Celebration!

 This is how I'm feeling tonight! Powerful! It feels powerful to reach my goal. Doesn't this gal look powerful? I thought so.

 Tonight, I celebrated by attending the Art-o-Mat event at the Visual Art Center. If you're in the Richmond, VA area, check it out. The machine still has some pieces to vend. Here's the machine open so you can see the art that's left in it. Two are completely sold out.

 Here are people standing in line to buy mini-art works. That's Clark Whittington, the man behind the project, standing to the left. Yay for Clark. I love him!

 Here's the machine getting it's front panel replaced, while people wait to purchase tiny art. That's Alyssa, our local Art-o-Mat gal extraordinaire (who got the machine her originally.) Yay, Alyssa.

 People waiting and someone trying to make a decision on which one to choose. We got 5 pieces tonight. I let my honey do the choosing and he chose well, but we may have to return for a couple more.  I'll post pieces after I scan them so you can see what he chose.

We got home and our mail still hadn't been delivered. Poor Clyde has to work so late to complete his route. I was thrilled and delighted to get this piece of mail. Notice: "Free Mail" and "..tary Post Office" This was a note from one of the soldiers that I sent a package to earlier this month. I've only gotten a note 2 times before. I don't expect any so when it happens, it's soooo nice. And I'm about to send off 2 more packages to this officer since he has 3 platoons with 100 soldiers total that he can distribute things to. These are people who don't get much or any mail. They are in forward operating bases in Afghanistan. If you're interested in sending packages to the U.S. troops, sign on with Booksforsoldiers.com. Since I couldn't stop the wars, I figure I can send some lovin' to the people far from home with a care package.

Day 365 of my project - whew!

 These three little books contain the record of my output for this past year. A piece of mail art daily, that was the commitment, though some days there were more; because it turned out that I've sent out 704 pieces of mail art this year.

I can't believe that I met my goal, that I stuck to it, and that it's done.

There are a few things left to do. I'll clean up my area, I'll pack up the scraps and bits and send them to people who are still working on their 365 (and doing collages,) I'll scan the received mail art that I've neglected lately and just piled up on a surface in my studio, and I'll organize all of the addresses of my mail art recipients into an alphabetized list. Okay, so maybe I won't do the last item, which seems a bit much. But here goes on what happened over the year: the best thing was that I got into my studio EVERY DAY. Before this project, I'd let myself get distracted and not set foot into my studio for days. I found that a daily practice was very grounding. I realized that making something everyday centered me and kept me from getting depressed about what's going on in/on/ our poor little planet. I had a group that was supportive, and a few people on the same path, at the same speed. I loved that people would be surprised and happy to receive mail art. I never told ahead of time who the recipients were going to be. I loved getting comments and having people make up their own titles, when I didn't post the titles. Not only did I send out mail art, but I received mail art. I haven't counted the number of pieces but as I'm scanning and sorting and archiving, I might get a count. It was terrific to find my mail box full of such fun. There's more, and I might write about it as the days go on, or not. Since I'd just finished a series of 20 tiny landscapes for the Art-o-mat, I decided to continue with that theme.  Here are my final pieces of my MailArt365 project.

There'll be more Tiny Town, folks. I have more of those Utrillo postcards to alter so the adventure will continue until the cards are used up. See you in Tiny Town and thanks for all of your comments and support during the past year. 

Tuesday, day 364

 I took my time doing today's mail art. I didn't want to do it first thing in the morning. I think I was trying to prolong the second to the last day of my 365 project.
I'd had these Renoir ladies for awhile. It was time to make use of them. 

I won't stop making and sending mail art. I did it long before I started my 365 project. I just won't be making and posting daily.  I have many more copies of this Utrillo street scene, so you'll be seeing Tiny Town in the future.  Tomorrow, I pack up my collage bits and send them off to others for their use. I'll choose a recipient for my MailArt365 rubber stamp and send it off (using Random.org) and I'll write up something about what a year of a daily project has been like for me.

My Maple tree & mail art, nearing the end.

 My mini-maple is such a lovely color. It's dropping leaves now and I picked up this one to scan and share. It's such a delicate shape and the color is so rich. The weather has been very warm, like spring, but the trees are mostly bare (except for the big magnolias and the piney ones.)









 Today is day #363, can you believe it. I can't.
I made two altered Tiny Town cards today
and am thinking that perhaps tomorrow
will be a Tiny Town day, also.

The bird card has attracted a lot of attention on Facebook. I didn't post the elephant one so don't know what the reaction would be. I was pretty pleased with how I was able to make him part of the landscape. By the way, there is NO photoshop involved. I cut the pieces to fit the postcard image & glue them down.

I usually don't plan ahead but since I have only 2 days to go, I'm thinking ahead. The last day, I'll make several cards. I know what I want to do and will probably post later in the day so I can take my time with the cards. Exciting!

Done with Art-o-Mat, almost done with year long project!

 Here it is, my favorite of my tiny landscapes for the Art-o-Mat project. I finished wrapping up today and I'll deliver them tomorrow. The opening event for the 10th Anniversary of the Richmond VA machine will be this Wednesday at the Visual Art Center. Very exciting!

 Today's mail art pieces (day 362, omg almost at the end) were inspired by Josef Albers. 

 I was surprised at how much work goes into making small paintings. Really quite similar to making large paintings but I think I want to do more of these, even after the year long project ends.

 My friend Ann called me this morning to come join her at the VMFA garden, but I was finishing my project and couldn't join her. However, when I finished,  I asked C to join me and we walked over to the park. Here are the stairs leading up to the upper level. The water falls runs alongside. It makes a nice water flowing noise.

