Dear Emotional Creature;

I believe in you.
I believe in your authenticity, your uniqueness, your intensity, your wildness.

I love the way you dye your hair purple, or hike up your short shirt, or blare your music while you lip sync every single memorized lyric.

I love your restlessness and your hungers.
You possess the energy that, if unleashed could transform, inspire and heal the world.

Everyone seems to have a certain way they want you to be, your mother, father, teachers, religious leaders, politicians, boyfriends, fashion gurus, celebrities, girlfriends.
74 percent of young women say they are under pressure to please everyone.
I have done a lot of thinking about what it means to please;

To be the wish or will of somebody other than yourself.

To please the fashion setters, we starve ourselves. To please men, we push ourselves when we aren’t ready. To please our parents, we become insane overachievers. If you are trying to please, how do you take responsibility for your own needs? How do you even know what your own needs are? The act of pleasing makes everything murky.


We lost track of ourselves.
WE stop uttering declaratory sentences.
WE stop directing our lives.
We forget what we know.
WE make everything OK rather than real.


Instead of trying to please, this is a challenge to provoke, to dare, to satisfy your own imagination and appetite.
To take responsibility for who you are, to ENGAGE.
Listen to the voice inside you that might want something different. It’s a call to your original self, to move at your own speed, to walk with your step, to your color.

Eve Ensler.


While flipping through the pages of Glamour I stumbled upon this excerpt from Eve Enslers most recent piece of literary work and immediately fell in love with it.


Emotional Creature.
What does that even mean?
Well, in literal terms it seems easy to define but it really means so much more than that.
Am I an emotional creature, ummm uh yeah.
Are you?
More than likely, whether you'd like to admit it or not.
We are human.
Flawed in every way.


Not only do I think I think Mrs. Ensler's book will resonate with young women everywhere but this article, for me was, one of those "AH Ha!" moments and a perfect introduction into my narrative photo project and the exact reason WHY I chose to tell THIS story.

(side not: I read the article after I did all my shooting...I seriously think fate was behind me finding this)

My story is of transformation.
Why we do it, how it makes us feel, whats lost in between, whats found...


Why, as women we take on roles and stereotypes to fit this mold that has been pre-sculpted for us instead of creating our own.

The series will only include 4 images (although I took around 300) documenting these transformations from frame to frame.

My gorgeous 100% natural friend, Caroline modeled for me which made the shoot so much more personal and fun.

I focused on lighting in every shot and framed each image to serve as a sort of ambiguous self portrait. Some are untouched images while others are still being color corrected.
enjoy.


Till we talk again.
Besamos and remember-

Le Vie Est Belle.
Monica



STILL 1:


STILL 2:



STILL 3:


STILL 4:



(I felt like these photos are most cohesive and work best together in telling such an emotional story in 4 frames)
Here are some others I just mucho mucho liked:)
I will post mas soon!







Love this lighting.



How gorg is she:))

Its Spring Time,

oh, what a great time to drink some beer. "

Quote of the day-no week...

As a young creative Friday was probably one of the most exhilarating days I've experienced in quite a while.

I clearly enjoy what I do otherwise I wouldnt do it but as I sat in our all agency meeting, clapping along to the SWA "bags fly for free" chant, I looked around at all the brilliant minds surrounding me in this amazing space we have and couldnt help but think, "Hell YES, this IS absolutely what I want to do for the rest of my life".


As I listened to our president and founder talk about the agencies core values and latest creative work I was truely moved and even more excited about the future than ever.


"In advertising, you gotta have fun. Take your work serious but NEVER yourself. "
Repeat: Take your work serious but never yourself. But always be restless.

How awesome is that?
How awesome is it that S, an accomplished warrior of fresh ideas and new insight, who probably doesnt have to work another day in his life is writing a book on the act of hug giving, opened a taco trailor in our agency parking lot, and handed out tamales and jars of his homemade salsa during SXSW.
And the best part yet...
He started off his 10 minute praise of the agency with a slap on his back pocket and a " $29.99- mhmmm Marshalls, baby."

The man is humble.


And of course this was all followed with kegs, queso, and tacos- a true agency tradition, in the sun, followed with more beer and creative banter at Key Bar.


I guess what I got from the whole day is that you have to have passion.
I always say that I'd rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable and after this weekend I know thats more true than ever.

So whatever it is that you believe in, whatever it is that gets you up in the morning, it doesnt really matter what the f_kc anyone else thinks as long as you do with your entire heart.

