Mail Art 365.2 - I begin again

#6

This is the 6th day card, when we got home and I used paper I picked up in Chicago. I liked that it was translucent and the text was fun for a piece of Mail Art.

#3

Here's a very busy composition. The substrate is a piece of cardboard I'd cut from a something while I was in L.A. in April. I liked the crudeness of the shape, which I'd cut using a child's scissors.

#4

In the background of this card is a piece from a painting that I'd torn from an Amtrak magazine, I think. I found it tucked in the travel kit. Since Chicago is the home to the largest collection of impressionist paintings, I thought this would be a good image to use.

#5

I made the 5th card on our last day in Illinois. It was a successful trip, though by the end of the day, or rather night, since we arrived home in Richmond at 11h30 p.m., we were quite exhausted. 

#6a

This card was a second one that I made on day 6. This is an altered art show card. The substrate is from a card that I picked up in Paris last winter.

I can see that, as per the first go around, I won't just be making one a day. I have way to many people that I want to send mail to these days.

It feels good to get up and just get to play in my studio again.

Day #313, alphabet stamps and received mail.

 Because I am forbidden to cut anything, I've pulled out my  rubber stamp alphabets. They'll be fun to play with, as well as my ink brush pen and stickers. Of course, I have plenty of bits already torn and cut in my stock pile. Curious about why I can't cut? I'm temporarily in a state of low platelets. Scary, but I'm sure I'll make lots more of them daily. Think positive thoughts in my direction.

 No Cutting Allowed - hole reinforcements, ink brush pen line, and a bit of text found on my table top. It works! And look, like increasing little platelets, right?

This is the front of the envelope that I received from my mail art friend, Patricio, in Brazil. Isn't it fabulous. All hand stamped, collaged,  & drawn. He addressed it to Miss Mail Artist and instead of "Mim", which means "me" in portuguese, he wrote "eu" which means "you." I love his sense of humor.

Mail art Update

 I discovered that I had 3 postcard blanks in a shiny green paper. Oh, so perfect for something simple

 I used some pieces of type cut from a LIFE magazine, circa 1965

 A think strip of Washi tape completed my designs. I got some fun comments on them when I posted them on Facebook. I really like how BOLD they are.

 This piece was done before the text pieces. The "divided" is a handtag from something my honey purchased awhile ago. It's done with an iridescent, holographic magic ink! The text is French, and a bit of Washi tape to finish it up.





More Tiny Town activity.

 Tuesday was the 2nd of 6 sessions of my 2d-Design class. We did the random experiences. They're a lot of fun and generate good examples of design principles.

Circles and squares, randomly placed, and secured. Next step, isolate an area, followed by discussion. Make something new!

#89, a series + a surprise from my honey.

"Z is for Zodiaque"

 Today is the last letter day of alphabet month. The person who proposed this, Dewi Johan, suggested a comma for the last day of the month, but I'm not going for that. The comma is so necessary, I use it so often, but it's so tiny. I want something to make more of a statement, something that has more variety and comes in different fonts. I'm thinking The Ampersand! I am very fond of ampersands. I think I have, at least, two of them ready to use.

"Z is for zorille"

I decided that this last letter day would be straight forward - Z is for____ .
 I used my old Petit Larousse for the images with the big dots for action. They actually line up in a nice rhythm, these three cards, but they'll be separated. Not sure who'll receive them.

"Z is for zinnia"

I'm sad that alphabet month is over. It made it easier for me to have something to springboard off of each day. I do have something planned for 1 March, having made plans to exchange like images with another member of IUOMA.
From there onward, we'll see what happens.




I got a nice surprise from my honey the other day.

A big box arrived at our door. What is this? It contained 4 mugs, designed by iittalla of Finland, oh my, I was delighted. I've loved their designs for years. Normally, my honey would choose very geometry designs, so I knew that these were chosen for me. The stylized birds and plants are sooo cute. I really like these. Aren't they so Finish? I've been drinking tea from this mug all day.

#88 series, the letter Y

"Why"

#87, 87a & 87b

 Thanks for this idea goes to my hair cutter exemplary, Meriel over at Spa310.
When I told her today was "X" day, she said something about "X" rated and I thought about those black strips put over eyes on photos. Fun!

I'd decided that today was going to be a walking day, preparing for my trip, which will include much walking.

 I walked to the Science Museum this morning, in the drizzle, for my Spanish Meet-Up. The walk home was in full sunshine and lots of wind.

After some lunch, I walked to Spa310, with really strong wind trying to hold me back.  I kept looking at the trees to make sure there wasn't a cracked one about to be blown down onto my head. Seriously, I thought about that! Silly moi.  The walk home was quick, as the wind was at my back.  But oh it was so sunny nice and are we fortunate. Our friends in southwestern Massachusetts reported lots of snow and my sisters in Los Angeles reported lots of rain.

#86 the letter "W" and a mail art call

 One lonely "W" sitting on my work table and a book of commerative U.S. states flower stamps. Hmmm, hope there's a lily in the bunch. Yes, there was and now it's on this postcard. It works for me.

Cynthia at Carytown Optical is sharing temporary space with Carytown Teas (the only Op-TEA-cal shop in the world she told me,) was intrigued by the mail art that Patricia and Mistie were receiving. She asked me to do a mail art call for her. So here it is. Please send her some Mail Art. She's very excited to receive some.

