Catching up on Mailart - 2

Lately, I've been having trouble getting images up onto my blog and to IUOMA (International Union of Mail Artists. I don't know why, and because I don't know why, I can't fix it. I had planned to put information about the pieces that I posted in my previous post but was unable to do so as the images came up as code with no way for me to know where one image stopped and another began, so no info, thus my own comment on my own posting. I had hope to be more active again on this blog, as in the past, but that looks like it won't happen. too bad. Not that I have a lot of visitors, but this was a nice archive for me. I'm going to attempt to add a photo to this post. Wish me luck (me to myself) Well, it's showing up here as code. I hope it appears as an image in the actual post. Puzzled, very puzzled.

Thanks to friends, I now know what I had to fix to! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

Clouds

I'm BAAACK - where have I been so long??

Portrait of Me by grandgirl Z

Postcards to Voters

Postcards to Voters

Postcards to Voters

Poem by Z

Sky at Lombardy and monument

I've been writing a lot of postcards to get out the vote. Campaigns are listed through #postcardstovoters and are for candidates all over the country. If you're in the U.S. and interested in writing, you can join by sending an e-mail to Join@tonythedemocrat.org

The portrait of me was done by the grandgirl while at home and brought over as a gift. It wasn't from life, but from memory, she said.


















I gave the grandgirl three words to write a poem from - she wrote phonetically. See if you can read it.


















This view of the two buildings and the statue are sometimes the best view on my drive to Battery Park. The light hits them just right. I was driving so it was difficult to capture, and a bit dangerous, yes, I know.

Have you ever taken photos from your car while driving?

Skies, clouds, river, and bridge.

VMFA clouds

Potterfield bridge clouds

James River clouds

Potterfield bridge clouds

Really? A month?

I can't believe that nearly a month has past since my last post! Incredible! I don't think this has happened in all the years I've been doing this.
Well, what's up! We went on a beach holiday on the 14th of September for a week. That was lovely.

 I left origami birds for the Fold the Flock project in Corolla.

photo credit: N.Scalin

We stayed in a lovely beach "cottage" that our DIL found through the internet. I wanted to stay there forever!

 The beach was beautiful and quite sparsely populated this time of year.

Our grand-girl loved the ocean and the sand. One gigantic sand box to play in, right!

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?

Sleepy kitty, clouds, a couch, and of course, some Mail Art.

Okay, so our Bizoo is enormous! See how he fills up the wave scratcher? So big! 

And yesterday, we had such amazing clouds and colors in the sky. I couldn't get a clear angle to get the part with the orange but this photo, with the top of the monument is pretty dramatic, right?


We had dinner at an interesting place, a home set in a working space. When I turned to look, the couch was illuminated and looked like a stage set. There's the dog's lounging area in front, and behind, out the windows, you can catch a glimpse of part of the orange sky. This, too, is pretty dramatic. I'm having such interesting (dramatic) visual experiences, aren't I?

#295

#296

I've been very fond of this little house and am happy to use it isolated like this. Random text makes things mysterious, and the flat "wall paper" underneath does, too.








Time to alter some old postcards again. I cut out lots of the little Victorian scraps so I'd be ready when the "inspiration" struck. I made some comment on how this little gal always cries when visiting the shrine. I'm sure you can come up with a better explanation.

 

 

 

#297

Today's Mail Art is a rondo - I used the cover from a round of President (brand) brie cheese. It's 6" in diameter and a nice color, don't you think. I'd had it awhile and am happy to use it. The big bird with the small woman is a nice scale change. She's a beautiful, Iranian actress. I didn't see the film she's in but it's supposed to be good. Now, what's the name of it? hmmm.

More Catching up on Mail Art, while away from home -

#289

#290

#291

 This piece was made on the train heading north. I got the image and text from the Amtrak magazine. Very minimal and I like it that way.

#292

This was made our first day in the city. We stayed at an Airbnb place and it was very nice. I used an image from the Amtrak magazine, a stamp I'd brought with me, and some punched out circles. Is she whistling?






Second day in the city, I used an eye from the Amtrak magazine, a stamp I'd brought and the paper that the holes were punched from the previous day. This is an "eye" series all of a sudden!









We stayed very busy all day long, so tired at the end of the day. I made my Mail Art in the morning before starting out. Here it's about the eyes, too.

#293

Here's another version of the eye from the Amtrak magazine. We were on our way back home when I made this one. I used the last of the stamps that I'd brought in my traveling Mail Art kit.










Some clouds. How I love looking up at the clouds, Always different. We've had some lovely sunsets. This one was taken by the Science Museum where I had a view with our overhead wires.

My son took this photo of our grand. He's a good photographer and she's a good model. Getting ready for the celebration of Halloween! What a cutie.

Gray day, some Mail Art, and some sky.

#281

#282

 The other day, someone left a nice comment on my post. She's now included me in a post on her blog - about Mail Art. See it here. 

This postcard includes a photo that I inherited from my friend. She's the littlest girl in the front, surrounded by her cousins.





Today, it's very gray; a rainy day was predicted and we got it! I used some subtle colors from a paper sample book and some random text for this card.

 We've been having spectacular sunsets! Reds and violets that are so intense. There are too many trees in my neighborhood so I don't get the big picture but friends have posted clear shots of the sky on Facebook. Amazing. Does this bode ill or well for us, does it mean that a volcano blew up some where? I remember reading once that some gorgeous sunsets we had years ago were because of that. Anybody? Do you know what these sunsets are cause by?

The photo of the sky above fountain lake, taken last week on the way home from Spanish. I may have posted this before but I really really like it so I'm posting it again.

This was another sky last week. I was driving home from my book club and I pulled into a parking lot so that I could take this photo.

Clouds! Never two the same, right?

Some images other than Mail Art, just to share

 My little neighbor friends gave me a huge egg that their little white hen laid. It had a double yolk.

 I snapped this while stopped at a stop light. The clouds were so nice. I discovered that the update on my camera gave me filters! So I tried one on this. 

I checked on my neighbors kitties the other day. This is groucho, who I usually see when she's out and about, and comes into my yard. She's tiny and sweet, mottle peach and gray with a peach mustache. So cute. She didn't hold still so the photo is a bit blurry. 

I went on a day trip to Ikea, with a friend, to buy some storage boxes for the studio. This view of the building really pleased me. It was a terrific composition just waiting for me to take the photo.

Here's Bizoo interrupting my letter writing. 

Here's our baby at the pumpkin patch this past weekend. She's sitting up, she's crawling, she's sitting in a high chair, she's eating tiny bits of food, and slurping soup, and recognizing ME! Yay!