Catching Up, Mail Art & More

#124

#125

 I've  been having fun with a circle stencil and water soluble 9B graphite.

I added a bit of color with water color pencils.

#126

#127

#128

Cards

cards

In cleaning up my studio table, I found cool stuff to cut up into substrates. With only one added piece, I get an interesting composition.










This collage is on a piece of card stock that fits into a First Cover envelope. I made this specifically to send to someone who likes Mary Cassatt.








Here's another composition using the same substrate as in #125.












More circle Mail Art.












Here's how I created the circle pieces. I worked on large sheet of water color paper, making circles with the stencil and the graphite and pencils.


I added water and when dry, I cut the paper into Mail Art sized pieces, Artist Trading Card pieces, and left overs for book markers.

No waste!




After the pieces were cut out, I sprayed them with matte fixative.

Hmm, I'm thinking I should do the spraying before I cut them up, oh yeah, that'd be better. Right?








This is a view of the 23221 Post Office the other day. I was sitting in the parking lot and noticed that the clouds were gorgeous! Notice the light on the side of the building had come on because the light was low. The wind blowing was nice to show the flag better.








Here's my studio table post clean up. I'm so happy that I spent the time to clean up and organize. on the left is a plastic box holding received mail. I'm pulling pieces from that to send responses. On my wall, are new inspiration pieces.

I'm happier in my studio now that I have more making space on the table.

How messy does your space have to get before you clean it up?

Artist Trading Card workshop

I had to show you some of the ATCs done by participants in my Artist Trading Card workshop yesterday. We had such fun. These cards are the results of the first experience I guide the participants through and it involves collage, randomness, and making a series of 10 from a single sheet of 8" x 10" (20.5 cm x 25 cm) paper without much waste. Sorry about the resolutions of the images. hmmm. The little happy figure with the Artist Trading Card book image was taking with my cell phone. I was so lazy to go downstairs to get my camera. How silly of me.

Artist Trading Card workshop

Here are a few of the ATCs that I've made over the years. This selection is from 2004 to 2007. I'm posting them to promote my Artist Trading Card workshop which will be held on 7 February 2009 at the VMFA studio school. It'll be held from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The last hour will be a trading session and I'd love to have anyone in this area, who makes cards, come by and join my class for the trading session.. Mark your calendars. Okay, so I'm assuming that I'll have at least 10 people interested in signing up for the class. Hint, hint, hint. If you aren't familiar with this form of art making and sharing, check out the site of the founder. Some of you, my long time readers, will remember that I met him, M. Vanci Stirnemann, in 2006. You can see the picture of me with him in my archives (Sept. 2006.) I was grinning like crazy! Over the years, I've exchanged with people in person and via mail. I've taught a workshop to students at University and high school level, and tried to spread the word about how much fun this is, plus it's a real boost to any blocked creativity. You don't have to be an artist do make the cards, just a desire to participate and learn. Once the Studio School get it's catalog out, I'll post a link.

What I've been up to....

In addition to making tiny collages for the Art-O-Mat,
I've been working on some Artist Trading Cards. A few years back, I acquired some old photos and had no idea what I'd do with them. Before we left for Paris, I trimmed them to ATC size and hope that I'd be inspired. Making little hats and finding captions for one group and finding new heads for another has been a lot of fun. I feel like the "old boys" are enjoying themselves. Silly moi!

Here's a picture of the Pantheon as seen from out window. Yesterday, we walked past it, on our way back from the Cartier Foundation , where we saw an exhibit by two artists. As we went by that area, it was time for students to emerge from universities and colleges (our high school equiv.) I loved hearing and seeing these young people, so lively, talkative, giving each other bises (those little cheek kisses that are audible) and yet looking like American kids.



As we crossed the bridge behind Notre Dame, Chuck dug his freezing hands out of his pockets to snap this lovely photo of the full moon. It was worth it!