PLEASE NOTE: That the blog is now located at www.ethanbodnar.com and the feed has been updated but I am unsure of how that process will occur, you might get this post twice, but it should transfer you over. This site will now be serving as an archive so please update any bookmarks. Thank you.

On August 30th I moved into my new living space at the University of Hartford where I am attending The Hartford Art School. I am very happy here and all the people are amazing. The photo above is of my roommate Jeff and I at one of the art shows.

The Hartford Art School is a remarkable place and I am very happy to be pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design here. It feels magical to be making art all the time, we go to the studio late at night to work and it is a great feeling to be producing creative work in this new atmosphere. The professors are very friendly and caring on top of just being very knowledgeable and creative individuals. The way the school works is that the first year we all take the same courses as every other art student, this is called Foundation Year. This semester I have a great lineup of classes.

Drawing is providing an introduction to representational drawing, we have done a large self portrait, large charcoals drawings, interior and exterior spaces, photo reproduction and will be moving on to the figure shortly. 3D is a sculpture class in which we create three dimensional work and we are now focusing on linear pieces of work. And 2D Color is a color theory class based around painting, we have been doing color scales, abstract paintings, and exploring the way different colors work with other colors. As for non-artist classes I am taking a course on Western Heritage and a Rhetoric and Writing course.

The first week there was an Alumni Art Show that some friends of mine and I went to. This was before classes even started and it was great to see all the work in the gallery and talk with some of the teachers. The photos above are of us at the show and my two favorite pieces.

Then there was The Hartford Art School Faculty Show which was a great experience to see the artwork that our teachers have made recently. We met up with some of our teachers and the opening was packed. The photos above are from that show.

Several weeks ago, my mom and I attended the AIGA Design Gala event in New York City. It was a wonderful experience and that evening I was honored for receiving an AIGA Worldstudio Scholarship. I went on stage an took a bow and spent the rest of the night with fellow recipients and meeting designers and contributing artists to my book. I met Debbie Millman, Armin Vit, Troy Monroe and many others. I ran into Scott Belsky from Behance where I am interning. Also, Khoi Vinh came and introduced himself, he is the design director for the New York Times website. Stanley Hainsworth was generous enough to buy the table for the scholarship receipents and has been the creative director at Nike, Starbucks, and LEGO. Also, I was introduced to Richard Grefe, the executive director of the AIGA and Ivan Chermayeff, past AIGA Medalist. The photos above are from that night in the city.

We also attending Adam Machose’s solo show in Hartford. He is our drawing teacher and he presented a series of small acrylic portraits of friends and imaginary characters.

The completed manuscript for my first book, Creative Grab Bag, was sent off to my wonderful editor over at HOW Books at the end of August. I have received initial feedback on everything and they are very pleased with the outcome of the book and the direction we are moving forward with it. The book is scheduled to be published sometime later this year in the Spring of 2009. Thank you to everyone who has made the book what it is and to all of the contributing artists. It is a wonderful thing to create a book and I look forward to sharing it with you.

There have also been some changes around here on my weblog and personal website. The header has been designed as a cleaner version of the past one. As seen in the navigation at the top the structure of the site as also changed. The Blog is now located on the Front page and the retired web address for the weblog is now serving as an Archive. There is a Portfolio of graphic design work which will soon feature new work from The Hartford Art School, there is Books section which contains information on Creative Grab Bag and A New World Platform, along with the About section where you can learn more about myself.

In the Elsewhere section of the sidebar there have been the additions of Last.FM which tracks all of the music that I listen too and FriendFeed which combines all my online activity into one online space. For the time being Videos for Creatives, a weblog featuring video from the online creative world is being retired.

The other night we made some pasta in the kitchen on the bottom floor of our building. My roommate Jeff has started a radio show on campus and some friends and I sat in as guests for a little while. I got a typewriter for our place as well. And tried tea, some funky lights, and a live plant. A bunch of nights we worked in the studio for a while, late into the night. And during the week I get the New York Times for free, I read it every day. The photos below are from all of those experiences. You can see more pictures from all of the recent events including the art shows, the AIGA Design Gala, and my time at The Hartford Art School here.

The blog moving forward will have four main types of posts, Photography posts containing just photos from my life, Art School Work which will feature photos from the work I have produced along with artists statements, Sharing Links which will be a collection of links to other interesting things online, and then Normal Posts that will be my own thoughts, stories, and projects.

I will soon be introducing a series of poster for sale, along with some new photography, recent projects from my art classes, and a brand new project that will document my art school career and life going forth in a new manner. Thanks to you all, your the best, see you soon.

Hand made type base on Helvetica. Made by printing a pattern on sticker sheets and cutting out the letters using a scalpel. Brought to us by Idiot Copenhagen.

In my travels yesterday I found myself right next to a brand new building from Cesar Pelli that was under construction. There was a display case in the building next to it where I happened to be for the day and the final product looks amazing as you can see above.

The new science center will be built on a site overlooking the Connecticut River adjacent to the new convention center in Hartford. The new Connecticut Science Center was designed to communicate the excitement of Science. The ambitious and dynamic forms appear to reach out, beyond their physical limits.

Several weeks ago I watched a program on television about his work and what he said was inspiring. It felt great to be around the work of a very well respected architect.

As an excerise for english class we had to write a poem about an animal.

It is the boxer in the outback, the powerful legs,
It is a tall one, standing strong.
The huge ears jutting from his head, tuning in always.
The short arms contrasting with the long legs.
The tan trench coat it wears twenty–four–seven.

Why does it, why does he hop, leap, jump.
Moving through life, never strolling, walking, crawling.
What is his life about, his family, his friends,
It stops, observes, always looking.
The name is Jack, the marsupial mammal.

