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?

Sunday - quiet time to blog.

 The re-construction of my studio has moved along. I peeked in and this is what I saw through the plastic covering the door-way. So dreamy. Still so much to do. The workers will be back tomorrow.

 I saw this face at our nearby movie theatre last week. I posted it on Facebook with a request for captions and I got lots of good ones. How about you? Can you come up with a caption for this face? Or do you see something else here?

365.2 #356

365.3 #206

365.2 #357

365.3 #207

365.2 #358

365.3 #208

Didn't this one turn out so old-timey? I really like it. only 5 small dots and two scraps. I liked it so much that I made the 2nd one for the day in a similar way.









Here's the 2nd Mail Art of the day (Thursday.) 5 dots and 2 scraps. I like the way this one turned out, too. Oh happy me, having fun.









More scraps and dots for Friday.


























Yesterday, I decided to use only 2 scraps - the same for each card.  I'd been saving the rock scrap for the right combination with something and the stripes worked well.








I punched a hole in each of the rock scraps so that the substrate shows through. I wanted to play with the spatial illusion created by the deep shadows. The circles appear to me, to be ON the surface on the rocks, not a hole. Do they appear that way for you?

Mail Art catch up!

365.2 #343

365.3 #193

 Had a red theme going on here. I used my newish big hole punch to make these circles and use them as a background. They make the scraps with the letter forms pop!

365.2 #344

This is card is for my friend BB as she sent me a photo with the "commit no nuisance" sign on it. I cut it out and added a girl from an old photo - no clue who this child is. Simple, a bit of a narrative going on, but okay.

365.3 #194

Here I go, back with the cut out fabric. I really like how these bits play out on a plain ground. They become so different. The feel is so airy and spatial.











We had a new fence built to separate us better from our neighbor to the east. We'll either paint it or stain it. I like it a lot.









Here's another view of my temporary studio, with the kitty curled up in the easy chair. This is working out. I could probably keep using this space except I don't have all my stuff.

Construction starts to repair the rooms next Wednesday. Yay.

Thursday update - could be worse!

 Here's Bizoo on my lap. See that black and white checker tile area? Well, that will be gone soon. It's been there for 25 years! Hard to believe. Now, because of the water damage to the tiny TV/guest room (N's childhood room) and to my studio (M's childhood room) the tiles have to be ripped up. And maybe the floors.

 See that little square on the wall? That's a tiny collage in a tiny plastic bag. It's got water in it! The assessor took a photo of it to show how much water we had coming down the wall. I'm glad I saved it to show him. This wall will be torn open.  The ceiling above it will also be torn open. Everything needs to be dried out. Then reconstruction can begin. I have to pack up everything I need for 2 to 6 weeks, like my art supplies. I'll set up shop in a corner of our bedroom. I'll have limited supplies & space so it's a good thing that
a) I work small and b) I like to work minimally.

365.2 #320

Here's yesterday's Mail Art using a part of an old photo and a library card. I stamped some rubber stamps on it.

365.2 #321

The company working on the rooms will bring me boxes tomorrow to pack my supplies and other personal stuff like photo albums, fabric, etc.






On Tuesday, the company will arrive with packers who will pack up the books, furniture, other stuff and take it to storage.

I can't believe it. I'm so happy that I don't have to do it all.  Like wrestle a futon into submission and then find some place to store it? Couldn't have done that.

365.3 #170

365.3 #171

Still, I'll have a lot of work to do, packing all the little doo-dads I've got all around me. Tiny sculptures, stuff I need to do my workshops, supplies, and should I let them pack up my boxes of received Mail Art and store that?

Okay, tomorrow is another day. Time to rest my mind from all this.





I'm grateful that this isn't any more involved, grateful for the help, grateful for good attitudes, and I did say that I wanted to clean up my studio this summer, so now I'm forced to do it. So it goes.

And there's always Zinn, and Bizoo, to distract me, make me smile!

Tuesday, a very rainy day.

 I was looking out the upstairs back window to see if the rain had finally stopped and saw that my dogwood was in bloom! This is amazing. It's a late bloomer and is very different looking. It's a shade tolerant hybrid. It has an off kilter shape because early on, a limb from the big tree fell on it and tore off a small branch. I'm so happy it's blooming!

