For Katherine and the family of Richard Twiss

Dr. Richard Twiss was well-known as a Native American educator and author, Christian minister and public speaker, and Co-Founder and President of Wiconi International.  He was an amazing man, world-renown. God truly worked wonders through Richard and his works were not only impressive, but appreciated by many as he touched many lives in his travels. I was honored and proud to call him my friend. 
I first heard of Richard when my husband and I went to listen to him speak at the Living Hope Church in Vancouver, Washington (I believe that was the Fall of 2006). I was just in awe of his talent for speaking out to people and hoped that my people back home in Alaska could experience it.
Richard made everyone he met, feel loved and our Native communities in Metlakatla and Ketchikan, Alaska were blessed to have received a wonderful person such as he.  We had hoped to have another gathering with him up here and spoke of it with Richard when we saw him last (Fall 2011). 
 Doug Yates made this gathering we had in Alaska possible and through this gathering, my husband and I got to personally meet and know Richard and other great men. It was the start of a beloved friendship that would also lead us to having met you in your home, too.
Meeting you was incredible for getting to see the lady Richard spoke so highly of.  I don't remember much of any conversations that didn't include his love for you.  "Behind every great man there's a great woman" sincerely does apply here.
I truly appreciated his "Big Brother" type character in his replies when I would express my concerns to him.  To take personal time for others when he was a busy man, speaks highly of his integrity.  I couldn't thank him or God enough for the blessings on my marriage that Richard offered.  The first, during our gathering in Metlakatla.

It was with a heavy heart that we learned of his passing and we send you and your family our deepest condolences. Richard Twiss will indeed never be forgotten and will be truly missed and loved by many.  That includes my husband and myself.

*I took this picture of Richard Twiss when we last met him, Fall 2011

Here we "grow" again!

I had recently been invited to a friend's blog and he happened to use the same site that I had to use for a graphic arts class over a year ago. I should say, "thanks for inspiring me again Charlie!" I had been thinking of doing another blog just for fun. Somewhere I could throw out those thoughts. So why not use one that was already active? I had found Facebook to be quite annoying and time-wasting. I had some fun with close friends, but some people take advantage of that site as far as reaching out for the wrong reasons. Feelings hurt if you do not reply... Yeah.So... Annette Island, Alaska had a very nice Summer all the way around. The weather was hot for the most of it (for here) and the fishing was phenomenal!

My kids had a blast and Jackson (our 10 y.o.) has become a fishing sensation while traveling to Ketchikan to pull a good many salmon out of Ketchikan Creek. He has brought in much jewlery in trade for his catch. Steven, my husband, tells the story the best, but! seeing as he isn't here... this will have to do. With each catch, the youngster lures the crowds of tourists away from the other fishing entertainment. Such comments of "Look! This little guy has a fish on!" and others excited remarks fill the air. Jackson gives a voluminous narrative as he plays his catch-- enough to make a T.V. fishing show proud. Answering questions and offering much information as he moves from the dock, over the rail, through some trees, and down the rocks reeling as he goes. This child is a fishing nut here in Metlakatla AND loves the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. His knowledge of the different kinds of salmon is pretty impressive for a boy his age and this became a great help to us as he helped seperate fish on our fishing boat this Summer. As a matter-of-fact, yesterday as we approached the creek in our vehicle, Jackson jumped out and quickly making his first cast, he already had a salmon on the line before I could get my 4 y.o. boy, Jace Z, out of the car. Immediately, the crowds from the cruise ships surround him with great anticipation. Jackson is asked to pose with his catch by every passing tourist. The name "Jackson" is becoming an attraction of its own thanks to his dad, Steven, since he had suggested it from his own experiences having done this as a child himself. To call it a passion would be putting it mildly for Jackson as it is for Steven. He's filling some pretty big shoes impressively!

Steven and I have been commercial fishing together for a few years. He, most of his life. We troll and gill-net depending on the season. It is not easy work, but we love it!

I'm at the computer late at night deep in thought and listening to the rain outside. It's a welcome sound as the Summer has been so warm that the salmon were needing this weather to get up the streams to spawn. The warm sun was a blessing for Summer fun and sunbathing in between gill-net sets.

2b Type Collage

Type Collage:
This was one project that I didn't mind doing at all! It was very time consuming, but very fun. making type function as a purely compositional element took a bit of thought and a lot of work to make it all come together.

Type functioning as line:

This one came to my mind as soon as I got the idea of type being used as line. The salmon was from an older fishing photo. Then I took a picture of the hook with my iPhone since we were out fishing and it was right there. I wanted to use a font that was all capital letters so that the line was uniform. My husband really liked how this turned out, but then again... he is the fisherman.

Type functioning as Shape:

I've always loved this saying and since our little three-year-old totes stools around to get into everything, I thought I'd use the words to make this composition. Picking the fonts before putting together (different programs) was not easy, but after getting it all in place, I really liked it. I used four different fonts from Corel and manipulated them in Photoshop.

