Folky Polky

I am very inspired by Mexican folk art for a number of reasons. But the most predominate of reasons are the colors used, the symbolism, and the history behind the art. Being that I am mostly English, I am not sure exactly what drew me to the Mexican culture as a whole. But I believe it was the lack of culture in my own family that lead me to explore the art and the culture of my neighbors to the south. I find a lot of Mexican Folk art has a romantic or passionate undertone. Mexican Folk art inspires me to remember the most basic things in life, which are love, life, death, and family, oh and don’t forget the fiesta!

Peace, Love & Folk Art

Elisabeth

Her name is Frida

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo born in 1907 created striking, often shocking, images that reflected her turbulent life. She became an inspiration of mine just last year when I discovered her works of art in my Contemporary Arts text book. She is not only an amazing talent when it comes to painting portraits of herself, she is also an amazing role model for young woman. She overcame so many obstacles from surviving polio at the age of 15. To surviving a near fatal bus accident which resulted in her being unable to bare children at the age of 18. Although Frida was in chronic pain the remaining years of her life after the bus accident. She did not let it slow her down. Frida Kahlo is the snap shot image of a woman with determination. Looking at her artwork which portrays her turbulent life grounds me and keeps me counting my blessings.

Click here for more Frida!

Peace, Love & Frida
Elisabeth

The Name Game

Kate Moss creates a clothing line and we are supposed to be excited. Frankly being a marketing student I am not falling for it. This article written by Mark Holgate talks about Kate Moss’ new line for Longchamp. He goes on to talk about how the calobo went down. Basically Kate has been the face of Longchamp for years and even during her scandal the Moss/Longchamp relationship stood strong. Longchamp loves Moss so much they offered her the design reigns and reportedly Moss created a collection inspired by her love for vintage thrift store finds. If you ask me that seems a little fishy; seeing that the trend this fall is to look sheik while being thrifty at the same time. I believe this is just another marketing ploy to keep people shopping designer even in this down swirling economy.

Peace, Love, and Marketing at it's best
Elisabeth

E-commerce Economy

This past April many bloggers, column writers, and fashion journalists, wrote about the economic downturn and how it might affect the fashion industry as a whole. Donna Wood wrote for W magazine “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping – and get superwily at covering their spending tracks.” (pg. 98, W magazine, April 2010, D Wood.) Donna’s take on this down swirling economy is a positive one as far as the fashion industry is concerned.

She breaks it down in her article saying that a true shopper will work their budget around the things that may not be a complete necessity. She goes on to say that most women that plan to keep splurging throughout the recession will just be using different shopping techniques to bag those must have items.

One example of a stealth splurge technique is, instead of going out on a Sunday shopping spree and coming home with a handful of non-essentials; the loot lover will shop online and have their latest splurges shipped to their place of work. Or simply have it shipped to their homes while their hubbies are away. Author Donna Wood is blowing the stealth splurgers cover, but at the same time giving hope to all e-commerce retailers out there. Because in reality how many husband or boyfriends are really going to read her article? Therefore, e-commerce is the retailer’s survival tool throughout this recession.

Peace, Love, & Splurging
Elisabeth

Sacrificial Symbolism

   Being an American is very inspiring on so many levels. I can often get caught up in the politics of our freedom. But what I keep reminding myself is that I wake up every morning in a warm bed with a roof over my head. I am proud to be from a military family that takes pride in serving our country. I am also very grateful and proud of my English heritage, as well as my American roots.
   My grandmother made her way from her home land England, over to the U.S.A. with my Grandfather and their 3 month old baby girl (my aunt Joanie) in 1950. My Grandfather who had been stationed in England after WWII had met my grandmother at a fine drinking establishment (a bar) and had fallen in love. They made the move back to the U.S. where the family continued to grow.
   From what I can re-call off the top of my head, the Williams family lived on both the east and west coast. Having their next child (my uncle Bob) in Oakland, CA. My mom came after that (the middle child) was born here in San Diego, CA at the navy hospital. Then it was off to Illinois where their forth child was born (my aunt Susan) and back to San Diego, CA Navy hospital for their 5th child (my Uncle Patrick.)
   I have always been so humbled by the sacrifices my grandfather made for his family and his country. Being stationed away from his home and family, it was a sure sacrifice for all. Growing up I learned of these sacrifices and also what an intelligent man my grandfather is. I always walked tall knowing that not only my grandfather but great grandfather, Uncle and Cousin have served our country proudly. With that said, this is why I a am so proud to be an American.
   I have always been inspired by the American flag and the colors within it. I feel not only is it a symbol of our country but I find it a prominent symbol within my family. The symbolism behind the flag is so powerful and says so much about our country’s values. With the stripes representing the 13 original colonies and the red stripes representing the blood shed of our military men and women, white representing courage, and the 50 stars representing each state, what's not to be inspired by!

