Mail art Update

 I discovered that I had 3 postcard blanks in a shiny green paper. Oh, so perfect for something simple

 I used some pieces of type cut from a LIFE magazine, circa 1965

 A think strip of Washi tape completed my designs. I got some fun comments on them when I posted them on Facebook. I really like how BOLD they are.

 This piece was done before the text pieces. The "divided" is a handtag from something my honey purchased awhile ago. It's done with an iridescent, holographic magic ink! The text is French, and a bit of Washi tape to finish it up.





More Tiny Town activity.

 Tuesday was the 2nd of 6 sessions of my 2d-Design class. We did the random experiences. They're a lot of fun and generate good examples of design principles.

Circles and squares, randomly placed, and secured. Next step, isolate an area, followed by discussion. Make something new!

Mail Art and more

 I was going through my boxes of received mail art. I pulled out some items that came in envelopes, including this postcard, which I altered a bit and am sending back to the person who sent it. I think she'll be surprised as I've had it for a year or more.

 This arrived a couple of days ago. A colorfully painted envelope filled with IUOMA items including my very own membership card. This is exciting. It was sent by Ruud Janssen, the founder of the IUOMA.

Yesterday, we attended a wedding. It was lovely. Here's a photo that I took with my cell phone, which I'm seeing as a painting from another era, with the women in long dresses, right? I might need to start painting again inspired by this.

What an interesting weekend. A memorial service and a wedding, two life cycle events. Keeps one grounded, that's for sure.

Wow, it's already Sunday!

 Yesterday was a sad day. It was gray and drizzly, and we went to the memorial service for our colleague/friend Jerry. There was a big bowl of button/pins for us to wear. They were photos of Jerry at all different ages. My honey chose the one of Jerry when he was a student and we first met him. I chose the photo of how he looked my last chat with him at the pool this summer.  We went off to lunch after the service and had a beer in his memory, balancing the pins on the rims of the glasses. He was a real sweet guy!

 I decided to add one of my sunglasses people and see what I could come up with. It seemed like comments were being made, by using more of those practice bits, which made it asemic. I like the way it turned out.

 Okay, I have to say, I cracked myself up with this one. I've had this guy in my supply of scraps for quite some time and never could figure out what to do with him. His smile was just so good!  To say I'm pleased with this one is an understatement. I love the way it turned out. 

 This is today's mail art. I was searching through the scraps for a face but this basket of apples somehow just worked. Maybe it's the crispness in our weather at the moment or my thinking about the good applesauce that we made, waiting to be eaten by us. In any case, the residents of Tiny Town are presented with a big problem. How the heck will they get those out of the basket, how will they distribute them, how will people get them into their homes? Notice how they stand their in confusion looking at the basket?

Our doorbell rang yesterday afternoon. It was the neighbor girls. Sage held this up! They were both excited to tell us about their new dog.  Cute drawing, right? They said that their dog doesn't exactly look like this.   I can't wait to see the real deal.

My class and mail art, too.

 My 2-d Design class started this past Tuesday night. I have a lovely group of adults, who jumped right into the experiences that I offered up.

 We started out with squares and some ideas and then develop the principles of design from that.

 Any of my former VCU students, who might read this blog, will remember these experiences.

 Today's mail art included part of an old postcard, more of my playing around with new rubber stamps, and Washi tape. I am loving making simple Mail Art. Not sure where I'll send this one, yet.

 Here's a photo of some of my veggies from the farm, and some items that M brought from the farm in Maryland. I may have posted this before, but I am so so very fond of farm goodies.

This is one of my favorite photos of two photographers, who found interesting views in two directions. Quite adorable, yes? It was taken last spring at the zoo in Washington, D.C.

Mail art update, other stuff, and some geese

 This was such a cool image to me. As M and I walked behind VMFA yesterday, after having been to the Virginia Historical Society to see a terrific exhibit, we saw these painters. They were the same color as the building and, to me, looked like a Georg Segal sculpture. Cool, right?   We were headed to the post office, with a stop for the ribbon cutting at our newly refurbished branch library. Fun!

 Mail art #286 makes me laugh. I used the back end of an illustration of a prehistoric fish that lived back when Jamestown was settled (1607-ish.) My comment had to do with the residents thinking this was something from M. Melies studio, like a big hot air balloon.

 This one is 286a. A pensive looking boy, gazing at the tiny men on tiny horses following tiny dogs.

 We scored some tiny (yes, that word again) alphabet stamp sets at the craft store on Monday. Only $1, which is a good deal, indeed. I was playing around with the stamps and decided to use the bits for collage.

 Every time I get back to some minimal cards, I feel satisfied. Something about the LESS-ness of them, satisfies me. A couple three scraps, a bit of Washi tape, et voila, minimal mail art.

 This morning was the first day of our new year of Spanish class. On the way home, I took the short cut through Byrd park and...there were birds there. Geese were all over the place. I put my phone out the window and snagged a couple of images.

Fortunately, there were no cars behind me so I could stop. They weren't making a sound. Must be the stop over on the way south, right?

Remembering

 Two days ago, M and I went to the Tredegar Iron Works site, which is now a museum of the Civil war.  It's very interesting, lots of photos, lots of text, all in the huge old iron works building. The text tells the history from three viewpoints, the North, the South and the Slave. These old walls have so much to tell us. There are several of the original buildings on the site and some of the old machinery, but some things have been recreated. This site, by the way, is only a mile and a half from my house.

 M gave me a book she just finished called MARCH by Geraldine Brooks. It's the story of the father in the book Little Women. I just started reading it and it's very interesting. It takes place during the American Civil War.

 Yesterday, and today, M and I attended a symposium at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on the work of Xu Bing. I was familiar with his Book from the Sky, which we saw installed at the Sackler in Washington DC. Now, he's done a project at the museum using tobacco.  The exhibit is amazing and hearing the panels of scholars yesterday, and Xu Bing today, was very informative.  I'm glad we decided to attend this.

 This is the studio school of the VMFA. I'll be teaching my 2-d Design classes here for the next six weeks starting this Tuesday evening. I'm very happy to be doing this again.  I'll be in that 2nd floor studio, in the further building.

 This is what's left of the HUGE 100 year old tree that fell over in the storm and knocked out the power to the studio school. That's the back of the building. The tree, fortunately to state the obvious, didn't fall on the school building, just fell across power lines.

 I snapped this behind the museum during the lunch break yesterday. It was so sunny and the grounds are now complete including sculpture.

This is my 9/11 commemoration Mail Art. I was thinking a lot about what I might do and, while walking home from the symposium, it came to me that I had to do a quote about fear. My rubber stamp technique left something to be desired, but still, it worked out okay.

Mail Art update and a bit more

 More of my woven map pieces done over the past few days. I like the way the black background makes the map pop off the surface.

 The black stitching definitely reads as line and I like that. Like a path, a route.

 I decided to give the line some meaning, not be just wandering but rather the flight of a butterfly.

 It's appropos, the butterfly, right now, as another of our colleague/friends has passed on, as "they" say. His spirit is off with the butterflies now.

 This is this morning's Tiny Town card, a big visitor from 1965. What is he thinking, what is that expression? I'm not sure, nor do I think the residents of Tiny Town are. They appear to ignore him.

 In this one, the woman is so in the face of the little riders. She's just beaming at them. I think her sunglasses would be annoying to them, or at least, distracting.

This lovely flower was on the table at a restaurant where we had lunch the other day, and learned that our colleague was in hospice. Yesterday, he died. It was so quick that we didn't get the chance to visit, so it goes.

Here's to you, old friend!