GOALZ

It's been a long and confusing path towards figuring out what the hell I want to do with my life, but one thing has been certain and constant for as long as I can remember: It has to relate to making things because that is all I've ever been good at (I am aiming for honesty here, not self-deprecation). I moved to Vancouver over six years ago with the concrete goal of attending Emily Carr and finishing a design degree there and subsequently finding work in the design industry, but inevitably things got all muddied up along the way and I wound up pursuing a number of other half-hearted whims (Hair-school, reading 'Kitchen Confidential' by Anthony Bourdain and trying my hand at being a prep cook, working in a rotating assortment of coffee shops... Gah).

I applied to this program with goals of honing my design skills and software knowledge, getting away from the soul-crushing service industry and back into a creative environment and hopefully reapplying to Emily Carr to finish my degree in the spring with a fresh skill set and a new perspective... But even now this isn't clear! I guess the only goal I can define is that I want to open doors for myself and finish something. Whether I wind up with a slick design job or the skills and updated knowledge to successfully promote and market myself as an "artist", doesn't matter.... Just as long as I'm in a better creative and mental place than I was when I gained entry into the program.

It's difficult to pin down a greatest source of inspiration, because this is constantly shifting and I think It's boring to only be inspired by one thing or group of things. I can be inspired by all kinds of things. Here are some examples:

• The patterns on non-branded paper cups you get with takeout or at the movie theatre
• Film noir aesthetic
• The aesthetic of the Bauhaus era (specifically typefaces and architecture)
• The photography of Fred Herzog
  
• Scandinavian childrens books from the 1950s and 1960s
  
• 80s skateboard graphics
• Factory records album covers
• The landscape of the part of Canada I grew up in (Northern Ontario)
• Inuit art
• The Winnipeg airport (pre-renovations)
• National Film Board of Canada animations

Etc., etc., etc. ...

I suppose I'll know I've met my (loose, vague) goals based on how I *feel* when I have finished the program, but even then I don't know if I will know immediately! Provided I haven't been kicked out for truancy. That's not even close to five measurable results... Sorry!