically correct that on December 22, 2007, artist collective Carnal Torpor will host MANAFEST: THE WINTER SOLSTICE within a new iteration of the CalmDome at La Esquina.

Beginning at 6:08 AM and continuing each hour until midnight, the solstice will be celebrated in a multitude of transdenominational forms, taking on abstractions of all types. There will be ritual feasting, gift giving, light therapy, caroling and a guided meditation upon the omni-point perspective embedded within the sacred geometry of the Metatron’s Cube. There will be performances of both formal compositions and spontaneous revelations by numerous participants. A 20 foot diameter geodesic model of the CalmDome containing an interior tent structure held in tension within will be the stage for the activities.

Hummm

December 18th, 2007 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »

“Amazing” were the unprompted words of the people spilling down the stairwell of the West Bottoms Loft as I climbed them for the 2nd show of Night Moves, last Saturday night. Having made a the effort to be sure I was at this spot that night along with talking two like minded designers into joining me, for something I knew little more than it was supposed to be a happening, those were promising words.

The event was billed as performance art, music, dance, art exhibit, fashion show and opera all inspired by the 1979 architectural renderings of Bertrand Goldberg. It centered on a two night showing at Foundation, an architectural reclamation center (store) of Goldberg’s original renderings. Patrick Ottesen, the evenings host, organizer and Foundation’s main man was the proud owner of this collection of a never built adult wonderland in Orlando. The intricately detailed rapidiograph inked drawings were the backdrop for a performance by Los Angeles’ String Theory Production. Described on the Foundation’s web site as an avant-garde ensemble that transforms architecture into giant musical instruments, creating a unique landscape to each installation and performance.

Indeed it was amazing, I wished I’d brought a bus load of people. String Theory were a visual and sonic journey outside of what we normally expect. Having worked with clients who were avant-garde dance and chamber ensembles I have great respect for these collaborative events that intertwine the disciplines, and even more for those artists that are devoted to that mission. Bravo

November 10th, 2007 by Lisa Bowser | No Comments »