Talking with Kids: Nelsen Middle School

I went back to school last Friday. Sort of.

I had the privilege of hanging out and having some real talk with the fabulous students at Nelsen Middle School in Renton. It was my second time speaking with these kids– and it was a blast, as always. We talked fandom, graphic design, and school bullies. All of my favorite things.

Here's some of what I said:

Make art everyday.

Collaborate with friends.

Outshine your bullies.

Use the internet in a positive way.

Show love to other people.

I'm always a little nervous to speak with tweenagers. They're a tough group. Totally smart and savvy, but SO YOUNG! I think adults don't give young kids enough credit. They may be awkward (at least, I was at 12), but they're capable of so much– all you have to do is give them a good reason to care.

Just look at Tavi Gevinson and Malala Yousafzai (to name just a couple)!

Basically, I love these kids and I'm excited that they are our future.

PEACE!

Typography Redux

The downside of traditional methods in design classes? No computers for a quarter and a half. I decided to revive a few old projects from my first typography course, which were originally limited to gouache on white paper. Here's the first!

As always, there's more work at www.sarahhiraki.com

Pioneer Square: Dipdychs

Three diptychs of the wildlife at Pioneer Square.
Larger versions here, on Flickr.

Gasworks at Sunset

I snapped these surreal images during sunset at Gasworks Park. I will be presenting one (I haven't decided which) to my photo class tomorrow for a discussion of composition.

Wish me luck! and you can view the rest of them here.

Good night!

Printmaking final

I produce a lot of work based on my experiences with ex-boyfriends. I'm a 20 year old lady, and the logic behind it makes sense to me. I believe in only representing the things you know best through art, so I depict a lot of boys, foods, and cute animals. Go figure.

I also drew inspiration from the stain paintings of abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler. I love art history and I wanted these prints to have a wet, used, stained feeling, while also being light and ephemeral like my memories of his room, so I pooled diluted pigments on the plates and allowed the press to take the water to different places-- hence the pigment bleed outside of the borders.

More detailed images are posted to my flickr

My Mother Was a Fox, My Father Was a Rabbit

This was my final project for Digital Imaging at Seattle U. I began this project with my future children in mind, they will be at least a quarter Japanese, a quarter Caucasian, and half something else that is equally wonderful. The only problem being that there aren't a lot of children's books or tv shows that highlight multi-ethnic families. I love my family, and I'm very happy with this project. Don't tell my parents-- but for the next gift-giving holiday, I'm going to print a few copies on blurb.

You can flip through the book in its entirety on my flickr.

EDIT: I got a hundred percent on this.