A new series

 I decided to recycle some Virginia Museum of Fine Arts monthly magazines. I created this series using bits from the publication. It was a lot of fun matching faces with backgrounds. And then I just had to add a word or thought bubble. I make myself laugh when I do this. What do you think? 

A couple of Add and Pass books

 These were received from International Union of Mail Artists colleagues. I added to them and passed along to others. A lot of fun, and it's quick and easy. 

Catching up with mailart

This is  a piece with circle to see if I could create a spatial illusion.

This is a series I made using;g a 9B water soluble graphite stick I got at Sennelier, in Paris. I added the rubber stamp dots to show isolation amidst confusion about what's going on with Covid19.

This piece, I received from Monster-A-GoGo. A shaped envelope that made it to me with no problem. He's re-retiring as he has health issues so this is a real treasure.

These two pieces are from my friend Katerina, in Thessaloniki. They took a very long time to arrive as mail from Greece (and to) is very slow. BUT arrive they did and I'm soapy to have them. Look at the cool Greek stamp!

Some Mail Art - in and out

I received some Circle Mail Art from Sil in Belgium and sent a piece out to her same day. I've been lax about sending. I'm trying to be better about it and sending as I receive, BUT what to do about the pile up on my studio table - all wonderful gifts of incoming from Mail Artists around the world. Any ideas would be appreciated!

A Memorial Poem

NAMES It's that time of year - the holy time - when we formally - communally - remember - and say the names aloud - of those - no longer with us - I'm thinking - this year - of the names - how long it would take - to read them aloud - so many people gone - everywhere - in the newspaper - I say the names aloud - of people I don't know - and yet - feel the need to say their names - aloud - Ida - Earl - Alfreda - Marvin - Robert - Shirley - Cornelius - Verlina - and Casey - Aloud - Giving momentary substance. -in memory- 09.15.2021

Where'd the time go?!?

Some recent pieces of Mail Art with circles.

 Circles are so satisfying. How do you feel about circles?

Some Circles and Squares

 I made a few postcards for my groups on IUOMA  I originated two groups - one for Circles and one for Squares. The Circle one has a very active following but the squares, not so much.  I used the " let them fall" method of placement, then glued the bits wherever they fell. Then I gave them titles.

Direction, Congestion, & Gravity

                                                                 Direction & Gravity

They'll be sent off to in the mail this coming week. It feels good to spend a wintry morning making Mail Art. You should try it. Really. 

This altered artist's card, for some artist, I can't remember who, altered with a happy face and a shell, makes ME happy. 

 I've added gloves, finger-less mitts to my etsy shop. Delivery to US only. FritziMim.etsy.com

I've even had a few people stop by for contact free pick up. woo hoo. These, by the way, just sold. 

Keeping busy!

Alter postcards

 I cleaned up my work table and did some re-organizing of things, which made me more eager to spend this morning in the studio. I found two identical cards - Henri Laurens (1885-1954) A collage he created in 1915. It seems that I got the card at the Pompidou center in Paris. Why two identical cards, I don't know, but I'm happy about it now.  I altered them with the addition of circles. Playing with Josef Albers idea of transparency. Can you see what I did?

Random Words and Circles

 I spent the morning cutting circles and words out of a magazine that was headed to the recycling bin. It was a very satisfying activity for a gray morning. I was happy to just sit in my studio and do this. And there are always small blanks at hand, ATC size, so I can just make a few small random word poems with circles. Yes, very satisfying. What do you think? Do you have a creative activity that you can do in a few minutes and feel satisfied?

Landscape Beautification Project

This is one of many images of my Landscape Beautification project. I don't remember if I've posted it before, but here it is again, if I have. I've enjoyed adding paintings to vintage landscape postcards, most of them kind of boring. Finding the right painting to fit into the image, the right angle, the right color, is challenging and fun for me.  This one was sent out to someone - I can't remember who - the other day.

Artist Trading Cards - random poetry (VisPo)

Went into my studio this morning and 

got the sudden urge to make 

some small poetry ATCs. 