Peace, Love, and Sacrifice
Elisabeth

   Sorry folks I am back! I went back to school three weeks ago and adjusting to the new schedule has taken me a bit. Although this quarter is going to be a very busy one I feel it is going to be a very productive one. Along the with Sales Promotion, Survey of the fashion industry, Magic and ritual, and my Branding class, I am very enthusiastic about my Business Management class.
   The first day of class my teacher broke us up into three groups and told us we were now three different companies. As a class we had to come up with three businesses that we could all take on, that had a target market in common. We thought it would be fun to up the competition or all three groups and develop three charity groups that would give back to the tragedy on the Gulf coast. This idea worked out perfectly because their are three groups of us and three main variables in the affected part of the BP oil spill equation. The ENVIRONMENT, the WILDLIFE, and the WORKFORCE. These three variables have been devastated by the recent oil spill and over here on the un-affected west coast we are pretty much out of sight out of mind.
   My group chose to develop a group that would help raise awareness on the recent 17,000 (and growing) jobs lost due to the spill on the gulf. We have established the Logo, Charity name, Mission statement, Vision statement, slogan, and tag-line so far. My group consists of some of my favorite comrades in the Marketing department. Tommy Tu, Katie Matalvo, and Aaron Goldsmith. Together we have created a business plan that includes raising money for the WORKFORCE by selling T-shirts that will have our slogan and tag-line on them. We feel that in order to get people involved we need to provide them a part in our movement. We will be making this happen by providing a whistle necklace or key chain with each T-shirt purchase. The whistle is a symbol of NOISE which is what we have set out to do.
   The following is the work that we have produced in class. We are very proud and passionate about what we have created so far. I hope that with this blog and the work of our charity, we can make some noise and get the word out there. We know that the news has already been heard by most the population. But how much of that population has actually taken action? This is where we come in.

Take a look at what we've got so far, T-shirt designs soon to come!

Vision Statement :
The Surveillance Flux community is committed to developing the good in serving as a reminder, paying homage, remembering the lost communities, and to reinstall hope, by donating our efforts to the reformation of the gulf in this crisis.

Mission Statement :
Our mission is to relay the message, bring attention, have a voice, and create noise, so that the significance of this tragedy doesn’t fall on deaf ears.

Tag line : “Have you heard?”

Slogan : “There is no Peace without noise”

Cost of T-shirt that is in the design stage at the moment : $17.01 is a steal, and the $17 dollars is a great reminder of the 17,000 jobs lost, and the 1 cent representing the change that starts with you.

Peace, Love, & WORKFORCE
Elisabeth on behalf of Surveillance Flux

Junk day's of Summer

    Today I saw a sign in the window at The Container Store that read, "Everything has it's place Sale." I quickly made sense of what exactly they were advertising, and decided I was 100% against it! Everything does not have it's place!! If everything has it's place then what goes in the junk drawer? As I pondered the idea of no junk drawer, my mind went in rewind to my childhood summers spent at Grandma Jewels house.
    There was not much to do at Grandma Jewels house. Our daily routine consisted of eating breakfast which consisted of a "button egg" on a plain rice cake. After breakfast it was time to hit the boob tube for some Nickelodeon action. Once Eureka's castle and The Gnomes were over, it was time to go outside. From there we would pick avocados and pull weeds. Grandma Jewel came from Wyoming where she learned what it was like to work hard! Therefore my brother Brian and I could not get through a day at Grandma Jewel's without doing some kind of chore.
    I'll never forget the day Brian and I were out on her patio spinning her beloved Brandy around in circles on the ottoman. (Brandy was a Pomeranian who often fell victim to our shenanigans.) We could feel Grandma near as we were spinning Brandy to complete oblivion. So Brian quickly stopped the spinning and simply layed on his side with his head in his hand. That's when Grandma Jewel said it..."If you have time to lean, you have time to clean!" We quickly scurried outside and proceeded to rake and pull weeds. Once that task was finished, Grandma would find something more masculine for my brother to do, and I was free to go.
    With Brandy now hiding from me, and nothing else to get into, I made my way to the Junk drawer to create my weekly creation of rubber bands, film cans, and some other odds and ends that probably had it's "place" somewhere at some point, but has now become a piece of junk. Being that every household I had ever been in at this point in my life had a junk drawer. I was able to do a comparison, and made a decision that Grandma Jewel had the coolest junk drawer ever! She had things that your typical junk drawer will never see! So many gadgets, and doo-dads, it was a never ending drawer of exploration. She had Rubber bands of all different colors and sizes. Zip ties and bread twist's, even those old mason jar lids that came in handy when playing air hockey atop the dining room table.
    By the time I was done with a junk drawer creation it was time for lunch. As Grandma Jewel separated the meatballs from the spaghettio can to make sure Brian and I got equal parts of processed meatballs, I would show Brian my latest junk drawer masterpiece. He was never impressed, so as we ate our sodium Brian would suggest creations of his own. One particular day he came up with the idea to cut the ends off the film canisters and make binoculars. We did that using the rubber bands, bottle caps and of course the film canisters. The bottle caps were to act as dials and the bands held the two canisters together. We then took them outside and pretended that we could see for miles!!
    I look back at it now and smile, it was a wonder what a little junk will do! So if you would like a little wonder over organized clutter, then please "SAY NO" to the "Everything has it's place sale" and let junk simply be junk! Without the junk drawer everything would have it's place, and that would just be weird.

