Asheville, North Carolina

We went on vacation to the beautiful asheville North Carolina. It's been 4 years since we've had a vacation actually going somewhere, staying in a hotel room and all. Long time coming. We chose Asheville because of the arts, culture and nature. It's always been recommended to us that we check it out since we are both artists. And I've never been, the Husband went when he was a child.

We had a spectacular time!

We climbed Chimney Rock and looked upon beautiful scenery. So beautiful, it looked fake ... like it was painted on, happy little trees. It was a feat for me to climb, so when we reached the top, it was such a triumphant event. It was totally worth it. We climbed to Exclamation Point ... and that is exactly how it felt.

Downtown Asheville was so ... COOL, for lack of a better word! It felt so right. It was so "me". I could spend hours just walking or people watching or going to all the cool shops or hanging in Malaprops, an awesome bookstore.

The River Arts District was a very artsy place! So many different artists doing different things ... it was very inspiring. I have a new favorite artist. His name is Jonas Gerard, and his work was fantastic!! Check him out!

http://jonasgerard.com/

The food was amazing! We tried different, all local restaurants. The Husband tried all kinds of local beers. We probably gained some weight, but it was worth it!

We went whitewater rafting!! I was scared to death ... mainly of falling out of the boat which is a definite possibility. Signing the waiver that mentioned "death" didn't help. But it was SO MUCH FUN! We both got soaking wet, but it was a lot of fun, and I'd definitely do it again.

Leaving was sad, but I know we will be back. Asheville was a great place!

Downtown Asheville's Friday night drum circle

Art show time - GET INSPIRED ALREADY!!

So, it is 3 weeks before an art show and I am struggling with inspiration. A friend recently told me I should get out of my comfort zone and paint things I've never painted before. She said, "no trees, plants, swirls, thick lines and textures, black outlines, bright colors, and no mirror."

Yeah, right!! There would be NOTHING left of me if I didn't have those things. They are who I am as an artist. My "style" is thick texture, bright colors, swirls, plants, and definitely the MIRROR!

So I looked around on the web at some cool art. My favorite website I came across was www.ipaintfish.com

Fantastic stuff! Very inspiring.

Another way I try to inspire myself is to buy new supplies. Kind of silly, but new supplies makes me wanna play! New toys! Today I bought LOTS of different size canvas, spray paint, round mirrors, and a new bottle of black paint. I love AC Moore and Michaels! Now I wanna play!

I am super excited about the upcoming art show. This year, they are having a whole week FULL of art related events, through theatre, dance, poetry, parade and art. Sounds like it will be an awesome thing to be a part of and I am proud to say that I am.

http://www.artblastwilmington.com

The 9th Annual Downtown Wilmington ArtWalk is

September 11th, 2010, from 10-5

CoolWilmington.Com in sponsorship by the Downtown Business Alliance of Wilmington presents the 9th Annual Downtown Wilmington ArtWalk. We close down Front St.(which is the main street thru downtown Wilmington) and set up the artists down the middle of the street, for 6 blocks. Pedestrians stroll down thru the area to explore all of the wonderful items on display. In the past, this event has drawn over 10,000 people throughout the day.

It's going to be an awesome event. I hope you can come see me. I'll be the artist with the "trees, plants, swirls, thick lines and textures, black outlines, bright colors, and mirror."

My coffee shop experience with the new laptop

So, you are probably wondering why I am bothering to write a blog about sitting in a coffee shop with a laptop, because thousands upon thousands of people do this and it's nothing new.



I did mention I was a dork, right?



This is my first laptop ... it's actually "our" laptop, but for the time being, it's mine ... and I've decided that when she is with me her name is Zoe. Don't ask ... I name stuff. Probably because I talk to them and it makes sense they have a name: the mac is Penelope, the cellphone is Trudy, the car is Echo. Since I have to share this laptop - hence the "our" - she will have to have multiple personalities, because she is Zoe when we hang out.



I can hear the Husband protesting before he even reads this. hee hee!!



Anyways, off topic. I am sitting in a coffee shop for the first time ever with my new laptop.



I feel SUPER COOL!! YEAH!



I brought it with me today to do research for the ever-evolving, mostly procrastinated business plan that I need to be writing if I ever want to find out if I can work for myself full-time - a mind bogging concept.



Of course I ended up checking my facebook and responding to emails, and blogging about it.



Not sure why, but the laptop intimidates me. Like a newborn baby with a rolling head, I think I'm afraid of breaking it, dropping it, dumping water or coffee on it, pushing the wrong buttons, etc. Not that I want to dump coffee on a newborn baby. That reads funny.



The more I use it, the more comfortable I will become. Zoe and I are going to have some fun together.



Off to be productive.

My favorite thing to design are LOGOS!

I love to design logos. They are a very rewarding form on graphic design in my opinion. I am the one that creates your company's brand. That's pretty powerful and can be pretty stressful. Nothing makes me feel better than a client saying how wonderful my design is, or, "Yipeee! Yipeee! Yipee! PERFECT!!"

- actual words from latest logo design client.

Of course, it makes me feel even better when that client says, "Your check is in the mail!"

A company's branding is serious business. It's as serious as designing tattoos for people. And yes, I do that too!!

So, if you are thinking of starting up a business and you need a logo, think about your company and the image you want to put out there ...

... and then HIRE ME!

This is my latest design. Enjoy!

I love fonts, I mean typestyles

Fonts turn me on. Is that weird? Some people say it is. Some people see the glazed over look I get when I talk about serifs, ascenders, descenders, and all the unique curves of different fonts ... and they think I'm nuts.

Okay, I am nuts, but fonts are important to me. I am a graphic designer after all.

Recently, I learned that "font" is not the correct word to use. There is a big difference between a font and a typestyle. I love them all, so it was interesting to learn.

According to our good, always accurate, friend, Wikipedia, the difference is:

"The distinction between font and typeface is that a font designates a specific member of a type family such as roman, boldface, or italic type, while typeface designates a consistent visual appearance or style which can be a "family" or related set of fonts. For example, a given typeface such as Arial may include roman, bold, and italic fonts."

Wow ... I bet that you didn't know that.

I appreciate the type designers that have the wonderful job of creating all these cool typestyles to use, even if I download only the free ones.

So ... now that you know a little about me and my love of typestyles, you can see why this pic makes me giggle!

My intro

So, here I am. I created this pretty blog ... happy with the name, my picture, my "about me" section. Everything is done. ... well, now I need to actually blog about something!! I am intimidated by blogging. I'm not sure why, because it looks easy when others do it. I'm very impressed with the pictures, the links, the witty stories and the randomness.

So, let's get to it!

I am Angela Johnson. I am a freelance graphic designer and an abstract painter. I have created this blog to talk about my inspirations, thoughts, ideas - based on graphic design and painting. Of course, I reserved the right to talk about anything random that pops in my head. I am a very random person. I keep you guessing.

I like peanut butter.

I created this blog also to get my name out there in a different avenue I've yet to explore. People FOLLOW your blog!!! How exciting. It is my mission to get my name known.

I started up my freelance graphic design business in January. It's been a very slow process, all the while keeping my day job. I've had my exciting "I got a new client!" days and I've had my depressing "Why am I even bothering?" days. Those suck! I'm learning as I go. I ask questions. I take classes. I network. I facebook.

So the good news is my business has grown!! I had 0 clients in January! No where to go but up!

I urge you to follow my blog. It will make my day. If you have advice or thoughts to share, please share away! Tell me what I should blog about!!

But for now ... I think this is a good start!

Thanks for stopping by.

angela