groove is in the heart.
I had a photo of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk on flickr and it was chosen by Schmap! Check it out
scroll down and hit Santa Cruz and browse through the photos on the right. Nothing huge…but it still feels good to have someone select one of your photos.
In a bold act of ambition and stupidity of February 2009, I moved to Boston, MA. I left family, work, friends, home…pretty much everything familiar and safe, to get a different taste of life. It is now June 21st and the good news is I’m still alive! Which is probably my first major accomplishment since moving out here (with much thanks to my roommate and her family). Other accomplishments include but are not limited to: renting a car, my first apartment, paying bills, buying a mattress set, taking the T without getting lost, driving in downtown Boston without injury, and this journal entry.
Presently I am working for The First Church of Christ, Scientist (non profit organization). The stars weren’t aligning for me to join their graphics department, so I accepted a position with the Income accounting department after a few months of interning. In an effort to stay sane, I have come up with a few similarities between accounting and art. If accounting was an art genre, it would be realism. You want your data to be as accurate as possible – if not perfect. And just like finishing a piece of art, making accounts balance is a rewarding and awesome feeling. Okay, those might be weak, but it’s all I’ve got right now. I am open to further suggestions.
So for now, I’ll have accounting as my day job and art for every other waking moment…even if it is appreciating the different hues of blue sky seen from my cubicle. You know, it’s not such a bad gig and helps reaffirm everyday that art is what I was meant to do…even if it means saving up now in order to seriously focus on it later.
Currently I am working with a company called Quality Office Liquidations. They sell used office furniture. Right now they are focusing on getting the word out about their “green” aspects (to learn more about this, search LEED on wikipedia). Here are a few things I have designed for them. Giving their website a face-lift is the next project.
Local Campbell, California, classic rock band, “Colony Street Band” asked me if I could help them out with a logo. Here is the “chosen one”. 
Project #1 of designing/ordering/distributing smocks to the shop workers. Take a look!
Here is what the embroidery looks like on the smock fabric. A full body shot should be up shortly…I just have to find willing models.
but I’m finding a groove. Life after college prooved trickier than expected. Anyway, This last week I created a few videos for my friend Kelly (check out her myspace)! One is up here and he other one has to stay secret for a bit, but it will be up eventually.
If there is one thing that I have realized after graduating, it is that i need art…and I am determined to find where art needs me.
Greetings! Unfortunately I won’t be able to update my website until I can afford the software that enables me to do so. I am definitely missing the computer lab at school!
The GOOD news is, I have purchased a new computer! (MacBook Pro, 15″). So when I do purchase that software, my computer won’t crash when I try to create art. I have also purchased a camera that actually focuses and has a macro zoom. Slowly but surely, the equipment is being aquired. Until then, keep checking my blog for updates on my art journey!
Just wanted to alert you to some new art on my site, www.kwojno.com. Under the “Graphics” section, click on the “print” button and there you will find some more examples of magazine spreads, newspaper layouts, and a pro-bono brochure. Enjoy!
Something has been bugging me lately…and that something is that people think art and being an artist is easy and lame. Sure, to the extent of getting lost in creating your art or just have a plethora of ideas of what you want to create, can feel easy. But art is also a labor of love.
As part of a recent talk given on campus, “The Odyssey Years”, lecturer Don Asher presented the audience with a short exercise. Projected on the screen were three options: entrepreneur, nonprofit organization and artist. If we were going to be/do one of the three options, what would it be?
ARTIST? All sorts of emotions zoomed around in my head. WHY was artist an “option” for life? It seemed like Asher was setting up being an entrepreneur or starting your own nonprofit as open options for ANYONE. I don’t agree. It takes special people to go into each of those fields. You have to be wired for it if you really want to make it work. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you better have some business experience under your belt or have the right connections. If you want to start a non-profit you have to have your eyes open enough to see a need and pull the right resources. To me, this opened the floor for being an artist to anyone. And yes, we all have little artsy-fartsy things that we do – with or without technical training. But there is a difference in putting colors together because you THINK they look good and KNOWING why those colors will/won’t work. Somehow opening “artist” to everyone cheapened the last four years of spending hours in a graphics lab, journaling on an abroad, sitting through art history courses, making color-wheels and earning my Graphic Art degree.
Rant two: strengths and weaknesses.
The other day I got an email from the “facebook team” notifying me of my strengths and weaknesses according to a poll taken by my friends. My strengths are as follows: smartest, most talented, and most likely to succeed (Thanks guys). My weaknesses: most tech-savvy and most artistic.
hmm…most tech-savvy and most artistic…weaknesses…HOW? Why is being tech-savvy or artistic a weakness? Oh right, its not like anyone got anywhere by being a nerd or making a beautiful painting…oh…wait…THEY HAVE. I respect people who know how and why a computer works and how to use tricky programs…or those who are able to create beautiful paintings and graphics. Granted, not everyone is able to make a profit from their knowledge/talent, but there are plenty of people who do. Though I am fairly certain my friends didn’t view being tech-savvy and most artistic as a weakness, I find it funny that whoever created the application for facebook (undoubtedly a tech-savvy person) thinks that those could be a weakness.
In conclusion, art isn’t for everyone and it certainly isn’t a weakness.
Whew, feels good to get that out of my brain and on to a canvass.
Wooo! BlindLine is complete and ready for YOU to order! Yes, that’s right, you can own your very own BlindLine book and if you see me around, I’ll even autograph it for you…without looking of course. So just go to: http://stores.lulu.com/kwojno
In other news, I have 27 days left in my college career. And though it looks like I need to stick around Los Gatos (home) for a while, I am still excited to see what’s out there.
