Some Mail Art and more

#189

#190

#191

Rte 40

Folk Festival 2014

The two pieces with the hands are old familiar defaults. Grab a piece of paper that I've punched circles out, add circles inlayed or on top, add a hand; compose and Voila! More Mail Art!

The Cavellini card is for an exhibit that Mark Block is putting up about Cavellini. It's the 100th anniversary of his birth and I just happened on an announcement for a 2013 exhibit on his work. Perfect to take apart and re-position.












More on the topic of Inequality of Income: I just read an article today and got this information that I"d like to share with you even though it's no longer Blog Action Day.

"The average net worth of the bottom 50% of families - a group of about 62 million households - was $11,000 in 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that figure is 50% lower than in 1989." Are you shocked? I am! And then there's this; "The average real net worth of families in the country's top 5% has jumped from $3.6 million in 1989 to $6.8 million in 2013...an 89% surge."

What can I say? Again, no solution given in the article to how to correct this inequality. Dang!!

Day 318, down in Asheville, NC

 This was a view from Route 40 going through North Carolina last night as the sun was setting. It was a 7 hour drive, thankfully nephew was driving, and we stopped a couple times for necessaries.

 This was captured with my cell phone as we were bouncing along the highway. Can you believe how they turned out like little birds? So cute!

 I'm not sure what these were, but I do like the effects of drive-by photo snapping.

 Today, we explored Asheville. What a lot of things to see and many places to eat yummy food. I had a tofu scrambler with veggie saugage patties for lunch, and it was really satisfying. We went into a really fabulous craft gallery and I fell in love with lots of things. This one piece is by an artist named Robert Johnson and the show is entitled Peru. These are like journal pages, watercolor, colored pencil, ink. So fabulous. He also had large paintings. The Gallery is Blue Spiral.

This is the card I made this morning for day #318 of my 365 project. I'd addressed, stamped and numbered them before I left home. I brought with the butterflies, black paper and purple circle as my basics so I'll just create each day's card with those items and a bit of Asheville.

I, also, bought a little warm hat, which makes me toasty happy. I'm feeling good though very tired. I assume I'm continuing to make platelets, which is excellent. Tomorrow is W day.

Wednesday update

 I made this yesterday after finding out that my platelets, those little cuties, had risen to near normal level. I'm out of danger and so joyful! The past 5 days have been one of high anxiety, thus the Rescue Remedy lozenges! BUT I'm good, I'm good to go and to use sharp implements!

 Today's Mail Art is in anticipation of the road trip we'll be taking tomorrow. Headed NOT to Pennsylvania but rather to Asheville, NC.  The reverse of this little card reads: "The Turnpike, stretching 150 miles through the Appalachian mountains between Harrisonburg and Pittsburg, has been so designed as to make it virtually foolproof. No bad curves, no steep grades and no cross traffic." circa 1941.

 The reverse of this little card reads: "At might, sodium vapor lights the tunnel approaches, illuminating the roadway and portal buildings. Inside, mercury vapor lights are used." Circa 1941  There's no date on the cards but I'm thinking it's when the Turnpike first opened.

 I'm giving myself this rosey image in gratitude for my well-being. A lovely rose bud that grew on my neighbors fence a few years ago.

This is a cool image. My honey isolated it on the table top in the studio room he's using for his class. One of the students snapped this photo for him. It's like a painting!

A big bread, a hammock, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike

 I made myself laugh, I really did, the title for this post made me laugh. It should be followed with something, like, "what do these things have in common?" or "Choose your topic." ha ha ha

This beautiful bread is from Montana Gold, a local bakery that makes really yummy breads. They look good and taste better!

 Go figure, I put my hammock up finally; and now it's kinda chilly out there. It's been in a box in the garage for 2 or more years! I missed having it up. I think I'll spend a bit of time lounging out there, in my sweater and scarf.

 Oh boy was I excited today when I came across a small packet of miniature postcards. Where? Underneath a lot of envelopes in a drawer in my studio. I'd forgotten all about these. As some of you know, I love boring postcards. And these are really amazingly good.

The descriptions on the reverse (hidden now forever) are about the beauty of this highway. They must have been from when it first opened. There's no date on the box or images. You'll be seeing more of them as I plan to use them all up!

These are #307 series. Only 58 more days to go in my 365 project.

#95 and Rivermont Gallery, Lynchburg. VA

Friday, collage & assemblage works

 On Friday evening, we attended the opening of my honey's exhibit at Rivermont Gallery in Lynchburg, Virginia. It's located a little over 2 hours south west of where we live, in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the banks of the James River (which, also, runs through Richmond.)  The works on display were examples of Chuck's collage, assemblage, glass and clay pieces. They were beautifully displayed. I was happy that I took a few photos before the gallery became crowded. Chuck was so pleased at how many people attended. 

Friday evening, glass works

Speaking to group

 The gallery is a beautiful space, which unfortunately, doesn't have it's web site developed yet. If, however, you are ever near this area, you'd really enjoy see the gallery (and Chuck's work if you go during the month of March.) Tell John that I sent you! This link will give you the address.






On Saturday's after each opening, John Morgan, the proprietor/artist/teacher, has the artist whose work is on display, do a brief talk. Here's Chuck before a group of 30 people, on a sunny Saturday morning. People were very attentive and afterwards had lots of questions for Chuck.

You can see more photos of the gallery here.

Hepatica

We returned home on Saturday, so tired, because John had  an after opening gathering that was so nice, with lots of conversation, wine, food, and we stayed up late and got up early. And Chuck had expended lots of energy during his talk. The drive back via routes 29 and 64 was lovely, through the moutains, the bare trees, the fields, the big gray overcast sky, get the picture, the kind of drive that makes you sleepy. We had to stop for some lunch off the highway (a salad at a McDonald's, not our favorite eating place but the choices off the highway were not great, fast food fast food fast food.)

I did have time to make my #95 when I got home. I'm still in the mood to make drawings, so I made a cluster of Hepatica blossoms. They have white stamens & pistels,but i couldn't do that with Neo-colors, so you'll have to image them.

New stuff.

The other day we drove down to "the bottom" and as we passed under the interstate, the setting sun was reflected on the support. I liked the way this looked, including the curve of the highway.

Today, because it was just too darn hot at 103F (39.4C) I stayed indoors except for the few moments spent photographing items for Fritzi. I was able to get a couple friends to stop by and model Pockets for me. Besides preparing for tomorrow's mail art workshop, I made a few more Sunglass Pockets. I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I'll take them by Quirk (the craft gallery on Saturday.)
Wish me luck with tomorrow's talk. I found out that 17 people signed up to listen to me!!!