things i did in august

images by gothamist

1. eat at gloria restaurant, nyc

fish and seafood galore a.k.a. my kind of place. 

the restaurant is small and humble, and the windows let in this really nice light. 

it was no surprise that every dish was stellar. really recommend if you love non-meat things and dashi-butter mushrooms.

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images by melissa joulwan

2. make paleo oven-fried salmon cakes

with more time on my hands, i've been cracking down on trying new recipes.

these salmon cakes with almond flour and mashed sweet potato by melissa are actually so great. i stored them for a few days and re-fried them on a pan right out of the fridge. 

threw it on a salad, dressed it as a burger, ate one for a snack. 

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image by carnegie museum of art

3. visit hélio oitica + history of protest at the whitney, nyc

honestly, whenever i go to the whitney i'm always at least a bit disappointed. 

but, last week was definitely an exception to that. my friend hannah and i roamed every floor, carefully and thoughtfully looking at every piece (especially those of the "incomplete history of protest" exhibit). 

first time in a long time that i was just in awe of an entire collection. 

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4. see dunkirk in 70mm

god, this film was spectacular, which is no surprise because of nolan and zimmerman's unified genius. every shot was stunning, every track was incredible, the entire interweaving of shots and events was brilliant.

i have no complaints. see it in 70mm. 

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5. binge-watch avant garde vegan on youtube

i actually did binged these videos this morning. 

i'm not a vegan anymore, but i have loved gaz oakley's recipes nonetheless. the kitchen in this squash risotto video is goals. 

happy august, everyone.

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"i am right now"

System.out.println("Hello, World!"); 

as the school year is inching (very, very slowly) to a close, everything else seems to be picking up. i see why, but at the same time i'm getting incredibly overwhelmed by work and school and not being (in my mind, creatively) productive. 

the thing that's been on everyone's mind is college. college or school. school and college. school in preparation for college. college in preparation for beyond. beyond in preparation for... even further beyond? i'm getting overwhelmed by that too. 

it feels like every adult asks me, "where do you want to go?" expecting me to have a few universities or professions on my mind. i usually say, "i don't know," and they say, "okay" and stop the conversation. even though my seniority "status" will finally be attainable in just a few more weeks, it's difficult for me to look as far ahead as everyone expects me to. 

like, yeah, i'm going to be heading off to a college in just a few more than 365.3 days, but then again there's still 365.3 days until then. maybe ask me, "what next? what are you focusing on now?" while i'm still getting to that point. i mean, usually i have to ask to myself that anyways. 

because i really mean "i don't know" when i say "i don't know" because i don't... know. i'm almost eighteen now. people tell me that i have my goals straight and my life pretty much figured out, but i don't want it to be like that. 

i can say that i know who i want to be, but not where i'm going to be. right now, i'm right here, with a research paper, a critical analysis paper, 3 AP exams, and a literature exam on my hands. what's next is what's right now. i'm dealing with what's right now.

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getting to where i'm going

in my english class, we were given the task to create something inspired by walt whitman's "song of self", which described the individual's search for her own identity. our project was supposed to most authentically represent ourselves in a physical, verbal, or visual medium.

naturally, i chose photography.

here was my introduction to my project:

"it was hard for me to figure out what aspect of my identity i wanted to talk about when the medium in which i wanted to present my project is my identity. the next most logical thing i could about is how art has become a part of who i am. the answer is new york city."

