July 4, 2008
Image above was recently found in me archives- original artist unknown (I pulled off the web somewhere). When I first came across this graphic, I really took to the symbolism behind it. A man, walking against the rain, with his head down, and tangible perseverance.
July 3, 2008
As I mentioned in a post a few days ago, I have officially moved out of my hotel room downtown and into a quaint lil’ neighborhood nook in deep NW. Let’s call my recent move an upgrade. My new place is great, however, upon move in, I noticed that the carpet smelled like feline urine. Not good. The prior tenant obviously had a cat that thought the entire bedroom was its own personal litter box. Not good. Considering the cat piss trauma I experienced in my childhood, I was not about to let this pungent aroma go unnoticed. Long story short, my landlord agreed to replace the carpet, and the carpet pad, in my new place this morning- Thank dog backwards. Once the new carpet is in, I will begin the process of settling into my domicile.
Image above is an instant message conversation I had with Mr. Diggles the day after I moved in (pardon the cuss words mom).
Similar to colorful carpet padding, during my move I came across an old pair of multi-colored underwear I had stashed away. My friend has been selling her tie-dye wears at the Portland Saturday Market for a couple of decades. One day she told me to bring her a blank article of clothing for her to dye…Rather than a shirt, I decided to bring her a pair of my tighty-whities. We both laughed, and to this day, I still bust these out for special occasions.
July 2, 2008
Since the beginning of time (or at least the beginning of db clay anyways), effectively merchandising our wallets, at the point of sale, has been Riddle #1. It has continued to plague my role as the Creative Director. For some reason, I can’t seem to figure it out. How big should it be? Should it be universally designed or store specific? What should it be made out of? What is the target production cost per unit? Do we charge for it? How are we going to economically ship to stores once built? How many wallets should it display at any given time? How do you prevent shoplifting, while at the same time allowing customers to feel the product? How do we best explain the product? How do we best explain Tope? How do we best tell the story behind each wallet? What do we do with the gift boxes? Where do we keep extra stock? Etc? Etc? Etc? Images above and below are some rough draft concepts in the works…but again, as per usual, nothing is final, nothing is “just right.” The riddle wages on…
July 1, 2008
My little niece is an aspiring writer. Though only about a decade old (give or take a few years), her mind is full of deep thoughts and self reflection and positivity. Image above is a story she wrote last year about my mom’s backyard…her grandma’s backyard. She sent me a copy in the mail and I thought I’d post it for a couple of reasons:
1. Sometimes I wish I was just a simple, naive, positive kid again, and
2. If you choose to read it, it just might soften you up a little bit…
It did me. Thanks for the reminder Lauren- this world is a “great masterpiece” indeed. Albeit in your mind or reality, you need to keep it that way.
June 30, 2008
Over the weekend, I went camping up at Timothy Lake. I haven’t been camping, or to a lake for that matter, in quite some time. I was with a group of about 15. We set up camp, cooked fire pit burritos, floated in the water, meditated, and late Saturday night, wandered off to go stare at the stars in the night sky. We laid on the banks of the lake and I swear you could see every star in the universe. Whoa.
I’m already planning my next wilderness voyage.
June 27, 2008
A couple months ago, I was dancing at Rotture in SE Portland. As all humans do, I took a break and went to release some pee. While doing so, I looked up, and on the urinal wall in front of me, someone had written “dbOclay” in black Sharpie Marker. It definitely brought a smile to my face knowing that someone, out of all things that they could have written, chose to write db clay. They even threw in our circle too. Thank you to whoever you are, for spreading the word, albeit on the wall of a dumpy dark bathroom amongst warehouses next to the river in Portland.
