Still Breathing

After such a good streak, that was a long time to leave the blog. I have been thinking of it--and getting to my art table on occasion--but I've been preoccupied by this. Art making and correspondence has slowed down in the last few months, but I'm managing to chip away at things. So if I owe you a letter, it's coming. Truly. Here are a few things that have been passing through, either in or out.

 

Aren't these beauties? I was very lucky to spend some time in San Francisco with a mail art friend and she took me to SCRAP. (Among other things. We had a wonderful day together.) I picked up a few things, but these book covers with their stunning "chops" were definitely the highlight. I'm hoping someone can tell me what they say!
Thanks for the great day, Pamela. 

Below are a few new collage cards that have been whisking their way to various parts of the globe. Just playing around.

For this collage and the ones that follow I actually used scissors, something that I haven't done for awhile. It was quite cathartic sniping all those nice squares and rectangles...

On The Table

Found some time this weekend for some art making and letter/card writing. Here are a few of the results:

Monotone (sort of) Collage. At times (a lot of times) I am overwhelmed by the amount of paper I have kicking around so it's nice to limit the palette from time to time.

The wrestler didn't scan well. He's sepia, not olive, in colour! 

An envelope sent to me by Phillip of Envelope 100. I've had it for quite awhile now, trying to decide who to send it to. I finally found the answer. 

Feeling the Rightness

Rightness, not righteousness. 

Yes,  I'm still here. Some personal things in the great adventure called life have slowed me down a bit; I won't bog you down with details. I've found collaging my way through it all very therapeutic. When I spend time collaging I try not to over think what I do. It's a meditative, perhaps intuitive?, process for me. I just move things around until the composition feels right and then I get the glue stick out. Nick Bantock talks about composition in The Trickster's Hat (one of my favourites and I'm currently working through a few exercises): "Composition is really hard to teach, mainly because balance is innate. Yes, there are mathematical rules  of harmony and the golden mean can be measured, but the real acid test is not geometrics - it's purely a matter of whether you can feel the rightness of something in relationship to its surroundings. Do you internally "know" when something is right or when it is just off?"

If you are waiting for mail from me, I'm back in the saddle and hope to be caught up soon. Thanks for your patience. And I'm drowning a bit in small collages; I may give some away…stay tuned.

In the meantime, here are a few new works.

I am slightly addicted to photo transfers. Loving this cigar man. 

Danger lurks around blind corners...

I am going to be very sad when I run out of those blank cheques. 

Collage and Congrats

Busy, but very rewarding, days here as I settle into a new job and splitting my time between two places, both filled with people I love and things I enjoy doing. Life is full and very good, but my posts will likely slow down a bit. I'm trying to catch up with correspondence as well, so if I owe you a letter, it's coming! Promise. For now, a few collages I've been working on -- I've tried layering and collaging on top of some of my mono print efforts. I like the effect in the yellow one in particular, but I think I could have dropped the little armadillo-like creature in the red one; it seems a bit stuck in. (I would love some feedback from any readers, particularly constructive criticism. For the most part I work in a bit of a creative vacuum.) I don't think these are finished, but I'll keep staring at them for awhile.

There are several benefits to spending time in the city. One is re-connecting with old friends -- actually having time to spend with them -- and taking part in the many arts event in the city. This weekend I went to two books launches, both of friends. Jude Isabella, my work partner in crime, released Salmon: A Scientific Memoir, on Friday. And my friend Margaret Horsfield, along with Ian Kennedy, did a signing and presentation on Tofino & Clayoquot Sound: A History, a book that the region has long needed, yesterday. I'm so proud of you, my friends. I know how much angst and sleepless nights go into writing projects so it's great to have them out there, released into the world.

And I also received another book from a dear writer friend. So happy to have I Wasn't Always Like This, a book of essays, by Shelley Leedahl, on my bed stand. (The collagist in me loves the cover of that one.) All is good surrounded by so much creativity.

Hallowe'en Fun

I had a great rainy day a week or so ago making some Hallowe'en cards. I do like Hallowe'en-related imagery, but not so much the Hallmark, cutesy versions. Bring on actual mummies, bats, spiders, snakes and the like (which I don't find scary, but seem to suit the day). And this year Canada Post put out a Haunted Canada series, so these stamps were fun to pair with the collages. I also had some of older Hallowe'en stamps, which came packaged in a "haunted stamp house." Since (I hope) most of these cards will have arrived at their destination, I thought it would be safe to post.

Here are two stamps from the different collections. The top is from the Haunted Canada series (2014), which was released on Friday, June 13th. These "soldiers" are guarding the haunted Fort George at Niagara-on-the-Lake. The other is from The Haunted Stamp House series. Here's a great post on that series. And the guy with horns? It's from a National Geographic spread on "wild men" of Europe (dressed in some very odd costumes). 

Someone mentioned that she liked the Bride of Frankenstein, so I went from there. And the old stamp is from another Canada Post series on cryptozoology (or, as they called it, Canada's Legendary Creatures). This one was Le Loup-Garou (the werewolf). I think it's great that Canada Post can think beyond queens, dead white men, and flags every once in awhile! 

My favourite. This is a mummified Sicilian priest. Love the velvet cape and hat and the lace blouse. I tried to echo the lace using a doily. I hope it made it through the post.  

Hard to go wrong with a bat and a crypt. 

This is the ghost bride from the Haunted Canada series. It's from the little monthly magazine that Canada Post puts out.  (And you can see part of one of the stamps in the lower left.)

For my niece, so a little tamer. Good use for one of those Harry Potter stamps from the US. 

Not particularly "Halloweeny"...

I couldn't resist this gal. Tried again with a bit of doily in the lower left. 

Deconstruction

I've been stockpiling bits of old books - endpapers and covers, primarily - so finally concentrated on just using them in some collage. (I've been finding random piles of bits of papers, which is how I usually work, a bit overwhelming lately, so have been experimenting with limiting the palette or material in some way helpful.) Here are the results:

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.

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. 

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.