enjoy

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it's hard to stay positive

image by bydvnlln

image by joel

image byfayznasir

my poster for the women's rights march

`````

i've never wanted more than

to fight back

to call back

to protest

to represent me, to represent others, to represent who we are

it's hard to stay positive in a time like this

it's hard for me to have hope

but this is the time when i stand stronger

and i am stronger every day

i will fight, i promise.

izzy

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first snow

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dear you,

we got our first christmas tree with jenny (our dog) today. 

it was snowing and foggy and eerie and empty and beautiful.

jenny, who was born in the cayman islands, is obsessed with the snow.

she's like us: beach-born, energetic, and overall kind of crazy. it was no doubt she'd love the snow as much as q and i do. 

we got a twelve-foot tree. it was so big the guys who owned the little tree farm had to use a tractor to drag it to our car. it smelled like christmas all the way home.

it smells like christmas in our house now.

i hope i got good pictures.

happy holidays.

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and, thank you

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yogurt panna cotta . pumpkin pie and ginger ice cream . roasted yams and delicata with yogurt and pomegranate . kale salad with persimmons and tahini dressing . roasted green beans and whole grain mustard . mashed potatoes . stuffing . turkey . gravy cranberry sauce with jalepeños . roasted cauliflower steaks with capers and olives and parsley . berry crisp .

i am thankful for life

i am thankful for opportunity

i am thankful for people and family and friends and love

i am eternally thankful for everything

enjoy your holidays 

be thankful for everything that you have

love,

izzy

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a month from then

the human condition is a installation of the works of various artists in an old, 40,000 square-foot hospital. i thought it was cool and weird and unique and gloomy and just beautiful; the pieces brilliantly match the geometric and sharp shapes of the hospital. i just wanted to share its awesomeness.

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as for me, i'm back. it's been 48 days since i wrote my last post. that's a pretty long time. i've been taking a little hiatus from social lately. it's been nice to just not stress about having to curate and post things on all of my platforms. i started junior year 29 days ago. i turned seventeen 19 days ago. i'm a year older since we last talked. 

i've been thinking about this sort of kinetic energy of stress. i think a lot of the time i feed off of other people's stress and they feed off of my stress and other people's stress, and it just becomes this sort of eternal and cyclical exchange of anxiety. i mean, i get it. we're getting older and we have more responsibilities and work and independence. we're almost done with high school. i realize that every once in a while and it just scares me. i love the idea of a new and limitless world. we're practically there.

i've been pretty good about it my monthly freak-outs, though it's taken me almost 3 years to figure it out. i keep reminding myself that i'm okay. that even though i have no control of time and other people and their decisions, i have complete power over what i do and how i perceive and change my community. there's been a lot of broadened thinking lately. i think i've matured a bit from it. 

good night.

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where art and cake collide

images by dunja opalko x wallpaper magazine

i haven't been baking much, even though it's summer time. very much unlike me, but i've been so busy with projects and fun stuff that i think it's okay.

the other day i stumbled upon danish designer kia utzon-frank and her london-based company kufstudios. naturally, there was kufcakes. each cake is in fact edible. kia prints marble texture onto fondant or marzipan before most meticulously folding it over cake. in turn, a beautiful stone effect is created, which freakin' insane. 

the cake itself is equally as stunning, with folds and layers of sponge cake thin enough to create a fine gradient.  "taste is as important as the look, and the cakes should be conversation starters and trigger our curiosity and interaction with each other," their website says. kia uses natural food coloring and fruit juices to dye the cakes. 

i think the thing that utzon-frank said that really spoke to me the most was this: "cake is just another material. if something catches my interest it doesn't matter what it's made of. i think there's a huge freedom in not knowing much about the material i'm throwing myself at, as i then don't know the 'rules' and therefore am more open to experiment."

food = experimentation = art

i wish i could do that.

enjoy your weekend,

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because it was great

i made a video a week ago about my grandparents' neighborhood. 

i went to jazz camp for a week.

i met really cool people.

i discovered new music. 

i took a break.

i spent time with my family.

i'm good. i'm home. let's go. 

i miss them.

happy monday

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i've been watching stuff

1/ on work – ryan o'connor

simple. eccentric. awesome. funny. i love it. i love helvetica. 

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2/ upstate – jorge cuevas jr

15 seconds of joy and beauty.

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3/ onward internet – sander van dijk

the internet is cool. right.

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4/ pulse - traceloops x shigeto

a favorite song + a favorite artist. the perfect video.

