My water color baby steps!

Mail Art, of course, and more NYC.

#56

 Here I use my current favorite elements, a person lower left looking off "camera", dots and Washi tape. What fun! The color of the large area is not gray, it's actually a green. My scanner didn't do a good job of capturing this.

#57

Here is one of my attempts at watercolor (colour, for my Brit friends.) I took a workshop yesterday, with my friend Rudi, who was very encouraging. I liked it. I have to practice a lot, but I think I can do this. It'll be a nice switch from my usual cut & paste.

#58

So what do I do today, day 58? I go back to cut and paste. I couldn't resist this. I've been looking for this fish, which got lost in my scraps, and just found it today. It went perfectly with this very old postcard. Since it called for a one cent stamp, it's gotta be from the turn of the last century.  

 Now for some food photos from our New York Trip. This delicious quiche was eaten a 103 Monument Lane in the West Village. YUM!

 On Sunday last week, we celebrated our daughter's birthday by walking around a lot! It was a gorgeous day for a walk. We went down to the parks on the Hudson  River, we went to restaurants, we checked out shops, and my honey followed some music and found an event in the courtyard of Westbeth. Great surprise. Good music, including the Bob Dorough trio. Bob did the music on Schoolhouse Rock. In case you don't remember it, check it out. He sang  "Three is a Magic Number" which was such a treat!
This little girl was busy creating art with a gigantic stick of chalk while the music was playing.

Here's some chill refreshment I had at lunch that special day. It was quite tasty! 

This is a creamy tomato soup that I had at Sarabeth's Tribeca restaurant. It was   near where we ended our walk along the Hudson River Park. When we saw the place, we decided to have an early dinner there. The recipe isn't posted on their site which is too bad cause I'd sure like to replicate it. I've never had such a delicious creamy, chunky tomato soup. Got a good tomato soup recipe for me? Anyone?

Mail Art and more NYC

#53

#54

#55

 Okay, I'm going through a phase it seems! People in the lower corners of the compositions is trending! As well as, dots! and a bit of Washi tape thrown on for good measure, at times.








The women in these two cards are from very different eras. I love that the hair styles are similar.  I'm using cardboard cut from cereal and cracker boxes. I'm so fond of the color and texture of that.








Here I used two pieces of paper that were right at hand on my table. The black paper and the woman were perfect together. I added random text to make a sort of poem. The woman is so happy doing her job, whatever that is. Well, maybe not "happy" but wait, she's a model. Of course, she's happy. She's pretending. I love old advertisements.





This photo was taken at the top of The New Museum located on Bowery St. in lower Manhattan.

 I was pointing north west and captured a bit of the building surface. It was so cool to look down on the street and to look across Manhattan, and yet not be TOO high up.  We saw an excellent exhibit on holograms and "Ghosts in the Machine," which was very cool!

 Here's the window of a tiny shop - with the name there and a subtitle of Shop Mom & Pop. There were all sorts of handmade items, mainly made by people in New York, or in the U.s. Everything from Soaps to Childrens' toys. Very cool little place. If you're in the West Village, stop by and say "Hi."

We were so happy that we saw these sculptures, after having seen the exhibit at the Whitney of the work of Yayoi Kusama, and also, the windows of the Louis Vuitton shop in Chicago (remember that post?) 
These sculptures were in the park along the Hudson River. There was a sign saying NOT to sit or lay on them. ha ha ha ha, who reads signs?! People were really enjoying these. Click HERE for a link to see more of the park and a building on 14th St. wrapped in her work.

Mail Art made while on holiday

#48

#49

#50

#51

#52

I made these cards while on our brief holiday in NYC. Card #48 was made on the train using images cut from the Amtrak magazine. I had a little bag of circles and added these which were punched out of the remainder of a sheet of postage stamps.




I made this using scraps that I'd cut from the magazine, while we were in the place we were staying in Manhattan. A shared apartment in the lower Lower East Side (LES) I'm not sure how successful the green dot bits are in the water.






As you can see, I used bits from museums that we visited in this one. I'm sending it to a couple that sat next to us at the cafe in MoMA. They were visiting for a few days on their way home to Tahiti. I got to speak French!









