Some New York pix

A tree in Chelsea Market made of CDs

 We had a really nice time in NYC. We strolled through Chelsea Market, which is a great place to get out of bad weather. This tree made of CDs catches the tiny lights, twinkles a lot. Good re-use, right?

Keith's exhibit at OK Harris Gallery in SoHo

 We walked lots and until Sunday, the weather was relatively mild. We were so happily surprised.    This shop in SoHo has 800 old sewing machines on display in the window and inside the shop.

A clothing shop & lots of old sewing machines.

Waverly Diner

Sunday the weather was awful. It rained really heavily. We met up with our daughter and had breakfast at the Waverly Diner in the west village where I managed to leave a book that I'd registered on BookCrossing. I hope someone found it. 

MoMA -  Barnett Newman

We went up to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Abstract Expressionist show. Here's my honey and our daughter in front of a BIG red painting.  We also saw an amazing Anselm Keifer show at Gagosian Gallery, twice, we liked it so much.

MoMA

 People in the museum were looking down watching a performance piece. It's was pretty strange. A man playing Ode to Joy, backwards and upside down. Why? Because he was inside of a piano, a hole cut into it, he was popped up in the middle, leaning over playing. Very strange!

Monday night, it was very cold. We met up with our daughter and had dinner at Pala (yummy pizza) and afterwards went to a small cafe/coffee shop for dessert. A wonderful vegan chocolate layer cake! The window lights reflected on the table top looked so festive to me.

Coffee shop window.

Our train ride back to Virginia was very relaxing. We got to see things so differently than when we'd drive. This bridge was in New Jersey, just after we'd left New York City.  It looked so peaceful, and unused.

By the time we reached home, it was dark and time for dinner.  .  

Mail Art #16, plus an idea.

"Mainly Red"

 I decided that today's card would be mainly red, since it's white outside. Yes, it snowed for most of the day. It's stopped falling, it's on the ground looking pretty, only 24F/-4C so I'm staying indoors. Perfectly happy making mail art, which my mail carrier will pick up from my door and get it on it's way. I used some things from my NYC trip and from my studio stash.

Angry kitty?

This morning, as the snow was starting, I went off to meet with my friend Thea, who is a fab tattoo artist and part owner of an art gallery. She makes some very nice Mail Art. We'd gotten it into our heads to do a mail art show and wanted to start making plans. She got a cup of coffee and it had this foamy top, which Thea turned into a kitty face. Kind of angry looking, right? Or a Persian Cat? We'll work out more details of our show, which will be in 2012, and will post details in plenty-o-time for all of you to enter. Fun thinking and planning and making Mail Art. More soon.

Mail Art, #9A through #14A of 365

For Andrea in the U.K.

 I made #9A to send to my friend Andrea, because I couldn't leave home with out getting some mail off to her.

First card made in New York City

The rest of the cards in this post were created while I was away from home for several days.

 I made 2 cards on the 10th of December, while sitting in a restaurant. The server was very interested in what I was doing. I gleaned the bits from brochures and newspaper that I picked up along the way.

 I was handed the business card in the center by someone on the street. We didn't have a chance to stop by that market but did find a great craft event the next day, sponsored by Bust magazine. A bazillion crafters all under one roof, including Melissa, who I'm "related" to through various blogs! And we get our vintage postage from the same guy in California. Pretty cool!

 I made 2 cards on the 12th. #12A was sent out as a thank you to our friends, who set up a comfy pallet for us, on their studio (a real working artist studio) floor in New York City.

We appreciated their hospitality and many years of friendship, plus we got to see Keith's show at OK Harris gallery.
You can see Keith's sculptures on the gallery website.

Thank you card

A real gold seal (candy wrapper)

Last card made in NYC

On the train

Last card made on the train before reaching home.

I discovered that taking photos of the cards worked fairly well. I 'd wondered how that would work out since I usually scan my cards after making them.

Also, I discovered that it was hard to glue things down on a moving train. The trains was swaying a lot!

I was very happy with the bits I was able to glean while away from home. I really enjoyed the randomness of what came my way that I would be able to use. I'm happy with the results.

The first card made on the train is going to France. I thought it fitting to use an image of the Statue of Liberty (which came from the Amtrak Train magazine.)

The last card of the trip has a used up MetroCard on it, a gold seal (candy wrapper really( and a terrific image from an old photo that was in the train magazine. All in all, I'm quite pleased with this output. Now for tomorrow, to squeeze in a piece of Mail Art on a very busy day. I can do it!

My studio, last month.

 In the middle of November, after completing a big sewing project for the Holiday shop, I decided to tackle my work table in preparation for more collage making. Looking towards "my real wall" and then towards "my other real wall" you can see how small my actual work space was at that time. Since then, I've cleared the space to the right, which makes me feel like I have a huge studio. (not exactly but way more spacious)

On the right, you can see Jennie Hinchcliff's (co-authored with Carolee Gilligan-Wheeler)  book Good Mail Day. It's inspiring to have it leaning against my little drawer unit. I have tons of scraps in those drawers, as well as old photos, ATC blanks, magnets, envelopes that I made from old books, etc. On top you can see my Blythe doll and behind her, my Coraline doll. Notice the cool stuff on that wall?

Goodbye for a few days, Studio. When I return from my little trip away from you, I'll have some new inspiration for MailArt365.

Mail Art

 #7 was sent to someone in the Netherlands, not named so it'll be a surprise. I love the face on this image. It's from ceramic vase, the woman was holding a bird in her hand, had on a long dress with a flower print skirt. I could only fit the top on the postcard. I love the look, so sweet, so open, sort of surprised, happy. This might be one of my favorite cards.

Card #8 is one of my color experiments. I think this one worked very well as the small blue rectangles really do seem different, even on the computer screen.  I'll do these experiment cards periodically through-out the 365 project.  I have one more card to post from home, then on to the ones that I'll be doing away from home. I may not have access to the internet so posting may wait until early next week. My own anticipation of what I'll do is exciting to me.

Preparing to mail MA

I'm going to be away from home for a few days and decided that I needed to prepare to make Mail Art while on my little trip. I prepared cards with a background from my vast store of 7.5 topo maps on the front, and prepared the reverse with my rubber stamps. I'll add the number of the card and the date to each in advance, as well as a number on the front. I'll probably choose recipients, while I'm at it, and the correct postage. Whew, now to remember to pack these, and to actually make them and mail them. Fingers crossed that I'll be as diligent as Noah was with Skull-a-day.

Mail Art

 Here's #4, a butterfly, which went off on the 4th of Dec. to someone with whom I've had correspondence for awhile.  I didn't have a little round number 4 to put on it. It's been great to use the numbers that I saved ages ago in a tiny tin. I think they came off of a little calendar. I have enough now to do the full 31 first days of this project. After that, hmmm, I'll be rubber stamping maybe.

 The color experiment, based on Josef Albers interaction of color, came out sort of okay on this card. If you stare at the space between the two color swatches you can kind of see that the rust color rectangle on the left is brighter than the one on the right. Can you see that? Kind of see it?

I really like the way this card turned out. It's going to a person with whom I've corresponded and I "discovered" that one of her Mail Art on going projects involves fish. I found the image in a book about Virginia wild life. Unfortunately, I didn't cut out the label telling me the name of this fish. Can anyone identify this fish?