Aerial Views of Los Angeles Basin

Glendale/Pasadena area... Look closely at in the bottom right quadrant and you can make out the Rose Bowl.

I’m in Los Angeles again on a business trip. I’m so appreciative that Matt was able to take two days off work to make the 12-hour drive from Colorado and spend the weekend with me in the city. He flew back to Grand Junction yesterday and took these amazing aerial shots from the plane.

Our old neighborhood stomping grounds ... Hollywood, the Cahuenga Pass, and Studio City.

Antelope Valley... I like this one because you can really make out the parallel roads and development all along the valley floors. There’s sprawl as far as the eye can see!

Check out Matt’s flickr page here.

Poster Concepts

I’m working on a new poster design for FIDM... These are a few of my best sketches so far. I’m not sure which one the client will like best. Do you have a favorite?

Yet More Utah Wildflowers

Delphinium, I think.

What an amazing year for wildflowers in the desert. All the unseasonal rains have given the wildflowers something to sing about! I can’t wait to get up to the San Juan Mountains here in Colorado to see the blooms up there.

We actually found the delphinium and these irises blooming in the La Sal Mountains, so I guess it isn’t technically the desert... but we literally must’ve seen 10,000 of these pretty lavender guys.

I think this is a kind of penstemon.

The cactuses were blooming by the hundreds in two shocking colors of hot pink and a sort-of mango color. I’ve never seen such prolific cactuses in all my life!

Late Spring / Southern Utah

Last weekend Matt and I went back to Southeast Utah for one last desert adventure before it gets too hot. We camped on Cedar Mesa and looked around the Anasazi ruins at Moonhouse. The next day we drove up Butler Wash and hiked to the top of Comb Ridge.

View of the San Juan River canyons south to Monument Valley from our campsite at Muley Point (in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area).

View to the west from Comb Ridge, looking over Comb Wash. The desert is really green this year because of the unusual rains and cool weather we’ve had this spring. Notice the dirt road running along the valley floor.

Check out this crazy overhang where the Anasazi built their homes over 800 years ago! This area is called “Moonhouse”.

A bunch of yokels from Blanding, Utah were arrested last week for pillaging through similar sacred Native American sites and stealing artifacts off public lands and then illegally trafficking them for a profit of about $350,000. One of the thieves, the local Morman physician, had been caught for this kind of activity before... and yet he continued to disregard the law. After he was released on bail, he committed suicide. Now many locals are blaming the government for his death.

I find it ironic and completely hypocritical of these Mormans whose ansestors came to Utah to escape religious persecution, to then turn around and desecrate and disrespect the religious artifacts of another marginalized group. I’m so disappointed that there are still people in this country who feel and act as if Native Americans don’t belong on the land their people have occupied for millennia. . . Especially in a place as beautiful and spiritually inspiring as Utah.

Interview with Yours Truly on CranbrookDesign.com

College view book cover I designed for The Boston Conservatory

I was honored when my friend Arjen Noordeman of Elasticbrand recently asked for an interview with me for the Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni site he runs. I talk about my professional design work, my work as a design educator, my painting practice, my yoga practice, and my love of the outdoors (whew! that’s a lot!)... An excerpt is posted below... Check out the entire interview at CranbrookDesign.com. Thanks, Arjen!

: : : :

Arjen Noordeman: 1. Over the past ten years you have been involved with teaching at the college level, is this something you purposely chose to do, in addition to working as a designer, right out of Cranbrook?

Danielle Foushee: It sort-of happened by accident. About a year out of Cranbrook, I got a call from Denise Gonzales-Crisp, who was teaching at Art Center at the time, to sub for her class one day. I had a great experience with the students and was asked to teach a full class the following term. I think I was younger than half the students in the class, which gave me the opportunity to cultivate a certain kind of collaborative, cooperative environment that I have tried to maintain as I’ve gotten older.

AN: 2. Has being an educator and a mentor to young designers influenced your outlook on the profession in particular ways over the years?

