May 30 outgoing mail art

More outgoing mail

More outgoing mail art

more one of a kind post cards ready to go.

Postal art - ready to mail

I've done a group of altered post cards using post card books. You may remember I did some earlier with Ernie's Postcard Book by Tony Mendoza. This cat post card is from the same source. I don't know if they are still available, but the images are fun. Find one online if you can.
The snakey one is from the Art of Love postcard book. It was put out by Fawcett Columbine. Here are a couple made by adding a little paint images and captions.

BTW there are post card books available from Dover that you could have fun altering.

Postal puzzle follow up

Since most of the small post cards I sent out arrived at their destinations without a hitch, I went ahead and mailed another batch from the Stockton Post office. I put them in the drop box rather than taking them inside for hand stamping. A few got to their destinations but a group of 14, which the post office had banded together, came back to me with the "non mailable due to size stamp imprinted on a label attached to the top of the stack. Hmmm..... some make it, some don't. Most of these were mailed to locals, so my plan is to give them to each person when I see them. BTW none of the stamps were cancelled.

The clown - revisited

Here are a couple of variations of the clown face I did a couple weeks ago. I played with it digitally to get these effects. Part of doing that exercise is to see if I want to make changes with paint. Or leave it as is, and make the changes in PhotoShop.

He isn't meant to be scary, just sad.

The first pic I put up where I described the technique used, was on Apr. 14, Send in the Clowns.

Circus comes to town

I put finishing touches on the circus painting/collage I did this week. Here's the way it looks now.

Mail art - circus theme

I've been playing with circus themes lately. These are a few of the post cards I made to send out.

Good Mail - in box

I'd like to share with you two of the new pieces that just came in. The cloth one came in first from Diane F in Texas. Be sure to click on it so you can appreciate the details such as the multicolor thread, the interesting stitch patterns and the wire leaf that was stitched on. Pretty special, huh?
The dog with the guitar is from Norma S. in Florida. You need to click on this one also, to see the gold wings in background. It's so cool. Thanks friends.

Stamp carving - profiles

I've been sort of obsessed with profiles lately. I'll be doing something more with them soon, but for today, I thought I'd carve some profile stamps. I also added another clown to my circus stamps. These were all erasers.

Another Postal Puzzle

I made a bunch of post cards recently on the backs of flash cards. I liked the weight, and even though technically, they were below the minimum size listed on the postal service web site, I thought I'd try sending them. (They measure 3 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches.) Hmmmm..... One just came back with a stamped message, "non mailable due to size". This one was sent to Herald, CA. Maybe they have a fussy postal employee there that struts around with rubber stamps strapped to a belt and just looks for things to refuse. The gestapo of the p.o. LOL The post card was mailed back to me though, and the rest of them seem to have gotten to their destinations. Go figure!

I have 20 more of the same size ready to mail. Hmmmm.... shalll I post them? I think I'll talk to my favorite post office employees and see what they say. A friend told me I could mail any size but might need to pay more. I think I should find out and let you know. I think they have some freedom to interpret the rules for themselves.

Thursday's mail art

I got a few nice things in the mail yesterday. A wonderful bookmark from Rosemary and a card with an adorable picture of a little terrier pup and a yellow kitten, both in motorcycle jackets. Inside it says, we are more than friends, we're more like a really small gang. If this is your kind of thing, it was put out by American Greetings in their Fun Pix collection. I also received a book of morning meditations and a handmade card with a photo of my garden from Pam. AND I also received an art post card from my friend Jackie.

Oh where , oh where did my last post go?

I put up a post yesterday talking about the workshop given by artist/friend Roberta Schmidt. It was a collage with words workshop at the Lodi Community Art Center for the Mixed Media Group. We started with a writing challenge, but we did not need to use the words later or share them with the group. That made it easy. She made us all very comfortable and we all knew each other (there were 12 of us). Then we found a central image to use, and glued it onto the paper she supplied. She also had a handout with images. Then it was time to paint. I normally paint my backgrounds first. But this twist was to put the background around the image. I remember doing that with my fashion model series a few years ago, but since then I had gotten away from it. This was good for me to revisit that technique. We don't ever want to get stuck in a rut, it becomes too routine and ultimately we'll get bored. Thanks, Roberta for getting me unstuck. LOL Here is a pic of my unfinished collage. And a couple of pics of crops done in Photoshop that can be used for post cards. The couple in the photo are my parents.

workshop in Lodi

Roberta Schmidt taught her first workshop yesterday - to our Lodi Mixed Media group. This is the post that disappeared for a few days. It showed up again, so I took out some of thepics that were duplicated and added the ones Roberta took of our play day. I took the photo of Roberta who is standing alone. She took the others. The gals with me are Linda M and Barbara S. And there we are all hard at play.

the mystery of the post card with no face.

I got a post card from Linda Giese, who is one of my favorite artists to exchange post cards with. The entire front of it was gone. Peeled off along the way, only leaving glue and a fragment of an image in one corner. I'm so disappointed. It's somewhere out there......... but where?

Prayer flags

Do you have a fat quarter collection? I keep mine in a dresser drawer. I think of it as a treasure trove. Colors, patterns, inspiration. The prayer flags are ready for streamers, so where else to turn? Here are some pics. I'm adding a pic of a half finished painting by my friend Francis. i think of her as Francis the Fearless. Irish and funny, full of stories, full of fun. And put a paint brush in her hand, tell her to paint a kangaroo and in an hour she's got one. Or a pirate. Or a shark attacking a diver. Or anything. She can do it, and toss them off as if they are little sketches. Amazing artist. She's 79 years YOUNG.

Check this out

This is a link to a blog I had not seen before that offers daily art prompts. Good for the days when your muse is asleep. Check it out and sign up for the book giveaway - chance to win.

May 3 Good Mail Day

I mailed off a nice stack of post cards this morning, and came home from the gallery to find three new pieces in my own mailbox. Here they are. One with original rhymes by Emily Pruitt of S.C., another from my art pal Jackie in Sacramento, with a copy of the poem she had copied onto the back of it. The last card is from a new art pal, Linda McAllister from Herald. It came in torn and some of the pickets were folded back. I'll probably glue it back together before it goes in my mail art treasure chest. I gave up the binder, it was too hard to keep it up, as I like to keep each artists work together rather than add them in chronologically. A box seemed a better solution, with dividers to separate the various artists I collect. I'll take a pic sometime and post it.