#79 with a story.

 Today is the letter "P" in the month long project that is part of  MailArt365. When I went into my studio, I pulled all of the letter "Ps" that I had cut out and then began to look for things that might represent the letter.

 I pulled out an old magazine, The Artist's Magazine. It probably had been at my friend's place and I took it when she moved into the nursing home in 2009. It was from October of 1986 and was full of "how to" do things with water colour paint, acrylics, etc. I pulled out the pages with water colour samples thinking I use those for P.

 Then I came to the article about the acrylic paintings of Patti Cramer. I just loved how fun they were, colorful, charming, humorous. Wow, I thought, I want to write this woman an e-mail to tell her about how much I like her work.

 I looked her up on the internet. Sure, enough, a couple of entries for her, one an article in a newspaper in Denver.  Within one sentence, I knew I'd never get to write to Patti. The verb used that was the clue: WAS. Patti had died this past October.  I felt so sad. I didn't know her, and had only just tonight really paid attention to her work in that old magazine.  This series, which I did little to alter, is in her memory, using parts of her paintings.

 This is the magazine cover, a page showing water colour swatches, my letters "P."  That's a self-portrait painting by Patti Cramer.

 This shows her process for creating the painting of the man in 4 steps.

Here's what Patti looked like in 1986, and here's the title page of the article.

Rest in peace Patti Cramer. I sure do like your paintings, illustrations of joy and fun.