I've known Jen Hathy for a few years. She is a photographer living in Chicago. (I've had a lot of Chicago artists lately, huh? Maybe I'll move there and start Design Chicago...)

Jen's been taking photos since she was a kid. As she recalls, her family never really took pictures or kept record of special events. "We've got nothing for family photos, and some things just need remembering.

"I started stealing my grandfather's camera, it's either a really old Nikon or a Cannon, I forget which, when I was like, 7. It has this telephoto lens that's like 2 feet long, and you usually had to use a tripod with it. It was my favorite thing ever. I still have it, but it's missing a lot of the original lenses and filters."

She started taking photos of her cats, then started climbing trees to take pictures of thunderstorms. As she grew up, she would take photos anywhere she could, whether it was for her friend's metal magazine or chasing tornadoes. "Later in my teens, I hooked up with some Doppler weather chaser nerds. I always had stuff to take pictures of, and I really miss tornado chasing. Somewhere I have pictures of a tornado devouring a trailer where I lived at the time. Man, weather is fun to shoot."

Jen has a DeviantArt account, kind of a cross between Etsy and Myspace. On it, you can view a user's gallery of work, and if you like something, you can order a print. DeviantArt will take care of printing and shipping it to you, and keeps a portion of the profit.

My favorite thing about Jen is her lack of pretension, whether it be in her work or her life. "I don't have a message or a manifesto or a particular 'thing' I do, I just shoot what I like."

I got a tip from Brad, a reader, to check out Design2Share Q&A. It is "a video podcast filled with design-related opinions and tips, starring South African born designer Irwin Weiner and British born designer Nicola Chernicoff."

They have 5 episodes so far, with such topics as "How do I get a great look?"; "How do I decorate my living room?"; or "What are good starting places for art & accessories?" Each episode is a few minutes long. Irwin and Nicola provide good, common sense information, and do it in a very friendly manner. Their dueling accents are quite fun to listen to, as well. There are also plans to expand the site with viewer submitted videos.

If you have any ideas for topics you'd like me to share, please feel free to send me an email!

In today's Boston Globe, there is an article about a proposed tower that would be built where the old Dainty Dot building is, right at the edge of Chinatown and the Financial District. If approved, the developer, Ori Ron, would demolish the majority of the Dainty Dot building, retaining 60% of its facade, and build a 29-story, 340 foot high residential tower.

Some Chinatown resident groups are saying that the tower is too tall for their neighborhood, and "would also intrude on the peace and privacy of the adjacent park at the southern end of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway."

I've never lived in Chinatown, so I'm no expert, but "peace" and "privacy" are not things that come to mind when I think of the former "Combat Zone".

Also, if you look at the picture from the article (above), you can see the concrete State Street Bank building across the street, and both One Financial Center and the Federal Reserve Bank towers down the street. Each of those are more than 29 stories.

I'm not one for gentrification of every neighborhood possible. I'll be at the front lines if anyone wants to tear down the brownstones in the South End, or the triple deckers in Southie. But I don't think building one tower this close to Chinatown is going to disrupt the oldest ethnic neighborhoods in the city.

What's your take on this proposal?

I met Thomas Watkiss through my job at Crate & Barrel on Boylston St. He recently moved to Boston after four years in Sweden.

Thomas is a talented painter and photographer; an audio producer, making ambient music; and a freelance sonic Creative Planner, providing "solutions for maximizing sonic presence."

Thomas' oil paintings are abstract, but (to my eye) have a somewhat environmental look to them. His photography gets you up close and personal with nature.




The way he went from painting to music production is quite interesting. "At the University of Pittsburgh I got into the ideas surrounding contemporary abstract painting and the possibilities of what the both artist and viewer can experience when confronted with something that is foreign. I naturally was interested in how this works with audio sources as well." He began using ambient sounds as part of his art work, and it progressed into a budding music career.

Thomas Watkiss is a truly talented artist. I am currently talking with him on procuring one of his pieces for my budding art collection. I think you should, too.

Jill Dryer contacted me through Dwell Connect. She is an artist based out of Chicago. She says her "pieces represent the balance between natural beauty and man-made beauty....so you'll see class design objects (mid-century) paired with classic animals." I love MCM design, so I had to check her work out.

Her "design meets nature" series is currently featured at Velocity Art & Design. It's a playful thought, since MCM was the first real push to factory-built design, and many of the pieces used industrial materials, like fiberglass, that are far from "nature".

She has two other series, "Birds" and "Musicians", available at her Etsy shop. This summer, her illustrations are going to be published in a children's book.

Jill, thanks for letting us know about your work!