My friend Tim, on Design*Sponge.

My friend Tim is famous.

Tim Mazurek was dazzling through his MFA while I was finishing up my undergrad art career at Northwestern. Despite my being a boring, Catholic, conservative, Tim was always very nice to me and I enjoyed every shared class with him immensely. As I recall, we met in my Installation Art class, for which he was a TA. (A great TA.) My 'art friends' (we called our clique 'the knitting club') and I all latched on to him and he somehow managed not to act annoyed.

I digress. Tim has an outstanding blog! Lottie + Doof has long graced my 'lovely things' side bar, and I ogle his photos daily. He has been picked up by Time Out Chicago, Refinery 29, apartment therapy, the kitchn, good bite, and Pioneer Woman. And today he made it onto one of my all-time favorites, Design*Sponge! It's no wonder, considering his organic, fresh choices are so enticingly displayed courtesy of his photography skills. The work of an artist, indeed.

I couldn't be happier for Tim. And I couldn't feel hipper for knowing him.

Check out Lottie + Doof here: Lottie + Doof
See Tim's artwork here: Tim Mazurek

-Papermoon

Goodbye, Chicago!

Well, it's official. My move has begun. My parents have texted me "On the way!" and the view outside my bedroom window already looks more nostalgic.

I am not going to allow much sadness over this move. I have been here for five years, enjoying what Chicagoland has to offer, and that makes me lucky. I am heading for a lot of good things: great summer jobs, time with my wonderful family this summer at home, and a new, exciting job come September. I will dearly miss my roomie and friends, and this city, but I will be back. I see no point in getting too sad. This isn't a forever goodbye...Chicago, after all, is only a matter of hours (and no oceans!) away.

Time to wrap up the packing, enjoy some sunshine, vacuum the carpet, and then welcome my parents!

Thanks for the fun, Chicago!

I'll likely post next week, when the crazies settle down...

-Papermoon

Progression, at the Dittmar Gallery.

Headed over to Evanston today after work (tomorrow will be my last day at work!) to see the current Seniors' Art Theory and Practice show. It was a great opportunity to see some friends as well as some of my classmates from my college 'artsy' days. I feel very far away from that lifestyle at this point, and certainly haven't found that I am pursuing art-making in a way I might have expected I would while I was still in college.

The show itself was very pleasant to look at. All of the work was actually quite interesting, and their class is lucky enough to have real variation in terms of their media, pursuits, and politics.

My favorite works were some very lovely illustrations and paintings by my friends Yana Myaskovskaya and Lauren Redding; a performance/installation peice involving gauze dragged through the Chicago city streets by one Joyce Kim; and a dazzling glitter painting–something I would never have thought I would like!–by Tiffany Wells. I didn't bring a camera, sadly, but I managed to scoop up some images of a few off of the internet. Here's to Yana and Lauren! :)

One of Yana's illustration works–Untitled.
The ladybug is actual size, printed on a very large sheet of white paper. Clever!

Yana's second illustration–The Sound of Silence.
This really surprised me in person; I hadn't realized how tiny the drawing was!
It is incredibly detailed and beautiful, and only a few inches tall.

Lauren's self-portrait.
A beautiful girl with a beautiful talent!
I love the timelessness of this ...that is the best part about her work, in general.

All in all, the last few years have been a personal tug of war for me over whether or not I would like to continue to involve myself with the art scene. I am often frustrated by the contemporary presentation of art, but I can not deny that I would miss it if I renounced it completely! It was wonderful to see this show.

Off to bed, wishing these friends of mine good luck!

-Papermoon

hooray for college bound brothers

james is going to georgetown in september!

-papermoon