Mail Art Motherlode - Part 1

Just back from a couple weeks holiday. After whining about the input not matching (not even close), my output, I came home to a very nice stack of mail (a lot of which I actually wrote to myself; more on that later), which was so wonderful. I had a lovely evening, ignoring the unpacking and laundry to be done. Instead, I poured myself a glass of wine, settled on the couch, and went through the mail piece by piece.

So, here is a catch up post. Some I've sent, some I received before I went away, and some I just received. Thank you, all!

I sent this collage to Cleo before I left. She seemed pretty pleased with it, which makes me happy too.
Love those red lips. 

This was the result of a paste and pass (no boundaries) card I started through Swap Bot. Honestly, I have been very underwhelmed by much I've received through Swap Bot (as someone wrote to me, I have one foot out the door), but I was okay with how this one turned out. I started with the black and white photo, red washi tape, the screen of the Canadian stamp, and the guy with his chin in a bandage (without the crown). 

A great postal-themed envelope from Tara. Check out her blog (she's got a great purple bike!).

And this is one of two great letters I received from Pamela. (She has a great collection of rubber stamps, washi tape, interesting papers and stationery. Her work is always a joy to receive.) Make sure to check out Pamela's blog. She's an incredible wealth of information for all things mail art (as well as where to eat and shop in San Francisco!). Pamela included some pretty wacky Japanese stationery such as this:

If you can shed any insight into pants made of bamboo colander, please do tell! 

I wish I could remember all of the ways I connect with the mail art/correspondence community, but somewhere along the line (clicking links, no doubt), I came across Naomi Bulger's blog. A comment or two later and then I received this fantastic envelope in the post. Inside, was this:  

… a copy of her novel, Air Mail. Thank you for the very generous gift, Naomi. Be sure to check out her blog and see how she customizes each hand-made envelope to suit the correspondent. Mine - the city scape - related to the name of my blog, Tough City Writer. 

i think that's enough for now; more in a few days.  

Letters to the Front

I was going through some of my ephemera and letters, looking for some materials to use in a mail art call related to World War I, when I came across two letters I had picked up for $3 in a Victoria collectibles shop. They are quite lovely and heart breaking, written from a boy, Ron, to his father. Since we are "celebrating" (honouring?) the centenary of World War I, I thought I'd post the images and text of these letters (a letter and a Valentine).

Transcript:

[image of 2 cent stamp]

Dear Dad,
Went back to school today and had manual in the after-noon. We had to go to Steveseton [I think Steverston, a community near Vancouver] because they moved the manual. We went up and came back in the school buses. We had a swell time. Soon as I got back to the school after manual the principal collared me and said I want you as soon as you get your hat and coat on so I got them on and went with here [her?] to the nurse's room. The nurse said I was all right. Get [got?] faged [*fagged] out. So Miss Principal said don't worry about your homework and don't work hard in school so I am going to have a swell time.

Glad you're coming HOME, Home Sweet Home.

Yours till the Cream puffs,
Ron

[picture] One of the nurse

Turn Over

* I looked up fagged in my lovely old Webster's Dictionary and it says: to work strenuously; to tire by exertion; to exhaust.

I'm not sure what manual would be. The above dictionary referred to "The specified manner of training with a weapon." Any other thoughts? 

This side is the most heart-breaking (and sweetest, really). "Before," dad is in a wheelchair. And now? He is "all bright and shiny as a new dime." Then, an illustration of the "new dad ("You"), "By Me." 

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. 

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! 

Wednesday Round Up

Last week I did the "Wednesday" round-up on Tuesday so this week I will post it on Thursday. Keep you guessing. It's been a slow mail week. Well, a pathetic show of mail received (ahem), but I've been sending a lot out. Other than a letter from ever faithful Guido, which I have yet to scan, there's been nothing other than bills, which is a bit discouraging given my output. I live in eternal hope, however, and I do get a lot of joy out of sending. I did several small collages last weekend as we were on another quick road trip. I commandeered the back seat and was happy with my scissors and glue stick (well, not so happy when we were stuck in traffic because of an accident and I'd run out of card stock). It's great when your teenagers are able to drive. Really. It is.

Here are a few of those collages:

I haven't sent this one out yet. I probably need to send it to someone I know or someone who will not get twisted out of shape because of the odd little creature with the fairly large "appendage." If you'd like it, email me or leave a comment with your address and it's yours! (Offer good for one week. No takers by next Thursday and I'll decide where it goes.)

This is a new style for me. I made a few layers with different bits of tissue then gave it a mask of gesso. The top layers include packing tape image transfers and a few rubber stamps I cut.