Therapeutic endeavors!

two tote bags

a couple more tote bags

dreaming of fishes

Because of the political turmoil in the U.S., I'm feeling the need to do things that are therapeutic, like making Mail Art, and sewing bags. They're both meditative activities for me.  Plus I get to use up fabric that's been hanging around, and scraps of paper and cardboard, so all good.

following along

another bag

The partial eclipse shadow

The odd eclipse sky

The eclipse was seen partially in our part of the country and, even at 86% or whatever, it was pretty phenomenal. The sky turned an interesting color, the light changed to something eerie, and not describable.

Fishy tale

The sweet thing was the people came together to appreciate the event in impromptu gatherings. We went to the park near us. People shared their eclipse glasses and exclaimed at the crescents in the tree shadows. Marveling at the light change, and even a slight temperature difference that was noticeable. Oh for a sweet few moments, we were all friendly and neighborly. It buoyed my spirits considerably.






And I hope that my Mail Art recipients' spirits are lifted by receiving something fun in their mail box.

Hope you share some neighborly moments or get some good mail.

Hugs for everyone.

The weather, the cards, the cat, & me.

 What a difference a day makes! Here's what the little lake looked like on Wednesday when I cut through the park after my Spanish class. Gray day, with a few birds heading my way thinking I had something for them. So chilly.

But just warm enough for SNOW. We awoke to find a dusting of snow. It continued to snow light little flakes that melted quickly. I'm glad I got this photo from the bedroom window. So pretty, but I"m glad it didn't pile up and immobilize the city.

I'm happy to be knitting again and have filled my yarn drawer with the best supplies. Since my favorite yarn shop is gone, I've ordered through the internet. This yarn came from England in a pink mailing bag & a net gift bag. Sweet! The source is LoveKnitting.

This week, I've been practicing the zigzag/chevron stitch. Tomorrow, I'll have the maestra check it out in class to see how I'm doing with it.

I'm continuing to make Mail Art. I've just started to number them in order of making them. Simply #1, #2, etc.

 The pressure is off to make one a day, but I'm making 2 some days, 4 another day, zero another day. It's just so fun and, the practice has been established.

Remember: Creativity is a Practice.

I was busy working in the studio when the story stopped suddenly. I turned and saw the culprit! Bizoo!
He ejected the disk - Neil Gaiman reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane. What? He didn't like it.

The project, the park, & mail art

 This is how I'm moving along with my art-o-mat project. I've laid down the color bases of sky, clouds, land. Tomorrow, I'll start refining. This will work!

 The leaves are changing color and it's so beautiful to walk in the park, or just in my neighborhood. Today, I took my shopping cart and walked to the post office, market. tea shop, and library. It was about a 2 + mile walk ,which is what I do in the park. I met up with neighbors and friends on the walk, which was a lot of fun.

 Friday's mail art was made up of pieces from the scrap box. I kept to my limitation of 4 pieces per card.

 I like the way these turned out and will probably do more of them during these last few days of the project.

 Because I discovered I had these big heads, it was time for more Tiny Town.

I just love how the big people change up the feeling of the town and truly give it the feeling of a Tiny Town. I amuse myself easily don't I?

The new project, some mail art, and the park

 I finally got started on my Art-o-Mat project. I have to complete 21 pieces for the 10th anniversary of the local machine. Who said "yes?" Oh, it was me. So now I have to get busy. It took awhile to decide what I'd do. I wanted out of my comfort zone - don't ask why, please do not ask why.
I decided I'd do little landscapes. I hadn't painted in a long time so I thought, go for it. I did a sample landscape on paper then  I sanded down all of the blocks of wood.

 I put gesso on the blocks. Tomorrow I'll sand them down again to get a smooth surface.  I'll start painting using a production line kind of process. I plan to lay down a base of sky and land, then go in with details to make each one different.

 Today is day 345. There are 20 more days to go. Amazing! I made two cards referencing the French language. I did that because this morning I had to Skype Paris to make our deposit on the atelier at the Cite International des Arts. I was nervous as I haven't spoken French to a French person for a year and a half. Can you spell RUSTY!

 When I get nervous I speak quickly so I wanted to remember to s p e a k  s l o w l y. Another reason I was nervous was that I was giving our credit card number and had to be sure I was doing it correctly. Well, I did okay. I understood the Madame at the Compabilite and she understood me. How cool is that?!

