Update, Paris

Hello dear readers.
 On a rare occassion, I'm able to be on-line. WiFi is a bit more prevalent here in Paris but we are on the go most of the time. So, here I am, briefly on-line and since I can't take the time to write to everyone individually, I'm doing a brief post. 

Istanbul was a very lovely experience. Not just being in a place that was really foreign to us, but meeting Mail Artists, Katerina and Kemal,  and Katerina's friend Mustafa, and N & J's friends, Julien and Ekin and their baby Sophie.  We walked lots, saw lots, ate good food, and I made mail art daily though couldn't send often. There are no post boxes on the streets and few post offices. We walked up hills and down hills, took boats and funiculars. All very exciting and new.

Ah, Paris! We're in Paris again and loving it. We've been here since Monday night, doing lots of walking, visiting favorite neighborhoods and shops and looking at art and people watching and riding the metro and the bus. Tomorrow, we take the train to Grenoble to visit another friend for a few days, then back to Paris for a final couple days. A whirlwind trip this time.

I wish I could post photos. Imagine the Bosphorus. We took a ferry across it to Asia. Just imagine the Eiffel Tower. We walked under it yesterday.

I'm making and mailing mail art daily. There are post boxes everywhere, the same for Post Offices. Adieu until I can post again.

Last Day in London!

We had a sunny day today, perfect for Andy and Elena's wedding. In the morning, we walked along the south bank taking the sun, wending our way through thick crowds speaking lots of different languages. \There were long lines for the London Eye, which looked scary to me. I got lots of nice photos. Crossed the Thames by Big Ben and made our way to Fulham town hall for the wedding. \It was a really lovely ceremony and dinner, attended by lots of family and freinds. The bride and groom looked wonderfully happy. \Yesterday was very rainy but we met up with my long time mail art friend, Andrea McNeill at the Tate Modern. It was such fun and I got to hold the real Beannie Mouse. Andrea has posted on her blog, which I can't remember the address for, but you can find it via <found-art.blogspot.com> probably. Tomorrow, we're off to part 2 of our adventure, where in I meet two more mail art practitioners, in Istanbul. More when I can get to an internet cafe. Wish I could post photos, but you'll have to imagine: a sunny day in London, daily mail art reflecting that, a wedding ceremony, and a radiant bride and groom. We met lots of interesting people and hopefully, they'll send me their landmail addresses so they can receive mail art from me.More when possible.

London, Day #3

We're in London. Met Andy and Elena of MailArt365 fame. Having to pay for internet time. Oh dear, and keyboard is different.  We slept 11 hours last night!  I've been making mail art daily. Can't post it, but taking photos for another time.  London is foggy, it's not a myth.  Tomorrow, we meet with Andrea of Found Art and Beanie fame. This is very cool. More whenever. ta ta for now, from London.

#104, my fosythia and my Mail Art travel kit

The other day, it was gray and threatening to rain, but my forsythia gave me a bright yellow burst of sunshine. The yard is still gravel/sand (not snow there.) When we return from our trip, the forsythia will be green, so I was glad I could capture this.

Bon Voyage, this is card #104 and it may be the last card I can post until I return. I'll be making Mail Art daily, taking photos of said M.A., but posting to the blogs may not happen. Hopefully, posting to the mail boxes will take place. This card is getting mailed to someone special in the U.S.

This is my Mail Art Kit. There's a stack of prepared blanks, the yellow book is where I record who got what number card, the "Keep this Coupon" notebook has addresses in it, there a piece of sandpaper (never know when you want to sand something,) and the blue card with the gal in a red sweater, is an old Italian phone card that I use as a burnisher. Colored pencils are from Muji and I've got nice Sakura permanent black fine point pens, as well, as a Sharpie. I have 2 Uhu glue sticks and Tombow double stick tape. I'm also taking some black paper to use a background if needed. Other than that, it's found paper, or drawings,  or tea or wine stains (Boo's idea)

Let the adventure begin. We leave tomorrow, 5 p.m. ish out of Richmond, VA, USA.

(My latest plan, Mica's idea, is to see about buying a phone that I can use and buy time on while abroad. Maybe there's one in London that'll work in Turkey and France. )

Could happen. See how anxious I am about not being connected? Have you been away for a long time without a phone or computer? How did it go for you? Why am I asking you these questions now when I may not even be able to read them? So long for awhile. I'll miss you.    
(ps It's Monday, 14 March, 0:43 - I have no idea why the date and time are incorrect.)

