Embody the warrior

Martial arts is a knowledge. you have to embody the characteristics that exemplify honor, control, and self progression. You become the better person. Elevating ones self to a higher level of understanding.

Day Retro

So I wanted an "old skool" feeling. So I found some pretty old toys and dolls that some of you guys my not remember. :) I also made a Polaroid picture out of it to help set the mood.

The Erosion of "flamenca"

I'm continuing to explore the dangerous/sultry contrast of "flamenca."

A sandstorm is a beautiful example of an element serving as both a destructive and creative force. Terrible winds whip sand across the desert, alienating humans from the region or killing them if caught in the storm. The appearance of the desert once the winds die down is fluid-like and unmarred. The desert will shift again, but for now, the beauty is frozen in time.

FullGive (Day 12)

I was thinking about packaging and how it can set a mood and make opening somethings a really neat experience. Not only does it set a mood but it can make what is in the packaging seem very special. So I found a couple of packages I had around my house that are great examples of setting a mood and creating an experience. The fullgive laptop cases are meant to be an experience and set a mood every time you use your laptop.

like a magnet

i have been thinking about week 3 and what kind of projects i could do involving those around me. i love watching people and observing the differences in their habits and lifestyles. i have been wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to portray that all day... turns out sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

i went to my friend's house and found the perfect inspiration:




perfect because, its a great representation of many people and all the traveling that they will be doing this week.

Happiness

Every dog is always happy, give them a fan and they'll give you the biggest smile you've ever seen ;). Kids are for the most part in a good mood...until they don't get their way, but they better be in good moods if they're going to be selling lemonade. Anyways...happiness, because you can't make people selling them lemonade, unless you're happy too.

xzy

I thought it fitting to finish my mood boards with xyz. I wanted to go in a completely different direction with this last one. so No pink..

Freudentisch vs Toilets

The day before yesterday I went into the bathroom to fetch some toilet paper. Unfortunately, I did not know that the roll of tp was not affixed to its accustomed axle, so as I pulled at it the entire roll plopped directly into the toilet. Naturally, my mood at the time was, 'aaah, crap.' My roomie and I tried to see if there was anything worth salvaging from the roll, but after a few minutes we decided it wasn't good for its intended purpose anymore. Therefore, it must be used for something else.
To combat the 'aaah, crap' mood, I brainstormed about how to generate an opposite feeling. So, I set out to make something 'fluffy' and 'comfortable' rather than 'soggy' and 'ruined.' What came to mind were those tissue paper collages that many elementary schools endorse, so I started there. Then, I considered the purpose of toilet paper. To make one feel clean and comfortable, right? Well, what colors best exemplify the calm and clean feeling? Blue! (After all, blue is the color of some household solvents, and blue is also the color frequently used for liquid on toilet paper commercials.) So, armed with two different shades of blue pigments, I set to abstracting my construction further.
Voila! We have Freudentisch: the clean and comfortable answer to all your household needs. (See! There is a use for a Freudentisch, just as there is a use for soggy toilet paper!)

Day 12

I was listening to my collection of new age music which is heavily influenced by different cultures. Many different songs are performed by instruments from those cultures, whether it be Native American, Asian, Chinese, among many others. I feel it soothing to listen to a blend of these cultures and know what the music is trying to communicate without any lyrics.

A different reason

I wanted to take a closer look at "my" heavy metal thrash music side. Some musical genres become crossed with time and experimentation. But as long as the artist stays true to themselves, it can never be a bad thing.

wreath

Plato argues that the soul is composed of three parts, the appetitive, the rational, and the spirited. These three parts of the soul also correspond to the three classes of a just society. Individual justice consists in maintaining these three parts in the correct balance, where reason, aided by spirit rules, and appetite obeys.

Glo In Space!

LOL title was just a litte joke. I was starting my collage-mood-board by doing some more graffiti sketches to warm up a little and slowly the sketches progressed to something more elaborate and sci-fi looking. I guess that is kinda like most of our moods, we make be craving something or like to do something but that idea and mood always changes. More specifically I really like graffiti art and science fiction stuff so those fit great into my mood board of the day!

Tinker

Since the holidays are rapidly approaching, I wanted to use my last board as a way to convey that feeling of tearing open presents on Christmas morning. Isn't that just the best feeling ever?! And what better gift to give a curious child than Tinker Toys and Altable, which could provide an awesome building platform for the pegs to stick into!

Day 12

I'm bad, I'm bad, you know it, I'm bad... This is MOOOoood-rifick. When people see a muscle car on roids, there really is an idea of a person who knows what they are doing when it comes to cranking out every bit of power from a car. That person usually has a colorful array of images permanently plastered all over their body. I think this mood is what I usually think of when it comes to this style.

