Mail Art 180 series and Pool time

 We went to the pool early this morning, our first time this year. The flowers that Douglas had planted 2 years ago, look amazing.

 The water was cool and clear, of course.  We just love that it's salt water.

 We have new chairs and table umbrella in bright yellow, though it doesn't show in this photo. We'll continue our early morning pool time, but tomorrow, rain is predicted. Maybe we'll get in a swim before it comes along.

 This is my Sunday series. I managed to do 4 altered museum art cards. I am having fun coming up with titles.  Since I've mailed the cards, I can't remember the titles exactly (they're on Mail Art 365 blog) but this one is something about construction workers looking at art on lunch break.

 This one has a title something about a drive-in modern art museum.

 The title for this is related to the size and color of the Pansy.

This one has something to do with the photographer hiding in the bouquet, of course. Fun! More of these to come for sure.

Skull Appreciation Day skull and mail art

 Here is the completed piece. Hopefully, some better photos will come out of the exhibit, with details of the piece. I'll get a better photographer to do that for me.

 The butterflies are cut from a map sent to me awhile ago by a friend in Canada. And the circle are from the 100+ year old map. They're floating above via thin wires, which I poked into some styro attached inside the skull. The movement is nice. I'm pleased with the results though I'd do a few things differently if I had it to do over. One thing, make sure the bottom edge of the base was more even. Next time! Oh wait, I'm not doing this again.   I do have lots of map circles left over so I'll have fun figuring out what to do with them.

 Another altered card. I wasn't sure what I could do with this particular piece of art work, but now I want to stop by the museum and get a few more of these.

Another Buddha smile, on this altered card.

Skully update

I'm pretty excited about this project now. The skull and base are dry and seem to be pretty stable.

I made lots of butterflies that will fly out of the head. Tomorrow, I'll attached those inside the skull. FIngers crossed that my vision will actually be able to work out.

I can't believe I cut up maps that are over 100 years old. I still can't believe it. These skulls will be sold, hopefully they'll be purchased, and the money will go to The Richmond Peace Education Center.

Another alteration, my skull, and some exciting news!

#177a

 This is an altered card, with an image of an art nouveau broach as the base. I am so fond of the buddha smile.

Here's the skull I'm creating, for the Skull Appreciation Day exhibit. I had a paper mache base to work from/on, as did 99 other artists. It was a challenge just to come up with an idea that would say more than: collaged skull. I cut up (oh horrors) pages from an old atlas given to me by a friend, very old, it still showed the Ottoman Empire on it. You figure out that date. I cut it into 1" circles and placed them so that they connected with one another to create new countries and oceans. I wanted to create a skully world that broke down artificial barriers between people. I cut the top off of the skull and created a base from that. I'm going to have butterflies come out of the head. You'll be seeing more of this soon as I have to finish it today, to turn in tomorrow. Cutting it short, right? I work better under pressure, right? aaaaagh!!
And now for the exciting news: Mica's film Mermaids of New York will have three screenings this summer.
June 16-19 will be in Northside Festival sponsored Union Docs competition screening (exact date TBD)
http://www.thelmagazine.com/newyork/NFFilm/Page

July 21 Screening followed by panel discussion about Sirens & Society at The Observatory in Brooklyn
http://observatoryroom.org/directions/

Aug 12-13 during the World Mermaid Awards and convention in Las Vegas (exact date TBD)
http://worldmermaidawards.com./

Let's all go to Las Vegas. I'm going to make my Mermaid tail soon as I finish my skull! Oh, by the way, any idea what I can entitle my skull?

Having fun altering cards

#176

 I purchased a bunch of 10 cent postcards at the VMFA sale. I'm having such a good time altering them. I hope the recipients enjoy them as much as I do.

#176a

#177

 This lovely caladium was in a porch flower box nearby. I'm going to get some for my garden, I think.

These mums were in a vase. They were so alert and so white!