 Here's the approach to the park, with the VMFA on the right and ahead of us, the berm (which actually is covering the multi-level parking deck) which is a park area with benches, plants, and sculptures.

I love to photograph this building. I liked the reflection in the pool, with the cat-tails in the foreground. The sky was so blue today. It was spring-like outdoors. We sat for awhile at the top of the berm enjoying the view, getting sun on us, saying how lucky we were to live so close to this lovely place.

the Art-o-Mat project and mail art

 This morning, I finished the sides with white paint to give a finished look to the pieces. The labels are on the back. I need to write the series numbers, 1/20 etc, then wrap with the clear wrapper once the pieces are thoroughly dry., probably tomorrow morning. Yay. I deliver them on Monday morning and Wednesday they get loaded into the machine to be kerplunked that evening. Yay, again.

#360

This painting is inspired by a Kandinsky painting that I saw at the Guggenheim. The installation was more than the painting on display, as it included information about how the painting was done, why it was done the way it was, about the time in the artist's life, all very interesting. 

#361

This painting that I just completed, is inspired by the work of Cy Twombly. We saw a large piece of his at MOMA and a selection of his white sculptures.

This is the second painted Mail Art piece for today, day 361 of the project, oh my, only 4 days to go!! It's inspired by the work of Franz Kline. I've always loved the boldness of this paintings and the minimal quality. I stopped myself from doing anything else with this piece, which was done on cardboard from a cereal box. I like the natural color of the carton as the background.

El dia de accion de gracias, thanksgiving day

 I like the way this day is said in Spanish. It's about the action of giving thanks rather than a title of a day. The day of the action of thanks. I wake up every day, feeling gratitude for my life. I learned this from my mother, who at 97 still says that every day when she awakens.

Today, we are having 4 of our relatives with us, to share a meal. Each bringing something yummy to eat.

These are the "Neat balls" that I made, before they were simmered in a tomato sauce. I'll post the recipe to my recipe blog this weekend.

 My honey set the table. These are the dishes we got when we got married. We still like them and have seen them in two museum collections. Oooh, we are surprised we had such good taste back then.







Here is this year's version of the Sweet Potato Pound cake with a drizzle of lemon icing on it.








This is today's Mail Art (day 359.) I used up the left over paint from my sky changing palette. A mini-action painting!

 I am so thankful for the life I've been fortunate to live and for the people who are in my life, and who I've met along the way, and to departed family and friends, who are still in my heart.

Changing skies

I spent a couple hours tonight repainting the skies on the landscapes. I decided they needed to be lighter and it sure made a difference. It made the land POP! The bottom two are the earlier skies. The top ones are the new, improved skies. I finished all 21 skies. Now to paint around the edges and put the labels on the back. I'd like to finish up tomorrow, but think I'll wait until after American Thanksgiving day.
 I can't believe I'm doing paintings!

Baking day (and mail art, of course)

 Today, I'm making a sweet potato pound cake. Here's the image of the one I made back in 2008 and here's the link to the recipe, should you want to try it.  It's a perfect cake for fall, though right now we are experiencing a very spring like, about to drizzle day.

 Today's mail art play - use commercial postcards from my stash and alter them with only one or two images.  This is series #358 (only 7 days left in the year long project!)  Someone in Finland send me this card in an envelope, so there's no message on the reverse except a translation of the description. It's a vintage card reproduction.

 This is a postcard that I picked up for free in Dublin, Ireland one year.  I titled this one "We took a wrong turn?"

 The background is a Tiffany stained glass window in a chapel in Petersburg, VA. The little Victorian scrap turned this into something like a music box for me. I don't know why, but it did.

This is another of the Tiffany stained glass windows. I added the butterfly and the old man, who appears to be demonstrating something.

a surprise visit

 My little neighbors surprised me this afternoon with 4 eggs from their chickens. They told me that one of these was the 2nd egg produced. They were so sweet to share with me. Aren't these lovely?

 This is our Art-o-Mat machine. On Wednesday, 30 November, it'll get filled with our tiny artwork, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of it's being in Richmond.  Now to finish my tiny landscapes!

 Day 357's mail art. My title -  "Mama said: Pay attention to what makes sense."

This is the view from my studio window this morning. There's a "hole" in the holly tree and I can see the red leaves on the tree across the street. It was a gray day, it drizzled off and on, however, the people in the market seemed pretty upbeat as they shopped for their day of giving thanks meal fixings.  

Day 356 of my 365 project!

There are only 9 more days to go in my year long project.  After a weekend with Tiny Town, I decided to go minimal today and use just 3 things that were within reach and a blank that was cut from some cardboard (carton.) I used a bit of a photo that I found very intriguing; Swans being transported in a tiny boat.

I'm still working on my tiny landscape paintings. I think I have the ground done. I want to work on the skies a bit more, brighten them up a bit. After that, I'll paint white all around the sides to clean them up. I thought tiny paintings would take a tiny amount of time, ha ha ha, silly moi!

Beginning of the week!

The temperatures are springlike, but the leaves have turned colors. I'm especially fond of the yellow leaves A gray day makes the leaves brighter.

 On Saturday, I went on a Tiny Town spree. I found these cool fashion models from the 60s. They were perfect for the series.

 I called this series "The 1960's fashion models liked to visit Tiny Town" or something like that.

 This is such a 60s look.

 The idea of one of the model's walking across the town tickled me.

 Someone suggested that I use Paul Klee images for Tiny Town and it turned out that I did have an old book to take apart. These are Sunday's play with Tiny Town.

I'm especially fond of how the tight rope walked turned out. I had to piece the sky as the image wasn't long enough.

Me with the 3D glasses from VMFAs Mummy exhibit

Our mini-maple tree turning red.

I