JUNE SEVENTEENTH

Just a little mid-June mood board to pop in and say hello. Digging the contrast of vibrant and cool colors; vibrant sun and cool waters. (I haven't actually been to a pool all summer.) Also loving script type and spontaneous lettering, as always. Stay cool, friends.


sources: [Pool artwork] [Atmosphere print] [Que será script]

HAVE SOME CRAIC

Alas, cheers to the Ireland post.

This spring break was, without a doubt, the best (last) one a college senior could ever imagine in his/her wildest, greenest dreams. Coming from the girl who usually just goes home to rest and hang out with her cats for the break I suppose that's not saying much. But still, who hops on a plane to cross the Atlantic for twelve days in the middle of the semester? This girl, along with 17 other graphic designers eager for an adventure.

It didn't hit me until mid-flight to Dublin. After possibly the craziest week yet of the semester, with critiques, meetings, deadlines, and a suitcase to pack, going to Ireland was a bit surreal. And to be honest, even being there was surreal. It was a trip so anticipated that it had not ever felt real, until I was cramped up in the middle seat of the middle row of a seven-hour flight, obviously not sleeping, 33,000 feet up in the air with the setting sun wondering what on earth I was doing. I was on my way—going somewhere new, seeking to be entertained, refreshed, and most of all, inspired.

The flight was really not all that bad with the very nice but very chatty Irish man named Kirren who was seated next to me on the plane. He told me about the polymer-engineering-whatever in the world he does for a living and then we talked about, of all things, sports. I learned all about gaelic football and rugby and decided that those several hours stuck in that seat were well spent because when else am I going to voluntarily engage in a conversation about engineering and sports?

In Ireland we got immediately onto a bus from the plane to head out to the west coast, where we were staying in a little town called Ballyvaughan, but I can't tell you much about that bus ride seeing as essentially the only scenery I saw was the back of my eyelids as I was faceplant-asleep on the adjoining seat. I did catch a glimpse of a casual castle on the way, something I found out is pretty common on drives through the Irish countryside (which definitely spoils one who has to return to America, land of the McDonalds billboards and side of the road litter.)

Our bus driver for this first part of the trip was Brian, and Brian is one of my favorite humans on this planet. He wears an Auburn sweatshirt, tells us stories and sings songs while we ride, and is the most skilled pun master I've ever met. For example:

"We have a lot of limestone here in the Burren. But we tend to take it for granite..." - Brian

We learned several Irish phrases from him as well, first and foremost being the term "craic." Not the narcotic, this kind of "craic" is "a good time"—so if you say, "we're just here for the craic," we're just here for the fun. To sum it all up.

Ireland is actually a fairy tale, with double rainbows and fairy forts. Our time on the coast was, with no better term to use, magical. We got all settled into our cozy cottages right by the bay, learned how to live without central heating and my cottage specifically learned how to live without a functioning shower for the first couple of days until we finally solved the mystery of the inconspicuous pulley in the hallway actually serving the purpose of activating the shower head. Who knew? We spent our nights at the local pubs, eating "pub grub" and stealing wifi, definitely with a beer or whiskey in hand. My personal favorite joint was a whiskey bar no bigger than my bedroom where I had the smoothest glass of pure Irish whiskey ever imaginable and became convinced that there is a whiskey bar in Heaven.

 

 

We got oriented at the Burren College of Art, where we met Finbar the rooster and got to meet up with our fellow people from the Industrial Design program at Auburn who are currently abroad for the semester, doing legit stuff like building garden sheds and designing mobile plant beds. We got to know Mary, the co-founder of the College, who shared a lot of insight about Irish society and specifically art and design with us. She explained that Ireland is not a hurried place, and that there is no definitive word for "no" in the Irish language. They are all about time, space, and inspiration, which we got to see when we explored their studio spaces and talked to some of the students who were there getting their Masters or studying abroad. We even got a small assignment and got to collaborate to design a logo for the College's upcoming 20th anniversary, which was absolutely nuts because we had two hours to do them and then present them. Coming from a professional program we are definitely used to conceptualizing and producing quality work rather quickly, but two hours is definitely the fastest time frame I've ever had to design a logo. I mean, last semester I once spent three weeks refining a logo. It was a real eye-opener to the process we go through and where we can cut back.

