Don't Mind the Arrow

Getting On With It

As daunting as it is to try to catch up with everything, the more time I procrastinate about it, the worse it gets. So here goes.

I call it "Life on Mars." This was sent to Judy Staroscik on IUOMA. It's number 27 of my Mail Art 365. (No guilt about how long it's going to take me to get to 365 - I said I'd do it for as long as it takes, and I will.)

Items 28-33 sent out were all Christmas cards with quick seasonal drawings.

I know, I know - two snowmen. But the blue cards just said "snowman" to me, so what can you do?

All right, I can now officially move past Christmas (good thing, too, since January is about to be over). And that's enough images all at once, so I'm going to call this one done too. I'm looking forward to being able to blog things that I'm doing more currently. I'm almost there!

Just Like That

It's been a week. I kept telling myself I needed to write a blog post, but it just didn't get done on any of these days. But I'm here now - better late than never!

I've sent some mail. For example:

In this case, the words were lines cobbled together from a children's book and they suggested the imagery. I could say more about the piece, but I'm not sure I need to.

I also sent mail to Jon Foster. I've decided to try to do some sort of art related to the books that I'm reading, and he got the first one I've done.

I'm trying to read the books from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list (2006 edition), and now I've added the challenge of creating art about them on top of it (as if reviewing them isn't enough!). I really loved this book, and if you're interested in reading my thoughts on it, you can find them on LibraryThing.

I received a Christmas card from Carolyn Curtis, aka Wenchkin, which brought a smile to my face.

I mean come on, how could that not put a smile on your face?! Thank you, Carolyn!

More to come, hopefully tomorrow.

 

Received and Sent

My mailbox was happy a couple of days ago as this postcard from Cindy Moser on IUOMA arrived.

I enjoy these kinds of themed works, maybe because I'm not that great at pulling together such focused (ha! see what I did there?) elements. I have to admit I'm a tiny bit creeped out by Peter and his winking, though.

And here's the back - I like the rubber stamps! I'm curious about the "4 1/2" one - I like stamps like that, ones where it's not clear what they'd be used for. Also, I love all the postage stamps - it makes me happy when people use more than just one standard stamp for the postage rate. Thank you, Cindy!

I sent out something a while back that I haven't heard yet if it was received - I sure hope it was because it's been more than long enough! The envelope:

And the card inside:

This was 24/365 for my mail art project. More to come soon!

Hot Off the Presses

A while ago, I was planning to write a blog entry. Then suddenly, it's hours later and I haven't even started. I'm not sure how that happens, exactly. But in any event, I'm here now and ready to write.

Let's start off with a piece of mail that just arrived. It's from Allan Bealy on IUOMA, and it's great!

I am in love with the rubber stamp of the blindfolded man (I really want to carve something similar/derivative now). The card inside is terrific - kaleidoscope vision - and the Möbius strip says "it's art if I say it's art if I say..." etc. Love that. Thank you so much, Allan!

Also hot off the presses, I finally, finally, finally finished my dot drawing of the couple. It's available on Society6 in a variety of formats.  I titled it "Companionship."

If you want to order something, now is a great time to do it because if you follow this specific link to my shop (http://society6.com/UrsulaRodgers?promo=e93efd) you will get free shipping on almost everything (excluded are canvas prints, framed prints, and throw pillows with the inserts - just the pillow cases alone are part of the deal).

And I've been working on the 3rd and final child's sweater I'll be making before Christmas.

I've sewn in most of the ends on the others, and picked out the buttons for the green and cream one. This one is a pullover, so no buttons here. Then I just have to find the right place to donate them. Some research is in order.

Dot Dot Dot

Finally I had some time to work on my drawing of the couple. In case you've forgotten what it looked like last time, this post is when we saw it last.

As I said before, I didn't have much time to work on it for several days, so there wasn't a whole lot of progress. 

This is it on Nov. 20:

And this is it on Nov. 23:

Just a small amount of progress - the timing and the light just didn't work for me to do much more than that. But I had some time today, so here's where it is now.

Coming along, right? One day I might even finish it!

Recently received - an awesome abstract postcard from Susan McAllister of IUOMA.

The colors are great, but I think what I like most of all is the lines through it. I'm not sure what they are - a stencil? some sort of resist? maybe she stomped on it with cool shoe treads? I have no idea, but I love it.