Another altered Postcard

2020-20

I was gifted with an old postcard album. The album had a label inside that said Stuttgart. No other identification. The postcards were mostly black and white. Nothing was written on them and they were in the album with those little black corner thingies that held them in place. There were from France, England, and Germany. They appeared to be from the 1940s. They were found in a house that some acquaintances purchased a number of years ago, and recently, while clearing things out, decided to pass this album along to me. YAY, lucky me. This is the first card that I've altered.

Here's the story I wrote on the reverse:

Motorists rarely used this route, so the large painting didn't create any traffic problems. However, how it got there remained a mystery. It remained there until weather conditions caused it to disintegrate.

Altered vintage cards and a MURAL!

Ah to swim or not.

Look, over here! 

Noah's mural for the Festival. Very exciting for him and for us.

"Business" cards

I decided to have some "business" cards made from some of my collages. I had a bunch of the sunglasses series and several of the butterfly hand series on a thumb drive. I took it to a local printer and look what I got!! So fun. The large image is a 4" x 6" postcard. Next time, I'll make a bunch with that image since it's one of my favorites.

I'll take these to Kolaj Fest.  I'm very excited to be going back to New Orleans, and about going to this event. I'm hoping to meet some folks with whom I've exchanged Mailart.

New Mail Art collages

Circles at hand #11 2019

This one went to someone in the U.K. who joined my circles group on IUOMA.

#13 2019

This one I wrote a long caption - Something like this: The appearance of the large painting disturbed the tranqility of the lake. The observers were quite perplexed.

Ha ha ha

#14 2019 

Entered in a Mail Art Exhibit

For #14, I wrote something like, the postage stamps fell to earth like blades, causing dismay.
This was an not a natural phenomenon. I sent it to someone in Belgium so I wrote the caption in French.

ha ha ha

The freaking looking animal creature, was made for an exhibit about fakes, frauds, or something like that, in New Hampshire.

I amuse myself with these collage Mail Art pieces. Do they make you laugh?

Patterns

I started playing around with the Layout App on my phone for the first time on a flight home from somewhere, maybe Mexico. I was totally taken by the possibilites of making patterns. Collages in a different way, cut and paste in a different way.








Since that first times, I've played around with lots of my images to see how I can change them so that you can either see
what I was working with clearly, or the
original image is so changed you have no
idea what it was.

I've been finding this to be very meditative.

And I was especially happy to see them changed by being enlarged, printed, and hung up along a street in Kathmandu, during the most recent MicroGalleries event.

Sometimes, I think I'd like to create fabrics using these patterns, or wall paper.

What do you think? Other uses for them?

 This week those of us who participated in Creative Sprint last fall, received prompts in preparation for the spring Sprint, which starts May 1.
Please do sign up - HERE. It's completely free to play this international art "game."

So the prompt was that we were to be inspired by what was above us. I looked up and saw our light fixture. I love circles so it was perfect and I love using the Layout App on my phone.  I think it turned out great! What do you think?

 I came upon this sign painted on the side of a plant box in the center of town last week. Pretty important message so I'm sharing it.









I started to play around with pieces of paper and pages from a magazine. I didn't glue anything down, just played. Eventually, I'll make some decisions and glue pieces down. Or not.

Which one do you like most of these "sketches?"

 This is a small collage that I made using one of the hands that I cut apart. I did glue it down. It's standard postcard size, for mail art.

I came across this magazine page while going through my pile of save papers.
It brought back a memory from when I was in college many years ago.

I'd attended school in the city in which I lived, but it was only a branch of the big Uni and had only a year of an art program so I had to transfer to the big school 3 hours away in a rural area. I was very lonely. I knew no one. I went to class, I went to the place I lived, and was feeling very sad,  not knowing if I could continue.

One afternoon, just a few weeks into the semester, I was sitting by the window in the stair well, probably smoking a cigarette (it was a long time ago in a different world!) An older looking guy came out, probably to smoke a cigarette, too, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that he said something like you look sad, what's going on, and, I guess I told him I was a new comer.  He was very nice, he listened, he became a classmate colleague and introduced me to people. He and his wife lived in married student housing, which were quonset huts. Very old timey. His friendship changed everything for me. He never knew that.  Al Loving