Mail Art workshop.

This past Saturday, I led a private mail art workshop, held at a person's home with three of her friends. I'd donated the workshop to the Richmond Peace Education center for it's fall fundraising auction. Everyone had a good time and created some really nice postcard sized work. To see more of the workshop, go here.

In the neighborhood

I can't believe it's almost a week since I posted anything. What happened? It got very hot all of a sudden. Right now, at 22h39 (10:30 pm) it's 80F/28C and very very moist! The air is very moist!! It's left us feeling so lethargic we can barely move around, let alone take a walk in the neighborhood.

Here are a couple photos from earlier in the week when I was noticing the tops of some neighborhood buildings. They are really nice. One reminds me of Holland (well sort of) and the other two of some little village somewhere.

The azalea bushes in our back garden (all two of them) have bloomed nicely. I'd cut them back pretty drastically the year before last and that really helped them bloom better. Who knew I'd be such a capable gardener.

On Tuesday evening, I attended a lecture by a professor from the University of Texas at Dallas who is the expert on Impressionism. He did a lecture on Alfred Sisley whose work I really really like. I like his snowy scenes especially. The prof was terrific, very funny and real, he kept us engaged and it was all over too soon. He showed lots of slides. When I got home, I got out the book I'd bought when I went to see the Sisley show in Baltimore in 1993. It was a gorgeous and eye-opening show. Oh to paint landscapes like Sisley. No, really, I do wish I could do that.

Spring time & Elflog update

I'm in love with spring-time. This year seems especially flowery to me. Did I miss this last year? In any case, I'm enjoying walking in my neighborhood and seeing all of the flowering trees and tulips. The shelf was adorned with a flower, too. The pink and white dogwood trees are in abundance, as are azaleas. One nearby yard had lots of new bushes in the front yard, white blossoms with a hint of pink. At some point, the yard will be one big mound of blossoms. I can't wait to see that!

Spring time

I live in a city with it's small front gardens (and equally small back gardens.) This is my friend's front garden. She and another friend spent hours weeding it and laying in black mulch material. It looks so nice that I had to snap a pic with my phone and share it with you. I'm loving the spring, in spite of the green layer of stuff on the cars (washed off by the recent few days of rain) that indicates our allergies will be more evident. For years I said I don't have allergies, but I've obviously developed them, and spring springing out is the worst time. My pollyanna nature still says, what the heck, the flowers are blooming, the trees are a beautiful shade of green, and today the sun is shining. I'm off to walk my dog!

A good program.

Our cousin works for a not-for-profit organization in California called A Window Between Worlds
which works with survivors of domestic abuse through the use of art. I've posted a mail art call for them at Mail Art Projects, which is something that you can participate in, so check it out. Survivors are being asked to submit to the postcard call.
When I spoke with our cousin today, she told me that they are always in need of art supplies to use in their workshops. So, I decided that I'd put this out into the blog-o-sphere. If you know anyone who is needing to clear their studio of usable art materials, or have a contact in an art supply store or company, please pass along this need. Just go to the website here for more information about this wonderful little organization.

ART as a Healing Tool.

Some images...

For some reason the photos of the irises and the tulips, which were taken using my cell phone, look somewhat like watercolours. Spring has sprung. The tulips are all over my neighborhood but I've only seen one iris in bloom so far. The ones in the vase came, alas, from Trader Joe's (yes, I finally made it out to the far west end of my city to shop there, and quite honestly, it was worth the drive.)
Ryan, our 8 year old cousin, was visiting for Passover, and made this lovely addition to Smitty "bedroom." I don't know how much Smitty dog likes it, but we sure do.
I'm showing you my old, and only bicycle, which has a flat tire, but will soon be put in working order. My neighbor wants to take me on an excursion. He'll be fixing up my bicycle in preparation. I've been to the gym 3 times in 2 days to ride a stationery bicycle to get myself prepared, since I haven't ridden my bicycle since I broke my arm 3 years ago this coming June. Here's the thing, the bike had nothing to do with my breaking my arm. What accounts for my not riding my bicycle since then? Fear? Could that be it? I'm going to over-come it and see where my neighbor leads me. I'll keep you posted on this.

Schmap and moi

I'm so excited! One of my photos on Flickr got chosen to be in the current edition of Schmap Paris. Look for it on this interactive map. Check out Schmap guides.

Cup holder!

A convenient holder for a cup. There's been a lot of home improvement and construction going on, I'm thinking that one of the worker's left this cup behind. The niche seemed like a perfect place for it, almost like a shrine.

Inventions

"A Sale Inventions" I rescued this sign from down the alley. I wish I'd been around for the sale. I can only imagine what they were.

Collages, ATCs

I'm just starting to lay out all of the small collages that I made while in Paris, to look at what I did. Here's a series of collage Artist Trading Cards and a small collage. I found myself doing some new things with the collages, 1) simplifying them 2) using more color. The latter is not so evident in these ATCs. I'll post more of the small collages soon so you can see how colorful they are. The red one here is about 3" x 3" (7cm x 7cm)

Home Again! Elflog update.

We're back home, after nearly a month away. The weather is spring-like, rainy and warm. My cold is better after spending yesterday in bed with tea and a book, so I took Smitty out for a walk (he never got one yesterday) and while we were walking it began to rain, a lot of rain, but not before I was able to post something on the shelf and take a photo of it. It's a "You're Wonderful" card from here.
A friend told me that the shelf had been pretty bare while I was gone but it's still there. I'm happy to see it.
Smitty and I arrived home soaking wet! Happy for a treat (him) and a cup of hot coffee (me.)

This weekend, I'll be in my studio again, yay, doing a piece for a show I've been invited to particpate in, called "Whodunit." We're supposed to create a small piece that is different from what we usually do, in a small format, 6" x 9" (15 x 23 cm appx.) As I was waking up this morning, I had an idea, with an accompanying visual, of what I will do. Once the show is up, I'll post an image.