Tuesdays with Tchaikovsky

Today is so cold I thought I'd do a mood board on something cold. Then I thought that the Nutcracker Season is upon us and there will be visions of sugar plum fairies dancing around in our heads (but only after finals are done. Some us have visions of Parowan Gap instead of sugar plums).

I wanted to include some real snow here to complete the effect, but for one I couldn't find any fresh powder and somehow I don't think it would survive the scanner. So imagine a layer of gently falling snow and the sound of the Nutcracker playing softly in the background. Then wrap up in a blanket and have something hot to drink. Brrrrr.

Cable Table reDesign.012

Exploring the web 2.0 look. What would the cable table look like if it had a twitter following? After all, any product for life hackers would have to have a twitter page.

Chanel

I rearranged a photo that i had done in photoshop. Just as the golden girls are not my audience, this is a slightly more subtle way of showing my anti-audience. So i was thinking what would snooty barbie (see day 3) and her makeup table look like. Pretend the xacto knife is a scalpel and you've got the mood i want. If i had the ideal customer for this mood, it would be down to earth creative and youngish, no surgery required. But its kinda fun to find all the fakeness in this photo. Oh and its a remake of an audrey flack photo realist painting called "chanel" if you would like to look it up.

energy

i wanted to explore the amount of energy that an energy drink can produce. what i did: play around with a black light, glow sticks, flashlight, and broke open some glow sticks and splattered it around and just went crazy with it. lots and lots of fun. i feel that this shows a lot of energy and fun at the same time. this is the most fun mood board to do!

CCMA

So colorful...in more ways than one!

Glo Gamers

Well today I was remembering the old proverb that says "The eyes are the windows to the soul" and at the same time I was thinking a lot on different things and how my mood can influence my design. Later I was playing some video games and then I began to realize that this is probably another good aspect or area that energy drinks readily market to... video gamers. So my mood board is a little basic but I just wanted to illustrate a point that when we are doing something that we like, most of the time we get completely involved in it and don't want to stop doing it. Then that leads into the advertising of Glo Energy Drink that it can help you stay awake or whatever you need to continue with your goal. I took a bunch of pictures from the photographer Phillip Toledano (who took photos of people while playing video games) and some others and cropped them down to really focus on their eyes, like my initial mood with the proverb of the eyes.

Entertainment

One feel or view of martial arts is through the movies and entertainment. I thought that this is a important view to point out. It is a style and art all its own. wile not practical on the street, it makes for one great show.

FullGive (Day 11)

Finger painting… it has been a long time since I last finger paint but I thought that it would be a good way to connect with the material on a more intimate level. I also wanted to use colors that are more contemporary, and fitting for the type of crowd at say an Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie. The mood of this board was really more experiential than it is a visual mood board; which really connects with the philosophies and processes of Fullgive.

lonely chair in the hour of secrecy

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.
—Poe 1827

Home-Baked

Yummy Home-Baked goods....this lemonade-stand sells more than just drinks. Feel right at home with warm, fresh, baked goods.

The Texture of "flamenca"

I hope everyone has seen Fantasia. During the winter scene of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, little fairies flit around touching the fauna, freezing the core of all the leaves. The frost spreads, creating a beautiful and delicate visual tapestry. Real frost is even more incredibly detailed and its creation strictly follows mathematical and natural laws. The dance of flamenco is severe and seductive and requires the dancer to have great technical skill as well as dynamic and impressive beauty. The impression the fairy scene creates is sweet and demure but has underlying themes of aggression as the fairies are literally killing the plants. That aggression is strongly seen in flamenco.

Day Antique

Here some really old things that I found. I call this Antiquness. The feel of old and fragile items.

Day 11

I think that mood boards can be deceiving. Take thus example... One might ask, "Did Hyrum really do this?" while another might pose another question such as, "AHHHHhhhhh... who could have done this?" While yet another question could go along the lines of, "Did she really have something happen to her (acted upon) or did she do something to someone else, thus the cause of her actions produces such consequences (cause and effect). So then my question, what is the real mood that I am portraying here? Is it a physical or emotional mood. Is it phycological or temporal? I like to leave that answer to the viewer... you tell me!

Signed,

Mert-O-Matic

different colors

I wanted to change the color of things up. Ever considered your audience might be colorblind?

Day 11

It's always nice to come home and find that a whole dinner has been prepared and you get the surprise of getting a delicious homemade meal. It's always relaxing to have a real "natural" meal rather than fast food. You always feel better in the end.

