Johanna Mehl's Blog

Zine cover

2008-11-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

Here is my zine cover! The cover depicts the imaginary scene of the landfill taking over the world! I wanted the cover to look almost godzillaesc. My zine is about recycling and primarily reusing!

Illustrator Collage

2008-10-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

Here's my collage! I put together my favorite things that I have done in Illustrator so far. Plus I added a couple pictures that I live traced and added hints of color to. The man from China with lesions on his neck is in there. Then the city is in the background with a black sky representing air pollution. The fountain has a beautiful girl but then the water below her is green, representing water pollution. Then, on top are two of my logos both are of trash cans. This collage pretty much represents the major types of pollution and the causes of them.

assignment #8!

2008-10-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

I found this article called Home, Sick, Home by Melissa Hendricks. It has awesome illustrations done by Melissa Grimes. The article is about how our home and the indoors in general are some of the most polluted places we can be. A point that Hendricks brings up is that every time we enter our homes we bring in the toxins from outside and then the toxins stay closed up inside our homes. The article is divided up in to sections about different pollutants. A few of the sections are: Formaldehyde, Chloroform, Lead and Pesticides. Hendricks talks about all the different pollutants in our homes. Most you would never even think of!
Below is one of the illustrations from the article!

Here is a picture from National Geographic of a man in China who has neck lesions from the toxins that pollute the air:

Here's my live traced version:

assignment #7

2008-10-23T19:15:00.000-07:00

So, here's assignment #7. I drew a picture of a trash can and scanned it on to the computer. Then I traced it with the pen tool and put color in on it. I also used a gradient in order to try and make the trash can look like a 3-D object.

2008-10-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

So, here are all of my logos. Four are just icons and the other four are all type logos. The first one is one of my icon ones. It is of a sewer pipe with goopy pollution coming out. The goop is supposed to form the letters in trash. I don't know that I was so successful with that. This logo represents how there's so much pollution in our water. The logo to the right is one of my type logos. The words "trashculture" form a trash can. I had the words "trash culture" form the trash can because trash goes in a trash can and I thought that they went well together. The next two type logos both work with the words "trash culture". The first one has the words verically down a squiggly line. The words coming down a squiggly line represent trash falling out of nowhere. The logo next to it has the letters all squished together and I made them so that they were all tall and skinny. This represents how trash can take up so much room. My next icon is of the world with a trash can in the center. The pieces around the world represent trash. This icon shows how trash is all over and how it's a world wide problem. The icon to the right is a trash can with trash going into it. The icon below shows the world with pollution taking it over. The black smug is taking over the world. My last text logo has the word trash repeated in a circle. This shows how trash is an endless circle. There is always trash, no matter where you go. Trash is never ending! Oh no!

Pollution is in the Air

2008-09-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

Above are all of my original images that used to create my final project. The first image is of a pipe spilling pollution out into the open. The next image is a CD cover. I used this CD cover because I like how frightened the people on the cover are. The third image is of a frightened couple. The image of the city is a photo I took from the top of the stairs in front of the art museum. Finally, the last image is of a woman floating in the water. The artist of this image is Toni Frissell.

The image below is my final project. I wanted my final product to show the message that pollution is getting worse and worse. I thought the city in the background would be a good idea because the air pollution in big cities such as Philadelphia is getting worse because of all the factories and cars in the area. Along the bottom I put frightened people because everyone should be frightened of the future of the world if the pollution level keeps rising. The pollution coming from the corners of the image represents water pollution and the enormous amount of it. I hope this final image brings across a clear message.

2008-09-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

this is my tulips

2008-09-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

The first image on the left is my original image, next is the one image that I slightly corrected to make it look prettier and last is my photo that I totally changed in order to bring across some sort of emotion having to do with my topic.

The last photo (the one I changed the most) represents to me how one day the sky will permanently be a shade of green and gray because of pollution. Also, this picture shows what is normally a very beautiful scene including artwork, but because of pollution the art has become dark and has lost its original shine.

showering in cigs

2008-09-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

This picture of a girl in a shower of cigarettes represents how thrown out cigarettes make up so much of the trash found on the ground. In some places special trash cans for cigs can be found and they should be taken advantage of. I think most people just dismiss cigarette butts as being trash. But just like any other type of trash they are not good for the environment and they don't break down easily. If cigarette smokers don't start throwing away their butts we might all be showering in cigarette butts.

I put the girl in a new setting. I put her in a park with a bird. This shows how all the butts are in the way of wildlife. If cigarettes are not healthy for humans then they definitely not healthy for animals either.

2008-09-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

These are my first photos for my topic on trash! Many folks have recycling bins out in front of their houses. This is a good sign! I am going to find out who picks up these recyclables and where they go to. Another good sign are the trashcans. Some of them have phrases on them that encourage throwing your trash in the trashcan instead of on the ground. Also, next to many trash cans are recycling cans. I would also like to find out who picks up the recycling that is on the streets next to the trash cans.

Smoking is such a bad habit, but what makes it even worse is that it is so bad for the environment and people throw them all over! People just don't think of throwing their cigarette on the ground as littering.
I saw this bench with newspaper all over it. I figure someone was not reading it, but reusing it for their bed.

My topic

2008-09-09T17:11:00.000-07:00

For my topic I am going to research the culture of trash. I am going to take pictures of how different people treat trash. I am greatly interested in recycling, I want to document what people do with their trash/recyclables. I want to research what people throw away and where they throw it away. I will document my progress through photos.

2008-09-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

I don't have any classes on Thursdays, so I chose to document last Thursday. Thursday is not exactly a normal day because I don't have any classes. Last Thursday was pretty uneventful. I figure my Thursdays will turn into homework days and may end up being one of my busiest days. Everything I don't get done at the beginning of the week will end up being a priority for Thursday.
Anyway, Thursday started out with Cheerios, I stole a bunch of the little boxes from the cafeteria. Cheerios are always a good snack to have on hand.

It was a little awkward trying to take a picture of myself brushing my teeth, but I obviously managed.
I can take long showers on Thursdays because everyone else is in class.
I hate when I actually have time to pick out my outfit because then it takes me forever. Every other day of the week I wake up late and end up in a rush, so there is no time to be picky about what I wear. Although sometimes I do like having time to pick out my outfit because I don't mind looking cute every once in awhile!
I only put makeup on when I'm in the mood, and I just so happened to be in the mood last Thursday.
Life drawing homework consisted of drawing the skeleton in the library from the front, back and side views.
I love doing my homework in the park! It's been so beautiful outside lately and I'm always so cold in the school.
While I was in the park this pigeon kept staring at me.
Dinner did not look so delicious so I made myself a toasted sandwich, which is starting to become more of a usual. They always have awesome desserts though! And as you can see I was stocking up on more Cheerio boxes!
Marie and I walked to Rittenhouse (one of our new favorite hangout spots).
Then it was hangout time in Marie's room and the day was over!

first few days at Moore

2008-08-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

Moore so far is even better than I expected. The first week was orientation, which of course was a bit cheesy but also a bit fun. Yesterday was convocation. The orientation staff had a cute parade and there was a band playing. I loved all of it, except for the speeches. Today is my first day of classes, so far I've only had computer applications....which is why I'm writing this blog. I've never written a blog before, but I'm excited for this one.

I really miss Lawrence but it's been fun exploring Philly. It's great to finally LIVE in a big city.
I'm excited to see what Moore has in store for me!