Peace, Love & Junk
Elisabeth

Love language

    No matter where you come from, how old you are, what your social status, or gender. No matter your ethnicity or orientation, you either love, or are loved by someone. As the Beatles sang in 1967 "all you need is love." When we are in love, we truly believe, all we need is love. Nothing else matters in the universe when your heart is engulfed with true love.
    The cause? Well, the cause is endless. It could be, your first love, the love of a pet, love for your mother, father, brother sister or the girl next door. It could be your love for your grandma, or your grandpa, or simply your love for who they are, or have been. It could be the love of your first born child or the second or the third. Like I said the cause is endless; but with this cause there is no cure. We can't make it go away, even with time love sticks to the deepest darkest depths of the blood pumping chambers of our hearts. Because after all, love cant just appear out of nowhere. It is symbolic that love is produced by a living throbbing organ, and not just any organ the most crucial organ next to the brain.
    Love is universal, it is not taught or forced upon. It comes from within your soul. But the problem with love is, we all have different ideologies when it comes to exactly what love is. We may not speak the same love language as the ones we love. Like dialect, there are many love languages. I have to remind myself of this concept daily. Just because I speak English, does not mean I can expect the next person to speak English as well. The same goes for love. So next time, you feel the one you love may not love you back, just remember we all speak different love languages. The beauty of this barrier, is taking the time to learn what is foreign to you.
    We should try to apply this theory in our lives as much as possible, for this barrier is not permanent it just needs a little LOVE.

Peace & LOVE
Elisabeth

Not tomorrow, today

Went to the Zoo today, heard a quote that stuck with me. It was said by one of the trainers during the SOAR night time show, which is a show that features free flying birds from all over the planet. The show was created not only to entertain, but to inform the public on the rapid loss of our rain-forests which are home to many of these endangered birds. The quote was said by one of the trainers during the production, I believe her name was Carrie. Carrie reminded the viewers that "we did not inherit this planet from out parents, we are simply borrowing it from our children." Simple words, attached to such a serious message. I took that quote very seriously as we all should. We do not know what tomorrow holds, but we can do things each day that make sure tomorrow will come. For our loved ones and all the beautiful animals we share this planet with. It can be as simple as recycling, cutting 5 minutes off your shower time, letting your hair air dry, or riding your bike to work. These simple tasks may seem very small, but they add up. You may think you are just 1 person, how much of a difference can you make? Just think for a moment and realize, your not the only one with that mind set, but if you just take the time to practice one of these simple behaviors, you are no longer the problem, you are now the answer.

Peace, Love, and Conservation!
Elisabeth

Click here
Above is a link, to learn more about what the San Diego Zoo is doing to aid in conservation efforts.