Again, using bits from from the Amtrak magazine and my ubiquitous circles.











This is the one that I made on the train, on the way back home. It was a pleasant ride, in the quiet car, with nice memories of a short but excellent holiday.

Back home, catching up

 We went up to New York City to celebrate the launch of our kids new business and our daughter's birthday. A quick trip via the train. Well not quick cause the train ride is 6 hours long, but the stay was short.

Here's the old U.S. Post Office that is across from the train station in NYC. It's one of those wonderful old buildings. I think it's being converted into something else. I hope not condos!

 This is the building still under construction at "ground zero." We've been watching the progress. This time we are closer to it, down on the west side of Manhattan in the Tribeca area.

#46

I added 4 circles and a piece of paper with holes in it to this. To me, it now looks like figures on a boat with portholes. What's it look like to you? It's an altered postcard.

#46a

Someone sent me an Artist Trading Card and I wanted to send one back to them but not in an envelope. I made the ATC, then I attached it to the front of a postcard with Washi tape - my new one with stars on it. I like the way it turned out. The recipient can peel off the tape to get their ATC (which is in a plastic sleeve) or just leave it like it is.

#47

I decided that it was time for another collaged piece of dead technology to go out. I like that the information on this is unreadable, a mystery that will remain forever locked in this plastic thing.

Mail Art, clouds, rain, New Year

#43

 Here I've altered a painting by one of my favorite painters, Richard Diebenkorn. I don't know that he's appreciated my dots, but look, they're "flavourful!"


And here's another painter that I like - Kandinsky, who is featured in Mona's thoughts. An altered Mona!

#44

#45

I got an  inquiry from Chris in Brisbane, Australia, about my circles. Did I use a punch and I do! She was going to try to get one. In the meantime, I decided to send some punched out circles to her.  I altered a Max Ernst painting with circles, tucked it in to a sheer envelope with some circles and taped it shut. THEN I remember that I hadn't scanned it. So here it is scanned in envelope and I LIKE the way it looks. The reverse is the address, of course. I hope it gets all the way to Australia okay.


This card was made for Laurance's grandmére in Nancy, France. She said that gram liked to fish as a young woman so fish would be nice. But I thought a rose and an old movie star would be a nice addition. I hope grandmére likes this card.

#45a

 Oh the sky was lovely the other day. Check out those clouds. We were driving to Portsmouth, and I got this as we were headed to the interstate.

Add caption

 Today is a stormy day. I pulled into the parking lot at the supermarket, looked out the window and saw the flag though the rain. It looked so spooky.



Then I stepped out of the car and the wind was so strong that the flag was totally unfurled!

 We had family over on Sunday afternoon for a big dinner to celebrate the Jewish New Year. The food prepared by our niece was scrumptious & our nephew's apple pie YUM. I made my Neat balls and tried a new barbeque sauce recipe from the cookbook Veganomicon. So yummy. 
Here is my little plate of cut up apples and honey.

This is the flower arrangement that my honey made in a small glass. He went out to the back garden and cut some greens and a hydrangea blossom. It sure looks professional, doesn't it?

Mail Art and plus.

#41

#42

 I have two of these images of this little boy, one a bit bigger than the other. I like his very direct look, don't you? He was holding onto a camel's lead, but I didn't want a camel in my composition, so I gave the boy a big dot to hold onto.







I found out that tomorrow is International Dot day. For real! I hadn't known about it, but isn't it perfect for me?

On day 42 of 365.2, I've altered a Roy Lichtenstein painting. It needs a good title but I haven't thought of one. Any help would be accepted.

 This is the view from my studio window. A view of our giant holly tree, which is home to lots of little birds. I put a cut-out "bird" on the window so they wouldn't thump against the glass. They must knock their brains about; but, I've yet to find one lying on the stoop in front of the door, which is below this window. I hear less thumping now that the silhouette is there. 

