FIFA Art

Soccer is the only sport I can stand to actually watch on TV.. and actually get loud and yell at the screen. It must be from watching all those soccer games in in the living room with my dad while growing up in the Ivory Coast, where people are crazy for soccer!


It's been four years since I wore my bright orange Ivory Coast soccer jersey to watch the national team called the Elephants, battle it out at the World Cup. I was lucky enough to be asked to be the artist to represent the Ivory Coast in creative agency Uniform.net's World Cup Challenge; an online match-up of 32 artists and graphic designers from each of the countries playing in the World Cup.

After each World Cup match, the designer is expected to create a piece of work within a 90 minute time frame and supply it within 24 hours of the game, with both competing pieces of artwork presented side by side on 326490.com. Over 64 matches the collected images will provide a unique creative expression of the World Cup muse. 

What a great idea! All of the artwork created will be sold in limited edition prints and collected into a book to sell for charity. 

Here are the pieces I created for the 326490 challenge:

Game 1:
Triumph! The Elephants are back! They won their first game 2-1, playing against Japan.
YES YES YESSSS!!! WE'RE IN IT!! GLORIOUS!!

Game 2:
The Elephants lost 2-1 against Colombia. Kicked up a lot of dirt and energy, though.
Sadly, the younger brother of two of the team's players passed away hours after the game. Very sad day.

Game 3:
So close to moving onto the second round of games! The score was 1-1 against Greece until literally the very last minute, when a foul was called on one of the Ivorian players and Greece was allowed a penalty kick which won them the game.
SO NOT FAIR!!!! The elephants were sluggish and stunned.
WE COULD HAVE HAD IT!

After the end of this game, I was stunned into silence. (Sigh) we totally almost had it. 
I'm still wearing my jersey to sleep in solidarity. I'll put it away in July until four years from now when the nest World Cup starts up again. Fingers crossed for better luck for the Elephants.  

You can take a look at the ongoing creative matches here: http://326490.com/
There is some great graphic design going on! 

Catastrophe! It's Raining in My Office (AGAIN)

A couple of weeks ago, on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning (perfect weather for a wedding, which I was headed to) I woke up to the drip, drip, drip sound of water leaking onto my computer desk. Grrreeeeaaaat! 

Freak-out moment #1: Half-asleep, in tears and more than totally panicked, I proceeded to unplug and move my computer, keyboard, mouse, speakers, brand new printer/scanner/photocopier, lamp, bulletin board, office chair and piles of paper from my desk and place buckets under the leaks...

Unfortunately, this has happened every spring during the four and a half years I've lived in my apartment. This is the worst it has ever been. I live on the ground floor, but every time we have a heavy rain or ice and snow melting on the roof, I have to move all my computer equipment out of that room. There is apparently a drainage pipe from the roof which empties out into the alleyway, but overflows at the point where the pipe enters the building between the ground floor and second floor causes drama in my life.

There is water in the walls, in the ceiling, in places where it shouldn't be. Rusty rainwater, at that.

Not cute.

... threatening water bubble in the ceiling ...

... buckets ...

... bucket ...

Well I after I made sure everything was out of the room and contacted the landlord, I had to get the heck out of there to calm down. I packed an overnight bag and headed to my parents' house, which is halfway between my place and the wedding venue I was headed to that day. (Mom and Dad are always there to save the day!)

The wedding was gorgeous: outdoor ceremony on a lush green golf course... but I had to leave the reception early when I got word that no one had come to my apartment yet to check on the leaks and the roof and the drainage pipe... so I rush back home to find that three out of the five buckets I had placed under the leaks in the morning were overflowing....

Freak-out moment #2: kick my heels off, tie my long black cardigan on backwards over my dress and walk the buckets, one by one, into the bathroom to empty them into the tub, spilling plenty of rusty water in the hallway. I didn't make it back to the reception. Got a pep talk and hugs from my cousins (thanks, Jen and Julie!) and went to (try to) sleep at Mom and Dad's.

... water dripping in the hallway ...

... the patched up crack in the bathroom getting wet ...

I let my computer air out for about ten days before trying to turn it back on... praying it would be OK.

... And my computer still works! Hurraaayy!! I haven't tried the scanner yet though, but the printer function works. 

The following Monday at 5:17 am, I was awoken to a loud BANG! sound in the bathroom.

Freak-out moment #3: I have no words.

SO NOT CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!

That patch job holding the ceiling together where it was cracked gave way. Whhyyyyyy meeeeee?

This is after the ceiling debris in the tub was cleared and the shower curtain rod screwed back into the ceiling. Can you make out the blue sponge up in the hole? There was also a paintbrush that came down with the debris... so weird.


I thank my lucky stars that no artwork got wet- I would have absolutely had a nervous breakdown. There is artwork EVERYWHERE in my apartment; my own and art that I've purchased. I had illustrations for two books drying in the hallway: thankfully, not the hallway walls that got wet.

Suffice it to say: I now refuse to now use that Evil Rainy Season Catastrophe room, I've had to slowly re-configure my work spaces. I now have my computer in the room where I keep paint materials and let paintings dry, but had to move the internet modem and get wireless internet so that I actually check emails and do research on my computer.

             






That room is too small to fit my huge printer, so thanks to Geek Squad (and 50 bucks) I can now print wirelessly to the other room, where I have my drawing desk.

So much drama... I'm attending another wedding out of town, this time an hour away this weekend. Let's hope I don't come home to Freak-out #4.