Flowers and Skull Appreciation Day news

 On Monday, I walked around my neighborhood with my camera and was delighted by the profusion of flowers. I hadn't realized how many hydrangea bushes there were. Here's a sampling of the flowers I saw.

We're getting closer to Skull Appreciation Day, and I haven't finished my skull entry. aaagh. Must do it in the next 2 days! Some people had wanted a copy of this poster, so now it's available for sale here.

Party memories!

 We set up tables in our new patio, not many as we needed standing room for the guests. This inaugural party was to celebrate the engagement of our son and his fiancee. The guests were their friends  and a few relatives.

 Our friend, Harvey made some wonderful food, like this caponata.

 Their friend Carole made them some delicious cupcakes.

 Harvey stuffed all of these pea pods with creamy cheese. Really pretty, right?

 This was a whirl of people going by. Everyone seemed to have a nice time, our son and NDIL enjoyed seeing people they hadn't seen in years, friends from childhood and college. 


We were happy we could host this, we were happy to meet their friends, and see friends of theirs whom we hadn't seen since they were very young. We're now adjusting to post-party life.

Sunday, we took a walk to a local place for brunch, and came upon this curious site on the next street. Today, when I mentioned it to a friend at the Farmer's Market, they said that it was someone joking about The Rapture. Oh, I get it! I didn't at the time. I thought it was an art installation. Silly moi!

#174 & 175s

 This #174 card is an altered card, using a painting by Maurice Utrillo. Cracked myself up with the giant bunny overtaking the town. I called it: The giant rabbit takes over Sannois and the residents think "yum, le lapin roti."

 I wanted to use some of the butterflies that I had, so I did this #175 series. This one is entitled "La Doña con su mariposa favorito." It's going to someone who knows Español.

 Here I've altered a postcard again. An artifact from Nepal, a crown. No title for this one.

 And yet another altered crown, but untitled as I couldn't think what to call it.

Here are some of the postcards that I got at the VMFA sale. They were 10 for $1, which is really inexpensive for art cards, for any postcards actually. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do to alter them.

#173s and process.

 Today the world is still with here, and so are we, so I must make mail art! We're all so tired. Last night was the inauguration of our patio! I've hinted at this for a few weeks, and it happened last night. I'll post a few photos soon.

So this morning, I picked out a piece of matt board and stuck some pieces of Color-Aide paper on it. Yellow, pale green, purple and a pinkish color. Took photos with my old phone, so not so clear. 

 Then I used my lovely Washi tape all over the board. Random placement.

 Then I cut the board, looking only at the reverse so I couldn't plan the cuts. I got only 3 standard postcard sized cards out of the board and one square, which I'll mail, and one small rectangle, which I"ll mail in an envelope as a bookmark, to someone.
Next, the cards got a word added to them from my pile of cut out words.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out. They are very energetic!

#171 & 172, and more

 Here are a couple more of my altered postcards. Tape and words really change things up.

 I'm not as pleased with the composition of this one. I think another strip of tape might have been needed but I decided to stop myself.

 Yesterday, I walked to the mechanic's to pick up my car.  I guess I should walk more, as it helped my back feel better. 
Here's something I saw on my walk. I'm always surprised to see cactus here. This one is lovely.

My son and Ndil's friend Carra came over yesterday  and strung our tree with lights. It's so pretty. We turned on the lights when it got dark out, and "ooooh, so pretty."

#170 series, of dots and tape

 This is #170, which I made this morning to sent to Europe to my friend K.L. for his birthday. I'm hoping he will like getting an "a" and reaching the top!

  I got carried away with dots and tape, after making the birthday card. Such fun.

  I got more action in this one, right? Or confusion?

 Interesting how we can believe that something is in motion, right?

I've had the 1/2" hole punch awhile and wanted a larger one. I was delighted to find the 1" size at a craft store and it was on sale, better yet. See my new Washi tape? See my dots? and you get a glimpse of the above cards, that will be going out into the world today.