Mail Art and why I've been gone so long.

#20

#21

#22

#23

 Some lovely person, who's a member of IUOMA (International Union of Mail Art) sent me a piece of very old newspaper, plus a friend gave me some old books. I enjoyed playing with this old paper, though carefully, as some of it was quite fagile.  I felt like I was getting back to my collage "roots."


I made a number of these red cards to send out to friends. Now I want to make lots more in various color themes.

  Hostage colors, someone once said - must have red for Valentine's day, and red and green for Christmas, etc. But red IS such a lovely color.

Here's Mona with a red ball floating in the water behind her. She doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't care, or maybe she's the one that tossed it in?

If you haven't checked out my latest Mona post, check HERE.

So things have been busy. We went to New Orleans NOLA for a few days to celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary. Yes, we've been married since we were babies, in case you wondered. It was sooo much fun. That is a fabulous city for celebrating. They're all about hospitality!

And I've been working on a couple projects, which I'll tell you about in a few weeks.
And I've been spending time hanging out with our grand-girl, who is delightful.
And I've been knitting the never-ending toddler sweater project, which I unravel and reknit trying to get it right.

I'm actually trying to distract myself at this moment, by writing this post, as I've news from afar that my mother is in hospital. She's 101, so one never knows.
So it goes.

Do you have something you do when you want to distract yourself from thinking about something you don't want to think about? Share, if you'd like.

Snow is on it's way! and other things.

#2-2015

#4 - 2015

 Catching up on showing you my mail art of 2015.

Still at it on a regular basis.

What about you? Any routines for 2015?

#5 - 2015

#6 - 2015

Altered Mona #8

Foucault's Pendulum at our local science museum. This past month, there was a train set up around the pendulum, which was a fun touch. Children love watching this pendulum knock down the pegs!

We saw the original pendulum at a not very well known museum in Paris. What a thrill, really.

Oh, and check out my new Mona blog HERE.

My new blog!

I've begun a new blog. It's all about me and Mona. Check out my first post HERE.

Mail Art, a question, and some other stuff

Bizoo

Z

 Bizoo was in C's studio lying on some tissue paper. This was acceptable as he wasn't tip-toeing over the art work, supplies or tools that are everywhere.

Z's cute face captured on a recent walk with her Pa & C. The hat was made by Great-Aunt Phyllis. Happily she likes hats since it's been really chilly here.

#315

This is a view of the wall in the studio in Paris, showing all of the altered Mona Lisa cards that I made back in the winter of 2012. I still have these cards. What to do with them? Hmmm. I was going to scan and post, then mail out, but do you think I should try to find a little venue to display them first?
I need some input on this.

The little Victorian children are on an OLD French postcard showing Mont St-Michel. They love the miniature sheep!

#316

This was made after I returned from Washington DC and my visit to the National Postal Museum. That's an old Metro card, a photo of Owney, the postal dog, and some other images related to the P.O.

#317

This is a memory piece using some paper from one of my grade books and some torn bits of art work. I discarded two grade books that I had from 2002 & 2003. I looked at all the students names to see how many I remembered and hoped that they were all doing well. Then shred shred shred, gone!

#318

Some more Victorian scraps. I cut up a bunch while watching TV one night. We usually don't watch much but have a couple of series we follow. I can't just watch TV.

#310

And here's a cat that reminds me of Bizoo, waiting on a vintage postcard bridge.

And some related to vintage postcards news: I'm one of three jurors at the Od Dominion Postcard Club show tomorrow. Bad part, I have to be at the venue at 0830, and it's not close-by. More on this next post.

Some images of Paris & Mail Art

 I've been making mail art pretty regularly, though not sending it out on the day that I make it because I carry it in my pocket and forget to drop it in the mail box. So it goes. This is number 819.

 Using exhibition show cards as my base, scavenging images from the old Sotheby's auction house catalogue, and some bits of text, is quite satisfying.