I have now nearly finished another baby sweater for donation. (Nearly finished because, like the last one, it needs the ends sewn in and buttons put on it.)

I'll post pictures of all of them again when they're really finished and looking much more presentable.

Oh, and before I forget, I carved a rubber stamp. I think I mentioned I had in my last post.

I forget exactly why I wanted a rubber stamp of a brain, but now I have one. It's about 2 inches square. I have some other possible rubber stamp ideas flitting around in my brain, but there are just so many things I want to get around to that who knows when I'll make them happen.

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Evolution

Sum of Its Parts

 

Well, I figured out a way to make quick progress on my Mail Art 365 project - make one piece and then cut it up before sending it out!

I'm kidding, mostly, but I did try an experiment doing exactly that.

Clockwise from top left, they were sent to Angie & Snooky, Ana Karina, Tina Wittmer, and Mary England. They are items 20-23 in my 365. I found those psychedelic animal stickers (Lisa Frank, of course) at the Goodwill Outlet.

I finished my 26th state, Nevada, and posted it in my Society6 store. I chose the Hoover Dam as the subject, even though it's on the border between Nevada and Arizona. It was either that or draw Vegas or Reno or something, and I just wasn't feeling that.

I've been working on my dots drawing, although not that much because the light has been pretty terrible the last few days. I'll post an update on that next time probably. Meanwhile, knitting:

That's the sweater I posted progress pictures of before. It doesn't look its best because I haven't sewn the seams under the arms, or woven in the ends yet. Plus, it needs buttons. But that's where it is for now.

Also, I've started another one. I'm hoping to get at least 4 done, in different sizes, for donation before Christmas.

Yeah, it doesn't particularly look like much at the moment either. Such is the way of works in progress.

Oh! And I totally forgot to mention in my last post that the person who sent me the postcard from Russia was incredibly sweet. She read in my profile that I like mail art, and said that she wasn't sure she could really make a postcard - however, she enclosed an origami stegosaurus she'd made instead.

How fun and thoughtful is that, really?! It made my day.

And *whew*, that's it for now, I think. But I really should post soon about the supplies I've picked up lately, some stamp carving I've been doing, and maybe about my attempt #44521 (give or take) at an art journal. Next time!

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Evolution

Mail Art 365

From Faraway Lands

I've mentioned Nick Bantock before as an inspiration for mail art. But I haven't really done much that is similar to him, or attempted to be similar to his work. I love looking at what he creates, but the attention to detail, the creation of so much faux ephemera and the layers .... it's not really stuff I have the patience for. Nevertheless, I did something a little bit in that vein for my 19/365.

On the front of a notecard, this:

Inside, this:

And on the envelope, this:

It was fun trying to evoke the feeling of a missive sent from a vacation in an exotic land. It got me to use a lot of different techniques - photo transfers with gel medium, rubber stamps, drawing, watercolor, collage, aging. It's not quite what I'd hoped it would be, but it's encouraging enough to make me want to give it another shot.

Tomorrow I'll post about some received mail and hopefully a completed view of the sweater I've been knitting. Also, some progress on my dots. I haven't worked on it much the last few days, but I'm hoping to get some work done today.

The Miracle of Mail

I was reading something a couple of days ago about the possibility of mail service going down to 5 days a week. The topic isn't new, but the responses to it I read made me sad anyway. Lots of people saying "who cares? I pay my bills online anyway." I wanted to send each and every one of them something pretty in the mail. I mean, I know only too well the feeling that nothing good ever comes, but it doesn't have to stay that way. And the idea that "you can just email" is ... well, definitely not the same thing. I mean, are you going to make a physical piece of art and then scan it and send it via email? Or even a digital one and email it? I bet the majority of email people get isn't much fun, either. And there's really no substitute for holding something in your hand that someone else had to make, and then address to you and put out for the mail carrier.

Case in point, this postcard from Moan Lisa on IUOMA.

I believe most of Moan's works are digital and then printed out and sent, and sure, you could cut out the middle man and email it, but it's much more fun to wonder about what people might have thought of this postcard as it made its way here. The more people exposed (no pun intended) to art in the everyday world, the better, right? Thank you so much, Moan - I will send something back to you soon!

And in talking about the wonders of mail, here's another one. I sent something to Valentine Mark Herman in France on Nov. 2. Today, 15 days later, we've completed the circle with this envelope arriving at my house.

