roller coaster

It's been rainy and gray here in Los Angeles the last week or so but to brighten up the day are some images of the roller coaster at Pacific Park at the Santa Monica Pier. These images are from about six weeks ago, on a beautiful Sunday. My cousin was visiting from out of town so along with many other tourists we took a stroll around the pier, stopping for some Arcade games and a ride or two.

The primary and bright colors of the rides, plus the graphic curves and lines, against the backdrop of the clear sky made for some bold images.

art afternoon

A little more from my recent visit to LACMA. I like the use of red throughout the newer buildings, the incorporation of outdoor space (and deck to see a great view of Los Angeles) as well as the clean, modern lines.

In other news, work is keeping me pretty busy!

central coast stay

Our drive up the Coast ended at our hotel, which my husband left as a surprise to me. We stayed at the charming, colorful Madonna Inn. It's over the top, unique style really really added a feeling of fun and escape to our short vacation. Each room has a different theme and decor. Ours was called "The Matterhorn" and it was decorated in the style of a Swiss country chalet, with that sort of scene depicted in the stained glass window to one side as well as grandly decorated bathroom with a chandelier and rock-wall shower plus quirky furniture and accessories. One of the more sedate rooms! (You can see all the rooms here.) The whole hotel is very decorated, with amazing attention to detail everywhere, from the layout of the buildings and rooms on the property to the wood carvings and bright, detailed damask wallpaper in the bar! It's not necessarily my favorite style but I definitely appreciated and enjoyed it here.

The view from our balcony was lovely, horses in the fields, rolling hills. We were lucky to have gorgeous weather, cool at night but warm enough during the day to make the most of the pool area. (To be continued...)

what happens in...

We took a very spontaneous trip last weekend, decided only a day or two before that we needed to get away, the long weekend was perfect for it. Las Vegas is close enough and guaranteed to have plenty to see and do (plus all important available hotel rooms) over the Xmas break!

Trippy music kept us company as we drove through the dark desert areas, beautiful expanses of dark sky and bright stars, it wasn't as nice during the day with all the traffic. It's easy to tell when you are getting closer to the city and The Strip by the amount of lit-up billboards appearing by the road way. Last trip was a bit underwhelming (aside from the Chihuly gallery and the show we saw) and this time I enjoyed myself seeing the glitzy, over the top casinos plus people-watching, a show, dinner with friends that I neglected to take many pictures. It was a nice distraction from some things that happened recently.

Clockwise from top left: Signage of the Flamingo hotel - fabulous colours and typography. Eiffel Tower replica at the Paris hotel. The Venetian as photographed from the car. Night shot of the road leading into Las Vegas.

Then it was back home and straight to work making Latkes for the family Hannukah dinner! See a picture of the deliciousness that is potato parsnip latkes here.

Happy 2012 everyone!

just capitol

I'm a proud Aussie. True blue. Who never thought she'd end up living in America! But life led me here and so, while I do miss my home country and tackle the challenge of navigating the quirks of the USA, I am thankful for where I am now. This country, while it has it's issues, has a lot to offer and I've truly enjoyed all the things I've seen and done so far since I've moved here and look forward to exploring more of the country in the future.

So on this American holiday of Thanksgiving I share with you some snapshots from this nation's Capitol building from our trip to Washington DC a few months back. Need a bit of a crash course in American history? Visit the Capitol! I learnt about the founding of the government, about presidents and the very impressive building/s. All good stuff to know about my current country of residence!

As for the holiday today - I'm going to my second authentic Thanksgiving meal. The first one was a number of years ago when I was visiting, they had deep fried turkey and dishes that were new food experiences for me! Now I'm more familiar with this cuisine and looking forward to the stuffing and hopefully cranberry-something. Pumpkin pie is something to get used to though. I'm making the green beans!

Happy Thanksgiving :)

in the detail

The Getty Museum is one of my favourite places in Los Angeles because of the amazing architecture and the gardens. The attention to detail is impressive, in both the building and the landscaping, with shadows, reflections, shapes and colours changing with the light and seasons to add even more interest. I also like the contrast of nature (plants, flowers) against the grid and harder lines of the building and the curves in the structure that soften edges and nod to organic form.

These pictures are just a few from a visit last summer.

historical house

On our trip to DC, we went to Mt Vernon, George Washington's house, garden and estate. The property is huge and contains several farming areas. Washington used innovative farming techniques for the time. The property had been in his family and the house was added to over time to become quite a grand mansion with many outer buildings for staff and slaves as well as farm buildings for animals and storage. The extensive gardens are beautiful and contain areas for flowers and more exotic plants and another for seasonal fruit and vegetables. The large front lawn gives a wonderful view of the house and the back porch overlooks the Potomac.

The tree pictured is supposedly (according to our tour guide) the largest Pecan tree in the USA.

I enjoyed walking around the estate (despite the heat and humidity) and learning about American history and finally hearing how to pronounce "Potomac" as I'd only ever read the name in books and never heard it out loud. (It's amusing to my husband when I say it wrong! But to be fair, I'm still new to America.)

barcode building

I've been a little busy lately, working on a design that kept me at the computer for a lot of hours so once I was done for the day, I took a break from the screen. Hence the lack of blog posts.

I was looking through some old files and found this picture of a building in Melbourne, Australia. It was one of a few photographs that I had taken for a project (circa 2002) that had to be based on architecture or structures. The photograph had to be turned into a digital drawing and then an intaglio style print. This photograph didn't make it but I liked the detail on the outside of the building. Always look up, you see great design sometimes! The file I had was a scan of a 4x6 print from film which gives it the graininess and nice muted color.

It'd be great to be back at art school and have projects that require going out and about with a camera but that's something to do for fun as well!