emmalaiho.net/blog

I have a new project: composing sketchbook-pages from the leftover paper scrap + paint on my desk at the end of an illustration day. Time it takes: five to ten minutes. (The annoying thing is I usually like them better than the real pieces. I have no idea how to fool myself into bringing the same fun into work. )

Monday cool:
Camilla’s converse (I want this version)
Design police will punish!
A good article on making the jump to your own business
Roisin Murphy concert this Wednesday night.

What are you up to this week?

Look, it’s Pifi! She hangs out on my windowsill, because she likes the rain, snow and especially storms (like the one yesterday). Or maybe she’s just waiting to see the sun again (like me).

Thank you Karin! I need to make a start on my own pif-gifts some time.

Sunday inspiration:
Dan Haskett
Irena Zablotska
Jez Burrows’ penguin miniatures

Soundtrack: Ingrid Michaelson – Keep Breathing

School started with the bi-annual portfolio presentation (where all the teachers and classmates are present and you get to show whatever you’ve been up to in the last six months). Don’t know about the other students but those critiques always leave me in pieces, everyone else’s work seems so much… more. And being an illustrator just never is that punk rock. (Me and my ever-present want to be cool… )

I’ve been veering off the thought of illustration as a career for some time, thinking that design is the way to go, but it keeps pulling me in. Now I’ve decided to make peace with it. Working with illustration makes me a better designer, learning about design makes me a better illustrator. I also start to like more the label “artist” because of the fluidity of movement between different media. More and more I start to dislike the idea of “a career”.

Careers don’t allow us to be fully ourselves; careers take as an index of success money and status rather than pleasure in work and creativity. ‘Vocation’, on the other hand, means ‘calling’, and it is a task that earns you a living and which you enjoy doing. … We have a duty to look into our hearts and discover our vocation, our gift. Once we have done this, we will find that other parts of life follow quite naturally.

- Tom Hodkinson: How to be Free

When I think of it like that, it all seems pretty clear.

(Oh yeah, and I turned 27.)

P.S. Still lots to do with this renewed blog, but at least there’s a working feed now. Sorry about the old comments, they are gone.

You have to work at your relationship with yourself just as you would work at a relationship with another person. That means buying yourself flowers every so often… – Sasha Cagen: Quirkyalone

Sometimes the single hermit lifestyle can get to you. Not having the time, energy or inclination to start dating for real, I decided to go all Carrie and date myself, or the city. So on Friday I took myself out to a movie and a walk. Later there was dinner. It was so much fun I think there’s a possibility of a second date.

soundtrack: tori amos – sleeps with butterflies

Crawling from under the paper scrap to say: Happy New Year! I started mine by watching a dutch movie and going to yoga. I am also working on a fun project (hence the papermess). So far so good, this 2008-thing.