Type functioning as Texture: I just had way too much fun on this one... although it did not quite turn out how I was wanting it to (fonts), it was close enough. I used the Corel Photo Album to insert different texts over and over in layers. I couldn't begin to say how many texts were used. The picture of the Raven I found from www.rspb.org.uk the photo was called "raven in flight". I just had to add something to give it more of the effect of a sky since I didn't quite feel like it was getting where I wanted. I ended up liking the end result.

More finals submissions

Okay, here are a few drafts and sketches of a variety of book cover ideas. Absolutely none were done using the computer. I tried to used many different ideas. The first examples of bookcovers given and discussed were so similar that I didnt think it much of a choice. I am hoping these are closer as I was thinking that before an architects work goes into drafting details, the client needs to see some rough ideas before settling on which it is he/she wants. I figured it must be the same for what we are doing?

Final: first rough draft

I had submitted this as a first rough draft, but it was too much of a "photo shop" look to it. Here were a few words I had used:

The style of the design on top of the book kind of reflected a similar style to the logo she used. The actual photo is one I had used from an image online from a book titled "Photographer's Legal Guide, Carolyn E. Wright, Esq." I cropped the name out and focused on the main part of her photo that appealed to me which was the name "court house" and the elegant architecture which kind of reflected the client's appearance of elegance in her portrait and what I would imagine would attract a potential reader with this type of interest. To me, it displayed a more beautiful and inviting look to a courthouse. The colors I had chosen because of the client's interest in a natural look. The softer and more natural tones also have a calming effect as opposed to the red used in the examples. This is just one of the ideas for book covers I was tinkering with and leaning more towards thinking the client may approve of or consider.

7b Hierarchal Progression

I am hoping I am not alone in this endeavor of understanding, but I tore the words for the assignment discription apart in my head while reading it over and over. Ding dong...

I was looking over some pretty fun quotes and when I mentioned I was looking for a good quote for this assignment, my husband without hesitation said "The power of the pack is the wolf" and that it described our class. Seeing as we are all working hard individually for the same goal, I thought it was absolutely perfect (for our pack).

So I went online and found this sketched picture of a wolf on the site akvis.com this picture of a wolf sketched was an example of how their system worked to make a sketch from a photo in seconds. http://akvis.com/en/sketch-tutorial/examples/wolf-sketch.php Anyway, the sketched wolf was perfect for what I was looking for in this assignment.

The assignment said to make a series of five compositions in three colors, so I chose to use black, white, and blue. I tried to use the statement "the power of the pack is the wolf" in different linear ways, yet keeping it big enough to have the concentration on the words since it said the linear statement can be curved, straight, or as thick as you want. The statement was exactly the minimum of 8 words. I chose the Matisse typeface since it had a slightly wild look to it, but easy to read. I tried to keep the pieces balanced and added accents of blue in the eyes at times to balance the typeface. I was happy with the finished compositions and happy to be finished with them.

I must say our text is quite vague in a lot of areas. Good for making you study outside of the text as well as in, but bad when you really want to understand what it is trying to say.

Destination Motif Board

Okay. I had already started this before realizing it was extra credit, but... I had thought of a few different destinations, even Hawaii since I had a few pictures from our trip there last Summer. Seeing as this was supposed to be a group project to work as a team to share background and possible direction, I decided that I'd go with a destination that I knew and understood and at the same time is a very inviting tourist spot for it's culture, my home of Metlakatla, Alaska.
I thought I'd stick with the traditional colors of the native dancing, black and red. I had quite a few photos to choose from and after getting them into a folder of their own, I tried placing a few onto the canvas. It seemed like too many and too cluttered. I wanted to keep it simple with the main idea of what is here in Metlakatla.
I put new the photo of the William Duncan Memorial Church would have to be the first photo, because it is what our town was historically based upon and the first main building built. I tried a few more pictures, but removed them.
The next photo was the one of our oldest daughter, our beautiful Megan, in my mother's native regalia I had taken for her graduation (2006). Indian Dancing is always alluring for a visitor to watch and her expression was a sweet smile which is also attractive for a possible tourist... warm and inviting.
Hence, I had to have a picture of our long house. I drove down to the longhouse to take a picture and ended up catching one of a totem with seine boats docked in the background. We are a fishing community, so I thought the boats tied that in nicely. I had tried a picture of our boat, but had to remove it because it was just getting to busy.
With that, I played with each photo bringing them to the front then back again, giving some a soft edge, cropping, giving the main photo a beveled edge and a light reflection. The reflection of the canoe almost gives the illusion of the white part of it being a whole different boat on water (this canoe was not there last Summer and I was surprised to see it). Giving the right amount of reflection filled the bottom space between the two photos wonderfully and in a pretty fun and imaginable way without being too much.
The black and white canoe gave me the idea to make the picture of Meg black and white so it balanced out the layout with the picture of the church. I tried to chose a color red for the main title font to match the totem red in the opposite corner instead of the centered to balance out the layout again. Plus I tried to use a font that looked kind of tribal and the one I usually use was not available in this program, however, the one I chose was called "Bradley Hand" and I thought it ironic since my Meg's Boyfriend's name is Bradley. The second font, I wanted to go with the gray tones and more subtle to offset, yet compliment the main title.
When I was finished, I showed my mother and she was so impressed that she said I should show this to the people of our community. Ha! That was compliment enough for me...