Don't Mind the Arrow

No Mail Today

So, there's no mail service in the US today. It's mildly disappointing, because I usually use Sunday to work on outgoing mail and then send it off on Monday. I guess this way I just get an extra day to create.

I have received some cool things recently, though, so let's show those off!

First is a Postcrossing postcard from the Netherlands.

The Dutch are very active Postcrossers - the Netherlands is the country that I have exchanged the most cards with, followed by Russia.

Next up is another postcard, this one from a G+ friend, Annie Irving. She is a New Zealander who has been living in Peru.

I love getting mail from South America, and these kids are absolutely adorable. Maybe the best part, though, is that Annie sent this card to me through ... a puma! (Seriously, click on that link - it is awesome!) Thank you so much, Annie - and once you are settled in your new digs, I will definitely be sending you something in return.

Last but most definitely not least, I received a mailing from Claire Dinsmore at IUOMA.

It was an eyecatchingly-beautiful digital collage. The interior piece (number 33/33 - I'm lucky to have squeaked in there!) is the same as the front of the envelope, minus the address and stamps.

The back of the envelope is like so:

I love this so much. Thank you, Claire! Also, I'd like to comment on the transparent bust of Mars there on the right of the bottom picture. It's tape - I wonder if it was a self-printing job or if that's some super-cool type of premade washi tape that's out there? Either way, I really like it!

Something Different

As part of my Mail Art 365 project, I opened the offer up to people I know on Facebook and G+ as well as the usual suspects on IUOMA (that offer still stands, if you're out there and interested). I let people tell me what type of thing they'd like, as well, although there's definitely no guarantee that I'll come up with anything that fits their preferences. Well, one of Scott's interests was abstract pieces, and as soon as I started working on this one, I was pretty sure it was going to him.

It was one of those things where each step just led to the next one. I did the ink first, and after letting that dry I decided to color in the various areas. After that, I started thinking about what it reminded me of. From there it was just a hop, skip and a jump to an old medical dictionary I have.

One of his other stated interests was all things Japanese, so I used that as inspiration for the envelope.

Kiki is a handcarved stamp I made a couple years back for a trade. The box around the address is made from a strip of paper used for folding origami stars. I picked it up at a Japanese store in California that I used to love to go to. And as a bonus, it's in Engrish - it says "Have are you" when presumably it means "How are you." The cherry blossom stamp seemed to fit as well.

Another thing I sent out recently was this collage:

I keep various cutouts of phrases that catch my eye as I'm going through magazines or books and I often use them as jumping-off points for creating collages. On the back, I did one of my little throw-away drawings that went with the theme.

And that's it for now. I got some happy mail today, so I'll be blogging about that on Monday.

In the Post

Actually, the first one is still in the post, but the other one has arrived. Onward!

This is 12/365. Sometimes I don't know what to say about these except that they're sort of a visual free-association exercise. Water and military and music, I guess.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm "supposed" to be doing something with more real meaning, but I don't drive myself crazy about it. I do what I do, and maybe free association is all the meaning required.

I got to use my hand-chair stamp on the back of it. I need to find more magazine cutouts that can sit in it. Or maybe I should just add it to the furniture of magazine rooms. We'll see.

Next up is something that I sent to France (13/165).

I think the free association is pretty clear here - nature vs. supermarket, with a stop in 1950s hell.

The back:

I don't even think there's any relationship here. Just what happened to seem to fit together.

And finally, the envelope:

The address label and the air mail sticker are a couple of things I picked up at estate sales. I love old mailing supplies! I also frequently like to throw in an old stamp with the rest of the ones I'm using, just because. I acquired some uncancelled stamps in with a big batch at an estate sale, too. I guess I never blogged about either of those finds. Anyhow, I'm a sucker for the old office supplies, is what I'm saying.

Received Roundup

Here we are, starting another week. I got a couple of postcards through Postcrossing recently, both from Germany, as luck would have it.

This one is from Hamburg. Love that sunset!

And an art card. I'm always happy for whatever kind of card I get, but it's nice to get a variety instead of all tourist-type cards.

The stamps are in the Postage Stamps album.

I also got a cute little card from Cayte Catastrophe through IUOMA.

