More Mail Art and an anniversary

365.2 #236

 Oh I just had to add a bird. It just felt like the day to do that. The gull also needed to be on a light background that reminded me of a pale sky. The red scrap is another of the bits from Katerina.

365.2 #238

365.2 #237

365.3 #86

#87

#88

Here, in the next few pieces of Mail Art, I tossed the strips onto the background. This wasn't as easy as I thought I  would be, as the strips had a mind of their own and wouldn't drop, wanting to stick to my fingers!








I decided that the black background piece really make the strips pop. The other ground weren't as effective.










Here's the other bird piece that I did the same day as the gull. Some days, things just come together!











More randomness.












And more randomness. This is my least favorite of these cards. It just doesn't work as well as the others. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day to make Mail Art.

 This past weekend was exciting in many ways. One of the things that took place, was the 25th anniversary of the adoption agency that I co-founded. In 2000, I retired from the agency. It was really wonderful to see how the agency has continued providing excellent services to families. 

Go to Coordinators/2, Inc. to find out more about the agency.

Here's my face, peeking around the corner of this piece of cake!

The photo on the cake is one that the current Executive Director, amazing Becky, found in our archives. It shows the 3 women who were directors. Myself and Sharon, the co-founders, and Lynn, who we were fortunate to have our board approve as our next in-line director.

We all thought we looked so much better now, than when this photo was taken, but we are all proud of what the agency continues to do. Pat pat pat on it's back!

Mail Art, as usual, and more

365.2 #235

365.3 #85

 In these pieces of Mail Art from earlier this week, I used scraps of old paper from my collection, and strips of paper that Katerina sent me. These first two I kept simple, with the same colors for the ground.  They're like another Albers experience, experimenting with color changes.

365.3 #84

365.2 #234

I like how the lighter back ground of worked for these. They are cards cut from cracker boxes. More color scraps. These really seem to have some kind of message, but what it is, you'll have to make up yourself.

 My friend Claire has been making a pair of earrings every day as her 365 project. And they're good. I just purchased this pair, which she'll fix with a shorter wire, since I'm not such a tall person (she writes with a smile on her.) You can see her work here.

Here's a view of the installation of my work. The smallgallery inside the gallery is perfect for my little work. The low lighting wasn't a problem. The framed piece is my example of what the show was about - my Mail Art, my altering a postcard of a painting, my collage.
I sold 7 prints! How cools is that.

Catching up on Mail Art Monday

365.2 #230

365.2 #231

365.2 #232

I decided to put a few of my Tiny Town prints in my Etsy shop. I had three that I couldn't fit into the gallery space so they are immediately available. I thought, why not try it! This is one of the prints.

365.3 #80

Surprised

365.3 #81

365.3 #83

365.3 #82

The following 6 pieces of Mail Art were done during the past week. I was running on empty, or so I thought, but somehow, ideas came to me. How, I just looked at what was on my studio table, or in one of my little tins of cut out bits.





















My friend Katerina had sent me cut off strips of color paper from her projects. They've come in handy.










Washi tape is always a favorite default of mine, as well as, the ubiquitous circle.











Surprise! We had snow yesterday. Big, fluffy puffs of it fell from the sky. Lots of those big puffs fell in a short period of time and cause havoc to reign. Lots of fender benders. We made it home okay and found our hen and her chick surprised by the snow, as well.








3 bits of paper and I have a composition!!

365.2 #233

More of Katerina's strips of color. The substrate is cardboard cut from boxes and any other source that appears in our house.

Catching up on Mail Art +

365.2 #226

365.2 #229

365.2 #227

365.3 #77

 These cards were done during a 4 day period last week. The excitement of last week meant I didn't get to post these.

I'm very pleased with the way the strip ones turned out.

365.2 #228

365.3 #76

365.3 #78

365.3 #79

I made the two egg cards for a Mail Art call in Thessaloniki, Greece. I normally do not do things egg shaped, as you know. I'm more of a circle, rather than an oval, person. (ha ha ha, I made myself laugh with that sentence.)

Some Tiny Town exhibit photos

Entrance to Tiny Town

Tiny Town was installed in the small gallery in Artspace Gallery. It was a perfectly tiny space for my work.

I was able to install 20 of the digital images of the Mail Art collages that I made, starting in the spring of 2011, using the Maurice Utrillo postcard. The original painting is in the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. It was painted in 1911, 100 years before I altered the image.




I made tiny food for the reception. Can you see the contrast? For sure. My little cookies, miniature candy, and tiny wrapped chocolates, which resembled "kisses."