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it seems like it's been forever since i last wrote here. it has, actually. i've been busy with my summer job and trying to be creative in other aspects of my life. i'm more confident now. i'm more confident in my life and actions as a creative. it almost feels like i know what i want to do and grow to be in the future. it's crazy. i'm turning 17 in 2 months and even though i always say i don't know what i want to be, i do know what i want to be. i am who i want to be. i think for me, that's really powerful.

good evening.

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what's going on

what's goin' on guys? i've come here to say that we have T-minus 2 days left until the end of the school year. do you know how good that feels? that feels pretty great. 

i've been taking some weird photos lately. like cool weird? alex says that they're cool weird. that means that they really are cool weird. that's good. i love flash now. to kinda celebrate these photographs, i made some weird collages.

1. got a new shirt from my dear friend that says "matriarchy now!" i love it. you can buy one (and look at all of her cool projects) here. 
2. i painted my nails like i always do when i choose to do them once in a millennium 
3. a cool water-chemical stain that i found today waiting for the bus
4. my kefir yogurt ice cream with rainbow sprinkles that i had for dinner last night
5. a brownie cake with very sad decorating by me (for my friend's chinese teacher)

and because it's been awhile, here are some links that i've found from the last 12 days.

1/ all of the pretty colors

2/ this awesome wallpaper (yes, real paper that goes on walls)

3/ buy all of the patches!!

4/ OK.

5/ what are you talking about?

happy hump day, everyone

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my office

where i sleep and throw my clothes and sometimes watch a movie

i killed my plants

where i make stuff

where i keep the messy stuff

where R2D2 lives

where the only pictures i have with my friends are

where i keep a picture of them

where projects die and are born

where clips that don't actually work are #aesthetic

where i keep artwork from first grade

there's just a random donut on my desk

people always ask me what my workspace is like.

it's my room.

it's my creative space #PEACHYS

i live here, i work here, i sleep here. it's my space. there's a lot of art and design magazines and stuff. my mom printed out some of my own photographs so i could, you know, get some inspiration from myself or something. i look back on my 2006 self (aka that painting from the first grade) for sources of creativity. real casual.

my room is a balance of myself. there's a lot of graphic prints and minimalist stuff, but there's also an R2D2 on my pillow, a tardis on my desk, and pictures of planets in my closet. i'm very discreet with my inner nerd, but there are hints of it everywhere.

there are usually more plants in my space. i killed most of them. what a shame.

there are cracks on my wall. some are new, some are old. our building is shifting and the wall closest to my bed looks like it's about to fall apart. it adds character. yeah.

i have a whole turntable space on my credenza. the flash didn't really reflect well on it, so i deleted all the pictures. it's there though. 

i think comfort fuels my creativity + motivation + productivity.

this is common comfort...

too much?

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okay so

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i kind of don't know what to say. 

i've been resting my body a lot. i've been eating well. i'm learning in school. i'm trying to take photos every day. i'm reading. i'm waking up at six o'clock every morning, except on the weekends. i walk home every day at around five. i read the news sometimes. i write sometimes. i'm listening to new music every day. i do my homework. i like to look for new shoes even though i don't need them. i smile. i go out with my friends. i brush my teeth twice a day. i play piano every monday and get out of school 15 minutes early on fridays. i try to walk more because it's nice out. 

i'm doing well. 

i feel like i don't keep up with writing here enough. i know, i know, i'm sorry. but i'm going to change that within the next couple of weeks. i have stuff in store to share, but i'm not exactly quite sure what it's going to be yet. #coolcontentcomingsoon. promise. i'm hoping to get some videos out pretty soon... i just haven't gotten around to it because you know, school and projects and all that fun stuff. but i promise that cool things are underway. 

so i turn this question to you all: what kind of content would you like? more recipes (which would be in summertime)? more film stuff? graphics? art? life stuff? writing? do tell. (seriously, i'd really like to know). 

i'll leave you with "cool things that i've found in the last 22 days" things. haven't done one of these in awhile. 

1/ floating record? could you imagine this in your bedroom? yes? yes.

2/ my favorite little video (i found last week). it's not really about pizza

3/ this pair of very minimalist earrings that i adore

4/ a really intriguing short film on "fangirls"

5/ a steve patch

6/ i forgot about this piece + have been listening it for the past week

7/ my favorite human being doing my favorite human things

have a lovely saturday, everyone.

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on film

still from 2001: a space odyssey. my favorite film.

i've spent a lot of time watching films in the past few days. short films, long films, films of my own, i've been watching them. we're on this weird road-trip-not-road-trip trip in california right now, so i've queued a list of little films for the rides. 

i love film (i'm talking about motion pictures here, but i love actual film also). i love the ability to tell a story without words. i hope by now you know that i like to understand things visually, so it shouldn't be surprising when i say that i love movies. 

i wanted to share some of my favorite films that i've found and that i'm currently watching during our car rides. some of them are weird, some inspiring, some cool, some beautiful, but all incredible. they are all worth watching, promise.

