Sunday, fun day.

#51

#52

#53

#54

I just learned about a postcard project through Brain Pickings. Wow, check it out HERE.
This group of mail art collages were made using scraps sent to me by Cecil Touchon of the Museum of Collage, Assemblage and construction.  Well, actually, I donated money by purchasing a packet of the scraps. What a cool idea. And in return, I cleared a path on my own work table and sent him a bunch of scraps to use for collage night at the museum. Fun, this is such fun.

Ah, mid-week update! Mail Art and Slow Art.

#48

#49

#50

 The above three collages use scraps that friends sent to me. I really love using these old bits and adding my own touches. #50 is made on the cover of an old children's book that someone gave me to cut up. The cover fell off so I used it in this way.

I purchased a scrap kit from the Museum of Collage, Cecil Touchon's place, to help support the museum. It arrived yesterday and I'll make several pieces of mail using the scraps from Cecil's studio. I decided to send scraps from MY studio to Cecil to use for collage night. Happy to pass scraps along.

Ah, move slowly like a turtle - that's what we'll do on Slow Art Day 2015.

I've set up an EventBrite page here. Just click on "here" and sign up. It's free to attend and I'll be able to prepare enough handouts if I know you're participating.

And if you aren't in Richmond, VA, check your city and see if there's a Slow Art Event where you are. Venue's here.

Some fun news!

 This is the atrium of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA.) I took this photo when this new space first opened. It looks the same though it's usually always filled with people now. The museum is open 365 days of the year and is free of charge except for special exhibits. How nice, right? We love hanging out there.

AND here is #1 FUN NEWS!
 I will, once again, host  Slow Art Day at VMFA.

Participants will meet me at the museum on Saturday,  11 April, at 11 a.m. and view 5 works of art for an hour. Then we'll convene at the Best Cafe, at noon,  for an informal conversation about the experience. I'm excited to be doing this again. If you are in the area, please sign up on my Facebook Page, Slow Art Day 2015 - Richmond, VA - VMFA 

  or leave me a message on this blog, or send me an e-mail.. If you comment as anonymous leave me your name and info so I can get information to you. Bring children if you have them or know any who'd enjoy this activity, as well as adults. It's open to anyone.

Cover

First page

Fun Thing #2 - I'm so happy to be participating in The Sketchbook Project again. I missed the deadline because I wasn't being mindful, but then, the deadline was
e x t e n d e d!
Lucky me! Hooray.
So here's the cover and the first page. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to do before starting so that it's all come together for me.
It's minimal, as usual. 
  I'll show more pages eventually, or tomorrow.
Fun Thing #3 - my page from the Artists Coloring Book will be among several featured at a festival in Cape Town, South Africa.  Check out the link and see the cool things that are happening all around the world via Micro-Galleries.

Fun, right? This is all so fun.

Mail Art - catching up, still.

#42

#43

 I have many of these old postcards. This particular view is so boring that I rarely use them. Since the location is near a friend's home, I decided to alter it and send it to them.

For some reason, placing a real person there as a "sculpture bust" seemed like a good idea. My story about it is that it creates a problem for drivers who often miss the turn onto the expressway. What do you think? Does it work?

I found a stash of my cut out paintings that I'd forgotten about, and made another in my series of Landscape Beautification Projects.

This one works nicely. The story is that the boaters enjoy it but the people who live in it's shadow, not so much.

#44

#45

While going through some little drawers of collage bits that I hadn't explored in awhile, I found these bits of photos that I'd cut out. Why I'd taken photos of eggplants, I don't know. And why I'd had those photos printed, wow, a mystery, and then, I cut them out!

So I had to use them in Mail Art collages, right?




Do you think I used these to best advantage?

Any other ideas for me as I have a few left.

#46

Combining photo, photo from a magazine, and very old newsprint.

#47

Figures are from old magazines that an aquaintance dropped off at my house. I don't like the musty smell of them so I work quickly to find images to cut out then drop the magazine in the recycle bin.

Mail Art catch-up! Did you miss me?

#33

#37

#38

#39

$40

Here's a series of Mail Art pieces that I made using scraps sent to me by some Mail Art friends. Aren't I lucky to have such good friends?

Mail Art, of course, and some snow news.

#25-2015

#26-2015

Snow is coming

#32

 What an assortment of Mail Art -1) altered a card that I made from a print of my Artist Coloring Book collage, 2)used some circles, 3)altered a commercial card from our trip to NOLA - landscape beautification project, 4) made a batch of "snow is coming" cards. In between, I made some other numbers of cards. It's been fun.

The snow started yesterday about 2 pm. It was fine and continuous and stuck to the ground. I took this through the window in the kitchen (see the screen?)


It kept coming, and coming, and coming, so fine and so quiet.









This morning, the bird bath shows how much snow fell in our back yard.

See how the snow rounds things out? Softens the edges.

It's sunny now, but very cold, and, oh my, it's going to get colder.

Our city shuts down, meanwhile, in Chicago, where there's lots of snow and is as cold as it is here, my friend goes out and about with her life.

Me, I'm a shut-in - who'll catch up on responding to mail and knitting and hoping there'll be mail delivery.

What's weather like where you are?

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

#20

#21

#22

#23

 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.