I'm not sure "cute" is the right word for George Wendt, but it's the right word for getting a cut-out of anyone's head as a card, at least! Thanks, Cayte!

I'm also itching to post more of what I've been sending out (two things in the mail today), but I'm going to wait at least till tomorrow to start.

I can post about the drawing I finished and posted to Society6, though.

I was pretty nervous about laying down the color in markers, but I just bit the bullet and went for it. It was either that or watercolors, and although watercolors are lighter and maybe more fixable, I feel way less confident with those than I do with the markers. It's available for purchase in all the usual formats.

Common Themes

 

Sent some art to Emily this week that's a little bit more useful instead of just decorative. I had cut a piece of cardboard off the last mail art I did, and realized it was the perfect size for a bookmark.

She's always been a big reader, and I'm sure college is giving her plenty more reading to do. I hope she likes it. Of course, she's more a lay-the-book-down-open-faced type of reader than a neat, use-a-bookmark type, but who knows, she could turn over a new leaf at any moment!

I did the background with oil pastels, and then put the collage elements on top. I rather liked the effect, the impressionistic feel of the sky seemed to fit with the vintage look of the girl in the drawing. I've been enjoying mixing collage with other media, although I still don't feel entirely comfortable doing it just yet.

In other news, I received something lovely in the mail from Diane Keys in Illinois, which you can see below.

I tried to scan it originally, but the scanner just flattened out the vivid colors. The camera did a better job of capturing them, as well as showing off the leaf print. It's a terrific representation of fall - thanks, Diane!

And speaking of fall leaves, my 10/365 mail art piece went out to new IUOMA member Cayte Catastrophe in New York.

Okay, the front of it didn't have anything to do with fall leaves. The collage materials I found that day inspired a bit of silliness. But on the back, a leaf:

I guess if you're looking around for inspiration at this time of year, it's no surprise you end up with reds, oranges and yellows and leaves in your work.

Spooky!

I love it when something arrives in my mailbox that I had no idea was coming. Today I got something from Judy, a new member of IUOMA. I wonder how she chose me as the recipient of her mail? I often look through the most recent posts or the new members list to find people to send mail art to; maybe she did something similar.

Anyway, as soon as I saw the color of the envelope, I figured I was in for something Halloween-y.

My husband said, "Uh oh, someone doesn't know you!" as I have always been kind of phobic about spiders (okay, really phobic about spiders). But I'm getting better about it and also, these are pretty non-scary spiders, so it was okay.

I really love the overall pattern that looks sort of like snakeskin - I guess it's a rubber stamp, or maybe something else inked up, like a piece of mesh? Either way, let's get on to what was inside.

Two awesome Halloween-themed ATCs! Both of these are just very nicely put together, and I particularly love the spider web effect on the one with the bird. Thank you so much, Judy! I'll be sending something out to you very soon.

Speaking of sending things out, I got a very nice note today regarding the handmade postcard I showed here in the blog yesterday that I sent to Germany through Postcrossing. Getting to send mail art through that site is twice as great when the recipient actually likes it! 

Also, I recently sent a large-ish postcard out to IUOMA member Trick Sensei. This is 9/365.

I don't know exactly why it ended up debauchery-themed. Maybe I just really need a drink.

Art, Art, Art

It's certainly true that I don't manage to make something every single day, so I'm glad that I've decided to approach my Mail Art 365 the way I have, as a numerical goal instead of a daily one. It really keeps me from feeling behind.

Recently, I sent an uncharacteristically politically-themed piece to Cassie Cridlebaugh on IUOMA.

But I mean, come on - when you see "Vote Early," how can you not mentally finish it with "Vote Often"? Plus, I had just picked up a roll of these raffle tickets at a sale, and they seemed like a perfect fit for this one.

I also got an address for someone on Postcrossing who actually said she doesn't mind handmade cards (or likes them, even). It's pretty rare on that site - many people specify that they don't want your handmade cards. One profile I saw recently said not to send handmade cards "unless you're very talented." One wonders what sort of objective measure there is of "very talented." (I sent him a store-bought card.)