Have passion.
Nothings sexier than loving your life .

And as S said, "its SPRING time."




Till we talk again.

Le Vie Est Belle.
Monica



Video of the day: Grab your Bag- Its On.
Enjoy.

http://www.blogsouthwest.com/

Short and Sweet

Is how I like it.

Over the last 72 hours I've dived head first into my most recent project- a gig poster, for a band of my choice.

After compiling a list of bands that was ENTIRELY way too long I finally settled on one and have been grinding away brainstorming, concepting, and thumbnailing (totally not a word but whatever)...

As in any creative process the research portion usually consists of drawing visual inspiration from various sources and or other creatives/artists. This work is usually pieced into a process book that focuses on ALL phases of the project. An excellent way to show a client your thinking process and execuctions all the way from first visions to tight compositions.

Anyhow, I came across some MAGNIFICO work and thought I would share the love!

Im on a roll with my designs and as promised, kept short and sweet... SO enjoy.

Till we talk again

Le Vie Est Belle.

Monica

(Love, Love, Love. Seriously, fantastic, huh)

(sidenote: met this designer at Flatstock. All the work was amazing in person. Truly magnificant.)

Dont Pinch, My panties are green.

Happy St. Pattttys!

So, I've decided that I need to RE-prioritize and blog at least twice a week if I really want this bad boy to do what its suppose to...

And thats to share Ideas.

Sooo...in the last million hours since we've talked MUCHO MUCHO has happened!

Some pretty exciting stuff=)

First off, SXSW is here!!

And for most people and some Austinites, that really doesnt mean anything but shit tons of traffic, hipsters stealing your usual spot at Jo's and drunk hobos party crashing BUT for ALL the others, you know what this means!

13,000. Repeat-Thirteen THOUSAND people ventured to Austin hot spots just for the Interactive portion of SXSW....

Thats absolutely phenomenal!

Of course the agency got their fix as I did, streamling live with various interative attendees and keynote speakers.

It was noted that sxswI was like the Cannes for Cool kids or a spring break for the nerds.

Funny and defintely right on! haha

SXSW is such a bomb time to engage in the city's creativity and absolutely thrilling for young(ens) like my self to really soak in all these multiple platforms of communication not to mention an amazing opportunity.

And if you arent a fan of the mass crowd and hupla, who doesnt love sunshine, free beer, and great people??
Damn. I love it.

And best yet, Flatstock starts....Tomorrow!

As mentioned before the Flatstock portion of Southby will summon all great screenprinters, printmakers, and poster designers to showcase some of their SAVVYIEST work.
Is that a word?

Well, the work that makes me say, "Damn, I wish did that." That REALLY goood good work that your jealous of. Thats who will be there.

AND I can NOT wait! Ah...
I stumpled upon this one designer some time ago and really fell in love with his style.
I've taken pieces of his executions while still trying to find my own style and really dissected his use of color, type, and line treatment.
The 3 most significant parts o a poster...

He wont be attending sxsw but knowing that designers like him will be there gets me super pumped.

Image of the Day:

On that note, Ive been busy concepting away on multiple series of SXSW posters as a project and got my first crit feedback today.

Naturally, printing was a nauseating experience and theres defintely STILL some work to be done but here is a sneak peek of a first revision that was submitted for the Creative Summit Competition.

Concept 1: Fix. Get yours. Kind of like...a sandwhich.

With the mass amounts of shows to catch, talks to attend and films to watch its nearly impossible for any festival goer to cram it on. So naturally you prioritize. Each person gets their own fix, one hundred percent unique to them.

No digi comp = (No Bueno) but drawing inspiration from a Rolling Stones album cover the design encompassed two buns that could be head phones but youre not really sure, with various SXSW fixings (functioning like tomatoes, meat, cheese...etc) living in the middle. Actually is a lot cooler than it sounds.

Concept 2: Buzz. This festival is where it is.

Thousands of people are flocking to it, all with various categories of interest. The colors stand for each portion of the week long event while the gray scaled images symbolize the lack of (non-attendees) engery that, when attened will ENLIVEN you.

Therefore the sworm of fleeting birds and various insects in COLOR represent those festival goers who form the actual spelling of SouthbySouthwest with their negative space.

Be nice and Enjoy. Carrot, Heart.

Im off to present my final photo thesis to my professor!

Till we talk again..

La Vie Est Belle.

Monica