 After my telephone call, we went to the park and it was a gorgeous morning. A light breeze, the smell of spring (because they'd cut the grass) and sunshine. The geese have moved further into the park, middle of the trail.

My honey straightened out the items on the tree stump. He doesn't know who started doing this, but it happened right after the tree was cut and the orange paint appeared to indicate that the stump was to be removed. So far, it stays. This is right on the edge of the trail, near the 1/2 way mark.  We were happy to get out as the rain came in the late afternoon and it got very chilly out.

A foggy day in the park and mail art

 Go back two post and you'll see the difference. We drove to the walking trail but had my honey stop the car so I could snap this photo. Amazing difference from the past couple of days.  The geese had moved further into the park beside the walking trail. There were few people out there this morning. Here are a few images for you to see.

 Today's series, #344, was all made from scraps from the little box. Again, I limited myself to 4 pieces of paper. Fortunately, I had some really cool images to use, which gave a nice consistency.

 I have no titles for these, as I'm hoping someone will come up with some good ones. I think there's a nice narrative going on. All I could think of was "Don't look at the shoes" or "feet." ha ha ha

 I did nothing to the bits as I pulled them from my scrap box, except clean up some of the edges on the heads or legs.

 I couldn't believe how I had enough of each part and, also, the speckled or dotty paper.

Here's my work table this morning. There's the box of scraps and the cards in progress. I'm going to try to work out of this box for the next few days. Few, indeed, as I'm coming close to the end of my year long project. Unbelievable!

Mail Art in and out & the lake

 The lake look so beautiful, I just had to share another photo of it.

 Yesterday was so bright, the leaves with their changing colors were so wonderful.

 The shadows against the wall were crisp. This was yesterday. Today, a whole different look which you'll see in my next post.










This is yesterday's mail art. I chose 4 pieces from the little box of scraps as a limitation on myself. I like the result.

#343

I am so far behind on scanning and posting my received mail art. Lots of wonderful mail arrived at my house the past couple weeks, from all over the world. Lucky me!

Back to "normal?"

 We walked to the vita trail this morning and the geese weren't at the little fountain lake, except for maybe 2 or 3. Where were they? Further along, there they were, grazing in the grassy areas. There's my honey walking ahead as the geese cross the roadway unperturbed by a person's presence.

 I snapped this as we walked back. How serene the little lake, with just a few geese near it. I took lots of photos or this scene, with the clear reflection on the still water. The sky really was so blue today. Even my old school flip phone captured it.

 I borrowed an eReader from the library and took it to the park. While my honey continued on for a couple more miles, I sat and read The Greater Journey by David McCollough. I'm getting used to reading on the little reader in preparation for our travels.

Today's mail art, on day 342 of my 365 project (can't believe it's almost a year.) I went back to one of my boxes of scraps that I'd used early on in the project and pulled out color paper. I didn't change up anything, shapes or sizes, just arranged them on the postcard blank. It looks so retro. I'm thinking of this week as sort of a retrospective of earlier output.

Mail art update, other stuff, and some geese

 This was such a cool image to me. As M and I walked behind VMFA yesterday, after having been to the Virginia Historical Society to see a terrific exhibit, we saw these painters. They were the same color as the building and, to me, looked like a Georg Segal sculpture. Cool, right?   We were headed to the post office, with a stop for the ribbon cutting at our newly refurbished branch library. Fun!

 Mail art #286 makes me laugh. I used the back end of an illustration of a prehistoric fish that lived back when Jamestown was settled (1607-ish.) My comment had to do with the residents thinking this was something from M. Melies studio, like a big hot air balloon.

 This one is 286a. A pensive looking boy, gazing at the tiny men on tiny horses following tiny dogs.

 We scored some tiny (yes, that word again) alphabet stamp sets at the craft store on Monday. Only $1, which is a good deal, indeed. I was playing around with the stamps and decided to use the bits for collage.

 Every time I get back to some minimal cards, I feel satisfied. Something about the LESS-ness of them, satisfies me. A couple three scraps, a bit of Washi tape, et voila, minimal mail art.

 This morning was the first day of our new year of Spanish class. On the way home, I took the short cut through Byrd park and...there were birds there. Geese were all over the place. I put my phone out the window and snagged a couple of images.

Fortunately, there were no cars behind me so I could stop. They weren't making a sound. Must be the stop over on the way south, right?