 Yesterday, we went in search of La Maison du Chocolate to buy a gift for someone who's invited us for lunch. This is the view of the escalators in the grand department store, Le Bon Marché. I love this view and have taken it over and over. We introduced it to our friend Anne.

 This is the array of dried fruits and nuts that we purchased today at the store two streets up from us, called Izraël. We were told that it has the best selection and it does. I did get a bit claustrophobic as it's a tiny shop. I was afraid I'd knock into something or someone. The almonds coated in toasted sesame seeds are quite delicious.

 We stopped in the MEP to see the current expositions. Wonderful photographs by a number of different artists, plus a group of photos from the collection of a large bank in Brazil. The courtyard is a zen garden.

 

 This is at Le Bon Marché. There was a set up of perfumes that one could try out, spray on papers, there was no attendent, just the perfumes and paper. So here was this group of three older women, huddled around trying out the scents. It became a bit overwhelming so we had to hurry past and I turned to snap this image.

Returning from the theatre on Monday night, we got off the train at the Notre-Dame exit (RER) and walked the rest of the way, even though it was chilly. This is the view looking up at the towers from right out front. There was hardly anyone around, it was so quiet, and silvery.

Day 12, almost a 2 weeks in Paris!

 La Poste offices are in old buildings but have been "modernized." This one is near Les Archives. I have to go to one again tomorrow. One of my big indulgences - postage stamps!

 Mail Art using a show card from an exhibit that has passed. Now I'm seeing a couple of eyes peering out at me!

 This is another of the Mona card alterations. I'm having a lot of fun with these and glad that I saved the petit-point patterns catalogue. I bought another dozen Mona cards from the book shop Monalisait, which has a different version and a better price, 12 cards for 2€. We (my honey and I, have a plan for them.)

 Here's the view from Centre Pompidou looking towards Mont Martre. What nice weather we had for that day. I love how the light and shadows effect the pattern of the buildings.

Folks from Richmond are in Paris for a few days and met up with us for dinner. We went back to Le Trumilou. Here's my dinner, which was quite tasty.

The Tarte de Pomme, shared by my honey and I, was yummy. It had a berry sauce drizzled on the plate. 
We aren't going out to eat very often. I'm making simple meals in our tiny kitchen, frequently just a salad with cheese and baguette. We eat it, sitting at the table which we've placed by the window, with the view of the Seine and the Ile St. Louis. It's so good.

Update of Thursday.

 Yesterday, after my French class, we did some errands, like laundrmat, eyeglass shop, BHV to see about printing digi prints, and stopped at a small boutique to say hello to the owner, whom we'd met a few years ago. She has a small boutique with ceramics and hand made jewelry and has this cute faced heater!

 Here are more of my tiny landscapes in progress. 2" x 3" (5.8cm-7.3cm appx) So far, I have 34 more to complete.

 When we were at Centre Pompidou the other day, I found a souvenir shop with inexpensive tourist postcard, 10 for 1,50€. I got a lot of Mona. I will go back there and get some more as I'm having such fun with them.

 The catalog for needle-point that I cut up is coming in very handy for giving Mona something to hold.

 On the way back from errands yesterday, we stopped at a bakery for a baguette and some pastry to have after dinner.

These were quite delicious. You can see that we shared them.

Good Mail Day

Yesterday was a Good Mail Day! I got two pieces of mail art. One from Andrea in the U.K. and one from Ptrizia Tictac in Germany. Notice, I got two of those sheets where you add your name, send mail art to the next name in line, and make copies to give to other mail artists. These two have some names the same and then different names added so I can see where they diverged. Very interesting. I, also, received one a few weeks ago, sent out mail art and two of the copies. I have 8 more to send out but slow going. I may have to go into Mail Art detox. (Yes, there's a detox group on IUOMA) I love the Mona postcard. She has big eyes like a Blythe doll. She cracks me up (makes me laugh.)