The way it moves, the way it thinks.
Living there, here, anywhere.

Just wanted to let you know that the site is going through a major update. The blog is completed right now, but the rest of the website is not. So if you are to use the navigation at the top you will be brought to sections that are not done.

I am very excited to share with you the progress on the new site and look forward to having it complete very soon. It’s going to be awesome, I promise. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, please visit the current www.ethanbodnar.com for more information and to explore projects, books, and other work. Thanks!

Today I got up early in order to make an attempt at getting some work done before breakfast. I dragged a long ethernet cable out the window so I could sit outside with the MacBook. I still have yet to get wireless at the house, I know, I should. Anyways, it didn’t quite work, but I had some great rye toast for breakfast. But for some better news, I am getting a good amount of work done right now, including writing this blog post which was on my list of things to do today.

I am going to try something new here on the blog. That is listing some links in which I would like to share with you. Not to worry, I will continue to tell stories and share ideas. I have had so many things that I would to share but never really share a bunch of them at the same time, so here it goes.

Behance Network
Just launched yesterday, Behance has created an online community for all types of creative people. The site has a nice design and they have thought it out very well. Still room for some improvements though.

Video from Dwell
The ever popular and wonderful magazine, Dwell, has some great videos online. There first online video projects is a series of ten videos covering the green remodeling of a town house in Harlem. There current series profiles leaders in design and architecture.

Iron & Wine
Just discovered this musician yesterday, and I like what I here. Take a listen for yourself.

Five and a Half’s Blog
Five and a Half, the people who have brought us beautiful hand made journals also has a blog that is full of great resources and stories about handmade items and life. I strongly recommend digging through their archives, for you might find some amazing posts.

The World Without Us
Saw Alan Weisman, the author of The World Without Us, on The Daily Show with John Stewart and thought his book sounded great. Although I have yet to pick up a copy for myself, the concept behind the book is the global warming and all of that scares people, so Weisman killed off all of the humans in the first chapter. Not a bad idea if you ask me.

Design Notes
A blog all about design that is published and written by Michael Surtees. Always some great posts that you can find here.

Graduation (not for me) is tomorow and then this weekend I will be studying for exams, followed by exams next week. So you wont be hearing a lot from me, until I head down to NYC for the Future of Online Advertising Conference, which I will tell you all about. If you will be there let me know.

Link

Consumerism is a problem today in this world. People are consuming mass produced items from “super” stores. These stores do not pay their employees well and the mass production manufactures use cheap labor in foreign countries. We then go buy and support all this. Back
in the day people used to make what they needed and they turned out just fine, happily living their lives. Why don’t you make some things for yourself and not just run out to the store to pick up the item?

You could knit a hat instead of buying one. You could grow potatoes in your garden and make potato chips. And maybe someday it will be legal to share music online and have no digital right management system in place.

My source artist for this piece was Kate Bingaman. She draws one thing that she buys each day and publishes them online and in her zine entitled Obsessive Consumption. The theme was “consumerism”.

I would like to leave you with this quote from William Ralph Inge.
“The happy people are those who are producing something; the bored people are those who are consuming much and producing nothing.”

I started a sketchbook a month ago and have been drawing in it quite alot lately. It is also part of a class at my school called “Artist Sketchbook” where we have more independence then other art classes to do work in our books. I photographed what I got so far and put them online in a flickr set. Go check it out.

Sketchbook - Flickr Photos

Recently, I have become interested in buttons. During a recent trip to NYC there was a man around the market in Union Square who was selling buttons. He happened to be a friend of my art teacher who was on the trip with us. I got to buttons from him and am looking to get more. Some sites that I have found that have awesome buttons are….

Stereohype
El Buton
Pricke

Check those out.

I was only two years old when I got my first LEGO. It was a fire engine. After that day, my life changed. I fell in love with these little pieces that stuck together to make buildings, trucks, helicopters, roads, and what ever I dreamed up. I used to have two big foldable table with a whole LEGO city. Under the table you would find plastic storage units with drawers that stored countless pieces. Playing LEGOs was the thing to do when I was young.

At around the age of ten I got LEGO Mindstorms. With these LEGOs I was able too build robots that I could program on the computer. In middle school I joined the LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Team. Here we built robots that had to do specific tasks and then took part in big competition with local schools.

I used to always play with my two younger brothers. They still play sometimes today. But no wheres as much as they used to. Today they have been corrupted by watching television, playing video games, and going on the internet. Nevertheless, all the original boxes are still saved in the attic, so that one day I can repackage them and pass them down to my kids.

LEGOs were awesome because they taught me to be creative and to imagine. Thank you LEGOS.

Getting Things Done is about being more productive. The system works like this.
1. You take stuff and put it in the inbox.
2. Empty the inbox and decide if you can take action on it.
3. If no, you trash it, file it for reference, or add it to a someday/maybe list.
4. If yes, decide what the next action is.
5. If it is a project, add it to the projects list and your project plans.
6. If it will take less then two minutes, do it.
7. If it will take more then two minutes, delegate it or defer it.
8. When you defer it, you add it to your calendar or next actions list.
For more information see Merlin Mann’s post on the system.

There are many ways that you can implement this system. Here is how I did it.

1. I have an physical inbox at my house, I use index cards to add ideas to my inbox.
2. I use Backpack for my someday/maybe list and next actions list.
3. I use Mori for project planning and project lists.
4. I use file folders for my reference system.
5. I use a HIpsterPDA at school for homework.

Thats about it. I encourage all of you to go buy this book and start doing what it says.