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seriously American government?????
that’s right, i’m joining the SOPA STRIKE!
i already hate the fact that social media robs America blind by tailoring our worldview (especially politically! -save that opinion for later…), so the fact that government is trying to control/monitor the internet only means they’re going to silence the voice of the people. what happened to democracy?
RIDICULOUS.
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This post is about Racheal Anilyse Verdiccio-Morris.
It’s a shame that media helps you “know of” someone without actually “knowing” them. I just knew of her. Of her art, her determination, her spunk, her style. I sincerely admired her illustrations and hand-drawn type; I’d easily mention her by name whenever listing sources of inspiration.
I loved that she used tea like watercolor. with watercolor.
Aspired illustrating children’s books.
Drew lettering by hand.
Doodled endless patterns.
Had hilarious content.
A distinct Racheal-ness.
I followed a blog she participated in, called The Doodle Off. It was in the most recent post that I learned that she passed away. I was absolutely stunned- I hadn’t heard anything from any other source where she contributed- I figured the holidays had her occupied. I even asked Pikaland if they knew about it – surely they would have? Alas, I’m not sure if they did, which made me feel utterly, absolutely terrible to be the breaker of the unkind news. But you knew how much she meant to them. She was a treasure.
And yet, it almost made sense- to be known as an artist, not an artist with a diagnosis. I admire her moreso even now, knowing she was a woman of true humility; knowing that she had to fight through so much, and push through pain. But we were not familiar with her struggles, we were familiar with her kind soul (even though she never personally directed a kind act towards me, you knew she was kind).
You will be missed, Racheal… We all may feel that you left too soon, and as young as you were, we all can agree that you left a legacy of inspiration to many.
Respectfully,
One of those who has been inspired
–
Multiple places to find Racheal’s work:
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I’m not much of a brand person. At all. I’d home-make it if I could. And so, seemingly, I’m the least likely candidate to post this 2005 interview of Miuccia Prada, conducted by Michael Hainey for GQ. But her soul is raw, and her heart carries a wisdom and beauty I can’t pass up. [found The Essential Man]
MP: Good.
[A minute later, an assistant enters with champagne and two glasses.] Tell me about dates and dating. Is it true what you read in magazines—that there is the thing you have to do on the first date and the thing you have to do on the second date, and then by the third date you can get—what do you say, carried over?MP: Yes? New York really must be terrible.
MP: Embarrassing! I was thinking New York is like that. I have the impression that the people are like that—the women, the bitchiness.
MP: Oh no, it’s terrible. Also the way of total and sure unhappiness. It’s what I say all the time to my girls in the office here: The more they dress for sex, the less they will have love
or sex. These girls throw away so much energy in this search for beauty and sexiness. I think that the old rules were much more clever and better than the rules now. The trouble is, most people are not so generous. Everybody wants love for themselves. I hear this all the time from the women I work with. I hear them say, “I want, I want.” I never hear them saying what they want to give.MP: Yes, of course. They don’t listen. With women, the more unhappy they are, the more undressed they are. This is true. Dignity’s another very important part of this.
Sex and the City is the opposite of dignity. You have to have dignity for your body—this is with men and women. You need to have dignity towards how you are, how you dress, how you behave. Very important. Men are always much more dignified than most women.MP: Because women have the stress of being beautiful, of age and youth. Men don’t have all that. And with women, that stress causes a lot of mistakes and bad choices—a lot of not being their true self. You know, the older I get, the more I prefer to talk to old people. Old people or kids.
MP:
[laughs] Because what they say is more spontaneous.MP: Exactly.
MP: That I had no fun. My family was too serious. They didn’t take care of me—it was a very serious and severe life. Not severe in a bad way; just boring—like totally neutral. I felt no emotion. I remember total flatness, and I didn’t have many friends. Also, when we were on vacation, we had to go to bed in the afternoon. We had to come home at seven o’clock, and all of the others stayed out. My parents were truly severe.
MP: I hated it.
[laughs]MP: No, I was not even that rebellious.
MP: I don’t talk about him.
MP: I like the past very much!
MP: Exactly!
[laughs] I like getting older and being the person who people ask for help.MP: Yes.
MP: In America many things that are interesting are seen as odd.
MP: I did mime because it was the time in life when you search. There were all these crazy, strange things to do at that moment, and mime had kind of a strange ambience, strange people, so I liked it. It was about self-control and being able to control your body and mind. It was a school of discipline. That’s what has stayed with me, discipline—to spend three days to focus on learning to move one little part of your body the right way.
[She holds up her index finger and moves the top third back and forth.] To practice that for hours. This has stuck with me because it is what I do now—focus. To stand in one place and get it right.MP: It’s very interesting: Because of the Prada name, I can do things that people normally would not care about in the culture. I can have an exhibit by some forgotten artist who I love, and because it’s Prada, people will come see it.
MP: Yes, very much. Also very embarrassing.
MP: Prada is something that should be so mundane, like clothes.
MP: For many years, I thought my work was so…not stupid, but I had the sense it was not real. I am trying to get past this feeling. You want some more champagne?
MP: Good. I need some. I respect my work. But also I think it’s very superficial. So that’s why we are doing all these other activities, because I’m a moralistic person in the end. But I am in a key moment. I kind of understand that I have to use my work more completely without being ashamed.
[raises her glass] Chin-chin, yes?MP: Clothes can be important. I am learning this. For instance, often when I design and I wonder what is the point, I think of someone having a bad time in their life. Maybe they are sad, and they wake up and they put on something that I’ve made, and it makes them feel just a bit better. So in that sense, fashion is a little help in the life of a person. But very little. After all, if you have a serious drama, who cares about the clothes?