#103 and 103a and travel update

We're ready, or just about, for our trip. We're leaving tomorrow afternoon, so travel is on my mind, which is the title for these pieces of Mail Art. They aren't going to travel far, they'll stay in the USA, while I head off across the Atlantic.
The photos were sent to me by a member of my union (IUOMA) and they fit perfectly with my old Piedmont Airline stubs.


I though Piedmont was one of the many defunct airlines, like Pan Am and TWA, but no, it still exists, as USAirways. These stubs, however, are from the 1960s, I think.  The old maps are travel times in terms of steam ships. It took 5 to 7 days from New York to Southampton. It will only take us 6 to 7 hours. I'm really glad about the time difference.

Okay, I'll post one more time, tomorrow, with my last piece of mail art at home.

And yes, we're packed except for my mail art kit. I'll take a photo of what I'm packing for you to see.

#102 and 102A and some not-so-fun e-mail news

These cards are going to Japan, to two Mail Art participants who we learned are doing okay. Including the one up in Hokkaido. Very scary. 

This morning, I awoke to the news that my gmail account had been hacked. I'd opened a link last week, my bad, and it had a virus attached to it. SO all of my contacts got BAD e-mail from me. I'm so sorry folks that I opened a link unknown to me. I usually don't do that.

Must have been a day that I was tired, my blood sugar was low, I hadn't had any protein , I was distracted, any or all of the above. So I've spent a good bit of time trying to clear up the problem. I hope it's all good now. Not liking having this happen at any time but now before our extended trip, it's worrisome. aaaagh!!

But on the bright side, we start our vacation/holiday on Monday!

Oh No, I forgot to Post #100, plus #101

This is #100. It is the first one that I haven't put the number on the front because I couldn't rubber stamp the three digits close enough to punch out a little circle, as I've done in the past. I have to figure out what to do about this. So I just punched out little circles. The torn paper background is from a very old envelope that held a glass negative. Perhaps the photo of the two men holding hands was made using a glass negative; I don't know. The image was gleaned awhile back from some magazine. There was no explanation with this image. It reminded me of images of Chang and Eng, the con-joined twins, from whom the name Siamese Twins was derived. I saw a photo of them at the Mütter Museum .  Number 100 earned me a congratulations from my son, my 365 guru.

So what did I do for #101? Something totally different in feeling.  I have several of these baby heads from an old advert, from a National Geographic magazine. I just wanted to do something incongruous and doesn't this just work? The background is from a VMFA magazine, a print of some kind, and the little girl in the foreground is from an old magazine, too. I titled this one "Deep water." It makes me laugh.

#99 x 2 plus something interesting to me

I can't believe that tomorrow I will be at 100.  Today's mail art, more bunnies for the Year of the Rabbit. I cut out several bunnies from an old atlas. I love the quality of the black and white photos. They so needed a color background.







I like the feeling of spring that these have for me. Yes, spring, bring it on! I'm so ready and yet, checking weather for our destination cities, I think we're headed for some chilly times.

This stamp is something very interesting for me. When our daughter went off to college, she left behind a tin of old postage stamps, which were given to her years before by an elderly friend of ours. Some of the stamps are quite old and from other countries. I've been using these stamps in collages for quite a while, always sifting through them. While sifting through for Royalty for my card for Val Herman's mail art call, I found this stamp. I'd NEVER seen it before. I noticed the name and couldn't believe my eyes. It's my family name! Who is this Rudolf Golub? I looked on line and found out only that he was a physician. This stamp is a commerative for his 75th birthday, though he died at age 43. Fascinating! My sisters and I are fascinated. We know little about our father's family, so are always wondering about them. Maybe we're related to this man? Who knows.

#98 x 2

In just 2 days, I'll be at number 100 in my 365 project. It's pretty exciting. 

My friend Kristy sent me an envelope full of colored paper squares. They arrived yesterday and, oh boy, all I could think of was - can't wait to use them for my mail art. One of these is going to Kristy and one is to a mail art call.  I really like the way the squares appear to be floating across
the background. Lots of motion in these two.

