Kathryn Rodrigues

A love letter to libraries

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

The Newberry Library, by Kartemquin Films

I've had a thing for libraries for as long as I can remember. From visiting the local library in Turlock, California when we were visiting our family (which seemed exotic since we were living abroad for so many years where public libraries weren't as available) to the Urbana Free Library in Urbana, Illinois that I frequented during my high school and college years. I just loved having that many resources and that much knowledge at my fingertips, for free! Obviously, this was mostly pre-internet but I still feel that public libraries are incredibly important. I use our local branch of the Chicago Public Library all the time for myself and my students.
I started working at the Rare Book and Special Collections library at the University of Illinois during college and even worked at the wonderful Newberry Library's Special Collections department here in Chicago for a year in-between college and grad school. These experiences changed me and my artwork. Having access to such amazing artifacts, manuscripts, maps, atlases, books, etc. was absolutely inspiring.
Above is a short film that Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams, The Interruptors, etc) made about the Newberry Library, which is such an under-utilized resource in Chicago. I encourage you all to check it out if you haven't already- more info here.

The Joy of Books

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:55:00 +0000

After organizing their own bookshelf earlier this year, Sean Ohlenkamp and wife Lisa re-doubled their efforts for Type Books in Toronto. After several sleepless nights of animating with a crew of over 20 people, the Joy of Books was born. Music composed especially for the short by Grayson Matthews. See many more books here. (via colossal)

wonderfully whimsical on this gray, rainy/snowy day.

Foreign Exchange video

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:32:00 +0000

I have a series of drawings I did a few years back that I've been waiting to do something with, they felt very static on the pieces of vellum I drew them on. I was lucky enough to have Bill from Radical Cartography do some individual scans of the drawings and so I've finally decided to make them into a short video. Here is the background on the project:

This video was created from a series of drawings inspired by a teacher's edition atlas from the mid-1990's. Each country in the atlas had a graphic with it’s shape superimposed to scale on an outline of the US. I recreated the entire series from A-Z using ink on vellum. I was intrigued by the slow, methodical process of precisely drawing each shape of every country and redrawing the outline of the US over and over and over. I created visual conversations based on line, shape and scale that depoliticized these shapes. Because the source I was using was at least 15 years old, some of the countries do not even exist today or their borders have changed. I like to think that maps are similar to photographs in that they represent something at a given moment that will inevitably change or become out of date.

Link to the video on vimeo.

New art/ 20x200

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:48:00 +0000

I've been meaning to buy something from 20x200 for years and the time has finally come! If you haven't seen this website, I strongly encourage you to check it out. It's a really great way to buy art but at a much more affordable price than a gallery. Here are two pieces I just bought:

Yes, it's another map. But this was too cool to pass up. It's by Aaron Stroup Cope from a series called prettymaps which is also an awesome website (more on that in a separate post). In case you can't tell, it's Chicago:)

This is the other piece, alleverythingthatisyou sno8_231 by Mike + Doug Starn. This was super exciting because I've liked their work since I was in high school. Their older work had a very 90's feel (lots of layers, wax, varnish, photos presented in a grid, black + white, etc.) but this series is newer and more minimal. The coolest part? The brothers created a camera that could capture individual snowflakes in the moments between a solid and liquid state.

Photobooth slideshow

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:32:00 +0000

It's taken me awhile but I've finally done something with the 550+ photos we had from the "photobooth" at our wedding!
Check it out here:
http://vimeo.com/33408403

Longman & Eagle Inn

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:32:00 +0000

For our first anniversary we wanted to do something special but didn't really want to travel far since we've been away a lot this year. So we decided to book a room at the Longman & Eagle Inn and have dinner there. It felt a little weird going "on vacation" someplace so close but it was fantastic! We really felt like we were getting away and coming home the next day took 10 minutes which was awesome. Here are some photos and details from our time there, I highly recommend it!!

Here's our room, they have 6 different rooms ranging in price from $75-$200 so we chose one right in the middle. I loved the design of everything, it was very modern and comfortable and well thought out.

