My Art

Green Tomato Chutney

| randie.hov

Near the end of fall, my friends Meredith and Hardeep showed me how to prepare and can green tomato chutney. Over the course of a day, we prepped, boiled, and heat-sealed enough chutney to send each of us home with over 20 jars apiece!

This chutney is special because all of the green tomatoes were harvested from the UMD Community Learning Garden, which Meredith manages. Hardeep and I were regular volunteers this summer. We had at least 100 green tomatoes remaining at the end of the summer and they all went into this recipe, along with locally-grown apples purchased from the Olney Farmers & Artists Market.

Everything else came from the Burtonsville Giant. Sorry.

Because the tiny jars are so giftable, I decided to design a Christmas-themed label. A 2″ diameter sticker nests perfectly on a standard-sized Ball jar lid, so I took advantage of Sticker Mule’s 10 stickers for $9 deal.

round-chutney-sticker

And then, my super-Seinfeld-fan-friend Hardeep requested a Festivus sticker. It seemed apropos. Hardeep requested a square 2×2″ design so that he could print at home and add in a custom title. He is a regular hot sauce connoisseur and has a need to label his many varieties of homemade hot sauce.

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The way we cooked, canned, designed, and labeled together feels so rewarding! Thank you, Meredith and Hardeep for sharing your canning expertise and design feedback with me. Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus to all!

 

“Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way…”

-Frank Costanza, The Origins of Festivus

Doge Pumpkin

| randie.hov

Ah, pumpkin carving. My favorite way to welcome the beautiful changing leaves, weird brown-gray sky colors, and “cold humidity” that signify the arrival of autumn in Maryland.

This year’s pumpkin, much like last year’s poop emoji Christmas ornament, was inspired by a fun post from Buzzfeed: 18 Insanely Clever Pop Culture Stencils To Up Your Pumpkin Carving Game. Indeed I did “up my pumpkin carving game,” using a pattern of Doge from the list.

doge-pumpkin-carving-randie-2016
So Halloween. Very boo.

 

I am so happy with how this turned out! I think doge would be proud. What pumpkin design are you carving this Halloween?

 

UMD Community Learning Garden Banner

| randie.hov

Check out our crew in front of the fancy new UMD Community Learning Garden banner! We are but a few of many burgeoning gardeners who meet at 4 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays to learn about sustainable food production and help tend the raised beds and terraced plots.

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At the official hoisting of the garden banner last Monday. I ended up in the middle of the photo. This is awesome.

Sustainable Ag advisor Meredith Epstein (middle, in teal) manages the garden and leads the work hours. When I started working with Meredith at the Institute of Applied Agriculture, the garden quickly became one of my favorite spots on campus. This summer I grew soybeans, pole beans, green peppers, tomatoes, kale, thyme, sage, and basil in my garden plot.

I was excited when Meredith asked me to design a 12×4′ banner for the garden. I had previously made a sticker design for the garden club, so I took this as an opportunity to build consistent branding by pairing the same colors and fonts with the provided terp/carrot logo.

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At 12′ wide by 4′ tall, if you can’t see the banner to find the garden I feel bad for you.

The UMD Community Learning Garden is one of four campus gardens at the University of Maryland, College Park. Formerly called the Public Health Garden, it is nestled between the School of Public Health and the Eppley Recreation Center. You should definitely follow on Instagram.

Baltimore Rent-A-Tour

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| randie.hov

I just bought tickets to my second Baltimore Rent-A-Tour experience, for this coming Sunday. The last one, a Christmas lights tour, was magical. Our group met at happy hour and then a charter bus drove us through the city while our tour guide, Chris, pointed out various historic sites.

This time it will be another tipsy tour, but on the water. We’re going to take a Water Taxi and Chris is going to narrate the pub-related origin of our National Anthem, describe the Baltimore-based forerunner of the modern sports bar, and tell us the history behind one source of many of my college hangovers, National Bohemian beer.

Looking forward to my second tipsy tour reminds me of a project I did for fun when I used to work with my friend (and Chris’ girlfriend), Jen. In the storage closet on Jen’s floor there was a pin maker that I always coveted but never got to use (it would have halted productivity). After having so much fun on the Christmas tour, I created these pin designs in Illustrator.

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If you are in the city, definitely check out Baltimore Rent-A-Tour! Unless you hate history. Or fun. Or both. Then we don’t want you.

 

 

 

I Went Viral

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| randie.hov

Last fall, my co-worker Larisa Cioaca presented me with some statistics about Maryland agriculture and a request to create an infographic. Larisa is the Agricultural Business Management lecturer and advisor at the Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA), where I am the Student Services Coordinator and Graphic Designer.

The project was shelved for a little while, but I eventually put it together and posted it on the IAA Facebook page last Friday at 10:00 a.m.

As of right now (11:00 a.m. on Sunday) it has 40 likes and 84 shares. Whaaat? Why wasn’t there this much hype about my Open House post?

I credit Meredith Epstein, lecturer and advisor of the Sustainable Agriculture course of study at the IAA, with the idea of drawing male AND female farmers in the “350,000 Marylanders” block. Because: equality.

I feel so affirmed by my newfound ag peers. I look forward to creating the next infographic for the IAA, Alternative Agriculture in Maryland.

Please feel free to download the infographic from the IAA website for printing and posting in classrooms.

**Update: We are now up to 121 shares! Whaaat?

iaa-agriculture-in-maryland

 

 

All I Want for Christmas is Poo

poop-emoji-ornament
| randie.hov

When I saw the Buzzfeed article 6 Easy Holiday Gifts You Can Give Everyone in Your Squad, I knew that I must realize my dream of creating poop emoji Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately I didn’t see this article until December 22nd, so I made them the Wednesday after Christmas. Womp womp.

Additionally, I somehow managed to delay the posting of this until February. Also womp.

However, because I spent most of an afternoon purposely turning Sculpey and glitter into twinkly poops, I feel that I now can share some helpful photos with you should you choose to embark on the same adventure. Click the photos to enlarge.

The instructions showed eyes and smiles made out of white Sculpey. Instead, I decided to paint them on. I did this prior to applying the adhesive and glitter.
Don’t waste $8 on Martha Stewart glitter. Glitter is glitter.
Spray with several light coats of adhesive. Then lightly sprinkle the glitter on and allow the adhesive time to set. Follow with clear coat after the adhesive is dry. Complete these steps outdoors or in a well-ventilated area. See the next photo for more spray adhesive tips.
When you use spray adhesive, it is better to hold the can away and do a few light coats than to aim the can directly at the poop.
Twinkly poops.
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Maybe next Christmas.

USG Recruitment Folder

Universities-at-Shady-Grove
| randie.hov

USG-RecruitmentMy biggest design project of the Fall semester at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) was definitely our new recruitment folder. Our marketing team needed to cram as much information into this piece as possible, since USG is a unique campus and also fairly new. As a result, a lot of locals don’t realize that they can earn a bachelor’s degree without leaving Montgomery County. Hopefully they will now!

Here is my shameless plug of the day: USG offers programs from nine Maryland public universities on one campus. The list of schools includes:

• Bowie State University
• Salisbury University
• Towson University
• University of Baltimore
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
• UMBC
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
• UMUC

Want to become an Registered Nurse or Pharmacist without driving to Baltimore for class every day? Boom, we have it. Want to major in Hospitality and Tourism Management without relocating to the Eastern Shore? We have that too. There is no such thing as a degree from USG; when you finish your program, you receive your diploma from your home campus (SU, UMD, UMES, et cetera).

Another point that we took special care to emphasize in the folder is that much like you would find on a traditional campus, USG offers a library, gym, bookstore, café and an Office of Student Services. The only thing we are missing are the dormitories. A pretty big perk of working here is that they are paying for me to earn my M.S. in Marketing Management from UMUC. USG makes higher education accessible for a lot of people, myself included.

The bottom line is: If you want to earn a bachelor’s degree at a beautiful campus with free parking while still getting to live at home and eat your parents’ food, then you should visit USG’s Academics page and check out the USG Recruitment Twitter feed.

Click on any of the tiles below to view close-up images of the recruitment folder.

USG Recruitment Folder
Outside of Folder
Inside of Folder
Rounded Die-Cut Cover