Into the new year

 On New Year's day, we went to TWO open house parties. What fun. We met up with old friends, and met new people, spoke in French and in Spanish, drank eggnog and ate home made gravlax. A good way to start the new year, no?

 For New Year's eve, I made tiny salmon/tuna cakes. Tiny, a mouthful. They were quite tasty and now my honey thinks that this is the size that I should make them always. Okay. I can do that.

 And this is the 151st card that I made for my 2nd 365 Mail Art project. "Cheers for a new year and another chance for us to get it right" Oprah Winfrey - this is the quote on the reverse.

 And I have, crazy though it seems even to me, started 365.3 - yes a third year of one-a-day. This is card #1 of the year. I pulled out the rest of the "Tiny Town" cards to alter, since I haven't made any of these for awhile. Here's what I wrote on the reverse: The residents of Tiny Town were fond of birds, but when the enormous goose showed upon New Year's day, all they could think of was - "Yum!"

 Here's the holiday gift that I received from N. Incredible! This is so amazing! Do you know the musician Beck? Well, this is his new "album."  You have to make the music yourself in order to hear it. How amazing is this?! This "box" opens up to 20 pieces of sheet music, which is for the piano with guitar chords. See more here. Now to get busy learning this music.

As a Mail Artist, I appreciate stamps very much. Here's the newest USPS commemorative, which was issued yesterday. I ordered some last week as I couldn't wait for them to arrive at my local post office branch. This is the billboard that was in Times Square (NYC.) The stamp is letter press done by Hatch Show Print. 

Mail Art & a Little Free Library

#11

 My scanner is not showing colors well. The substrate for this is a nice recycled cardboard tan, not as yellow as in this image. Not that it makes much difference, since you won't see the original. I sent that off across the  ocean.  Paper collage & a Turkish stamp!

 I received Poulty Press. I don't know why, but I do. This hen and the compassionate mother statue are from the cover of the latest issue. The Chinese text is from a newspaper. As I mentioned in a Facebook post, I doubt that i has anything to do with compassion or chickens. I just like the way it looked.

#13

Here's another example of my color experiments. The colors are not what they are in the actual piece. How odd.

 The substrates are the same in this one and the one above. You can't tell that in these scans but no matter. I just love punching holes in colored paper. You know that by now, right?

 A few days ago, my honey was driving to the high way, through the Museum District and saw something interesting. He drove round the block so I could see what he spotted.

 A Little Free Library!! I'd heard about these but never thought there was one near me. It's on a quiet street so I don't image it gets much business. I've put the street sign here so that, if you are in Richmond, VA, you can check it out for yourself.

Look at the books in the library.
I have several hard back books that I was going to release through BookCrossing but now I'll bring them to the Little Library.  As you might remember, the paper back books get sent off to the troops. (Booksforsoldiers)


There are so many nice surprises in this world.

Mail Art, my workshop, and a cool thing

 This is an altered card. You can see in the previous post what I did with another one of these. I used a strip of dotted Washi tape, some postage stamps and a little girl. 

 Do you recognize the man peering over the water? This is a painting by Paul Signac that I altered with 2 bits; the man & the postage stamp. Watch that light house float away!

 Here's another altered card. I added the circles and the statue. My new set of 50 cards related to water is a lot of fun to work on.

NOTICE: For any of you readers, who might be in the Richmond, VA, area who want to make some Mail Art, I'll be leading a workshop on 15 September, a Saturday, from 10 to 4 at the VMFA Studio School Click HERE & scroll down to #16, to get the information. Sign up, register, and join me. There is room for more people to have a day of fun. I'd love to see you there.

 My young neighbors are very creative. I was walking to the store and came across this latest creation. I love that the plush bald eagle is getting a ride in the boot.

Isn't this so clever? I didn't get to see it in action but I'm sure I will. Applause for the young women inventors!

Round Mail Art!

#981

 

 

I like the round format of altered CDs. I'm not sure these are actually making it through the postal system as I haven't heard back from any recipients. I hope they are cause I really like them and want them to go "naked" into the world. However, if I find out that they aren't getting to the destinations, I'll use an envelope. What do you think? Envelope? Maybe one with a window cut out in the middle?

Saturday and another wedding!

 Cheryl Penn, who's a book artist in South Africa, sent me two sets of photos that she'd taken of the top of a table in a painting studio. She asked me to alter and return one set.

 I decided to use a figure that I have multiples of, like this image a lot. I placed her on the photo in a way that I hoped would give the flat surface some depth. I then added a framing device to select a tiny portion of the surface, just as Cheryl had done in her selection of the larger area. I like the way the two images changed the depth and the perception of what was going on.

This is day #326's mail art. 4 bits from a drawer. I have a few more old photos and negatives to play with. I want to use them up before 30 Nov., which is the last day of the project. Yikes.

Here's a bit of information about the stamp in the previous post. My friend, Katerina in Thessaloniki, sent it to me.
It was issued the year our son was born.

 U.S. #1455
8¢ Family Planning

Issue Date: March 18, 1972
City: New York, NY
Quantity: 153,025,000
Printed By: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Giori Press
Perforations: 11
Color: Multicolored

#99 x 2 plus something interesting to me

I can't believe that tomorrow I will be at 100.  Today's mail art, more bunnies for the Year of the Rabbit. I cut out several bunnies from an old atlas. I love the quality of the black and white photos. They so needed a color background.







I like the feeling of spring that these have for me. Yes, spring, bring it on! I'm so ready and yet, checking weather for our destination cities, I think we're headed for some chilly times.

This stamp is something very interesting for me. When our daughter went off to college, she left behind a tin of old postage stamps, which were given to her years before by an elderly friend of ours. Some of the stamps are quite old and from other countries. I've been using these stamps in collages for quite a while, always sifting through them. While sifting through for Royalty for my card for Val Herman's mail art call, I found this stamp. I'd NEVER seen it before. I noticed the name and couldn't believe my eyes. It's my family name! Who is this Rudolf Golub? I looked on line and found out only that he was a physician. This stamp is a commerative for his 75th birthday, though he died at age 43. Fascinating! My sisters and I are fascinated. We know little about our father's family, so are always wondering about them. Maybe we're related to this man? Who knows.