What is this? Am I going on a trip? This is what I'm bringing to my Mail Art workshop tomorrow. 9 bags/containers full of stuff. I'm bringing paper scraps, postcards, colored paper, tools, reference books, catalogues, a sampling of received mail art, and magazines to cut up. I'll be making several trips to get it all downstairs, then it'll go into my grocery trolley/shopping card, then into my car, and then reverse it all at the VMFA Studio School. I'll be leaving early in order to be all set up by the time the participants arrive. I'm excited about sharing this again.

Mail Art, of course, and more

#38

 Here's more of my old maps of Paris and a bit of a receipt from 1906. This old paper is suprisingly sturdy. It makes me happy to use such old material, give it a new life, in a way. Doesn't that circle look transparent?

#39

I really amuse myself with alterations like this. We got this card at Guggenheim Bilbao. It's the gigantic Richard Serra installation, but look how tiny I made it look with the added people & circle! Someone asked if they were getting dizzy - ha ha ha - like an amusement park ride!

#40

Here's a little figure and some circles, which create an entirely different feeling. I think the circles being different sizes and textures gives the piece a lot of depth.

Oh, my, I'm at day #40 of my second 365 project. How crazy is this?

Although it was a bit gray out, I wanted to take this photo this morning, and show you how wild my 4 0-clocks are now, at the end of their season. I'm so pleased to have several yellow flowering bushes this year. My favorites! The scent is excellent in the evenings.

I made lentil soup yesterday morning. It was cooler outdoors and felt almost like autumn. Soup weather! This is a new recipe and I think it's now my favorite lentil soup recipe. You can try it. It's quite simple. Click HERE for the recipe. Let me know if you make it and how you like it.
I show the soup here in a tiny white bowl with a tiny porcelain handled demi-tasse spoon.  So cute!

Mail Art, a memory & some exciting news!

#37

 My friend Ang in Illinois wrote me a note on a lovely note card. The front was a modern interpretation of an old National Park poster. I really liked it and decided to re-purpose it into a piece of Mail Art. I altered it by adding figures cut from a photo of a painting that is in our Fine Arts museum. I added a nice circle, which makes a terrific floating planet.

Dots all over Centre Pompidou! Dots rolling wild in Paris!

#36

 Starting in 1955 until 1968, my mother worked in downtown Chicago at a big department store, Goldblatts. She started her career there as a sales clerk and moved up to being the manager of the patterns and trimmings department. It was perfect for her as she was a sew-er. She made lots of clothing for her children, including many stylish dresses for me while I was in high school and beyond.  She was very helpful to her customers, including the ones who worked at a place called The Jewel Box Review. She helped many female impersonators choose patterns and fancy lace or fur trimmings for their costumes. She, also, helped Sister Celine with patterns for full nightgowns, which she made for her convent. what an interesting life Mom had.

 BIG SURPRISE - After the destruction of the last incarnation of The Shelf, the neighborhood children were very upset. Some adults were, also.  Today, while walking over to Joe's Inn for breakfast, we saw the NEW Shelf! Isn't it fabulous. So rustic!

The inside is so cozy and filled with interesting items. I'll stop by later this week to see if anything has changed. How exciting to see this. I hope it lasts a long time.

Update on The Little Library - we drove by the other day and it was packed with books. How exciting is that?!

More Mail Art Out & In

 Another large piece of board was at hand so I laid out some random pieces of colored paper and circles.

Results - 2 cards below.

#34a

#34

I was surprised at how the circle on the blue color add such a lot of depth to the piece.










I like the way the bottom part cut off in just the right way, randomly. The bits mainly being at the bottom, yet the circles lift off and give a lightness to the piece.

#35

I found a lovely art postcard in a pile from our last trip to Europe. A mixed media collage by Henri Laurens, from 1915. I added all of the circles, of course. I think it really worked out well. I hope Henri would have liked it. 

I received an envelope from Pierpaolo Limoncelli in Bari, Italy. It had an "add & pass" (oh no, now I'm obliged to do something & pass it along, but to whom?) some stickers and some microfiche. The Microfiche is labeled " Preparing for an uncertain Climate Volume 2...Unted States Congress." WOW! Wonder where Pierpaolo got that!