 I made tiny salmon/tuna cakes, had tiny cubes of cheese, and small crackers. Again, I think you can spot the size difference. There were 4 other people showing work in larger galleries and they provided the BIG food.








My honey wrapped chocolate chips in aluminum foil so that they looked like those "kisses." What patience. It's was an idea that my friend Ann came up with, but I'm not sure she thought we'd actually do it.

After taking the food photos, I learned that my honey's camera had no more battery power. I was able to catch this one photo of people in the gallery space, so you can see scale. At one point, it was like high tourist season! The space was filled with visitors. Wish I'd gotten a photo of that.

Here's a photo right after the work was installed by our good friend Matt Lively. I couldn't have done it without him. Actually, He did it all!

I sold  7 prints the evening of the opening. 2 each of two of the images. I'm doing an edition of 5 prints per image on the suggestion of my honey, which was a very good idea. I'll also offer them in my Etsy shop. I was pleased with the positive response. I wasn't sure how that'd go as this was such a different concept than the other shows, which were paintings and drawings. I gave an explanation on the reverse of the price list, of both my Tiny Town project and of Mail Art. The framed piece on the left shows how I framed one of the original postcards, an altered one, and the reverse of one. I may even have convinced some people to become Mail Artists. I hope so!

Tiny Town exhibit

 Well, the big day will soon be here! My exhibit of digital prints of some of my Tiny Town Mail Art pieces will open this coming Friday! I made a tiny show card, the size of a business card, to publicize the event. I'll be exhibiting 20 views of the town in a very small gallery space in a larger gallery where other artists will be exhibiting their work.

We're all smiles.

Excitement mounts

If you're around Richmond, VA, on Friday, come on by Artspace Gallery and get an authentic, genuine, Tiny Town entry stamp in your "passport."  If you miss the opening, the show will be up until 21 April.

Sunday - the usual, Mail Art and more.

#224

#223

 These are my Mail Art artist melds from
Thursday through yesterday.

#73

 Why some are tiny and others larger has to do with how they scanned, mysteriously, I had nothing to do with it, really I didn't!
I'm enjoying mixing up artists in this series. My favorite of all is the meet-up of El Anatsui and Renoir, #225. Artists used in this series are Yayoi Kusama of dot fame, El Anatsui, Renoir, Joan Mitchell, Kandinsky, Schwitters, and some artist whose names I forgot to note before cutting up their paintings. OOps, sorry.

#74

#225

#75

 I would like to try to make some small pieces that are based on El Anatsui's work. I've been fortunate enough to see a number of his pieces in person. They're made out of bits of flattened metal and linked, so that "cloth" is made. They are beautiful.

Well, I've been busy with two things - my upcoming Tiny Town exhibit, and working on getting my honey a functional website. I still have a few things to do for my exhibit, and some tweaks on the website, but in general, I'm feeling pretty good about both.  Here's the tiny show card that I made to handout to people. It's the size of a business card.

Here's a framed piece that will be shown in the small gallery space that I'm exhibiting in, that shows the postcard that I use for Tiny Town (at the top,) an altered card (in the middle) and a copy of the reverse of that card. When the exhibit ends, that piece will be un-framed and the card mailed out. The remaining unaltered card will be made into the last of Tiny Town. I might send it to the Utrillo Museum in Sannois, France. What do you think? Should I do that?

Wednesday Mail Art Update and Barbara Kruger

We were very fortunate to see the Barbara Kruger installation at the Hirschhorn Museum last month.  Here are a few photos that I took there.

It was pretty incredible to be standing in the space surrounded by typography. Very powerful.

I wish that I had more control over the layout here at blogger. I wanted to group the images, in a cluster but can't seem to make it happen. Oh well.

One of the sales clerks in the shop told us that this installation would be up for a long time since it is so involved. If you're in the D.C. area, check it out. 

#221

 This is more in my series of Mail Art cards, continuing the theme I started three days ago. I'm creating partnerships between artists. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the name of some of them when I cut the images out of the magazine. Ooops.
If you recognize the artist, let me know. In this care, #221, Joan Mitchell is at the top. Unknown at the bottom.

#71

 This card #71, has two unknown artists meeting.

#72

In #72, I have de Kooning (at the top) meeting Joan Mitchell (at the bottom) which could have happened in real life.   In #222, I have El Anatsui (bottom) meeting Yayoi Kusama. I like this meeting very much. How about you? Which is your favorite meet up?

#222