 Bizoo in my studio last night. Before we started to take things apart. Stuff still on wall, all water damaged. He's sticking with me as I pack up, helping me by jumping into the packing boxes, and climbing over the paper stacks. What a good helper.

 Now he's taking a little rest, on the ironing board in the studio, next to a photo of himself resting on the kitchen chair.

 These are some sparkly, silvery butterfly appliques that my sister sent me. I've put them up for sale in my Etsy shop. I sure hope someone can think of something cool to use them for. They are silver metallic thread embroidered. Very shimmery.

365.2 #319

 I used an old show card from my friend Keith Long to alter. I attached the man's arm, which I scuffed up a bit, and a real four leafed-clover that was laminated. Keith makes excellent sculptures, using repurposed material. I'm going to send this to Keith.

365.3 #169

For today's second piece of Mail Art, I used some scraps that I "unearthed" on my work table. Oh the bits that were hidden there amazed me.

This is a collage book that I sent off to Laurence in Nancy, France for an exhibit of Carnets. I started it in Belgium in 2008, completed it just this spring. It says, in Dutch, "Welcome to the mim." Who or what "the mim" is, I don't know but I sure liked seeing my name in print.

Monday, what a day! Mail Art & more

 I purchased a tiny fan at the Dollar Tree (where everything costs $1.) I needed it the other day when it was hot and the a/c wasn't working.

We had a bad thing happen with the a/c - it sprang a leak and our upstairs front two rooms have water damage. We thought the damage was mainly in the tiny TV/guest room, but it wasn't.




Today, I started to clear out my studio so that people could come in to check on the extensiveness of the water damage.
And oh bother, it is very extensive. My studio is worse that the other room.
I discovered that the prints from my last show (Tiny Town) that were in a portfolio leaning against my table, were ruined.

Before, as it normally looks, a mess

after, a different kind of mess

 Then I discovered that prints from my New Jersey Turnpike exhibit, which were in another portfolio, were also ruined.  grrrr

365.2 #318

365.2 #168

Here's my table before I started to clear it out. A big mess which I had every intention of organizing this summer.

Here is the clean up in progress. The wall is very damp. It's wall board. And very damp. The work on it was soaked. That little square that is still on it, is a small plastic bag with a tiny collage in it. It's half way filled with water!
I have two fans on to try to dry it out. All of my mail art is off of my Real Wall.
I've got boxes to store things in. Where I'll put those boxes, I don't know. Plus I have to keep my daily Mail Art supplies handy.
Oh this will be interesting.

The floor is damaged, too.

The inspectors come on Thursday. More on this after that. In the meantime, I've got lots of work to do clearing out the studio.

Oh, and we discovered that our freezer isn't freezing. Fun. More soggy stuff.

 But, I made today's Mail Art-YAY- I used my honey's photos (rejects cause the printing wasn't perfect) and altered them with the figures, circles, and random text. I realized after scanning them that the little girl looks like she's hanging from a string. Oh no, not at all, the line is behind her, really.   I like these. 

 Here's Bizoo resting on his favorite brown paper, which is so used that it's almost like fabric. No crinkle sound left in it.

Here's baby Zinn looking so spunky. She is getting quite the personality.

More Mail Art, what else is new?

#22

#172

 I never know what will come to hand. I open up a tin, and there's a face, or a piece of paper with texture on it.

on reverse: "Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." Søren Kierkegaard

#171

 I never know what conversations will happen between the background and the foreground.
On reverse: "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." Robert Frost







And I never know when I'll feel the need for a circle to complete the composition or suddenly a dog will feel right. It's so random and so much fun.
On the reverse: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King, Jr.

My childhood neighborhood was a mix of single family homes and apartment buildings, and factories. This huge factory was the Rock-Ola Factory. As we'd drive by it, or ride passed on the bus, my mother, or father, would say "There's the Rock-Ola Factory" and I thought they were saying "the Rah Cola Factory." I thought they made Cola drinks there. Instead, they made juke boxes. Wanted to share this little memory with you.

#21

 On the reverse of this card: "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too heave a burden to  bear." Martin Luther King, Jr.
I used King quotes to commemorate the celebration of Dr. King's life.

And here is what my studio table looks like today. I can't decide what to do for today's Mail Art. I dropped some circles onto some white blanks. Not sure how these will end up. Stay tuned.