i love film. 

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1/ the sound of film . robert marshall

the sounds that often are missed when we replace film with digital media.

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2/ michael cina – a century of artifice . VSCO

a short film on the life of one of my favorite graphic designers.

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3/ august in paris . sage

an eccentric music video with lots of legs and no faces.

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4/ can you read my lips? . little moving pictures

i come back to this video a lot– it explores the difficulty of lip-reading in a world of hearing.

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5/ opening titles to semi-permanent design conferences . marx

a really beautiful opening title to a conference (?). cool. here are the behind the scenes.

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6/ greenland . tim kellner

tim + travel films = awesomeness.

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7/ the uses of envy . lara lee

bold, graphic animations with a bold narrative.

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8/ casey neistat, words of wisdom . jack harries

casey neistat's words of wisdom. what's better than that?

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have a great thursday, everyone.

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what's happened in the past 23 days

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(images by me + awesome video on windows/light/shadows that i adore)

i'd forgotten to write here. i'd forgotten i have this space.

i've been so busy with school and the given exhaustion that comes with it that i'd forgotten to write + share. i wanted to let you know that i am well. i feel good. i am happy amidst the chaos that is exams and tests. i don't know how it came to be this way because i certainly wasn't like this last year.  

i still care. i'm just more carefree. i've been thinking about it a lot: how happy i am now because i've cut this limit that has restrained me for so long. this tense, hard-on-myself mindset that kind of just itches at the back of your head. i don't know how i did it– how i learned to disregard it, but i don't think i've ever been so sunny during such a "stressful" time. 

other than that, life is good. i've been reevaluating my perspective on things as a whole, which is good i guess. i don't really know how to explain. i'm growing up? i feel like i've grown up already, but maybe this is just my last bit of maturity kicking in. 

casey neistat retweeted me. that was cool. 

we saw troye sivan last tuesday. less cool but still A+

i wrote a thing for missbish.

it's okay.

tgif

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a sonnet

By and by we find ourselves afraid
of losing that with which we contemplate:
our mind, our form, our soul, our self, our shade
So easily set free with time and fate
We are the gale that crashes to the rough
Distressed that our opus dissolves beneath
We are afraid our time is not enough
to breathe our breath through lustrous tempest teeth
From technicolor hues to black and white
Our minds do wilt as herbs do in the sun;
Why is that what we fear what we not bite,
For our mind's end we wish not know undone.
     We must exist as though we have none left
     If time is of the essence, then time bereft

a shakespearean sonnet (capitalized and everything!!) for my romantic poetry unit at school (+ a new-ish video that i thought kind of embodied the sound of the poem).

have a lovely thursday, everyone

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what i'm thankful for + VSCO

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i have a lot of things to be thankful for. i am thankful for my family, my friends, my home, my education, and my entire life thus far. i'm thankful for VSCO. 

how i got became involved with VSCO is too long of a story to even begin to explain; but, i think what i wanted to point out in this post is how far they've driven me into the art universe. (and for this, i am eternally grateful). 

the relationship that i have with the people at VSCO are ones that i hope will continue for a very long time. they are kind, intelligent, fashion-savvy, honest, and all-around brilliant people. they've opened so many doors for me in the photography world that i would never have the chance to open myself. i'm doing projects with other awesome companies, i'm helping design things, and i'm being introduced to all of these exceptional opportunities. i have no words to express my gratitude other than "thank you." VSCO helped me get here. their message as a company and as a community helped me form my own ideals and morals about life and creating art.

i am honored to be a part of such an inspiring body of creatives. to know that i have the support of all of these people is such an amazing feeling, and i often forget it. believe me when i say i am thankful for VSCO because i really mean it. truly.

have a wonderful, joyful, and extraordinary thanksgiving, everyone.

with love,

izzy + the raels

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found artists: rebecca martin + blah blah

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the bold + the brave.

for the past couple of weeks, i've been really swooning over vivid, minimalistic portraits and shots. i stumbled across rebecca martin's work and i really thought i'd share with other modern-art-fanatics. the simple shapes, the contrasting colors, the clarity of her work is so fascinating to look at and easy to admire. 

i've realized that good images (in my opinion) are not complicated. they are not overthought or complex, but distinctive and original. sometimes i have trouble applying these values to my work, and it's difficult to switch mindsets when i take photographs or create art, but i learn (with lots of time, unfortunately).

