A bit of Mail Art, a lot of Bizoo

365.2 #313

365.2 #314

365.3 #163

365.3 #164

 Circles, I'm all about circles right now as I haven't found good images to cut out. I need new source material!

Circles are always my default.
When Julie came to visit, we cut some circles using her gigantic circle cutter. They're a good size addition.





Yesterday was a crazy day with a storm, a deluge in our house, and other disruptions.
Keeping Mail Art simple is a good thing on days like that.








Large circle really changes the scale. I used a left over tiny circle inside of a medium circle, inside of the larger one.












I keep a tin full of black circles handy for just such a day when simplicity must rule.

 Our niece spent the night as her home lost power in a storm and her hunny was out of town.
She came into the kitchen early and caught Bizoo doing things he never does when we're in the kitchen with him. 

Here he is checking out the sink.

 Here he is IN the sink.

 Here he is, having somehow pulled the garbage bin door open, hoisting himself up, and then onto counter and sink.

 Here he's sleeping on the low-boy rather than in his bed or on his comfy soft chair.

And here he is, hiding in a white paper bag. "No, it wasn't me. Nope, it was a look-a-like and why is Auntie M playing nanny-cam?"

We found out this morning, that Bizoo has 6 toes, and because of his markings, he'd be identified as a "target tabby!" Who knew!?

Note to me: 1. buy museum wax to stick things down, like the candle sticks.
2. keep kitchen sink scrubbed clean
3. buy baby latch to keep garbage bin locked tight
4. laugh a lot

Mail Art, and more

365.2 #311

365.2 #312

365.3 #161

 I'm giving myself a break from finding just the right little person or little object to fit into a space.

Working with circles is more soothing plus I have lots of them cut out.

365.3 #162

I like using not only the circles but what remains when they are punched out.












There are such different spatial relationships and "meanings" that are evoked by these.










For instance, this one makes me think of a party, of fun, of joyful playfulness. Even though the color blue is often associated with sadness, this one is not at all sad for me.

Though, at the moment, I'm feeling sad for what is going on in Istanbul, hoping our friends are okay.

My younger sister sent this to me. I'd done this drawing of myself back in 1969 and sent it to her. She thought I'd enjoy seeing it again and I do. Julie suggested that I scan it and put it into Tiny Town. Perhaps I'll do that for my very last one.

My honey looked at this and said - "Oh, you were very fashionable then."   Hmmm, guess I'm not so these days.

My older sister sent me a quantity of laces, trims, and appliques (and other stuff) that she was clearing out.  I sold a few things at a vintage shop for her,  now am putting them on Etsy, in my FritziMim shop.

Check them out. If you know anyone interested in making things with vintage, unused, cool stuff, send them my way.

 Here is Bizoo in a shopping bag! I wondered where he'd gotten himself to, and somehow the bag had righted itself after he ran into it. So cute! He was playing with both an aluminum foil ball and a piece of crumpled paper.

And here is our cutie, Zinn. Happy girl in her summery dress. She's nearly 3 months old.

Odds and Ends

 Here are some of the entries for the Skull Appreciation Day 2013 Mail Art exhibit at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago.  

 This is a delicious little meringue made with violets! I got to taste one and buy a few at the Farmers' Market this past Tuesday.

Edible flowers are what makes Petal Palate special. If you're in the area, check them out.

 The little puffs melt in your mouth and have a very delicate flavor. 

 Bizoo had some visitors this afternoon. S. and N. came by to help B. get acquainted with more people. They told me, before I got Bizoo, that they'd need to come over to get the kitty used to children. What a good idea! So here they are, patiently waiting for Bizoo to send the aluminum foil ball back out from under the paper. He was leery of their energy, but I'm sure that after enough visits, he'll be happy to see them.

 Okay, stretch, stretch and hold! Kitty yoga perhaps? Kitty Pilates? This is quite the pose, wouldn't you say? Bizoo stayed like this for awhile. Must have felt good.

 J. came to spend some time with me. We made a salad lunch and then talked about quilts (her new one is gorgeous) and looked at quilt and fiber books. We measured yards and yards of vintage trimming and wound them on cardboard. And we punched circles out of paper using J.s new HUGE hole punch, and my smaller ones.

Here's a scan of some of the left-over hole punched paper. Nice, right?

We both felt like we'd have a vacation day! What fun.

And here is our little cutie. She spent some time with us on Saturday. I caught this photo of her after she had a diaper change on top of our washing machine. She looked so cute in her summery dress.

Mail Art - Sunday catching up

365.2 #307

 Tiny Town is back, for a brief visit. I have one more "blank" to alter then it's done.

While the residents were not sure of the propriety of the new monument, or it's placement, they were somehow drawn to it's smooth, simple elegance. Tiny Town always worked around strange occurrences.

65.2 #308

Tiny Town residents were grateful that Simone took on the duties of feeding, and looking after the well being of, Phideau.

#365.2 #309

365.2 #310

I have to come up with stories for a few of these cards. Nothing has come to me yet.






Ah, a lute player, what will I have to say about her?  I'm using some of the cards that my honey had printed for his Body of Evidence exhibit. They were the ones that he was not satisfied with the printing. They work as cards to be altered, by me.

Check out my honey's website HERE. It's a work in progress. More of his work will be added on a regular (or irregular) basis.

365.3 #157

365.3 #158

 The brass armillary was suppoed to be installed in the new colossal garden. The error on the part of the moving company was not appreciated by the residents of Tiny Town.

