here's the thing--

i literally did not post ONCE this semester. so, in an effort to make my very first new years resolution (ever, really) i choose to make a more extreme effort to blog this year. it really does ground me and keep me inspired and creating, so in a plea to get my life back on track, i will be sharing much more often. so world, stay tuned, because i have been quiet for some time, and i sure have a lot to say.


may love and peace surround you always,
jillian leigh barthold

so, first of all, i am very excited to announce that this is not only a new entry in my blog, but my first blog entry that counts as a blogish journal for my graphic design class! yesss. best day of my life? i think so.

second of all, this afternoon i was downtown, and by downtown i mean the gold coast, and when i say gold coast i mean michigan ave, and when i say michigan ave i mean to most crowded annoying street in all of chicago. it has spirit, yes, but all those damn tourists just don't know how to navigate quickly enough for me. so anyway, i dropped into borders because i am taking this crazy amazing class-literature on film. two of my very favorite things in the world. so i went to pick up our first reading, long day's journey into night by eugene o'neill. The cover design is AWESOME. i love the typography so much! the contrast of the boldness of the font and the contrast of light to dark is so wonderful. the over-all design is simple and very clean.

ALSO, ya'll get to enjoy a double entry because while i was at borders i stubbled upon 3 books i HAVE to purchase, even though i own them with different book design. haha. sometimes i think books just throw themselves at me and demand to be a part of my life. so, penguin and ruben toledo (cuban...everything. god, basically) collaborated and he created new cover art for pride and prejudice, wuthering heights, and a scarlet letter. i am in love with them. they are very stylized and a bit.....gothic? slightly morbid? ....i don't know exactly, but a little dark, which is something i'm very into right now. very loose and silhouetted and wonderful. just truly a heart match with me. so, enjoy these pictures and go buy them because they are a wonderful collaboration! i love hand drawn work so muccccccchhhhhhh.

it's my golden birthday :)




shout out:: natalie perkins.

I don't know what's been going on with me lately, but i have been SO LAZY. For the last 2 or 3 weeks I have done nothing. I need to apply for jobs, I need to enjoy chicago before it's freezing, I need to be young and live wildly, but I just sit in my house, sleep-in, watch a movie or two, watch a season of weeds, stay in my robe, clean a little, that's it. Don't get me wrong, I've gone out a few times, but it was all stuff that could fit into like 4 days, as opposed to like 16 days. I think it's because most people still aren't back in the city? I want to blame it on that, since when i'm in texas and people are there I'm always out and about, but i need a good kick in the ass to get me up and going. My mom and cousin are coming up in a week, so maybe that'll get me out of this funk. for christ's sake, my 21st birthday is in 10 freaking days and I have no real plans and could care less. My life needs a makeover.

i love making little postcards for people!!!!!
i am in such a watercolor mood these days...





(jenna i made you one forever ago, i just need to send it! love you!)

some of my friends are putting together a zine, vemme, and the first issue is.....drumroll.....the ginger issue! so here are a few quite things i did to add to the zine! :) again, the pictures are backwards, of course, like the rest of my life. :P

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listen people, i am no betty crocker, and i am hardly domestic (just as i like it), but yesterday i made sugar cookies from scratch!!! and ashley, my roommate, made a great glaze frosting for them from scratch! (I also made a cobbler two days ago! I don't know what has come over me!) We made the cookies for our friend adam because the day before he had lost someone very special and important to him, so we thought to bring a bit of cheer into a grim day we would make him cookies baked with love. :) I also made some texas cookies, because i mean really...who wouldn't? OH! and a little cake of course!

At the end of the day, I am scared to death of my future. I am destined to be a poor, starving artist. I am scared of people hating my work and failing to bring myself joy from it. Hopefully that won't happen and I will produce a portfolio half as wonderful as Cynthia Warren, one of my largest sources of inspiration.




view the rest of her portfolio here:
http://www.cwarrendesign.com/

watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyXmp-FiPJo
amaaaaazing. i want to make a pop-up book now! it's actually something i've been toying with since i babysat sweet sophia(6) and chloe(3) a little over a week ago. i read them a pop-up book about a fairy garden before bedtime full of little pockets and surprises and so love the idea and the nostalgia of it.

so, i never really elaborated on lake tahoe and here i am posting about my next trip! i am in lillian, al, population...100? haha, no, definitely more than that, but still, very lower alabama. let's jkust say i had to drive over 45 minutes to go to barnes and noble. gasp. but in any case, there was a point tonight where i was sitting on the pier(for those of you who don't know i am at my grandparents house and they live on the bay) watching the younger kids shooting of fireworks and i turned and *gasp* more foreworks. i kept turing, all the way around, more and more fireworks. i was surrounded 360degrees by fireworks and it was so magical. fireworks make me so happy. they give me little morsels of hope and inspiration. that is so effing cheesy, but even more so true. i want fireworks at every big event in my life. anyway, just thought i'd share. :)

so today i was drawing a cake on an envelope that contained a friends birthday present and then that inspired me to create an invitation to my 21st GOLDEN birthday, and then that inspired me to make a general invitation postcard and then i thought to myself...if i got these printed maybe i could sell them at shop columbia (my school's student store) and then that got me thinking that maybe even local boutiques could sell them. i mean, they are fun, they're cute, they're local. maybe that's a long shot, i don't know. what do you think (all 2 people that read this thing)? here are the rough (rough, rough) backwards(b/c i took the pics just now on my mac) copies. i would do other series too, like one for a tea party perhaps. i'm just looking for a way to have an excuse to do this kind of stuff i guess. if you are having a party let me know and i'll come up with some concepts! anyway, let me know what you think.