 

"Make a spectacle of yourself"

Do you wear eyeglasses, do you like eyeglass frames?

Some of us have a passion for eyeglass frames and

look for really interesting ones all the time.

Here's your opportunity to show your love for 

eyeglasses.

Theme: eyeglasses

size: standard postcard

medium: open

Deadline: 16 June 2011

No jury, no returns, all will be documented on-line

at http://carytownoptical.blogspot.com

as well as exhibited on site permanently.

Family friendly please.

Send to: Cynthia 

Carytown Optical

20 S. Nansemond

Richmond, VA 23221

USA

They will move back into their

renovated shops on 1 March 2011.

#85 the letter "V" & a new magazine.

 I didn't get to this until just a short while ago, as I had lots of errands to run after my morning clase de español. When I got home, I had many business phone calls to make, then I had to spend time getting our flights for our big trip, then I had to make dinner, as I'd invited my son, and our NDL over. They didn't linger after dinner as they were tired, and so were we, BUT, I had to get to V. How this came to me, I don't know. But I'm happy it did.

I was waiting for my honey to get finished at his somewhat emergency appointment at the dentist, when I spotted this magazine. What a title! What a concept! What a combination! I had to see what the contents were and to my surprise, I found a very engrossing article about an artist in New Orleans (now deceased) that hardly anyone has heard of but did really nice work. His name is/was Noel Rockmore.
There was, also, a book review of Mark Richard's new book House of Prayer No. 2, which sounded really interesting. Who'd have thought that I'd find this magazine so interesting?  Not me.

#84 Ululating

The first time I ever came across this word was in Ulysses by James Joyce, which I read while at University. I thought that Joyce invented the word. I liked it so much that I did an etching related to the word. Now, I'd like to be able to ululate about all of the troubles going on in the world today.

Instead, I'll make more mail art.

I tried to post the definition here, but somehow error kept coming up. I guess you'll have to look up the word on your own.



 

#83 the letter "T", a series

 We went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art this afternoon to see the Ifa exhibit (Art from Ancient Nigeria.) It was inspiring! I just wanted to get home and make art. When I sat down in my studio, this is the series that resulted. I don't see any connection with what I saw at VMFA but maybe there is one.

 The series is the letter "T."  They're all about torn and top, where I placed all of the letters.

 So far, I'm at day 83, and I've sent a total of 193 pieces of mail art related to the project. I'll get to 365 before the year is over, however, my goal is to make mail art every day for a year. That I'm making more than one a day is incidental to my goal.

My favorite is the one on which I placed the series number (83.) Which one do you like?

#82 the letter "S" for "security"

 Today's letter is "S." Early this morning, I read something on-line about recycling junk mail and they mentioned using security envelopes, with an explanation of what they are.
Well, perfect! Thanks for the reminder. I've been collecting those things since 2005 (how do I know, the postmark on some of the envelopes!) When I first started to save them, I had an e-mail conversation with Anna Banana about them, saying I didn't know what I was going to do with them. She said "You'll figure it out."  For awhile, I used them in my "fine art collages," a series that I did called, what else, "Security." Then I forgot about them until today.

 I started out with 8 pieces of substrate, postcard blanks. I attached a different piece of security paper to each. There are so many patterns to choose from, which was nice.

 I had already decided yesterday that I'd only use three elements today, so that helped with decision making. The letter "S" was one element so I only needed the others. I chose items that had to do with security, objects or living things that could evoke a feeling about security. In some cases, the item even starts with an "S." That's just a bonus.

 Viewers and receivers of the cards can decided what the reference or connection might be. Some are obvious, right?

 Like this one. Obvious.

 Obvious?

 Oh yes, obvious.

 Not so obvious.

Somewhat obvious.

Your choice, you decide.

#81, about color

Among the items I have from my deceased friend, is this box of color papers. It's probably from the 1970s and is the same as the ColorAide papers that I would have my students purchase years ago (until they got too expensive) to do color projects. I've decided to use these papers as my year of making mail art continues.

 I had lots of these small color samples, which I've been cutting out of a book about color that wasn't what I thought it'd be when I ordered it; so it's become fodder for collage! At least, I could put it to good use. REDs, lots of reds, so perfect for the letter "R" day of this alphabet month.

I used a green base since this is the complementary color for red. In person, the cards POP! The addition of the multiple letters on top, tones down the vibrations a bit.

If you'd like to read about red, I recommend the book "A Perfect Red" by Amy Butler Greenfield. It's history, mystery, obsession, intrigue, more about red than you ever thought you'd want to know. A good read, too.

#80 the letter Q and a cute face.

The young Queen

 I discovered that I had only one "Q" in my stash of letters and wasn't going to look for anymore, so one it is. A couple of days ago, I found this young Queen in one of my scraps drawers, along with her husband, but he'll have to wait for another day for his own mail art card. I, also, have lots of young Queen stamps, which worked just right for this card.

I'm a member of the Flickr group, Faces in Places, and this sweet face was looking at me from a neighbors recycle bin last Wednesday.  It has a sweet, naive, in that totally circular eye, look. Start looking around and you'll find faces everywhere.