I was taken by this item when I saw it in a magazine. It was tough to cut out but worth it. I had to look up the word armillary!




Marie Claire's visits were infrequent as she led a very busy life, and Tiny Town residents always enjoyed her pleasant demeanor.

365.3 #159

 This guy is a companion piece to #309. They look like they belong together when I have them side by side. Maybe the same recipient needs to receive both of them. No story for him yet, or the woman, in the red coat, at the fox hunt.

365.3 #160

Altering my own Mail Art

365.2 #305

 The past three days, I was feeling thwarted by the old photo postcards so decided to just work quickly with what I had at hand. Colored paper and circles.

I made a series of simple color shapes.

I scanned and posted them and realized that I wasn't satisfied with them. Boring, just plain boring.

 Like the Landscape Beautification Project, I needed to do something with these, so I decided to "textify" them - in a move I called "Textification Project."

I found that this worked for me. These aren't my favorite collages, but they are better than before.

365.2 #155

365.2 #306

How nice that, in the case of collage, and Mail Art, I can change a piece, make it more to my liking.

365.3 #156 altered

Do you think the addition of the text improved the composition for you? What would you have done?

So much Mail Art, so little time.

365.2 #301

365.2 #302

365.2 #303

 This is my Mail Art covering 4 days. I'm making faster than I'm sending out. Why this is different than in my first 365 project, I don't know.

In the past, I made, scanned, posted ,and mailed. This time it's make, scan, post, toss in a pile. Hmmm.

365.2 #304

365.3 #151

365.3 #152

365.3 #153

365.3 #154

Thanks to fellow collage artist Santa DeHaven for the idea of using fabric elements, though in 302 it's a flower petal.
Taken something out of it's context changes it, to state the obvious.









I need to change things up, so I added the moth, which seems so on the picture plane while the blue shape is so far back in space on this one.









Here I do a complete change. I had no more good fabric bits to use and no more magazines to cut up. Aaaagh.

I had been given a bag of old photo postcards but ran into a special problem. The photos were curled and even using double sided tape I wasn't able to get them to adhere properly.
These will be send in a clear envelope.


What follows are the companion pieces to all of the above, the 2nd Mail Art piece of each day, which I could as my concurrent 365.3 project.















I like this one most of the group.






















Here again, the curling up photo postcard, which is quite heavy paper stock, causes a problem. The adhesive just isn't strong enough. My solution, a clear envelope. Meanwhile, I'm trying to flatten the remaining photos and hopefully will use them in the future. I really like them a lot and want to share them.

In coming Mail Art, Out going Mail Art (& 2 cuties)

365.3 #150

 Here's they are, milestones of sorts. #300 and #150, these numbers make me feel like I'm getting to my goal. Plus, I really like the way these turned out. They're among my recent favorites. I made them last week. This week isn't going so great so far, in terms of Mail Art. But can't be 100% all the time, right?

365.2 #300

 Awhile ago, I received this very, oh so very, Dean pieces of Mail Art. It's a piece of wood, with rounded corners, that he, no doubt, gleaned from the streets of Paris. What it's original use, I have no idea, but Dean turned it into amazing-ness. He covered the front with  an intricately woven something-or-other and many faces of Olivier.  More on Olivier in a moment.

 Here's the address side. On this side there are wonderful French postage stamps, strips of text cut from posters for Olivier's performance (How to become Parisian in One Hour)

On the card, Dean tells  me that he scored quite a few of the posters while attending the performance. When I got the card, I thought that Dean had written the messages and faked the autographs. ha ha ha, but wait......

 the real story comes out now. Dean sent me this photo of Olivier, mailing this card to me! The autographs are genuine. Wow!

Now the rest of the story.   My Honey and I went to see this show last winter, while in Paris. We loved it, thought it was hilarious, laughed so much. We kept telling people about it. Dean had told us that Olivier is his neighbor. How cool, right?

Then, one evening, my honey and I, plus 3 of our Mail Artist friends went to dinner at Dean & his wife's. We were in the entry foyer, in the dark, because we didn't know where to find the light switch (this is an energy saving custom, no lights on until you turn them on.)All 5 of us were huddled around the door bell panel, trying to find Dean's buzzer, when the outside door opened, and the lights came on.
We turned, I'm laughing as I write this, and there in front of us were Olivier and Claudie. How surprised they must have been, as were we. Oh, my, I'm laughing right now at remembering this moment. I then realized that this was OLIVIER from the performance! I stammered out something about seeing the show, and he said something nice, and then wished us goodnight as he and Claudie disappeared up the stairs. We held ourselves back from getting hysterical laughing. We made it up to Dean's, by squishing into the elevator, with stifled laughter, until we entered his apartment and laughed and laughed, and finally when we calmed down, told Dean and V. the story. This may not be funny when you read it, but picture the situation from each perspective. In the dark, huddled group, lights on, SURPRISE!

And for those of you in London, Olivier is performing his show  there. Go and see it! You won't be sorry you did. 
 

 Now to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes, and continue. Here's a photo of Bizoo, which I took yesterday. He was on my lap while I was trying to use the computer. He is so lively. He shows us that a paper bag, or a big sheet of crumpled brown paper can be so much fun. What a reminder to take joy in simple things.

And here is our grand! This is Zinn, appearing to be dancing some lively folk dance! This was sent to us from Chicago, the other day, which is a city full of folk dance opportunities. Opa!