This piece of mail art, arrived today from Eduardo Cardoso in Portugal. I had to post it here because of an odd coincidence.  Last night, someone showed me something called Lover's Eyes. See some here.
I'd never heard of them before.  This piece of mail art just about knocked me over - this looks so much like one of the examples. I like that it's on the x-ray of the hand. Creepy, really fascinating, cool, and creepy! Thanks Eduardo. It's a perfect piece for me to receive.

Skull Appreciation Day

Skull Appreciation

Show your appreciation for SKULLS!

I've posted this Mail Art call and hope that you'll join in on the fun!  Send something Skully and be a part of this event.


On the First Friday in June (3 June 2011) Skull-a-day will have a huge event at Gallery5  in Richmond, Virginia, USA, in support of Skull Appreciation Day. There will be an exhibit of skull related work. The exhibit will be up for a month. The following day, there'll be a party with craft tables, music, munchies, and more. You're invited to come to the party, too!   Send your Mail Art to be exhibited! Let's appreciate skulls. We all have them.


Theme: SKULLS (of course)
Deadline: 27 May 2011 
size: standard postcard
medium: any
send to:
Skull-a-Day
P.O. Box 73236
Richmond, VA 23235
U.S.A.
 

#97 and 97a plus a bit more

This card is going to a Mail Art call: My Everyday Object, in Milan, Italy. The works will be displayed at Polifemo.

I've loved fountain pens since I was a child. My father wrote with some beautiful pens and I'd watch him writing with his lovely penmanship, which he'd perfected to prove teachers wrong about people who were left-handed. My penmanship is not good, but I love writing and have a lot of fountain pens including one like one of my father's. It has a nib like the one shown here.

This card was made today, day 97, and is marked as the "a" card for the day. It's going to Carla, who's asked us to send her Rabbit related cards for the year of the Rabbit. This cute bunny goes to her.

We're getting the details down for our up-coming trip. I've gotten bunches of little things done, gathering phone numbers, making a calendar to fit in my journal, making a pile of things to take along, finding out about weather (Freezing in London today!) and making sure that our friends are expecting us.

In a week's time, we'll be on the plane headed east. My anxiety has calmed down a lot. I'm practicing with my old school Touch iPod (no camera, no phone) and am getting used to the strangeness (for me) of the key pad. I do like that mistyping gets corrected though the darn thing just doesn't want me to me myself. It keeps changing "Mim" to "Min." That cracks me up. 
What's your favorite every day object?

My trip, coming soon.

I've decided to pull out my traveling HiMonkey, who was a lovely companion on previous trips abroad.

Here he is, on a background of postcards that I received from him. He's small so he's no trouble to pack, and he's flat. I put him on a new sturdy backing and trimmed him up a bit to refresh him.

When I return, or when I get to a cyber cafe, you'll see him enjoying some new views. To learn more about the REAL HiMonkey, visit here.
and here. 
Monkey is also on Facebook as Moi LeSinge.

Do you ever travel with a non-human companion? What is it?

A test

I want to see if I can post using this devise. It's the only one I'll
have with me on our trip. Must get used to using it! not a camera so
no pix can be posted unless I go to a cyber cafe. Hope this works.
Sent from my iPod

The back yard/jardine, continued.

 We were so surprised when we entered our back yard last night after driving home from Lynchburg. It's like it had snowed!  This is the base on which the patio will be laid. The area behind the tree will be planted, as will the strip along the fence to the left.

 Chuck is contemplating how the yard furniture will look.

 The forsythia is in bloom adding a nice color contrast to the bricks and the "snow."

 More contemplation of where furniture will go.

My bench will return to it's corner by the garage and big pots of plants will go by that fence. We can't believe we waited so long to do this. We're imagining many fiestas out in this space.

#95 and Rivermont Gallery, Lynchburg. VA

Friday, collage & assemblage works

 On Friday evening, we attended the opening of my honey's exhibit at Rivermont Gallery in Lynchburg, Virginia. It's located a little over 2 hours south west of where we live, in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the banks of the James River (which, also, runs through Richmond.)  The works on display were examples of Chuck's collage, assemblage, glass and clay pieces. They were beautifully displayed. I was happy that I took a few photos before the gallery became crowded. Chuck was so pleased at how many people attended. 

