African Marriage

African Marriage

This past Saturday the Rotary Club on Bainbridge Island, Washington held their annual "garage" sale.  It is the second largest of its type in the country.  I would say it is quite unbelievable.  I had heard about it from a friend and this year I was determined to go.  What an outing!  Imagine a middle school where every classroom is full of sale items.  It is very organized with like items in specific rooms.  Of course I went directly to the art, craft and book rooms.  The book room was the best ever.  Books are either 50 cents or one dollar.  I came away with several.

My biggest and best find was a box of letters written in the 1930s.  I have yet to read them but they will become ephemera in my collages I am sure.  They look so wonderful.  I am waiting for just the right time to sit down to glimpse into a stranger's life many decades after the letters were written.  It is kind of like receiving a letter 80 years in the past.

As does most of my work, African Marriage came together unplanned.  I did the background and then started looking through my new books from the sale and voila!  This couple jumped off the page!

Ladies' Hats

Ladies' Hats

I started a series of four postcards over a week ago.  Yesterday I worked on this one, Ladies' Hats.  I added tar gel over a stencil to the lower portion of the card after I had already scanned it.  There has to be some surprise for the intended receiver! :-)  My friend Michele had used tar gel in this manner on a round robin journal page and I loved the technique.  So I have been using it in some of my work lately. Thanks Michele.

Sent and Return

My friend Irene Rafael sent me the first post card below.  So I decided to send her one back! :-)  Well, the backside anyway!

Irene Rafael Postcard

Return Postcard

Clear bags for mailing

My friend Irene Rafael sent me the greatest postcard recently and it was in a plastic clear envelope.  I have been exchanging mail art with her frequently and we both have had trouble with the postal machines tearing our art.  Also I use tar gel sometimes and tar gel against tar gel sticks.  So if one is mailing out several pieces of mail art they can join together.  It happened once when I sent Irene a postcard at the same time I sent one to Terry Garrett.  Terry's postcard took a vacation to California before making it to snowy Minnesota. Smart postcard!

So thanks to Irene I think I found a superior way to send art mail.  This postcard has quite a bit of tar gel and so I placed it in the clear envelope.  Who would have thought that the post office allowed clear envelopes?  I was going to order the envelopes through www.clearbags.com but postage and handling was outrageous. So I found the same ones online at Amazon.  Since I have Prime there was no mailing charge.

Monday Through Friday

Monday Through Friday

The NW Collage Society meets every two months and at those meetings we have begun a postcard size art competition.  This piece is 4 x 6 inches.  The prompt for this month's meeting was to create a work that is black and white plus one.  The plus one can be any other color you like.  I used the inside of envelopes for the background.  The kanji  is Japanese for Monday through Friday.

Sunday Parade

Sunday Parade

Today I brought out a piece that I started last year but did not finish.  An idea came to me in seconds and Sunday Parade was done after a few hours work.  It is totally constructed from recycled materials and vintage photos.  It is on the mantle for the present.

Pocket Journal - Syd and Friend

I took a photo of Syd from the piece I created in the Jesse Reno workshop to create the cover of this pocket journal.  I added a different bird from the one that I have in the original piece.  I love how the red background set it off.  I also used a "reject" from my art friend Val McNeil.  Val creates wonderful hand painted scarves on silk.  She gave me one that she did not like.  I love how the scarf works as texture for this cover.

Syd and Friend Pocket Journal Cover

Syd and Friend Pocket Journal Inside

Syd and Friend

I took a Jesse Reno class at the Pacific NW Art School in May.  It was a great challenge for me and well worth it.  Jesse is an amazing artist and a terrific art teacher.  I probably struggled the most in the class because it was difficult to let go, but I did learn to not  hold onto something that I had created.  Paint it out if it is not working.  Something else will come up instead.  It took me five days to realize this fact.  I always figure there is a way to solve any problem.  Usually what I do is go on to something else and then a solution comes. Jesse just paints it out and does not wait.

It took him three years to master his process, three more years to practice, and three more to get to the point of satisfaction.  What could I expect in five days?  In my case I had three eyes that I really loved.  I figured that they would go together to make something if I waited long enough.  The waiting was over and one hour to go in the class.  I came up with Syd and Friend by just painting over.  Well, the "Friend" did not come until today.  Done!

Syd and Friend

Irene's RR Journal

Last week I met my friend Michele who is also in the RR that I am participating in at Starbuck's.  She had to pass off Irene's journal to me.  I had done some shopping earlier in the day and found the greatest tissue paper with chili peppers on it and I also found some great poppy napkins.  That very same afternoon I started working in Irene's journal.  Irene lives in California, hence chili peppers and poppies seemed appropriate.  Fast forward to the weekend and I went garage sale-ing.  I found the best old calendar with Japanese woodblock prints.  Irene is Japanese-American, perfect I thought.  So here in her dos-a-dos journal is what I have come up with in rather short order.  I had the whole month of June to complete it and it is already done and posted by June 2!  Enjoy Irene!