Every time I think of something I want to do, I put it off until summer. Sixteen weeks away.

Things I did today:
Researched and took notes on banks’ websites at my internship.
Went to classes.
Thought it was neat that I know everyone in my classes.
Read about typographic history in “Graphic Design: A New History”.
Said hello to my roommate.
Chatted with Adam.
Ate potato salad, coleslaw, and fries at a BBQ joint, with friends.

Today wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

My internship with The Caliber Group starts tomorrow. I feel like I don’t know how to do as much as they think I know how to do. I guess we’ll get to know each other.

School starts Wednesday. Courses include: Design II, Typography II, Contemporary Drawing, Design History, and Contemporary Art History. Today I spent 5 hours working on the first assignment for Design II, and I’m only a quarter finished with it. It is due on the first day of class. I’m going to die.

A photo diptych I made will be in the Four Seasons show in February and March. The show features art about women made by women artists (just in time for Women’s History Month). Last November I completed a series of diptychs that explored the differences between how a woman is viewed and how she would prefer to be viewed, so the show came up at the perfect time. It is a juried show, and I still don’t know how I feel about juries, but I think the show will be really great. Four Seasons will be in a couple different galleries and there will be a panel discussion and opening parties and such. I’ll let you know more about that later.

Lakewood, Colorado. Nov 2009.

I was in Asia for the summer, but I’m back in the States now. More to follow.

I went to Dubai over spring break. After looking back through my journal, I found ten impressions of the city.

1. There is no old, no ghetto, no broken, no ugly.
2. Everything is under construction and I’ve only been to one place so far that is complete (Madinat Jumeirah resort).
3. On paper, the city is logical, but it doesn’t flow like a normal city, so in that sense it is illogical. There is no definite downtown area. You can’t walk to anything.
4. The only thing to do here is spend money. I guess you could drive to the beach. Shopping is the only acceptable activity for Muslim women to do.
5. It feels like I’m in Scottsdale, but a huge Scottsdale.
6. Arabic and English are alongside each other on everything. Even numbers. License plates from the rest of the UAE have Arabic and Western numbers, but plates from Dubai have only Western numbers. Maybe an attempt to be more Western than Eastern?
7. High ways run everywhere. There are very few intersections. High ways lead to off ramps, which leads to a roundabout, which will take you to a building.
8. There is little uniqueness here. The only art I’ve seen is a spin on other famous works, classical Arab art, or sculptures that are non-expressionistic and realistic (people on camels, birds, horses, etc). I saw a camel on a base, it was white with painted blocks of color, but it’s like those cows that we have in the States that I began to see 10 years ago. (I was referring to this.) There are no art museums, only galleries. This could be a reflection on the consumer culture—why would you only want to look at art? Why not buy it?
9. No chai tea. But there is lime juice and fresh mint, which tastes like a botanical garden. Amazing.
10. The city and everything in it is meticulously planned by a master designer. It’s unnatural, and it is extremely visible that nothing was left to chance or the plight of humanity. Things are counter-intuitive because you can’t see a natural progression of growth, different centers, nor randomness. It feels generic because of that.

Upon closer inspection, I found that there is a broken and ugly, organic part of the city. Old Dubai, the birthplace of the city, feels like China Town meets my imaginative version of Beirut, perhaps. I felt like I could live there and be happy, because I could see signs that other people lived there, and that communities had formed. Communities have not yet formed in Dubai, there are no certain characteristics of different parts of the city, and that may be because it is all so new, or it may be because “birds of a feather flock together” unless they are not given the opportunity to build their own nests.

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To see all of the photos from my trip, click here.

My friends and I went to San Diego, California for the weekend. We decided Thursday evening to leave Friday morning. It was one of the best trips that I’ve ever taken because there wasn’t room for disappointment. Our only plan was to touch the ocean, and we did that.

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See more photos from the trip here.

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