Anyway, thank you to Simone in Germany for accepting handmade cards, and I hope you approve of this one:

Do you know, I actually had to look up how to make a cursive capital F? I was pretty sure, but I couldn't remember whether the bar of the F was supposed to be connected to the hook part or not (answer: either way, as far as I could tell). And I know all the stuff that people like to say about handwriting disappearing and computers taking over and who cares about cursive or legible handwriting anyway? but I like handwriting. The problem, though, is that my natural handwriting doesn't really flow like cursive does, with all the letters connected. I write with a sort of modified printing, where the letters are generally connected but have breaks between them at times. (And where my tall letters like "h" and "d" aren't always that tall and therefore get mistaken for "n" and "a," but that's another story.

I used to do calligraphy - I kind of feel like taking it up again, or at least using some of its principles to do some beautiful mail-addressing.

Well, that was quite a digression. Anyhow, I also finally figured out how to scan the large piece I had been working on a while back, and posted it to Society6.

Skipped a Day

This is how I always end up behind, even though I'm theoretically posting often. Yesterday just got away from me somehow.

I did receive something fun from Cassie Cridlebaugh, a new member of IUOMA.

There's so much going on on both sides of this postcard, I just love it! I particularly like all the animal-related comments on the front. My daughter collects rubber duckies, so seeing that made me smile, too! Thanks, Cassie! (By the way, I'm sure I've heard the riddle before, but what is the most adorable vegetable?!)

I didn't make any art yesterday, but I still have some I haven't posted here yet. I'm doubling back to show my 5/365 piece.

This is the same technique I used with the butterfly boy piece I posted earlier. I expect I will do more things like this - I'm really liking the results.

On the back of her envelope, maybe a statement about mail art? 

Maybe just a statement of having to do some surgery to the envelope to fit Man Aflame into it!

Well, that's enough for now. I'm off to hopefully get some things done today.

A Dream and Mail Art

I had a dream last night that I was at some sort of meeting, and I suppose we were talking about drawing or art or something because everyone there (including me) was doodling or sketching as we were listening. At the end of the meeting , the leader asked me to hand over my page and I said, "No!" But it was what we were all supposed to do, our pages would be put together into one big book, so I reluctantly gave it to him.

I don't know what the significance of it is, if any. 

In other news, I received a piece of mail art from Michalis Kotsaris in Greece. It's my first mail of any sort from that country. Here are the stamps that were on it:

I love octopuses so I was particularly excited by that one.

Inside the envelope was a little card.

What a fun mix of drawing, stamps and source material! I love how the overdrawing makes the guy on the front look like something out of a '50s scifi movie! On the back, it looks like the print was made from an actual leaf, which kind of makes me want to run outside and find something useable for myself to try. And the guy balancing on a wheel, well, no wonder he's got a question mark over his head!

As for mail I've sent out, my 4/365 went to Diane Keys.

I cut the figure out of the image, then put the butterfly paper behind it. The words are actually on top of the "envelope," which was a ziploc bag. I was thrilled when the amount of postage required was the denomination of the only butterfly stamp I had - happy coincidence!

Collage

You know, collage is something I was never been terribly interested in doing. I'm not sure why - I guess maybe because most of the examples of it I'd seen had a surrealistic bent to them. My mind just doesn't think like that. I've been exploring it more with mail art, though, and I've found that I enjoy it.

I enjoy working it in with the other types of art I like to do, either in the same piece or just alternating medium by project.

Here are a couple of collages I've sent out that were made before I started the 365 project.

A fun cat-themed postcard that I sent to my daughter. She misses her cat at home, and I was hoping these drawings of kitties would get a smile out of her. This was done with the packing tape technique I mentioned in a previous post. Some were transferred with the tape, and others were just taped down. It's a great technique for postcards because they end up protected by the pseudo-lamination.

I sent this one to an IUOMA member. It is about 6"x10" and I sent it as-is, as a large postcard.

On the back, I put an ad from a 1950 magazine about caffeine, which seemed to just cry out for my handcarved teapot stamp to add the finishing touch.

And that's pretty much it for the moment! No fun mail has arrived here all week, which is sort of disappointing. I'm hoping the famine now means feast days are coming, though!