on a very irrelevant point,

i've also realized that i have less and time to write here. i find that i am struggling to find things to write about, what to say, what is interesting, what is not so interesting. i'm not saying i'm giving up here, but rather that i want to apologize for the not-so-in-depth words and not-so-foodie-centered posts. i know you all like those. so, sorry for not posting that many recipes. i'm busy. i'm busy all the time. i'm stressed. i'm stressed (most of) all the time. however, what's most important is that i am still in love with what i do. i am carving out precious time and brain cells to pursue it and propel myself further into art.

i love it and i hate it at the same time. i love it one day and want to write every day and want to paint and go out and explore and see sights and close my eyes and forget about everything. then i remember everything that i have to complete and finish and write, and all of those creativity color splatters kind of get painted over with thick, black acrylic. 

i guess i just wanted to blah blah blah away. i guess that's what this is for.

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hey there it's hal

hello izzy's fans, its Hal here - her super cool english friend from a little rural corner of an already little country - she has asked me to write a blog post for her which ofc i said i would because i love her work aaaand shes super rad. it won't be easy however sticking to her consistent format of inconsistent punctuation but i'll give it a shot. 

so yeah i'm an englishmen living and working in england amongst fields and trees and sheep etc etc which sounds pretty boring i know and.. well it is frequently uneventful but i find ways to pass the time. for example i post to instagram a lottt (@hal_ellis_davis) and because i'm super cool i usually have art and photography projects lined up to fill up my time. (to give you an idea just how cool, i am currently wearing a herschel cap backwards and drinking black tea and listening to red velvet so .. can you even deal).

i'm a freelance photographer but recently i've been keeping my commissions to a minimum as i have just started university *pokey out tongue emoji* which is very exciting - last week i made an post modernist installation of defaced frank lloyd write books and fabric vegetables - university is what you make of it right?!

anyway the maaaaain subject of my post is that i am finally leaving the confines of europe in two weeks, something i haven't actually done before! and i'm not just going anywhere i'm coming to N Y C !!! superrrr pumped of course. not just because new york and the steam system but also i am spending the whole day with miss rael and also also it's halloween! so below are some examples of what i hope to see and do whilst in the concrete jungle (where dreams are made of) with some inspo photos i've swooned over these past few years.

1. go up the rock. for obvious reasons. its pretty cool.

photo from google images

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2. shoot the might of the brooklyn bridge.

photo by chris ozer

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3. die inside the apartment by the line, or stake it out, i haven't decided which yet.

photos from google images

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4. catch an autumnal NYC sunset.

photo from gabriel flores

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5. grab some lattes or teas or smth at Happy Bones.

images via trotter mag / stefan karlstrom

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6. check out chinatown from the manhattan bridge. 

photo by chris ozer

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7. admire the west village in a decorated halloween-ey state.

photo from google image

and then number 8 was a photo of central park in autumn but it was taking years to upload and also my mum wanted to use the computer and also also it wasn't my favourite photo of the leaves anyway. ANYWAY i can't wait to get to new york and see izzy and see all this cool stuff and take photos of it.

peace out, Hal

x

when you're freaking stressed out

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/ illustrations that stress me out + by the great mouni feddag /

hey ho hi there. as you can probably tell from the title of this post, i'm very much stressed out. today marks the (second to) last day of our first full week to my second full year of high school. i've been in school for approximately 104.3 hours and i am already stressed. like woah, i need to take chill pill and just eat a bag of ice or something. 

and the worst part about it? i have no idea why the heck i'm stressed out. i feel like i'm tripping and falling over myself a hundred times. i feel like my brain is not grasping the information that it needs to grasp in order to succeed in the tenth grade. oh yeah, i even forgot that i'm sixteen now because i'm so stressed out. and on top of that: for some reason, i chose to do so many extracurriculars this year! hurrah! yeah! homework! stuff! writing! studying! stressing more because you know there's no such thing as too much stress!!

i hate to write stuff like this here, but i feel like its necessary to do so in my vigorous efforts to de-stress (current status: not really working yet). if you're a visual learner and need some visual representations of me right now you can go ahead and click here. if you want to see how i'm currently studying for english, read on.

writing about my problems here is a catharsis for me. classical tragedies were a social good because they caused an emotional cleansing among society. venting is my emotional cleansing; however, artistotle would not like the tragedy that is my life because it is way too long and not really a tragedy at all because i haven't died yet for my unintentional wrongs. the end.

don't stress out, kids. stay un-stressed.

your friend,

izzy

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