bnagel

I have who a friend who named her fish Peeve.
It was a sad little fish.

Now that idea for the project had been finalized, my task is to explore some images that could represent the process from here on out. Its going to be a collaborative process built from the ground up, much like a grass roots organization.

So, for my first attempt I thought, instead of drawing what the process was, I could draw what it was not. here are two drawings for the same poster.

The district has changed. It is now a corridor, which I think is a great idea. Downtown Minneapolis needs a revitalization and I think a focus on green development is a great idea.

For my illustration I wanted to capture the idea that “green” is not something that is being forced onto people. Going green is simply stripping away all the bad habits that we have developed over the years. We have developed these bad habits simply because we could. Technology allowed us to not see the consequenses of our actions. We use energy because its there. We throw stuff away because there is always more.

But the idea of being “green” means we think about the consequenses of our actions. We think about what we are using, and what we are discarding. Our ancestors had to think about these things because their lives depended on living it.

So for an illustration I decided to have the “green” sprouting up through the cracking and deteriorating landscape of today.

The first illustration is simply a dandelion growing out of crack in the concrete. The jagged crack symbolizes the shape of Nicolet Mall in Minneapolis.

The second illustration shows a concrete map of Minneapolis with “green” growing up out of the cracks along Nicolet Mall. The green is growing and transforming the city back to what it once was.

My second installment for the Green District project was a little more non-traditional. I wanted to capture the local/global aspect of thinking and building green. I also wanted to show how this green district could be central location for green development in the future. I had more ideas on how to expand this, such as turning the “ball” into a seed that would sprout future green growth but I decided to stop here because, one, that was getting a little deep, and two, the project began to change drastically. (Now that is a poorly formed sentence. Maybe I should stick to drawing).

I hurt my back last week. Not only can I no longer lift heavy things, my doctor also put me on some strong pain killers and my eye lids are also very heavy.

A little update on what I’ve been up to . I’ve been working on an urban-design/illustration project with somebody trying to create a green district in Mpls. The project has changed a little during the past few weeks buts its a lot of fun and keeps me thinking and working.

These first drawings are an attempt at a more traditional rendering of of the development project. The idea was to create an open space in the middle of the warehouse district (contains old warehouse buildings that are being converted into lofts and business).

I tried two techniques. The first was just a drawing, scanned and colored in photoshop and the second was the same drawing, printed out and transfered onto a painted canvas.

When I saw this week’s theme was “leap” I immediately thought of my favorite photo from an art history class back in college. (seen here)

The image is of Yves Klein, a French artist, leaping off a wall towards the pavement below. I’m sure I don’t have the true meaning of the photo but I always look at it as a sort of inspiration. If he could do that for his art, just leap and say consequences be damed, then I can surly take a few chances, spend a little more time and just do something.

So I did my own interpretation of his photograph and added a little blue in his honor