Having fun with a Gondolier!

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#90

 After a friend saw my previous use of The Gondolier on a postcard, she commented that it'd be fun to see him in different situations. So I tried that.

Here he is in a fountain at the World's Fair in NYC in 1964.

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Unfortunately, my printer didn't do a very good job of printing so that he came out a little pale.

This is NOT a Gondolier card, obviously, rather something I did with the scraps on my table. I like using up my scraps this way.

Below, more of the Gondolier in his many environments. Which is your favorite?

The Gondolier

Busy days, and Mail Art, of course.

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 The first three pieces of Mail Art here, I made using scraps left over from cutting out patterns for mailing envelopes. I really do like the randomness of them. The color, for me, suggest the 1920s design palette. What do you think?

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The fourth card, the sea, is for an exhibit in Argentina. The theme "Lo que el Delta ve." I didn't have a clue what the curator might want, but the Delta of the Tigre river was referred to, so - water it had to be.

I used an old photo that a friend gave to me as the substrate, then added the hand and the circle.

These are all standard postcard size.


You know that I don't often share photos of our grand-girl, but, these days, she's been busy making collages, using stickers. I took her shopping at the craft store and we came away with a lot of sticker books. I find backgrounds for her to use. Here she's putting them on card stock from a paper company sample book. I love how she layers the stickers, and has no concern  if the animals or letters are upside down or right side up. I want to copy her compositions!

 These are some flowers from a bit ago. I love the color and the design of them.

I had to share them with you.

Do you know what they are? I don't, but I like them.

I forgot that I wanted to show this to you. This was the post office in Duck, N.C. It was a real post office, in a crowded little space, that included all of the things listed on the sign out front. The postal worker was very helpful. He wanted to be sure I knew that postal rates were going up, which I did.

This isn't the official DUCK post office, as I think that's in Kitty Hawk, but this is the post office IN Duck.

Quaint!

Mail Art and why I've been gone so long.

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 Some lovely person, who's a member of IUOMA (International Union of Mail Art) sent me a piece of very old newspaper, plus a friend gave me some old books. I enjoyed playing with this old paper, though carefully, as some of it was quite fagile.  I felt like I was getting back to my collage "roots."


I made a number of these red cards to send out to friends. Now I want to make lots more in various color themes.

  Hostage colors, someone once said - must have red for Valentine's day, and red and green for Christmas, etc. But red IS such a lovely color.

Here's Mona with a red ball floating in the water behind her. She doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't care, or maybe she's the one that tossed it in?

If you haven't checked out my latest Mona post, check HERE.

So things have been busy. We went to New Orleans NOLA for a few days to celebrate our 48th wedding anniversary. Yes, we've been married since we were babies, in case you wondered. It was sooo much fun. That is a fabulous city for celebrating. They're all about hospitality!

And I've been working on a couple projects, which I'll tell you about in a few weeks.
And I've been spending time hanging out with our grand-girl, who is delightful.
And I've been knitting the never-ending toddler sweater project, which I unravel and reknit trying to get it right.

I'm actually trying to distract myself at this moment, by writing this post, as I've news from afar that my mother is in hospital. She's 101, so one never knows.
So it goes.

Do you have something you do when you want to distract yourself from thinking about something you don't want to think about? Share, if you'd like.

Monday, Mail Art and more!

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 I'm still making water color Mail Art. I feel like I have a better idea of how to handle the non-waterproof ink.











This is yesterday's, which I felt was too pale, so I did a bit more with today's. I'm excited about this series.

 This morning, it was overcast when we went to the pool. I like the way the light worked in the photo of these flowers. Kind of dramatic!
 

 I took this photo before C. got into the pool and disturbed the stillness. I like the reflections very much.











Here's our little Z this afternoon. I stopped by and got to spend a bit of time with her. She seems to recognize that she's seen me before.

When I stopped working on the computer for a minute, Bizoo strolled over, lay down on the keyboard, and promptly fell asleep. How nice take a nap wherever, whenever.

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!

Mail Art and some blue-ness

 This card has one of my favorite paintings on it. It's in VMFA & was painted in the 1800s. The peanuts look so real! The bird was done by an illustrator, not me.

 My honey gave me a box of 50 postcards having to do with water. I altered this one with the sinking postage stamp and some pots of hydrangeas. Fun!

 This is the reverse & shows the repro of an old French postcard. It's larger than standard and was on a brochure for kids at MoMA in New York. I picked up a couple of these brochures, knowing they'd be great for Mail Art.

 Here's the front of the card, altered with a strip of striped Washi tape, a guy with a camera, and a thin line of map. The circles were already there.

 Some blue sky and interesting clouds; of course, all clouds are interesting! Right?

Some blue water from the pool this morning. I was shooting down on the top of the pool with my little flip cell phone, while standing in the water.  I like the ambiguity, sky, water, sky, water???

Getting ready

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 I'm back to my Tiny Town shenanigans. I found this wonderful sad dog in a 1962 magazine. He's perfect! Here's my story on the reverse: "Tiny Town residents liked dogs with sad eyes; however, training them to move about carefully was difficult." Notice how the little person is looking up at the dog (whom I named Étienne) whose paw is soooo close to her.

 We preparing for a short trip and I've cleaned out my travel kit, added new bits, dots, glue, and card blanks, but NO scissors as I'm doing all carry-on luggage. I'll be looking for scissors on the other end or just tearing paper. I'm prepared for several days.

The air was cool, the pool water warm, and the sky a bit overcast, and exercising was quite nice.

Mail Art & water

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 I created this as an example for the children in my workshop last Tuesday. I wanted them to choose a person or animal, some texture, a word and something they could repeat several times. They did a great job! I'll eventually post some of their work.

 

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 Here's another of the Louise Nevelson postcards that I've altered. I was right in thinking that it'd be fun to play around with them.









  Here's a boring postcard that I altered. I gave some boring postcards to the children in the workshop with the instruction to make them less boring. They really enjoyed that one.

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 Here are some water photos taken at the pool yesterday morning. It was sooo sunny, and we love the way the light plays on the moving water.

Someone remarked that these could also be sky. I think the one above is especially ambigous. Like a science-fiction sky! Right? Some other planet.

Mail Art and water on a hot day.

 I purchased some Louise Nevelson postcards on sale, thinking they'd be fun to alter. This is my first alteration and I really like the way it turned out. I hope Louise would have liked it. We actually met her years ago when she came to give a talk to students at Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn NY,  where my husband was a grad student. I attended because I could, and she was so stunning. She had on thick false eyelashes, white lace stockings, and a turban. Wow! I was in awe.

 I received a "blank" TV from Adamandia, in Chicago, with instructions to fill the screen and send it back to her. What fun! There I am on TV! A collaborative piece of Mail Art. 
Today is the day that I do the Mail Art workshop for children at BBGB. This is so exciting!

The pool was great this morning. The water was a perfect temperature. My swimming is improving, which was my goal for this summer, among other things.
Hopefully, it won't storm tomorrow and we can get to the pool again.

All the usual fun!

 The pool this morning was nice, even if the water was 90F.  No one was there but us!











This is my latest, #966, and it's going to London. I sure hope it gets there. I like the poem - "For Sure! The wind felt immensely pleased."  I pick up pieces of text randomly and somehow they make lovely poems, these random bits. Do you ever do that? Let randomness take over for a little while! See what happens.

I made a bean salad on 3 July. It's a classic. I posted the recipe on my food blog here. It is sooo good, we've hardly any left and it's only the 6th!
Make this and let me know how you like it, okay?

Okay, it's still hot here. What's it like in your area?