December?

Where has the time gone? There is always so much going on in our lives - it just flies by. I'm sure you have the same experience. My desktop computer is not hooked into the web yet, I'm still waiting for the boys to clean it out for me. They want to do it. I"d as soon pay someone else, but it's a matter of family pride. LOL Think we can do anything! But there is never time. I put it off waiting for the new internet system to be installed here and then the family network. Now we have AT&T Universal and not sure it will do what we expected it to. It was supposed to be 8 times faster, and that was what the kids wanted. But now we all have new television problems, and the internet system has glitches that have not been solved yet. Seemed like it was very sophisticated and state of the art, but I have misgivings. We may switch to something else if they can't work out our issues. Anyway that's the reason I"m so behind in blogging.

It seems so much more tedius to download camera into one computer save it there and then have to copy images to bring to laptop. It's simple enough - it just takes extra time and effort. And time away from making art!

I'm pretty much totally immersed in making post cards right now for mail art. I had planned to bind them into books, but instead I mail them off to people! Why not spread them around. I'll be mailing the next batch on Wednesday. I even made my Christmas cards as post cards this year.

Book arts Jam

Roberta, Maria, Wendy and many others showed their work at the Bay Area Book Jam this year, without me alongside. But, Sally and Bonnie and I rode down for the day, and we also saw lots of other friends there. As expected the books were awesome, and unique. It was wonderful to be there as a looky loo. we also went to the rubber stamp show in San Jose the same day. wow! My favorite vendors were there, so I came home with a little bag of goodies. Bonnie and I had never been to Dizos, a Japanese dollar and a half store. Problem is that most labels are written in Japanese, so it's hard to know exactly what you are getting. but we each managed to find some interesting things. Hmmm.... now to find time to use them. The awesome books shown here were made by Wendy Jordan, who is a constant source of inspiration.

Birthday book

My son Matt celebrated his 40th birthday, and it occured to me that I had not made him a gift for a long time. I spotted this little board book shaped like a truck at Target a few weeks ago. Matt is a trucker. AHA! A little book of Matt, for Matt. Here's a pic.

Dangers of smoking

I've been planning on doing a piece about smoking for a long time. then someone gave me some brass bullet casings, and I had an aha moment. someone else mailed me some cigarette stubs, and I combined them into the little crave/coffin I had constructed quite a while ago. Here it is now.

A little crypt

A friend in Sacramento made two little crypts, one she sent to me to embellish for Jackie, and the other one went to Jackie to fix up for me. Pat used some really iteresting sandy textured coating o the backs, and she constructed these herself. Here's a pic of the one I finished off for Jackie.

Mail Art

I've been using my precious art time to make post cards which I'm mailing to old and new friends, as RAKs. (random acts of kindness). Some of the recipients responded by sending cards they made so my collection is growing. It's great fun to work on this size (4 x 6 inches) as it gives ample room for collage and yet can me mailed at a low postage rate. Here are some of the ones I've sent out recently.

Open Studio Tour

This weekend there was an open studio tour in Lodi. The teen grandsons, their best friend, and I went first to Sam and Pepe's place. The property there was once a nursery so there is a lot of open space, perfect for showing their outdoor garden sculptures. They also invited some of the other artists to show their works there as well. Scattered under the trees, bamboos, around the garden paths, and some inside a big room (formerly a show room I think). The weather was perfect, sunny wit a light breeze. It was a magical place. We watched a wood turner, who had created amazing things like a cowboy hat of one piece of wood, and a print maker who patiently explained her processes. I knew everyone there and the boys had met many of them working at the Spring Art Show. Painters, clay construction, lots of good things. Then we went to a remodeled house/studio i downtown Lodi. Wow! what a great house. the artist there explained some of his techniques using colored pencils which we found really interesting as one grandson likes to use them, and occasionally I do too. after that we drove to a Subway as boys were starving, and I went to the Art Center Gallery while they were chowing down. Rich was demonstrating his oil painting techniqiues with a pallette knife. When we left there we drove to Caroline's house/garden where she was showing her paintings and Jarrod was showing his metal sculptures. It was the perfect way to end our art day.

I'd been operating all day with a horrid toothache and felt really worn down from it. But even with that - it was a very special day.