Monday, July 28, 2014

Monoprints!

Karen, who masterfully runs Mail Me Some Art (aka MMSA), has these great challenges that help me stretch my artistic muscles (for what they're worth). A recent swap was to make postcards out of mono printed papers. I took a course on using gel plates at Collage, when I was in Portland, and I'd been thinking of finally getting my own plate. So…this challenge spurred me to do just that.

The first round I just used one colour and played around with different papers, some stencils and printing one colour on top of another colour. Then I watched a great video from Jane Davies, Masking with the Gel Plate, and I had an "aha moment" (really more like a "duh" moment) when I saw her put daubes of different colours on the plate and then smoosh them together.  SO much more interesting.

Here's a bit of what I got up to. There are four postcards for the swap and then some Jane Davies-inspired pieces using masks.









Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Studio Weekend

I had a nice stretch of time at the art table this past weekend. I did some collaging, wrote some letters and postcards, and even started playing with my gelli plate. (There is a lot to learn there!) For the record (if, for me only!) here's a bit of the production:
Nick Bantock's book, The Tricker's Hat, has put me on to cutting numbers and letters in half. And I love that weird little bear (?) stamp I picked up at Urban Source in Vancouver. 

Simpler than I usually go, but I like it. Less fussy...
This was becoming a bit of a mess, but I think I salvaged it with the tattooed man and "mail this." 
The white dot on this one is an actual hole, so we'll see how it does in the postal system. Back to the use of stencils with tissue layered on top. I like the abstractness (is that a word?) of this one.  
This envelope cracks me up. I had a whack of these portraits of Canadian prime ministers (and the Queen, of course), so I superimposed their heads on the page of an old year book. Plus, I added a few new portraits of Canadian writers. 
Gelli plate flies, made by my daughter. 

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Where Does The Rainbow End...

"Donde termina el arco iris en tu alma o en al horizonte?"
"Where does the rainbow end, in your soul or on the horizon?"
- Pablo Neruda

I snapped a picture of the rainbow "book" before the wind blew it off the railing. Taken from the deck of my office at work. (I know, I suffer so.) 
I had been fiddling around with some ideas to respond to the mail art call from Dame Mailarta. The mail art call was, simply, Rainbow to "celebrate the changes that have been achieved, and are still being fought for, as they relate to human rights, marriage equality, and the LGBT community."

I had been wanting to do a bigger project and with Pamela's timely post that sent me to a blog on making books, I played around with this accordion book. The seams are a little rough in places, but overall I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

Then I got busy sorting my papers into all the colours of the rainbow. Here are some closer views. 







Violet and the end paper with Neruda's quote on rainbows.
Covers. Not sure about the "tower" of Queen Elizabeth.
I raided my stamp stash for rainbow-ish stamps. 


Thursday, July 10, 2014

Wednesday Round-Up

Another Wednesday Round-up on Thursday. Hmmm. Maybe that wasn't such a great idea. It's been a busy week filled with various things. Some mail-, art-, or writing-related, but also a whole lot of just getting through a week in July! It's all good. I'm off for a few days of music and friends in the sun, but here's a bit of what's been going through my post office box.

From ever-faithful and so distinctive, Guido in Belgium. 

Cascadia Artpost is celebrating the fact that Test Tower is moving. Wouldn't it be great if all change of address notices looked like this? Love the artistamp. 
From Stefano in Rome. His half of the mail art exchange related to signs of the Zodiac. 

The other side of Stefano's card. I am Capricorn (just). 
A collage for no one in particular. 

My card off to Guido. A bit simpler than I usually do, but I didn't want to mess with the crazy man. 

More from Test Tower. Call me spoiled. 
All hail, Heebee Jeebeeland! What can I say? Is this fantastic or what? 

This one was off to Kansas. 
More collage to no one in particular. Love that book of old Royal Bank of Canada cheques I picked up at a thrift store. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of it!