AHHHHH!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO EXCITED! beyond words.
they FINALLY released the trailer!!!!!!!!
ahhhhhh!!!!!!
One of the best books in the world, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. (a professor at my college)
the movie is so well cast!
ahhhh.
based in chicago and new haven, mi.
ahhhhh. enjoyyyyyyyy.
READ THE BOOK!!!!

i visited my dear, dear friend emily today in austin! we went to barton springs (so beautiful) and saw Away We Go (SOOOO GOOD!!!!!!) and the promotional artwork for it is amazzzing. before i left we were sitting on her porch and someone drove up and parked in front of house. when they got out to walk up the street i asked them what song had just been playing in their car because i really liked it. this is what they said and they told me to check out the video. oh. my. god. it is amazingggggggggggg. please check it out:

March 5, 2010.

I am having a mad, mad tea party. everyone's invited.

lately when discusing films i have realized that NO ONE (besides me, it seems) has seen my favorite movie. what a travesty indeed. it was filmed in 19+ countries, the acting is truly amazing, the child lead doesn't even know english- yet has all english lines, the music is so well fit, the cinematography is amazing...i could go on and on. point is: WATCH IT PEOPLE.

as you may or may not know, i am on vacation in lake tahoe. it is beautiful! i would love to tell all about my trip, but i think it would be more benefical if i waited until i have loaded up pictures :)


in any case though, something totally cool/crazy happened yesterday:

carson ellis (who i did a blog post on recently) has become one of my favorite artists. after much thought and delberation, last week i ordered my first piece of artwork, a print, from her website. i love her and have for some time so i decided it was a great investment. Yesterday, i was seeing if she had a fb page i could be a fan of. she didnt, but her personal page came up. there was a friend in common, my photoI teacher, jon. so i write on his wall "are you really friends with carson ellis?" he replies: "ya, we grew up together. shes one of my closest friends. she visited me in chicago just a few weeks ago."

can you even believe that!!!!!???? i mean honestly, what are the odds???

p.s. this is this print:

so, since i've been showing ya'll the work of so many amazing artists, i thought it apt to do a little post on my very favorite artist of all time, sabrina ward harrison. i discovered her work when i was in middle school and read the book better than running at night by hillary frank. i chose the book, of course, because of its cover, but also went on to read the book 4 more times between those days and these current ones. last year a good friend of mine and amazing photographer, amanda bose, (who i will do a post on in the future i'm sure) did a studio project on color identity and in one of my sittings i used the book as a prop, so i'll show you that. also, i bought myself a sabrina ward harrison book for my 20th birthday. i can't believe that was almost a year ago! man. anyway, she is remarkable(if you know me you know i save the word remarkable for only truly remarkable things) and she inspires me beyond belief. i hope you grow to love her as much as i do. :)

so i am currently reading this adorable book by trenton lee stewart, the mysterious benedict society. i originally picked it up because the cover (yes, i definitely judge books by their cover) and paragraph headings were illustrated by the talented carson ellis who you may or may not know from her work with the decembrists(great band), but it's super fun and i'm liking it. here's the amazing cover and some other specimens of ellis' work:

so my friend has this ridiculously cool and talented friend who is like the coolest thing since sliced bread. listen. enjoy. be a fan.

so if you know me at all, you know that i am what my mother calls "a dog with a bone." i get fascinated with something and then i spend all my energy for a period of time on that thing. not too long ago one of my facinations became the work of mel kadel. i just became so obsessed with the illustrations. some of my favorites are "holding down the fort," "grand old fort," and "foot bath." okay, so, another one of my recent fascinations has been critiquing the designs of wine bottle labels. i have grown to adore this hobby. so, last night i am at world market with my mother and i round the corner to look at the shiraz labels and lo and behond a mel kadel illustration was the label for a south australian wine entitled "strong arms." it's gorgeous!!!! i made my mom buy it and the wine was fully cunsumed by 8 last night. it, as well, was wonderful by the way. anyway, i was very excited and plan on using the bottle as decoration in my apartment. i was already intending on putting some of the illustrations up anyway. here are some of my favorite mel kadel illustrations and an image i found online of the label. :D

HOLDING DOWN THE FORT


GRAND OLD FORT


FOOT BATH


STRONG ARMS LABEL

so a few things:

1- my near and dear friend angie took me out to dinner tonight at one of my favorite SA,TX hotspots, sushi zushi (shout out) we had a feast!!!! a tuna tower, edamame, two california hand rolls, four pieces of salmon sashimi, two pieces of unagi, a favorite roll, and a boston roll later, we were full, full, full! it was amazing.

2- i went and picked up job apps today (wah, wah, wahhhh). sad b/c that means i'm here all summa, but i need money. here or in chicago, i NEED a job. i am even applying to urban outfitters. please someone come and save my little art school soul. ppl are cracking up b/c even though it's a shit job, i realllly want to work at a movie theater! i mean, come on ppl, FREE movies. that would save me hundreds of dollars a year.

3- so you think you can dance is back!!! yayyy! it started up again last week and tonight was my first 2009 fix of none other than MIA FREAKING MICHAELS. aka: my favorite person ever. (besides amber tamblyn of course)

4- i found some pictures from chris park from forever ago! maybe i'll go tomorrow...

So...except for my first night back, which was spend with my loves molly, bri, and georgia, and when i got to see kait the next day, SA,TX has be SO BORING. So tonight I pulled out my old watercolors that I've had since i was just a babe in germany and made some postcards and cards. my friend annie has her 21st (whoopwhoop) coming up and the neighbor girls are turning 7, 7, and 3 next week. Apparently i am mad obsessed with balloons. haha. ALSO! MY 21st is coming up later this summer (august 21) and since my sister won't be in the country, (she is moving to london) i bugged her to buy me these shoes i lovedddd at anthropologie. $245 to $30? yes, please! enjoy the pics!

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