To France and back, with only 15 days (and not all of them even delivery days, of course). I must be easily amused, because I find that pretty amazing. Also, Valentine definitely deserves credit for his personal promptness as well. So if you're like me, you're dying to know what was inside.

The answer is: lots of stuff!

Front and center is a painting called Blue Flamingo. The rest is a wonderful collection of miscellanea. My wheels are already turning with what to do with it! It makes me think about how fun it was putting together the package of supplies for Emily, and considering doing something similar when I send an envelope - sending along a few things from my supplies here to see if they inspire something in other people. Thank you so much, Valentine!

And that's a lot of photos already, so I'll just throw one more in here, a picture of my progress on the kids' sweater I'm knitting.

This was right after I slipped the first sleeve onto the circular needle with the body. I've now completed the second sleeve and am currently knitting the yoke. I have to say - it's a great idea to do it this way because it only leaves you with one small seam to sew up under the sleeves, but those first few rows with the whole thing are difficult to knit. The sleeves are small enough that they don't have enough give to lay flat while you're working that section and wow, did my hands hurt after those. But as you get farther away from the actual connecting rows, it gets easier. I'll post another picture soon.

Productive

The last few days have been good in terms of getting some work done. Or if not done, then at least making progress.

First up, making progress:

This was what it looked like at the end of the day on the 13th.

I guess you'd really have to look at it side-by-side with the one from the last post to be able to pick out some of the more subtle changes. The big changes are the rest of her dress on the right side, including that big shadowy area, and the beginnings of the ground. Man, do dark shadows take forever with stippling. But it's worth it.

Smaller changes have to do with darkening some of the other shadows. As I've mentioned before, it's sort of a continual process - you make the dark areas darker than the light areas, but as you continue on with the drawing, you realize that you need to create even more gradations in value, so you have to go back and darken areas that you were sort of "done" with already.

 

And this is what it looked like at the end of the day yesterday, the 14th.

I didn't get a chance to spend a lot of time working on it yesterday, but I did some more work on the ground and of course the biggest change is that it's the first time you can see she has a companion.

He's in a dark suit, so that means it'll be relatively slow going. Lots and lots of dots involved there. Well, onward with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In terms of things that are finished, I sent out some mail to Jane Smith from IUOMA.

Just a bit of silliness, I suppose. I've been getting some mileage out of the insides of a book of Japanese Haiku that I previously hacked up to make a sketchbook. More on that next time, when I talk about another piece of mail art that went out recently. This was 18/365.

I also received a new postcard through Postcrossing, from the Ukraine. The subject is Lviv, which is apparently known as the City of Churches. Sounds awesome - I do love touring churches (as Morgan learned in Germany. I'm positive he'd never been to so many churches in his entire life.). The stamp is in the Postage Stamp photo album, as usual.

And that's it for now. Next time I'll try to remember to include photos of the knitting, which is also proceeding quite well.

Keeping Busy

Let's see here, what have I been doing recently?

I sent some mail to Thom Courcelle.

I hand-colored this image, and it's on a background of oil pastel colors.

Here's the back of that one:

I'm liking using these order forms from old magazines as address labels.

I also sent some mail to the son of one of my fellow IUOMA members. He's away and college and suffering from Lonely Mailbox. I was hoping this would amuse him:

And for the envelope, I drew inspiration from his mom saying that his favorite animal is the walrus.

They are really funny animals - it was interesting to really study one. I'd never realized how the arrangement of their tusks and whiskers gives them a bit of a sad frowny face.

Oh, and speaking of kids in college, my daughter expressed interest in having me send her some stuff to use for collage and whatever other kind of artistic thing she might do. I had a lot of fun putting together a package of a little bit of everything I have laying around (well, not everything, but I tried). She should get it today, and I'm looking forward to her reaction to it all.

In other news, I've been busy with some other things as well. Remember that drawing I was working on? I've made some more progress, though not a lot. I had a couple of days where I didn't even pull it out to work on.

Lots more to do, obviously, but it's getting there.

And finally, just to throw something different into the mix -

I got the yarn at the Goodwill Outlet, where you pay for everything by the pound. For craft supplies like yarn and stickers, this works out to a really great deal. I'm making it to donate. 

Well, I'm about done with my tea, so I'm also done with this blog post. Time to get to work.