DF: My thesis at Cranbrook was all about the emotional connection between our thoughts and our actions, and that is still my main motivation eleven (!) years later. If graphic design is primarily about persuasion, then we have to know how to get the audience to act on our messages. We have to understand the audience’s emotional motivations. I think emotion trumps reason every time, so my work always comes from that point of view.
The interesting thing about this is that I’ve found it to be true with my professional design practice and also when I design projects for students. If students can’t find some reason to buy in on a personal level, they won’t have the most rewarding learning experience in the classroom. Almost all the projects I assign give students flexibility to tailor the assignments to their own personal story. In my professional work, I also try to open up a space where my audience can situate themselves personally into the story I’m telling/selling.

Click HERE to read the entire interview.

My Design Process in Action

I’ve been trying to design a good cover for the new FIDM college catalog that’s scheduled to deliver in July... You can see the stages of my process in this sequence, with the most recent at the top and the earliest designs at the bottom.

The entire cover is pictured = Back+Spine+Front. The vertical line on the right side of the front cover represents an elastic band that will come around from the back like a moleskin sketchbook.

Which one do you like best?

Recent Sketchbook Entries

I work in a lot of different media, experimenting to see what different effects I can get when combining different kinds of pens or pencils or inks, or whatever. These are some recent drawings from my sketchbook.

I usually carry my sketchbook everywhere... Some drawings are more “finished” than others. Some are just pencil outlines, others are completely shaded with color or graphite. I guess it depends on my level of patience from one day to the next.

I started this one at a campground in Canyonlands. I like it, but didn’t feel like working on it anymore so I moved onto something else. Maybe I’ll complete it in a different media or turn it into a painting or collage at some point.

Cardboard Art by Mark Langan

Ohio artist Mark Langon creates these beautiful compositions from nothing but corrugated cardboard, which he cuts using a generic x-acto knife. I love the use of reclaimed materials! I sometimes use cardboard cutouts in my own paintings, and I have to say I don’t think I’d have the patience to cut this volume of cardboard for my work. I have enough difficulty just cutting out 4 or 5 plain circles, much less the kind of detail you see in this work—one reason I’m eager to get my hands on a laser cutter!

Salutation

Mid-states packaging 101

Mid-States Packaging 112

Art in Ojai

Another Magical Night

We got up this morning and decided to take an hour drive up to Ojai, California... One of our favorite little places to spend a lazy Sunday. They were having an art festival in the park—lots of jewelry, some interesting paintings, and photography. My favorite art wasn't in the park, though. It was in a gallery on the main road—Trowbridge Gallery. There were two artists represented that stood out above the others: Jeff Sojka and Ginger Moore Maxwell.

Mood Moon

Jeff Sojka’s paintings were of the landscape variety, and I especially liked the ones that were mostly about the big sky. I’ve been working on a series of photography that is all about the big sky, so I think that’s why I’m drawn to these. The red one is my favorite, and Matt liked the blue one.

Midday Dream II

Ginger Moore Maxwell’s paintings were a little more quirky. Her paintings of wildflowers (of course I can’t resist wildflowers!) are very representational and detailed. The thing that makes them so interesting is that the flowers seem to be like puppets, suspended from little strings, hanging from an unseen place. Are they puppets, happy and dancing? Or, are they hung like little dead men? I’m not sure.

Day Trip to Ojai, California

Entrance to the park in Ojai

We got up this morning and decided to take an hour drive up to Ojai, California... One of our favorite little places to spend a lazy Sunday.

We were really looking forward to visiting our favorite old bbq dive joint [Oak Pit BBQ] in Oak View, just a couple miles outside of Ojai... When we got there, we found it completely different than we left it a couple years ago. I guess someone bought it and renovated it. It’s no longer the homey, divey place we loved. Now it’s just a generic restaurant, nothing special about the new atmosphere. I wish I had a photo of how it used to be.