MP: I love uniforms because they allow you to hide. No one knows what you are thinking, so it’s a very appropriate and correct way to be yourself.
MP: From Catholicism first and Communism after.
MP: My parents—yes, yes, oh, my God, yes.
MP:
[laughs] When I am really old and no longer a designer.MP: Yes. And it is something I think about. But in the future. Right now, maybe I can be political in my work. We will see. I like to be useful to people. I want to confront myself. I challenge and doubt myself. Basically, what I don’t like is to get bored.
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i’m going to do it this time.
or at least, i’m going to make some real sincere efforts.
let’s start with this, a post I read off of Dominique Fung‘s blog.
makes me really think about all the free work i do… bleh.
================================== I’m a self-employed graphic designer. In the old days, when I was greener than a leprechaun’s testicles, nothing would make me consider suicide quicker than a potential client who was, in fact, just some deluded jackass. The hook was usually, “If you do this job cheap, I’ve loads more work for you!” and I bought that line more times than anyone with an ounce of sense ought to have.
This morning, the following was posted on CraigsList. It’s been doing the rounds on design boards and blogs in a big community whoop because it captures and excoriates so perfectly the ignorance and arrogance inflicted on designers by design morons.
The post was quickly flagged and removed (i.e. censored) by CraigsList users, but not before it became the gift that keeps on giving. Who was that masked crusader? Designers everywhere owe him a hot coffee and a big hug:
Post from Craigslist
Every day, there are more and more Craiglist posts seeking “artists” for everything from auto graphics to comic books to corporate logo designs. More people are finding themselves in need of some form of illustrative service.But what they’re NOT doing, unfortunately, is realizing how rare someone with these particular talents can be.
To those who are “seeking artists”, let me ask you; How many people do you know, personally, with the talent and skill to perform the services you need? A dozen? Five? One? …none?
More than likely, you don’t know any. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be posting on Craigslist to find them.
And this is not really a surprise.
In this country, there are almost twice as many neurosurgeons as there are professional illustrators. There are eleven times as many certified mechanics. There are SEVENTY times as many people in the IT field.
So, given that they are less rare, and therefore less in demand, would it make sense to ask your mechanic to work on your car for free? Would you look him in the eye, with a straight face, and tell him that his compensation would be the ability to have his work shown to others as you drive down the street?
Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!)
Would you be able to seriously even CONSIDER offering your web hosting service the chance to have people see their work, by viewing your website, as their payment for hosting you?
If you answered “yes” to ANY of the above, you’re obviously insane. If you answered “no”, then kudos to you for living in the real world.But then tell me… why would you think it is okay to live out the same, delusional, ridiculous fantasy when seeking someone whose abilities are even less in supply than these folks?
Graphic artists, illustrators, painters, etc., are skilled tradesmen. As such, to consider them as, or deal with them as, anything less than professionals fully deserving of your respect is both insulting and a bad reflection on you as a sane, reasonable person. In short, it makes you look like a twit.
A few things you need to know;
1. It is not a “great opportunity” for an artist to have his work seen on your car/’zine/website/bedroom wall, etc. It IS a “great opportunity” for YOU to have their work there.2. It is not clever to seek a “student” or “beginner” in an attempt to get work for free. It’s ignorant and insulting. They may be “students”, but that does not mean they don’t deserve to be paid for their hard work. You were a “student” once, too. Would you have taken that job at McDonalds with no pay, because you were learning essential job skills for the real world? Yes, your proposition it JUST as stupid.
3. The chance to have their name on something that is going to be seen by other people, whether it’s one or one million, is NOT a valid enticement. Neither is the right to add that work to their “portfolio”. They get to do those things ANYWAY, after being paid as they should. It’s not compensation. It’s their right, and it’s a given.
4. Stop thinking that you’re giving them some great chance to work. Once they skip over your silly ad, as they should, the next ad is usually for someone who lives in the real world, and as such, will pay them. There are far more jobs needing these skills than there are people who possess these skills.
5. Students DO need “experience”. But they do NOT need to get it by giving their work away. In fact, this does not even offer them the experience they need. Anyone who will not/can not pay them is obviously the type of person or business they should be ashamed to have on their resume anyway. Do you think professional contractors list the “experience” they got while nailing down a loose step at their grandmother’s house when they were seventeen?
If you your company or gig was worth listing as desired experience, it would be able to pay for the services it received. The only experience they will get doing free work for you is a lesson learned in what kinds of scrubs they should not lower themselves to deal with.6. (This one is FOR the artists out there, please pay attention.) Some will ask you to “submit work for consideration”. They may even be posing as some sort of “contest”. These are almost always scams. They will take the work submitted by many artists seeking to win the “contest”, or be “chosen” for the gig, and find what they like most. They will then usually have someone who works for them, or someone who works incredibly cheap because they have no originality or talent of their own, reproduce that same work, or even just make slight modifications to it, and claim it as their own. You will NOT be paid, you will NOT win the contest. The only people who win, here, are the underhanded folks who run these ads. This is speculative, or “spec”, work. It’s risky at best, and a complete scam at worst. I urge you to avoid it, completely. For more information on this subject, please visit www.no-spec.com.
So to artists/designers/illustrators looking for work, do everyone a favor, ESPECIALLY yourselves, and avoid people who do not intend to pay you. Whether they are “spec” gigs, or just some guy who wants a free mural on his living room walls. They need you. You do NOT need them. And for those who are looking for someone to do work for free… please wake up and join the real world. The only thing you’re accomplishing is to insult those with the skills you need. Get a clue.
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