This was our free gift in our room!

And they had an awesome tape deck with pre-made mixtapes for us to listen to! Our favorite was "Raps":)

Our room's wallpaper were prints by super talented duo, Sonnenzimmer

A pretty terrarium

On our way to dinner

I should also mention they give you two free drink tokens in your room, an awesome mini-bar/fridge and will hold a table for you in the restaurant if you tell them when you check in that you want to eat there which means we had no wait on a Saturday night!And this goes without saying but our meal that night was off the charts.

The next morning we walked over to Lula for brunch which was also amazing. All in all a fantastic way to celebrate our first year of marriage!

Big Kids Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:14:00 +0000

“He uses his words to protect himself from the falling icebergs”. Luca, age 8.

BIG Kids Magazine is a contemporary arts publication for children. Driven by discovery, experimentation and response, we invite children to participate in topical conversations about art and the world. With a senior editor who is eight years old, BIG challenges hierarchies of who is listening and who is speaking to amplify small voices in BIG ways.

Amazing!
more info here

via fine little day

Brian Dettmer

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:52:00 +0000

I just saw that Brian Dettmer is showing some new works at Packer Schopf Gallery. Being into books, words, maps, etc., I've been a fan of most of his work that I've seen. But after awhile, it can start to look similar. I was excited to see the new series he's done with paperbacks and text. Here are some photos from the show, including some pieces that are more reminiscent of his older works. These are pretty small but the images on the gallery website are larger.

Image transfer workshop- Spudnik Press

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:55:00 +0000

Last week I took a one-night workshop at Spudnik Press that focused on image transfers. I've used various image transfer methods in the past in my own work and in courses that I've taught but I felt like I needed a refresher. Two of my colleagues from Marwen were also taking the workshop and it was so fun! I learned a couple of new techniques that I'm excited to play around with some more- like using wintergreen oil, an icy/hot stick and a blender pen to transfer laserjet images. We also talked about acrylic/gel medium transfers which I've done before. It was so nice to work in a creative space with other people! I'm so used to working alone in my studio, I want to push myself more to take courses/workshops more.

Art Fair/New Work

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:37:00 +0000

It's that time of year again, Marwen's annual Art Fair is on November 11th. This year I am submitting three photos including these two that I took this summer in the Badlands. They are a bit of a departure for me but there was something I found really interesting about watching people be tourists. More to come!

Student Artwork

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:36:00 +0000

The top photo is from a course at Marwen called Guerilla Art and this weekend students wrote messages all around the Marwen building. This was the first one that I saw on my way into the building. Not a bad way to start a Monday!
The next photo (excuse the bad quality, gallery lighting is tough to photograph on a phone), is from my course I taught this Summer called Mixed Media Mapping. I love how different each of the pieces looks, I really wanted each student to find their own style.

Never my love

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:45:00 +0000

Was just reminded this weekend at our friends' wedding what a great song this is!

Suppose Design

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:47:00 +0000

I absolutely love this place and those whimsical windows!
Suppose Design based in Japan, via Anthology Magazine

2011 European Adventure- Amsterdam recap

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:04:00 +0000

After our time in Köln, we took a train to Amsterdam. It was so fun to see the countryside and notice the differences between Germany and the Netherlands. And it only took 2 hours! I'm so jealous of how close cities are to each other in Europe. So many of our friends told us how awesome Amsterdam was but I wasn't sure what to expect. I've spent more time in Portugal/Spain and the U.K. so northern Europe was totally new for me...and I loved it. We walked from the train station to our hotel and the city was so bustling, young, international and yes, there were tons of bikes everywhere! It was such an easy city to walk around and the canals were so pretty. I can definitely see us going back for another trip. Here are some photos:

2011 European Adventure- Köln recap

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 14:38:00 +0000

The first leg of our trip this Fall was in Germany. I hadn't been there since 1993 when my family lived in Stuttgart and I had never been to Cologne (or Köln) before so it was fun to go somewhere totally new. And I learned that Cologne is the home of Kölsch beer! The city is on the Rhine river and our hotel had a great location right across the river from the downtown area and the famous Dom (cathedral). On the bridge there were thousands of locks with couples' names on them. Apparently it's a tradition that couples get locks with their names and the year on it and attach it to the bridge. Our friends surprised us on our second day there with locks for each of us! We put them on the bridge together. I love the idea of going back to see our lock in 20 years (or more!). The weather was kind of cool and a little drizzly throughout which was kind of great for walking around all of old cobblestone streets. Here are some highlights:

Greetings from Amsterdam!