Friday evening, glass works

Speaking to group

 The gallery is a beautiful space, which unfortunately, doesn't have it's web site developed yet. If, however, you are ever near this area, you'd really enjoy see the gallery (and Chuck's work if you go during the month of March.) Tell John that I sent you! This link will give you the address.






On Saturday's after each opening, John Morgan, the proprietor/artist/teacher, has the artist whose work is on display, do a brief talk. Here's Chuck before a group of 30 people, on a sunny Saturday morning. People were very attentive and afterwards had lots of questions for Chuck.

You can see more photos of the gallery here.

Hepatica

We returned home on Saturday, so tired, because John had  an after opening gathering that was so nice, with lots of conversation, wine, food, and we stayed up late and got up early. And Chuck had expended lots of energy during his talk. The drive back via routes 29 and 64 was lovely, through the moutains, the bare trees, the fields, the big gray overcast sky, get the picture, the kind of drive that makes you sleepy. We had to stop for some lunch off the highway (a salad at a McDonald's, not our favorite eating place but the choices off the highway were not great, fast food fast food fast food.)

I did have time to make my #95 when I got home. I'm still in the mood to make drawings, so I made a cluster of Hepatica blossoms. They have white stamens & pistels,but i couldn't do that with Neo-colors, so you'll have to image them.

#94 by Mim

This is a Trumpet Honeysuckle. We see them growing here, climbing up telephone poles in alley ways. They're lovely. I'm enjoying getting back to drawing. I may have to do more of these.

I'm also preparing for our extended trip out of the country. I've cut out 25 postcard blanks in preparation. I hope I can keep doing this daily practice while traveling. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, we're about to make a 2 hour drive to a gallery where my honey is having an opening of an exhibit of his works. Photos to follow!

Drawing series, a change for 93 series.

 Last night, I did some prep work for moving along by cutting up more matt board. I had some of this lovely color and set it on my table for today's play.

 I got up early and went right into my studio. I did a bit of cleaning up, I sharpened some colored pencils, I looked at some old photos I'd taken of Day Lillies, and then I just felt an urge to draw, so I did.   .

These are Marsh Marigolds.

 These are Virginia Bluebells.

This is a Harlequin Lupine.

I used a Sakura 01 Microperm pen (black,) Muji colored pencils and a touch of Fantasia Watercolour Pencil in some places, to do these drawings.

Dewi reminded me that drawing is as addictive as glue stick. He's right. I couldn't stop at one, today.

#92 moving on towards 100!

 Okay, I've moved away from simple cards on this one. My process is below.

 I've noted in my title that I'm moving towards 100. My son, the 365 guru, noted yesterday's card number while he was having dinner with us last night. "You're close to 100," he said.  He told us that when he'd gotten to 100 on Skull-a-Day, it was a sort of tipping point. 
So far, so good for me, as I anxiously move forward to that magical number. I'll report on how I feel when I hit that mark.

 I covered a piece of cardboard with a background of scenery.

 Next, I added lots of my cut out large automobiles. They were large in life and they're large in my cut-outs.

By the time I trimmed the cardboard, I was able to get 2 postcards and several small collages that will be fun to play around with as ATCs.

I'm not sure what these cards say, as far as a narrative goes, so I'm calling #90 "When gas was cheap and I was young" and #90a is "When gas was cheap and jumping was fun."  Maybe you'll come up with a better story.

more mail art and something cute.

 This one, #91 in the series of 365, was made for a fish card exchange. I saw a postcard with fish on it, by Roberto Rios on his IUOMA blog, and I liked it, commented on it, and next thing you know, we're exchanging cards. I had this Pez picked out to do something with and this worked out swimmingly. It's off in the mail today.

While looking on my shelves for my Mail Art workshop handout, to send to Andy, our MailArt365 group founder, when I came across a 3 ring binder I'd put together with inspirations from one of my "cork" board. In it was this little item. I'd forgotten what I'd done with it, so now it's going to be on view. What is it? It's the little (4.5" - 11.5cm) "cap" that my mom wore when she worked at the Orange Crush stand during the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. There are two button hole like openings  where a ribbon threaded through, which was then use to tie this on the wearer's head. I'm picturing it on the slant near the forehead with the bow tied at the back of the head by the neck. Can you picture that?
Mom must have looked so cute.