Altered old Postcards

Finding cards in my collection to alter is a lot of fun for me. Finding the right bit to collage on it, to change it up, just a little or a lot. I like playing with space and size relationships. The top card doesn't look altered to me. The additions seem to blend in, as opposed to the observation tower where the hand comes in to terrify the person on the level. Or, at least, in my mind they're terrified. I would be. 
 

"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.

Mail Art

I've been working with these three elements for awhile. A pair of glasses, a mouth, a hand. I think I did the first one in the fall of 2016.  They made me laugh so I started to collect these images from magazines.

When I was notified that Micro Galleries was doing another event, I submitted a few images to see if they'd be interested and they were.

Yay, these pieces will be seen in Jakarta, Indonesia. I hope they "translate" visually for people of a different culture.

I'll have a total of 27, and will label them with letters of the alphabet for simplicity.

I'm not sure how they'll be displayed, but they'll be kept original size which is 4" x 7" (10.16cmX17.78)

Do you have a favorite? I do!

Time to post more Mail Art

 A CD that I collaged and sent to Adamandia in Chicago. It got there without damage. I used the Dean, Artist in Seine technique of NO return address.

 My really good good news is that my Mail Art archive has been deeded to Special Collections of the Virginia Commonwealth University Library. And I'll pass along more this summer. I spent a lot of time sorting through my mail, putting artists work together, remembering all the wonderful mail days. Oh my, such fine work. And from all over the world.

I was excited to let everyone know, via social media and IUOMA group, that their work has been put into a library for ever! The work will eventually be digitized and made available to the public.

This summer, the librarian/curator and I will plan a program to be done at the library. She was very excited to learn that Mail Art is still being made and that the network of Mail Artists is very large.

Here are a few of my face pieces. I have such fun with these.

 This piece is a Persian card that a friend gave to me. I think the glasses and hand go perfectly on it. I feel so happy when things come together like this.

My friend Andrea, in the U.K. sent me the postcard awhile ago as part of her Lost Art project. It's an old tourist photo of Natural Bridge with a couple in the foreground. I added the hand only, which really made me laugh.

Having fun with minimal and small collages

#130

#131

 With this series, I wanted to be minimal and see if I could use only 2 or at most 3 pieces of paper.
I decided to add a circle to #130 and several to #133 while still keeping the minimal feeling.

There's a challenge to myself to see if I can create a good composition with very little.

 

Do you set up any challenges for yourself?

#132

#133

Here's an opportunity to participate in a global art game. Creative Sprint starts again on October 1. Sign up at here: CreativeSprint.co and participate.
 It's a lot of fun.
It's free.
People all over the world are doing it. School groups, businesses, individuals, friends, families. It challenges and sparks creativity. Even if you think you aren't creative, you ARE!
Join this event. If you can't do every daily prompt, don't, if you can't finish, stop. But at least, start. You'll get a lot out of it.

And here's the cover of the book, which will be released in the spring of 2017. Disclosure - my offspring wrote it!

Guess what? More Mail Art!

#125

#126

#127

#128

#129

 I wasn't going to write anything about these. I was just going to let them speak for themselves, but I wanted to ask you if you have

Sunday eMail Art

 a favorite among the altered Mary Cassatt cards.


This piece, labeled eMail Art, is another of the pieces that uses the same scraps but rearranged, photographed, and posted but never glued down. I'm having fun doing that and then e-mailing them to people to whom I can't post mail to for various reasons.

More funny faces and other stuff.

#121

#122

 I hope that these face make you smile.

They amuse me and I made them!

Which is your favorite?

#123

#124

It's interesting how the space between the eyes and the mouth changes the expression, right?  Why don't you make some and show them to me. I'll include them on my blog, if you'd like.






 

I did some pages out of old books for a "call" from Greece.  Here they are - Can you see the different languages I had available to use? This was a lot of fun. I hope Dimitra like them.

To Germany

Some one sent me information about a "call" to send to a show in Berlin. I scanned bits from my e-mail collages. These are the collages that I don't glue down so they change over and over again. I scanned in black and white on sturdy stock, then added old postage stamps.  It turned out pretty good. I'm pleased with it.

Today is a national holiday in the U.S. so mail will have to wait until tomorrow to be sent off across the planet.

It's also Monday, so I posted on Facebook with my MAM - Mail Art Monday project. I posted #124, in case you aren't on the social media.

I urge people to make some mail art. It's easy. Look at my faces, only two or three pieces of paper. Send them to someone. They'll smile. The world will be a better place. Really.

Some collage stuff, some mail art, and my cat.

#119

#120

A booklet from Fleur

one page

A second page

 I received a beautifully made accordian book from Fleur Helsingor, Mail Artist extrordinaire. I'm sorry that I didn't take a photo showing the folded our book. It was made from an old booklet that she'd had as a kid, from a science kit. Very cool.

She sent it as an Add and Pass along.

So I added to two pages, One opening the book in one direction and one page going the other direction, if that makes sense.



Rather than physical science, I used natural sciences for my entries.

Botany, biology, and entymology. Gosh, I hope that's the right word for the study of insects. I can't believe that I didn't look it up.

I tried to make the entry look like something old, by adding little letters by each bit, like in an old science book.

I'm please with the results. I hope Fleur wll be, too.  I'm sending the book on today to another participant.

 After breakfast, we noticed that Bizoo was in the front room on his favorite cloth. He appears not to be able to keep his eyes open.


We went upstairs to our studios.

After a bit, I went into my honey's studio to look at something he was working on and there was Bizoo.

He'd made his way upstairs to be near us and
had fallen asleep.

 He's so long, isn't he?

Oh, changed positions to take up less room.

Mail art at home and away

#79

#80

#81

 I made this one specifically for a member of my "circles" group on IUOMA. It was sent to her before I left for our beach vacation.









Since water, the beach, the ocean, was on my mind, I grabbed a vintage postcard and added this boatman that had been waiting on my table for just the right moment and card to alter.
A friend suggested that he'd be fun added to other cards so I scanned him and will clone him. Watch for more of him in the future.




First card at the beach! Yay, time on OBX (the outer banks of North Carolina, USA)

#82

#83

#84

#85

#86

It's always fun to make a traveling mail art kit and spend some time away from home.

I had a few people join me in making mail art. Specifically for a 3 year old, the daughter of a friend of our daughter. She's in hospital with some severe problems.
If you'd like to send her mail - she likes octopi, dolphins, and other under water things.

The Mighty Violet
Maria Fareri Children's Hospital
100 Woods Rd        Room 2140
Valhalla, NY 10595 USA

Mail Art, Creative Sprint AND Slow Art Day 2016

2016 #43b

2016 #48c

2016 #50

 Here are a few pieces of Mail Art that I recently added. The two with the b & c are ones that I'd made earlier and was going to frame but then decided to turn them in to Mail Art, so I had to fit them into the numbering scheme I'm keeping.

So this is day 6 of #creativesprint and it's a lot of fun and keeps the brain going. There's still time to join us. Go to the website and sign on. http://creativesprint.co

 This triptych shows three pieces of work from the VMFA McGlothlin collection. I'm hosting Slow Art Day there for the 5th time, on April 9th.  If you're in the area, join us. Just send me an e-mail to let me know you're coming and I'll have enough handouts ready. More about Slow Art Day HERE.

This image was, also, part of my #creativesprint. I used it for Day 3.

So there are two things you're invited to participate in with me. The first one - you can be anywhere in the world to be part of. The second one - you've got to be in the Richmond, VA, USA vicinity.

Hope to see you on one or the other or both!
Happy ART time!