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A Final Design for the Road

Micey Leave a comment

Well, I can’t finish without a glimpse into my digital sketchbook. I have a cool concept for a Chinese water/lake ghost thrown from the Ming Dynasty to the mid 2000s. This was purely because I think Ming Dynasty Hanfu is pretty and I want to do something with it. Hanfu and its associated hairstyles and accessories can get complicated, which I had to work into my more streamlined schedule. I want to create details that evoke complicatedness without the design actually getting complicated. I’m still hammering it out.

Read more: A Final Design for the Road

My vision was for a fairy-like character. So that meant lots of feminine features and pastels.

I had to go through a lot of hair concepts before I found something I liked. I like the side-pony because I imagine it would look good flowing around in water.

Here are my attempts at hammering out the cloud collar, which is a fancy upper garment. I had settled on water lilies for the hair, but I didn’t want to repeat the motif for the collar. I want her design to say ‘lake’ instead of ‘lily’. I settled on a design that resembles the fog above lakes.

Here’s the final-ish iteration! I still have a monster form to think about, but I’m happy with how her human form turned out.

aSoSS 55 | Chasm

a-spider-on-state-street Leave a comment

It was so emotional, all the seniors were crying…

Mujo Café, 8:30PM, 4/18/2025

–and i have convinced myself that this is not for you,

the way death will frighten lovers,

the way summer mourns in june–

Has it really been two years? The time has flown by and It’s time for us to part ways. Below are some extra tidbits that I did not get the chance to incorporate. Spend your summer days lounging, doing silly things and laughing at yourself, and opening up to the great big world–and before you know it, dear reader, you and I will be together once more.

Take care~

I’m being mean but I don’t care, that pisses me off!

Union + S. University, 2:30PM, 2/10/2025

…I’m gonna make a bunch of Snapchat accounts and friend you and get your account banned and I said no, I’ve already had two accounts banned! And then he called me chopped.

Mosher-Jordan Dining Hall, 5:00PM, 3/12/2025

You are both such great conversationalists, you both love pop culture!

You’ve heard me say this before, I have the home court advantage at the Duderstadt Center. Anywhere else…

Audio Studio, 1:00PM, 3/28/2025

I think you should submit this to a workshop, like the bar’s pretty low…

Power Center, 6:00PM, 4/9/2025

The central part of Ann Arbor is where all the restaurants and shops are… there’s a really nice natural history museum which would be a really cool field trip, you know, the dinosaur.

Medical Science Research Building, 11:00AM, 4/11/2025

And if you don’t know what you’re doing, you might as well chase the bag while you’re at it.

Cardiovascular Center, 5:00PM, 4/11/2025

LOG_045_RIVER_GORGE

Traveler Leave a comment

The skiff drifts into the cool embrace of the canyon’s hands, a brief reprieve from the relentless light. Air knife-sharp, tongues cleaving to the roofs of mouths for want of a drink, dizzying heat rippling over the surface. The river a shining ribbon of deceit: here, the salinity is so high such that only halophiles can thrive in its waters. Open your mouth and feel the salt crystallize on your teeth; open your ears and hear nothing but wind whistling through winding walls worn down by time. Close your eyes and see the living-red heart-pulse of your eyelids, overexposed, reflecting sandstone and limestone and the rich red of iron, the pale shells of creatures long gone ground into dust.

Capturing Campus: A Dandelion Achievement 

EKArts Leave a comment

A Dandelion Achievement 

I remind you what the dandelions told me:

don’t be happy, they said

be content instead 

why smile when flatline lips looks so good on you

when other hearts shudder and thud

yours is still

but I still hear you begging

better make me, make me better, medicate me

make it last

time will scar me 

and the sun only shines half a day

it’s best to try

try to be happy

to smile through it all

to relish in hunger 

to moan as you loath

to indulge in the terror

the bleeding and belting

I remind you 

to water them

but tell you they are weeds

Two Men Arrive in a Village

Micey Leave a comment

Earlier this semester, I did some mockup picture book pages of a hypothetical adaptation of Zadie Smith’s “Two Men Arrive in a Village.” I figured since the story already reads as a folktale, why not go the way of so many folktales, and adapt it into a children’s book? I also took inspiration from Robert Mosse’s pictures that were paired with the story.

Read more: Two Men Arrive in a Village

Here are my preliminary sketches. I was going for a dreamlike, candyland quality, which makes it all the more impactful when war crimes start happening.

aSoSS 54 | Shorthand

a-spider-on-state-street Leave a comment

I’ve got sixteen thousand books, alphabetized to the second letter… upstairs, downstairs, all around the house. Whenever a kid moves out, L-M-N-O-P moves in!

Ann Arbor Thrift Shop, 12:00PM, 3/20/2025

after Mark Dunn, no AI–or perhaps all AI–

writing with limits is intrinsically artificial. it is a rapid trial, a radical thrill. it gnarls a typist’s script and mars a stylist’s paint. it is an infant child’s Christmas gift, a first kiss, a last wish. addicting—is it?

a man’s brain is marginally plastic, and static rigidity will stymy skill. insipid filth brings implicit bliss—this is a fact that all “first-drafts” will highlight. a rising military captain, lacking instinct, will miss critical tactics; an aspiring artist, lacking clarity, will stain fancy paintings. war, art, and writing: a barbaric trinity that pairs familiar fabrics with variant stitching. anticipating a lack in standard instills faith in a man’s final ability, balancing titanic affairs as if by magic.

They can’t call it KFC…

Why not? It’s Korean fried chicken!

Stamps Auditorium, 12:30PM, 4/11/2025

the recipe book is scrawled in shorthand, and you have left me to decipher it. a witches’ brew, a distortion of the highest order: in the bowl i mince garlic and seashells, add sugar to taste, substitute mint for jalapeño. a slap–to bring out the aroma, tainted or otherwise–and i don’t ask where you’ve learned it. a flutter of resistance: you tilt your head in the same way your mother does, did you know that? a scribble that asks for a constellation of lemon and thyme, no bigger than a pinch, no stronger than a drop. a signature, a token of unrequited silence, a butterfly beating its wings across the backdrop of the night.

What’s a DILF? It says that on the shirt over there.

Don’t worry about it.

Michigan Union, 2:30PM, 4/18/2025

the present tense is a disaster of unprecedented magnitude. whether it is labeled a tragedy or a comedy lies in the aftermath: what has ever been borne out of company except misery? we are pulling the weeds and uprooting the corners of the house, a currency assigned to choice. the spiderwebs have long vacated; the ones that escaped are the first to be buried away from their ancestors. the neighbors are identified by the dogs that they walk–who is the one that is truly leashed?