First of all i apologize about the quality of my photo, i currently have no idea where my little camera is so a cell phone had to do. I hope it translates okay. So before i mentioned creating custom patterns for furniture. Just showing some colors and patterns that interested me. The colors reflect the kind of clients i suppose would want to make their own pattern to splash onto their own furniture. I want to do this someday.

Freudentisch vs Wax

I am a sucker for crayons. I love the feel, the smell, the experience of working with this surprisingly satisfying yet difficult medium. Crayons are a representation of working with something, rather than against it. If one tries to overwork with crayon, well then, they're most likely going to end up with a muddy mess. If they work to enhance the natural propensities of the medium, then they are more likely to succeed. It's something that children seem to know, but adults seem to forget. Crayons are organic in a way that seems paradoxical, seeing as how they are made from pigmented wax.
My roomies enjoy drinking tea. I like to examine the packaging and smell the interesting flavors that they keep on their shelves. Tea is one of those things that is awful if underdone. If it is not allowed to steep long enough, then it will just taste like hot water with a hint of organic flavor. If it is oversteeped, then it can usually (though not always) be corrected by adding milk or other such things. Of course, there is no substitute for a well-brewed cup of tea. One of my roomies last night tried to make a Red Chai tea. Unfortunately, though she had allowed it to steep for longer than the recommended time, she was disappointed because it was not strong enough.
This provides an interesting contrast and complement for crayons. Both tea and crayons require good handling in order to be changed from something ordinary to something really, truly, honestly enjoyable. Skill and time factor in. There is no substitute for experience, though we can never go back to seeing and behaving in such natural order as children. That is what Freudentisch represents.

Cable Table reDesign.0111

Wanted to do a retro look for at least one of these mood boards, and I came across a retro grunge tutorial. I followed it and added some extra things as well. I like the mix between the retro style and the grunge textures.

Crafty

Today I wanted to revert back to the craft table feel that I experimented with in week 1.

Asian

For this mood board I was inspired by the soft asian colors and textures. I first thought of the Idea while I was digging through my closet looking for something for a different mood board. While searching I came across these bamboo paintings I have, I was inspired by the light tone of the wood and the almost pastel colors used in the paintings. I have known that I wanted to do a cultural mood board but I just assumed I would a middle eastern one, but when I saw those paintings I knew I wanted to do an Asian Inspired mood. I went the pinks for a fresh feminine feel, and brought in the browns natural colors to accent. I chose to bring in feathers again because there are often birds portrayed in asian art. I would have liked to add some cheery blossoms but I didn't have any and I didn't want to just print them off.

BLOODY SUNDAY

I thought I'd try something very different than what I've been doing thus far. I was in a kind of violent mood and I got thinking of a particular symphony I once heard by Shostakovich about the 'Bloody Sunday' events of 1905 in Russia.

It was January 22, 1905. A large group of peaceful protestors (some 300,000) led by a priest, Father Gapon went to deliver a petition to Tsar Nicholas II at the Winter Palace about strikes going on all over Russia for workers' rights. They were gunned down in cold blood by the Imperial Guard without any warning. About 4,000 people died that day.

It is a fascinating and chilling thing to hear, but I highly recommend listening to it once. It gives one an appreciation for what we have in the United States.

It starts out quietly with a kind of march—slow and mournful with an almost menacing melody in the background. Trumpets sound a warning tocsin. Strings pulse, kettle drums throb. Flutes play an innocent tragic tune. This carries on for a while to build the unease and tension. You know something terrible is coming.

In the second movement the trumpets build, drums pound. The guards are approaching and still the people march on unaware. Then everything builds to an uncomfortable point of unease and foreboding.

To hear this for yourself go to

www.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6lYSvg6BUE&feature=related

FullGive (Day 10)

Skate or die... I was looking through an old skate mag and the look and feel of the magazine itself really reflected the look and feel of fullgive. So I found some graphics and colors that fit into the gamut of one of fullgive's styles and threw them on a skate deck for a mood board pic.

Cable Table reDesign.010

Going back to the roots of why the Cable Table was invented. My audience was lifehacker.com and the people who follow the tips and advice of their blog and 43folders.org (by Merlin Mann). This is a photo of just a few of the tools I use in my own life to become more efficient and a better lifehacker.

knowledge

knowledge is a major part for the practitioner of kenpo. The books i have chosen to photograph have a connection to the Martial arts. Philosophy, arts, and science are all subjects that influence and apply to the knowledge gained from Martial arts. If you really want to know how each book is relevant, just ask.

living H

What if we were to ask the better question, not how we want to live or where or what do we want to have, but how do we make and escape of where we are. A careful study at the fringe of the idea of appeasement.

This piece was derived while listening to "Living", by Moby.

Snuggly and warm perfect for cocoa time!