Mail Art - Sunday catching up

365.2 #307

 Tiny Town is back, for a brief visit. I have one more "blank" to alter then it's done.

While the residents were not sure of the propriety of the new monument, or it's placement, they were somehow drawn to it's smooth, simple elegance. Tiny Town always worked around strange occurrences.

65.2 #308

Tiny Town residents were grateful that Simone took on the duties of feeding, and looking after the well being of, Phideau.

#365.2 #309

365.2 #310

I have to come up with stories for a few of these cards. Nothing has come to me yet.






Ah, a lute player, what will I have to say about her?  I'm using some of the cards that my honey had printed for his Body of Evidence exhibit. They were the ones that he was not satisfied with the printing. They work as cards to be altered, by me.

Check out my honey's website HERE. It's a work in progress. More of his work will be added on a regular (or irregular) basis.

365.3 #157

365.3 #158

 The brass armillary was suppoed to be installed in the new colossal garden. The error on the part of the moving company was not appreciated by the residents of Tiny Town.

I was taken by this item when I saw it in a magazine. It was tough to cut out but worth it. I had to look up the word armillary!




Marie Claire's visits were infrequent as she led a very busy life, and Tiny Town residents always enjoyed her pleasant demeanor.

365.3 #159

 This guy is a companion piece to #309. They look like they belong together when I have them side by side. Maybe the same recipient needs to receive both of them. No story for him yet, or the woman, in the red coat, at the fox hunt.

365.3 #160

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.

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!

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?

Sunday - catching up

#197

#194

#44

 I agreed to participate in a Banana action. 11 people signed up so I had to make cards some how related to bananas. After signing up, I was like "what do I do?" Then good mail art friend that he is, Dean suggested: Do what you always do but add a banana. How simple and to the point. So I did.

#45

This is more of my Washi tape and punched out circles play. Randomly dropping circles, this time I decided to use colors that didn't appeal to me when they were together. Somehow, this works.







I think they give a good spatial illusion, and a good example of defying gravity, floating off into the air. What do you think?










I had to get Tiny Town into the Banana Action.  I wrote on the reverse something about the residents of the town getting out recipes that used bananas. Of course, disposal of the peelings was going to be a problem.








I have two old watches. Not so old they're vintage, so they have no value, per se.
Actually, they have no value period. I was told by two different jewelry shops and a jeweler, that fixing them wouldn't be possible. Well, possibly possible if I replaced the works completely, sent the Seiko to the manufacturer maybe, and the other to some one else. Since watches have become inexpensive (or very expensive) fixing them is no long what people do. There are few repairers, and few parts. dang. So what to do with them? I just don't want to throw them into the trash bin. Hmmm, I think I'll pass them on to a person to re-purpose into new jewleery. Dang, is all I have to say. Dang!

Last Thursday, after my Spanish book club met, we stayed on at the cafe to hear the jazz group play. The crowd was large and there was lots of red clothing in celebration of St. Valentine's Day. It was a lot of fun; quite the Best evening.

Mail Art, Sketchbook & Dr. Who

 I only have a few more of my altered cards, as I'm going on hiatus from them for awhile. I'll post a couple more, then on to some other ideas for my Mail Art.

This is #162
Quote on reverse: "Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others." Rosa Parks


Tiny Town gets an iconic Mid-century rocking chair!

#12

#163

This altered Chuck Scalin assemblage has this quote on the reverse - "Memory is a compoicated thing, a relative to truth, but not it's twin." Barbara Kindsolver

#13

 Tiny Town residents love this girl's mischievous smile.

 Here's another page from the sketchbook that I made for The Sketchbook project.

 Here's the owl page, which I like very much. I used my own Mail Art as reference when creating the sketchbook. Birds and quotes and lines and circles, so me!

 This is the end. Something about me and an envelope of circles for people to add to and/or take away.

Oh look, Dalek's confront Tinker Bell. The red Dalek is a tiny torch which had been a key ring but the ring part broke off. The blue one is a recent gift from N, as was the red one. I'm having fun with Dalek's at my computer desk.

So long, on this rainy, gray, Richmond day. Have some fun today, have fun every day, that's my suggestion.

My Sketchbook & My Mail Art

#159 - this is the 159th day of my 365.2 Mail Art project.

The quote on the reverse is - "Nothing stands still except in our memory." Philippa Pearce

 Card #160 is another of Chuck Scalin's assemblage photos, altered with only the man. I'm almost ready to stop this series for awhile. Almost. Quote on reverse -
"Memory is the diary we all carry with us." Oscar Wilde

#9

 I feel fortunate to have discovered this woman in my pile of scraps. She's so lovely.  Story on reverse - Florrie's serene and gentle nature reminded eeryone in Tiny Town that they, too, could feel the same way."

 #10 I wasn't sure how the baseball would work. The addition of the shadow on the street helped. I used a soft graphite for the shadow. On the reverse - "The residents of Tiny Town were understandably perturbed by the nearness of a new baseball field."

These low number cards are part of my 365.3 Mail Art project.

The next three images are the cover and two of the double page spreads from my Sketchbook project for the Brooklyn Art Library.