The word "Burren" comes from an Irish word "Boíreann" meaning a rocky place. Evidently artists and creatives have always been "magnetically drawn" to the Burren, which completely makes sense after truly experiencing the sheer natural beauty and history of the place. One day after being at the College a small group of us decided to hike out to a castle we had seen driving from the Cliffs of Moher the day before. We set out through back roads and cow pastures and after a longer walk than anticipated ended up on the shore with the ruins of this beautiful castle, named Gleninagh. We bypassed sheep, cattle, horses, and upon arrival took it all in during the most golden hour of the day. It was perfect.

 

 

In Ballyvaughan, at the local pub/lodge, we learned how to Irish step dance, and I met an old man with Parkinson's Disease who sits there every night and draws with colored pencils. Of all places in the world he knows of Silky O'Sullivans on Beale Street, which kind of blew my mind. It really is a small world. Our last night there we had a three-course dinner with the administrators from the Burren College and from Auburn who had come along on the trip and got to wrap up the evening with actual fairy tales from a bearded Irish storyteller. Fairies in Irish folklore are not cute little winged creatures but actually malicious beings with strange powers. It's  almost like our version of ghost stories around a campfire; fairy stories around a strong cup of Irish coffee.

The next day we "tidied up" and departed one of the most beautiful places all of us will forever hold in our hearts. Leaving Ballyvaughan, and our cottages, and Brian, and the college was hard, but Dublin awaits.

Before leaving the Burren we visited Corcomroe Abbey, a 13th century monastery literally out in the middle of nowhere, and a small, family-owned chocolatier shop. Laura and I climbed up a huge hill at Corcomroe to get a breathtaking view of the abbey and the peaceful surroundings. It was a great last little piece of the Burren to take in.

We also stopped in Galway for exactly one hour before hopping on our train to Dublin, just enough time to grab a bite to eat and sing a little "Galway Girl" in our heads. Not going to lie, everyone was pretty cranky on that train, tired and stressed and uncomfortably hot in all our layers, but little did we know the whirlwind that was ahead of us.

 

And Dublin can be described as nothing else. A whirlwind. Our arrival was a serious reality check, going from cozy, chill cottage life to bunking in a hostel in a bustling city. We stayed at Kinlay House, in the city's center, and aside from no hot water to speak of and a very rare encounter with wifi it was great. We were in Dublin for an entire week, so rather than detail every single day's adventures I'll just hit some of the highlights:

• Visiting Trinity College. It was like stepping onto a 400-year-old movie set. We got to walk through the Long Room library, (at that point the movie set seemed more like Hogwarts), which is the largest library in Ireland and definitely the largest amount of books I've ever seen. I can't even fathom the hours it would take to even make a dent reading through that place. You know that feeling you get when you smell that old book smell and can physically see all of the knowledge available to you? I'm talking five million printed books. And tell me the magic of print is dead.

 

• Seeing the Book of Kells. If you don't know what the Book of Kells is, it is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book, arguably Ireland's finest national treasure and arguably the most elaborate and intricate work of religious art ever created. I distinctly remember studying this in Art History, which is a shocker considering with three mandatory art history courses and countless slides to memorize I pushed a lot of it out of my memory. But I remember we spent an entire day once talking about one page of this masterpiece. I may have overlooked some other facts such as it's actually multiple volumes that surprised me upon seeing it in person, but looking at the two pages they had on display that day was a real sentimental moment for me. You just don't get how awe-inspiring this stuff really is until you get out of the dark classroom powerpoint and get to see the real deal.

