The last Mail Art (for 2011) and looking ahead

 Here's a lovely Leger woman, holding a book. How perfect for her to follow in the line of the books arriving in Tiny Town. This is my last mail art of the year! wow. I'm in upper 700s with mail counted since 1 Dec. 2010. I'll keep going until I reach 1000. I may have mentioned this before. ooops, if I did.

Here are two little memories of Paris. We'll be seeing these shortly, though the sky will probably be gray, and there might even be rain. But the bridge and the sculpture will be there.

We call the sculpture The Bunny, but it's actually a map of Korea. It's right in front of the Cité. We were even there on the day they had a ceremony for it, watching from our studio window. 

In memory, mail art, and soon....

 Today is the one year anniversary of the death of my friend. She was a painter, we met when we were 14 years old. This was taken in 1993 before she became ill. I do not know why "yes" was posted on her wall. That is one of her paintings behind here. I think of her very often.

 Big news in Tiny Town: the library is expanding! I wasn't sure how to incorporate the trunk of old books that I cut out of a magazine. I just loved the image. Here, I trimmed it up so it looks like it's going into or coming out of the courtyard. This is not photoshop, it's old cut and paste method.

 Here a portion of the trunk of books landed on the hunting club grounds outside of Tiny Town. How the residents will get them to the town is unknown.

 I was able to use this section in the background. Addition books appear to be arriving in Tiny Town.  Again, I've had some fun comments on these on Facebook.

This tiny image is what I'll soon be seeing from our very own (temporary) studio. Now to figure out how to pare down the art supplies!

Whirlwind

 This is one of the collages that I did last year for Papergirl San Francisco. I had fun doing it and was happy to see that there is one planned for Zagreb, June 2012. It's something we all can participate in, so here's the link: Papergirl Zagreb. I think we'll all have fun doing this, don't you? No jury, no fee (just postage to Croatia) no framing, nothing but making something to share. Ivana will be very excited to hear from you that you plan to do this with her.

 My honey said "Quick, look!" This squirrel was trying to get on the porch or was looking for one of the pumpkins to chew on. Hopefully, it sound them, outside the fence by the garage. We're down to 2 little pumpkins being chewed on.

See this tiny pastry? It's a pain au raisin and it's one of the things I'm looking forward to.

Art supplies, mail art, & my new pocket

 Here's a pile of things I think I want to take with me. Some because I'll miss them if I don't, some because I always travel with them, and some because I don't want to buy new ones at 33% higher price. I'll be paring down in a couple of days for a much neater kit.

 I cut out a few things from the VMFA monthly news magazine before tossing it in the recycle bin. There's an exhibit on Mummies so Egyptian objects were plentiful in the publication.  I just had so much fun with this one. The background is from a design magazine from a decade ago. It worked so well with the figure.

 There was this large head on a page of the magazine. I wasn't sure what I could do with it, but was drawn to the eyes which had such a life to them.  In the end, I figured that a trip to Tiny Town was needed. Don't you think the residents just freaked out when this guy peeked into the town? Scary!

My friend gave me a piece of fabric remnant left from the valance she'd made. It's beautiful, with a sheen to it and a nice weight. I was able to make a new pocket out of it, which I'll take with me on the trip. The fabric is dense enough to make it somewhat water resistant. I like it a lot, it's a treat for me.

Mail out & more

 I'm really fond of this altered photo postcard. Juli sent me a pack of photo postcards. This is the second one I altered by simply cutting up postage stamps and gluing them to the photo. I hope the recipient liked receiving this.

 Our niece has a collection of Chanakiot (that's plural for chanukah menorahs, I think, correct me if I'm wrong.) These are a few of them, including the newest one that her hubby gave her. We had the annual gathering at her home yesterday and it was very festive.

We had a few of the little pumpkins left and the squirrels are continuing to enjoy their feast of seeds. They work very hard and long to get at them.

I've started to put together my art kit for our trip. I think I might be going over-board with it. I can pare it down, since there ARE art supply stores in Paris.

Dotty mail art & a memory

 It's quiet today. The streets are quiet. No cars going past. The sky is gray, but the sun is a brightness showing through like a thin haze. Very odd light.
I decided that I needed some color, so I dug out the Color-Aid paper and played with layers and dots.

 The substrate is cut from some scrap cardboard with angles at the corners.

This is the loveliest tree we'd ever seen. It was nearby and we'd go to see it night after night. I was decorated like this for 2 or maybe 3 years. We just loved seeing it. Now it's only a memory, revisited in photos.

The owners of the house & tree gave us such a lovely gift. I hope they knew that; I think they knew that. I'm glad I have photos of it.

It reminds me of something I read this morning in the latest issue of The Sun magazine; Sy, the editor, was reminded of the Buddha saying "Remember we're not here forever. Every moment is precious."
I'm grateful for all  my precious moment.
And grateful for you, my friends!

In the 700s with Mail Art & a preview

 I'm having fun playing with the labels that my daughter gave me. A happy series for the new year.

 I'm using cut up cereal boxes for the substrate and allowing some of the color from the box show.

 I've added either my white chalk pencil marks or used the koh-i-noor pencils that are a sort of metallic blue and gold colors.