Superficial Society

I would like to start this blog with an apology. I would like to apologize to my boyfriend for putting his internship on blast. You see, my boyfriend Nick just recently started an internship at a very reputable radio broadcasting company 2 days ago. My boyfriend is a very talented web/graphic designer, and he has been brought on at the radio broadcasting studio (actual company name will remain nameless) to help a handful of radio shows keep their website's updated during the duration of the show, create graphics that appeal to their listeners and or perform maintenance on their popular websites as needed. Sounds great for a Web design and interactive media major right? Well as a marketing student I am very interested in what exactly they are putting on their websites because after all, e-commerce is the best marketing tool of the twenty first century. I asked in eagerness when Nick called to say he was on his way home , just what exciting and creative new marketing tactics he soaked up while he was there. But as my pulse was on the rise, it quickly made a U-turn. Turns out my boyfriend had spent the last 4 hours making a gallery of female celebrities with either "real" or "fake" breasts. My excitement quickly came to a low simmer as I asked, "What?"..."You mean, a gallery of boobs?...really?" He said "I know, when my supervisor was giving me the assignment, I said, great, my girlfriend is going to love this." Unfortunately for Nick, he was right. I "loved" it so much, I went on a rant about how sad it is that a radio station is using boobs to get their listeners to visit their website. It made me think, who exactly is their target market? Who would visit a website just to look at a gallery of boobs? Oh I know who! Teenage boys and perverted men right? Okay, okay I know this could be wrong, to each their own right? But come on! There has got to be a subject that appeals to a bigger mass of people than BOOBS!! (deep breath) So this was my rant yesterday evening and I had to take it upon myself to take a deep breath and move on, I could not let these silly radio station websites upset me. After all they are very popular radio stations, they must know what they are doing right? (deep breath) Day two of the internship comes to an end and I get the "I am on my way home" phone call once again. "So, how was your day at work today?" I ask through my teeth, trying to focus on happy images of puppy dogs and rainbows, to keep myself from thinking negative thoughts about yesterdays rant. Nick replies with," It was alright, I actually got to help someone put up links so people could submit their info for the "Hot mom's" contest." (long pause) again, with the same question as the day before, "what?" (puppy dogs and rainbows quickly exiting my brain.) "Yeah, they are having a "hot mom's contest, its so dumb, you have to submit a picture and fill out a form and the "hot moms" will be entered to win $1,000" Nick replied, now aware that a rant is on its way, I am sure. This time I just kept quiet as the negative thoughts came back. There were so many things running through my head...first the boobs, now this...how superficial...who are they trying to reach?...what about the ugly mom's?...as I drove home, I was baffled by the marketing tactics I had recently learned. I mean, I am a marketing student, I know SEX sells, but "hot mom's?" really!!! Last time I checked marketing was supposed to reach as many people as possible and or reach the target market in which the product is intended for. So again, teenage boys, and perverted men? I find it hard to believe that a radio station wants to keep its listener population narrowed down to just teenage boys and men. As Nick arrived home, he found me in the kitchen writing down the words "superficial society" I looked up at him with a grin on my face and he asked " whats so funny" I said, "nothing, your internship just gave me great material for my blog tonight." He replied with " Oh I know, it's so lame, nobody was submitting applications" Then the rant began...I don't need to go into detail, because I already did in the body of this blog, but basically it all came down to me apologizing to Nick for the rant. After all, he did not ask for these assignments, he is just doing his job. Poor Nick, he knows how passionate I am about the media making woman feel like they are inadequate, either by seeing a 100 pound bronze model plastered on a billboard wearing near to nothing advertising Vodka, or my favorite Victoria's Secret commercial that make me wonder, "are they advertising to me?...because I am pretty sure, that commercial just made me feel like the fattest ugliest girl in town." Bottom line, I know that I am an exception, and that there is a percentage of women my age that would buy into the "hot mom's" contest, or even indulge in some "real boobs, fake boobs" gallery on their coffee break. But I would just like to believe that as a society we have more to offer than this superficial madness. No good comes out of "boob" gallery's or "hot mom" contests, but I guess in the end, not everything has to have a real purpose, it's just wishful thinking on my behalf.

Peace & Love
Elisabeth

Peace for Sale

So this piece has been a long time coming. I told myself I would finish it before I went back to school on the 12th. Mission accomplished. I took my inspiration for this piece from the helplessness I feel in my heart when it comes to the War. I do not have any political power. You can say my right to vote is "power" but at the end of the day all it is, is a way to keep me content. I still feel helpless, powerless, and un-informed, so I reach for a statement, I reach for a T-shirt with a Peace sign on it, a painting that reads..."Make Art not War," or a piece of jewelery that symbolizes my passion for Peace & Love...whatever the statement may be, its all I have got. I am only one patriotic and concerned civilian looking for a way to settle my uncertainty by capitalizing on something so tragic in U.S. history by purchasing my "statements." I call it "selling peace" We cant have real Peace, so we settle for the material kind. With that thought, this painting was born.

It reads: PEACE FOR SALE, and "tagged" over the top of that in Arabic it reads: "The cost is your life"

Take what you want from it, and then take a little more...

Peace & Love
Elisabeth

First thing is first

So this is it, I am not a great writer, but a great thinker. I have been meaning to do this for a long time, but never got around to it. I had some time to think today on my passenger seat ride home from Fresno. What was I doing in Fresno? I was visiting my best friend and her amazing family. My boyfriend and I made a last minute decision to drive up to Fresno to help my friend and her family make the big move out of the home they were renting for almost 3 years, and into their very 1st purchased home! Both Nick and I were so happy to have been a part of the big transition. Aside from visiting my good friends, and playing with fireworks being legal in Fresno. I was also excited to celebrate my favorite holiday. I have always loved the 4th of July, and the reason has never changed. I am simply, proud to be an American. I do not take my freedom for granted and I think the 4th of July is a healthy reminder for the people that do. It is that very reason that I started this blog. I love provoking thought, and appreciate the little "reminders" in life. We are all human and often get a little on the selfish side, so days like the 4th are a great way to remember, it's not "all about me"

Peace & Love
Elisabeth