Oh My, the time when by so quickly!

 I've been making Mail Art but at a different pace these days. Some days, not at all and other days, more than one.

Prints of my Tiny Town that were left from my exhibit last year, have water damage from the flood in my studio.

Not the images but the area at the bottom of the page. SO....

 I've been cutting out the images, and altering the alterations! What fun, Tiny Town redux, as it were.

Adding the little vintage musicians has been fun for me. It changes up the images so much, right?

 What do you think?  Now I have new stories about the residents of Tiny Town and the child musicians who visit them.

I'm doing some simple collages, too.

These simple town compositions are as appealing to me as altering the vintage cards.

 I'd forgotten how good it feels to tear paper!

 Mrs. Andrews, with whom I've exchanged mail since 10 years ago, at least, sent me a sweet small piece which the postal service thought deserved to be put into a larger envelope so it wouldn't get damaged. Fortunately, Mrs. Andrews didn't put her return address, ensuring that I'd receive her Mail Art.

 I changed up my REAL Wall again. It's so inspiring. 19 artists are displayed here from 10 countries.

I have so many more wonderful pieces of Mail Art to display but they'll have to wait until next month. I'm enjoying this grouping very much.

Is there anything from YOU up here?

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.