 These postcards put me into the 770's in numbering since I started counting 1 Dec. 2010. I'm going to keep track until 1000, or not.

This is a photo of me, taken in Paris in 2008. In 2 weeks, I'll be standing here again, on the Pont de la Tournelle, the only thing that will look different is my hat. I have a new one to wear this winter.

Mail Art & moving the mail

 This morning was Spanish meet-up. I decided to make today's mail art using a substrate cut from a box of Spanish cookies. You can just make out some words at the top, which say that the cookies are like the ones mama made, or something to that effect; because of that "La Paz" seemed like the right word and the "fragile" label fit perfectly.

This old engraving of the mail being sorted on a train reminded me of my visit to the National Postal Museum where I was able to get onto a U.S. Mail railway car. It was an updated version of this French rolling post office. How speedy this must have seemed when people first had mail delivered via the railroad.

Happy Holidays to all - whatever you celebrate this time of year, I hope it's festive and happy.

Mail art finally

what a day, what a day! I spent most of it typing up address labels for the preview invitations for my honey's art exhibit. The exhibit will open on 1 March but we'll be away for 2 months so it's as if the opening were 1 January. 
I had to take breaks, so I made some oatmeal cookies.

 I finally finished, yay, and came up to my studio to make some mail art. I had two more old pipes and they just work so nicely with the de Kooning painting. I'm not sure if the paint is coming out of the pipes or being sucked into them. In any case, these make me laugh.

 This baby head is the last of my Victoria scrap stickers that has a person. The rest are flowers or birds. I called this one: "Baby's in the fruit again. Why?"

I received this beautiful card from Alicia, who lives in Iowa City. I sure hope I'll get mail art while in Paris, if not, I'm going to feel withdrawal symptoms. One of the first things I'll do, after gettig WiFi hooked up, will be to get to the post office to buy stamps! Okay, to be honest, maybe that'll be after I buy a baguette.

Hard to believe it's 23 Dec. as we had spring like temperatures. I walked to the mail box without a coat! Crazy!

A few more in-coming

Positively Postal (aka Scott) sent me an envelope full of goodies from the U.K.

 PTRZIA TICTAC sent me an envelope with a postcard and a set of her lovely artist stamps. What a treasure.

 Wenchkin is now doing a daily mail art project using her amazingly good silkscreen process. For this mailing, she folded the wings and antennae so they fit into the little envelope. I got the fun of unfolding them.

This is Owney, the Postal Dog as a plush toy. I bought this for my honey at the National Postal Museum and, using tags that H got for his assemblages, I recreated the little tagged jacket that the real Owney wore as he traveled with the mail. Cute, right?

Mail art in and mail art out

 I received this from Cernjul who lives in Buenos Aires. Her envelope is as lively as what was inside of it.  I feel so honored to be the recipient of so much lovely mail.

 This came from Fleur  in California. A tiny envelope made from origami paper, with small photos of store windows in it, and mailed in a clear envelope. So fabulous. Oh, and the stamps didn't get cancelled. Yay, this didn't go through the machinery.

 These are the two pieces of mail that came one day after another, from Katerina in Greece. So much fun to see what is included in her colorful envelopes.

Marie sent sent this from Japan. Fabulous!

I altered a photo postcard, one of a packet that Juli sent to me. A reminder, we're departing soon and any mail that arrives after 30 Dec. won't be seen for 2 months!

Busy days before our departure

 Yesterday, we went to the lunch at a new place. We liked it and we'll definitely eat there again. Ettamae's is very homey and warm.

 We liked the walls decorated with enlarged old photos of Ettamae and old plates. Cool idea.

 Before lunch, we were at Ghostprint gallery so that my honey could talk about some of the arrangements for his exhibit. It will open shortly after we return to the states, so he is anxiously completing all of his tasks now.

 I love clouds!

These are my new Sanita clogs. I really like that they are matte black & not shiny, so as not to draw too much attention to my feet. Will I be the only one in Paris wearing clogs?

Tiny Town, again, +

 Tiny Town is being watched! For what reason, they don't know, but it's rather annoying!  I've counted my Utrillo Postcards and I have, at least 30 of them left to work on. I may take some with me to Paris, to see what images I come up with.

My acquaintance, via the internet and her books, Kristin Espinasse, has written another book and I'd like to help spread the word. She self-published this one and it's on Amazon, how cool is that? You can see it here and here. I took this photo from one of Kristi's posts. I live vicariously through her French-word-a-day blog, and manage to keep up a bit of the language that way. If you have any interest in the French language, of Provence, or of an interesting writer's take on her own life, check out this book and the blog. Merci, on behalf of Kristi (who doesn't know I'm writing this as she's in Marseille having another doctor appointment to check on her skin cancer.) 

Booklet completed +

 I finished making collages in the little book that Robayre sent me. My honey would like to have it, which is a nice compliment, yes?

 Another page, I'm using the line and the dots for consistency.

 Another page.

I received this card from Rebecca in the U.K. She was so sweet to send a card of congratulations on my completing the 365 project and thanks for encouragement I've given her. This collage has been finished with a matte coating and made it through the mail in perfect condition. The reverse is also very nicely designed.