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:03:00 +0000

We made it back from our trip safe and sound! Even though it was a quick trip, it really did feel like a second honeymoon. Here are some cute cups we picked up in Amsterdam as a memento.

Your House- Olafur Eliasson

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:31:00 +0000

your house by olafur eliasson

a commission by the library council of the museum of modern art...'your house' is a limited-edition artist's book with a laser-cut negative impression of his house in copenhagen. each of the 454 pages is individually cut and corresponds to 2.2 cm of the actual house. as readers leaf through the pages, they slowly make their way through the rooms of the house from front to back, thus constructing a mental and physical narrative.

via of paper and things

Heath Ceramics

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:07:00 +0000

I've been familiar with Heath Ceramics for quite awhile now, I would love to go to their factory and showroom in Sausalito someday. In the meantime, I was thrilled to get my first thing from Heath from Katie B. as a thank-you for helping throw her baby shower! Isn't it cute? Can't wait to go the farmer's market to buy a few buds to put in the vase.

The Makerie

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:23:00 +0000

The Makerie is a U.K. based paper design studio. I can't imagine how much time and patience it would take to make their creations. Check out more of their portfolio here.

New print!

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:04:00 +0000

We've been having a lot of fun arranging our new apartment. We finally started putting art on the walls which makes such a huge difference! I try to mix it up and not just have my own art on the walls which would be boring (for me) so we're incorporating a lot of artwork from our friends and local artists. I just bought a new print from Diana Sudyka, one of my faves. Her work is so whimsical and fun and I like how inspired she is by the natural world. I know birds (especially owls) are everywhere but I couldn't resist this guy:

School Supplies

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:28:00 +0000

Buying school supplies was my favorite part of going back to school. I don't get to buy fresh supplies each August like I used to but I still have a thing for notebooks, pens, folders, etc. I've seen a new company named Poppin on a few blogs recently and it looks pretty awesome. Modern, colorful, office supplies that aren't too expensive (at first glance).

Weekend in California

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Los Angeles lemons! From Molly and Sean's tree.

We just got back from a lovely, sunny weekend in L.A. and Santa Monica! We went for Katie + Bob's baby shower, it was a shame we couldn't stay longer but we had some wonderful times visiting with old friends:)

love is in the air

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:12:00 +0000

Last weekend was the first of three weddings we're going to in the next month and this weekend we're flying to L.A. for a baby shower- lots to celebrate these days! I feel so lucky that we can share these milestones with our close friends.
Started getting my studio set up this week finally, I am so excited to have more space to spread out and to have a great excuse to get everything organized!

Mail time!

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:19:00 +0000

After spending most of my day dealing with Comcast, this was a nice surprise. I absolutely love getting things in the mail- so this was a special treat all the way from South Africa! My new pencil case and pillow from Skinny LaMinx:

Photos of our new apartment coming soon!

Skinny laMinx

noreply@blogger.com (kathryn.rodrigues) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:41:00 +0000

Now that we're moving I'm officially obsessed with looking at furniture, home decor, interior design blogs, etc. I'm so excited to have new space to arrange!

Skinny laMinx has been one of my favorite textile artists for awhile but I've never bought anything from her shop. She is based in Cape Town, South Africa and I love how modern and organic her patterns are. Also, she has a few designs that remind me of my time in Mozambique as a child like this:

I just noticed she added some pencil cases to her shop as well- hooray! Here are a couple more photos: