Shannon Kohlitz

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(via GIPHY) Preview of the new splash logo!

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This was for my cousin's wife, Ashleigh Blumer Kohlitz.  She kicks ass in more ways than one. 

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The teddy bear logo I designed for Eli's 5K Run is officially being used! Come run it if you're in town. It will be a fun run and it's for the babies.

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Jason gave me money to buy groceries and instead I use it to take cash cat photos

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It's small but one of my favorite plot lines in the second season of Orange is The New Black, is the relationship between Pennsatucky and Healy

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I was working... #blackcatdistract

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Ca$h Cat Zoe

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Got to hang out with lot of cats today!  I was taking care of dublah's and caseyboots's cats today.  They each have two, I have two, so a total of six cats!

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A Series of Kinetic Sets Tell A Story 

A short film about immigration, love, and World War II

2011 Toronto International Film & Video Awards: Winner, Best Experimental

Official Selection 2012 Portland Oregon Women's Film Festival

Official Selection 2012 Ann Arbor Film Festival

Official Selection 2012 Detroit Windsor International Film Festival

Official Selection 2013 Main,Rockland Shorts: An International Short Film Series

Produced, Edited and Directed by Shannon Kohlitz

Music Compostion: William Stanton

Cinematography: Jacques Merseau

Lighting: Jeff Alder

Sound Mixing: Rishi Daftuar

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For those of you who saw my completed map/pin board project, here's a few in-process photos and further descriptions of how I made it.  

I started out by printing out a large map of the United States.  I had to spread it out over six 8.5x11" sheets of paper.  I then cut out each individual state which I used as my stencil to cut out the fabric versions.  The different fabrics are sweaters I bought at a resale shop.  They probably cost no more than $6 for the whole bunch.  I then hand sewed each state down to large piece of blue (I don't own a sewing machine.)  It was a pretty easy thing to do while watching House of Cards :)  Then I backed the whole thing with a recycled cork board.

Further details and images of the finished produt can seen on my previous blog post.

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Here's something I've been working on for more than a year.  Inspired by my previous project, the hand crafted globe that also serves as a pin cushion, I created a map of the U.S. and pins to highlight where I and my boyfriend have traveled to.

I cut up old sweaters to create the individual states, sewed them together to construct the continental U.S. and backed it with a recycled cork-board. I gave Alaska and Hawaii their own separate boards. I originally planned to have Alaska and Hawaii their correct sizes as relative to the continental U.S. but quickly discovered that Alaska is HUGE.  It would have required a frame nearly as big as the U.S.  As for Hawaii, it would have been miniscule.

I then had them all professionally framed.  They are hanging on my wall in their geographically correct positions with Alaska high and left and Hawaii low left of the continental U.S.  (I couldn't get a photo of their arrangement because I couldn't back up far enough to capture it all.)

The pins are map pins but I wanted the spheres on the end to be larger so I added clay balls on the ends and painted them.  Gold represents where I have been, brown for where Jason has been and red is for where we have been together.  The strings are road trips I/we have taken.

I think my next map project will be to do Australia (Jason is from Australia).  That might be a bit easier considering Australia has 5 states and 2 territories compared to the 50 states :)

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When I was about 12-14, I went through a phase of making dioramas. From bathrooms to Christmas scenes, my fingers liked to scrap together household materials and make these boxed scenes.  Now 12 years later, my mom has been requesting through Christmas, Birthday and Mother's Day gifts, that I "refurbish" each one.

Photos #2 and #3 show what it looked like before.  (It used to have a handmade frame around it, I don't know what happened to it but even my 12 year old aesthetic sensibility wouldn't have allowed the edges of the box to look that shabby.) For this cafe diorama, I had to replace most of the items, including the building, the box itself, the awning and sidewalk.  However, I was able to salvage the chairs, tables, and table top items.

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2014 (and beyond) Goals

I was inspired by embstead to create my own post of New Year's goals, as she says, to publicly shame one's self into doing it.  So here goes.

1. Make a short film and enter into film festivals.  I haven't done this since my senior year's Integrative Project, "A Series of Kinetic Sets Tell A Story," in 2012.  I have plenty of ideas I'd like to pursue, I just haven't made the push to start the ball rolling.

2. Rebrand Company.  As some of you know, I own and run a video and animation production company currently called Media Academica.  I've never been a fan of the name.  The name was created by a former co-owner, it's long, it makes people feel dumb because they don't know how they are suppose to pronounce it, and it's misleading because very little of my work is done for academia.  

Specifically for this goal, I'm going to need some help and feedback.  I want to get it right this time so I don't end up being miserable with the name two years later. 

3. Run Three Marathons in One Year.  I'm kind of giving this one to myself since I think the first two will be tough to do in one year. I say giving because I'm already signed up for three marathons, Houston in January, Bayshore in May, and New York in November, and if I'm signed up, well I better dang do them (or lose a ton of money in registration fees)

There's the added bonus that this on Jason's bucket list and anything I can do to beat him to his goal brings me joy.

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Aaron running through FIRE

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Finally got around to penning in this pencil drawing I did of Leah, Rachel and Carolyn on the beach in California. After 40 hours of driving, what do we do? Draw!

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Doodles of my babies

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Be careful putting bow ties onto cats.

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Thas ma cat! And yes, he does become a snob when he wears his bow tie