We decided to give it a chance anyway. The food was good, not great like we remembered. I especially missed the hand-cut fries they used to serve. Now they just serve regular old frozen fries—boring! And on top of everything else, we were too full after lunch to indulge in our favorite raspberry sorbet from the ice cream shop in town!

After we walked through downtown Ojai looking at some lovely art at the “Art in the Park” fair, we drove over to one of my favorite spots at Meditation Mount, where we took a walk in the peace garden and looked out over the Ojai Valley.

It really is a peaceful place! I saw this beautiful cactus bloom on the path.

There are working ranches, orchards and farms all over the place. We stopped to photograph this recently-bailed hay from outside Black Mountain Ranch. So beautiful. When I spend so much time in Los Angeles (after living there and visiting all the time) it’s easy to forget that much of California is rural.

Here’s a roadside produce stand in Fillmore. We stopped in and looked around on our way back to the city. Too bad we’re staying in a hotel or I would’ve racked up on some freshly picked strawberries!

Back in Los Angeles

Matt and I are back in LA for the next week so I can do some work with FIDM—I’m trying to finish up their college catalog design so I can send my files to the printer... sigh... This project is really beginning to draaag. I think it will be a great piece when it finally gets completed—If I survive that long!

Our trip: We drove through several hours of rain in Utah, which was unusual simply because it rarely rains in the desert, and when it does it’s usually just for a few minutes. By the time we arrived in Vegas it was sunny and a warm 100°. Then, as we came down the hill at Cajon Pass, we could see a blanket of brown resting over Southern California... *cough, cough*

We’re thinking about going to Ojai tomorrow (Oak Pit BBQ—A dive with the best bbq in California, and the best fries too!)... or maybe hiking Mount Williamson in the Angeles National Forest. . . I’m definitely going to Golden Bridge Yoga several times this week for a few kundalini classes... and I won’t leave the city without at least one meal at my favorite Thai restaurant.

Update: Um, we went back to Oak Pit BBQ, and apparently the ownership has changed. They completely remodeled the interior, so instead of having a quirky charm, it's totally generic. And the same thing happened to their food. Instead of delicious hand-cut fries, now it's the frozen kind. Blech. And the sandwiches just didn't have the same oomph in the new sterile atmostphere.

More Evidence of my Wildflower Obsession

Cliffrose below the Rattlesnake Arches.

Matt took me up to hike the Rattlesnake Arches within McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area in the late afternoon yesterday. The temperature was perfect, and since it was so late in the day there was hardly anyone else around. Matt and I agree, May is the best month of the year in canyon country.

Stemless Woolybase

Cushion Buckwheat

I love this one! It looks like a little mound of fluffy pom poms low to the ground. If you bend down and get a close-up look, you can see the little red stripe on each tiny petal. It makes me think of peppermint!

Penstemon

Sego Lily

Recent Paintings / New Color Palettes

A couple months ago I was working on these new small paintings and I needed some inspiration. I’ve been getting sick of the color palettes I typically gravitate towards, so I decided to put all my inks in a big pile, and force myself to use whichever 3 or 4 random colors I picked with my eyes closed.

I’m so glad I did this little exercise, because I never would’ve combined colors in exactly this way; these are much subtler and softer than I’m used to. I think I’ll continue this method for a while and see what happens.

More Surprises / Southern Utah

A Native American grain storage building under a rock overhang in a cliff side.

The Southern Utah deserts are bursting with surprises — large and small, from wildflowers to thousand-year old native rock art to natural arches and springs. Matt and I have come across quite a few Native American drawings as we’ve explored our local region this spring.

This natural arch is called “Paul Bunyan’s Potty” and is located near the granary pictured above. You can get a sense of the scale of things by noticing Matt standing at the base of the rock at the bottom of the picture.

Native American rock art at the base of a cliff just outside Canyonlands National Park.

More Utah Desert Wildflowers

Claret Cup Cactus

Silvery Lupine

Milkvetch

Globemallow

Cliffrose