• Going to the National Print Museum. The National Print Museum in Dublin "collects, documents, preserves, exhibits, interprets and makes accessible the material evidence of the printing craft and fosters associated skills of the craft in Ireland." We got a tour of how all the old printing machines actually work, and got to get our hands dirty and print a few things ourselves. The lady even appropriately dubbed us as "very fussy graphic designers" so the afternoon was definitely a success. There is simply no match for the handmade, y'all. None.

• Dinner and a show. After a three course dinner an Irish folk band played on stage, everything from Galway Girl to our song requests of Van Halen and Beyoncé. Ok maybe they didn't actually play the last two but instead publicly embarrassed our professor, whose name we put on the song request sheet because that joke's always funny. Then some dancers came up in an array of crazy outfits and did a little crazy Celtic step-dancing. 

• Exploring and getting lost. One free morning Laura and I hit Butler's Chocolate for a sugar coma of a breakfast and then proceeded to simultaneously get incredibly lost but also find a lot of cool shops, and maybe we spontaneously got makeovers too. We didn't have a map or any wifi. Asking locals for the most (probably) obvious directions: that's the best way to get around.

• Touring the Guinness Storehouse. "There's poetry in a pint of Guinness." After six floors of historical and logistical information we all enjoyed a complimentary pint in the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor, overlooking a 360 view of the entire city of Dublin. Cheers.

• Making best friends with a couple of 18-year-old Irish girls in a club and learning all kinds of things about Irish behavior. They were just as fascinated with us being Americans as we were with their talent of walking down cobblestone streets in 5-inch heels.

• Walking through St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedrals. What do you even say about huge, magnificent cathedrals? Christ Church was directly across the street from our hostel and felt like a different world inside. The light was absolutely beautiful as was the peace prayer service they offered while we were there.

• The fact that Ireland is shaped like a teddy bear. I don't know. 

• Dinner conversations with professors and classmates where grades are off topic and you're just really getting to know each other outside of typeface tendencies and projects.

• Visiting Newgrange, a 5,000 year old ancient passage tomb, and the Hills of Tara. I am not sure if I've ever been to any architectural site that dates older than the Stone Age (doubt it) but it was pretty mind-blowing to think about. It was freezing and blustery on the hills, but still unbelievable how far you could see on every side. Tara is also home to the tiniest, oldest, best bookstore I have ever been to, where I found a little red book about handwriting shoved into a cranny of the packed shelves. The book dates back to the early 1900s and the precious old man who sold it to me could tell just from the binding of all the books in there when they were published. He said, "you can tell how affluent the world was by the way they bound books."

• St. Patrick's Day. What do I say other than that we were in the most packed, craziest place a human being could possibly be to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? We stood in the crowd right outside our hostel to watch the parade and made sure to cheer Bodda Getta and War Eagle extra loud when LSU's band of all people walked by.

• Having a brief stint of warm showers in the hostel after all the St. Patrick's Day celebrators left town.

• Eating pizza with drunken Irish strangers doing their best impersonations of Honey Boo Boo for us and instructing us how to deal with the next day.

• Hiking around the Wicklow Mountains, among monasteries, cold wind, and rainbows; eating a picnic lunch by the lake. Professor Finkel photobombing every single one of my selfies.

• Going to the National Gallery and experiencing Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Titian, and Velázquez works, just to name a few.

• Eating a honeycomb ice cream cone from Murphy's. Good luck beating that, any ice cream ever.

• Discovering that the musician playing at the restaurant we ate on our last night has been to Opelika, Alabama, and "loves it."

 

• Going to a bar with no name but is only identifiable by a sign with a snail on it hanging over the door to go upstairs.

All in all, as with everywhere life's ever taken me, Ireland changed me. I feel like my head and heart have been spinning ever since we got back. Caught in a whirlwind of beautiful places and experiences, we had to come back and jump straight back into project deadlines, catching up on sleep, work, and class. I'm still processing things; definitely still missing the peace and stillness of the countryside. It's been a hard week adjusting back to life in Auburn, but my eyes are now a bit more open to this beautiful world.

You can go somewhere to see the sights, or you can go somewhere to have some craic.