Just Hangin' Out in the Studio

I love to travel the world and to go all over San Francisco but I also love hanging out in my studio.
Want to come over?

(Little Add & Pass Stamp Head zine started by Miss Millicent and sent back in a wonderful hand sewn case)

Picked up at the Vintage Paper Fair. I am always looking for anything postal.

Milagro with eyes.....

More eyes.....this time it is Saint Lucy....don't even ask....

Playing with those French vocabulary cards....

A Dori Singh treasure....

Vintage nun postcard from France...

Cut-outs for collage...

Stack of Gelli papers (and a vintage P)

Tail of the Yak Calendar

I finally sorted my "to be answered" mail and my address book into a pretty box

a little incoming mail...

YES!
I spent yesterday cleaning and I can actually see the top of my desk.  My husband's comment was "How long do you think it will stay like that?".
WELL!
But I won't show you the top of my work table. Now, that's a whole other story.
But I've gotta work!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and mail.
I had a really great mail week this week and loved everything everyone mailed me.
I want to do some show-and-tell of what my fabulous creative pals sent to me and another of what I made and sent to my Aries friends.
Stay tuned.

MYSTERY SHOPPER
I got a lovely email from a woman who has a boutique in Point Reyes Station, CA. She said she enjoys the blog and it inspired her to send out some mail art.
Someone came into her shop and told her about my blog  and now I am wondering who was that
masked mystery shopper?
Do tell if it was you!
It is driving me crazy wondering who the nice person is who is spreading the word about my blog...)

So, how long do you think my desk will stay like that?

SEND GOOD MAIL AND GET GOOD MAIL

I'll take You on a Field Trip

Come on to San Francisco and take a look at the interesting photography at Pier 24.
Remember those plastic photo cubes from the 80's? I think it was the 80's anyway.
I did have one on my desk.
Pier 24 has these giant photo cubes in one room.
Pretty fun to see.

Somebody worked on these old photos, cropping them but still leaving the whole photo. A frame within a frame...I have been manipulating a lot of vintage photos myself lately so it was interesting to see what someone else is doing...

Piles -- and piles -- of vintage photo albums tied up in string and sitting around on the floor. I love it!
Looks a little bit like something you would see in my studio.
I probably have at least that many photo albums myself...I have been a photographer for my whole career and started in with a Nikkormat at about 14 years old...

Some of the pages from photo albums were blown up really large and hung on the wall....

In the display case were lots more photo albums of all kinds....this really was heaven for me to see all these photos...and books of photos...
In this age of digital photos living on computers will all these wonderful books just disappear?

I recently read people may lose all their photos after time because the new programs won't be compatible with the old software.....I'm just sayin'.....

Wouldn't it be sad if that happened?

In one room, the artist printed out all the photos uploaded to Flickr in just ONE DAY!!!
You could actually go in and walk on them and pick them up...

I had to do it....

These photo postcards that are embroidered are still some of my favorites....

I wonder if the artist who made this got the idea from an embroidered postcard?

Hope you enjoyed a little walk through Pier 24 -- I had mentioned in another post seeing this show with the folks in my collage class and I thought I'd share it with you.
Not exactly mail art but a lovely show.

I have stuff I've been making to show you but I have to hold off till the recipients get it.
Try to be patient.....(patience isn't an Aries virtue)...so I know it's hard...

You will be happy to know the mail is rolling in this week so there won't be any more whining in this post about lack of mail!
(Thanks to those who took pity on me and mailed me off something -- much appreciated!)

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch....

OUTGOING
Ok, back to mail art.....
Now that we've caught up with collage class, here is a little mail art eye candy for you...

I should have taken a better shot of that outgoing up top of this photo -- it was a riot -- manly man grilling a steak while the little woman watches and admires...
ah yes, the 50's.....

OUTGOING
Put a bird  (or two) on it --
inter-office envelope/bird outgoing to Palm Springs...

OUTGOING
This pal loves to ride horses.....

OUTGOING
To another horse-loving friend....
Giddy-up!

OUTGOING
I am loving these clear sleeves. So much fun to find cool images to show through the sleeves.
My fingers are crossed they are arriving. I thought the Julia Child stamp was a nice touch on this one, if I say so myself....

Tofu likes those tickets.....and I found a (picture of) a whole bowl of them for him...

OUTGOING
Green mail. I may mostly wear black but I do love green.....chartreuse to be  exact!
Maybe I was inspired by St. Patrick's Day?

OUTGOING
Some spring-like mail for my Aries buddy Miss Millicent......

OUTGOING
Altered postcard -- I can't leave things alone.....this one went off to Pasadena...


Now, here is the problem -- I have had two weeks of very light mail and the last three days, I've had NO MAIL at all. This cannot be right.
You can see I have been sending out GOOD MAIL, so the question is,
Why am I not getting good mail?
Could it be because my birthday is next week and my mail art pals are waiting to inundate me with good mail next week?
Or, is it something more sinister? 
(I am missing some mail from Planet Sussannia in Germany that has not arrived -- could there be more missing?)
No fair to make an Aries suffer!

I've been making lots of stuff which you will all see soon. Some birthday surprises for my Aries pals (and I have a lot of them!).
Can't show what I made till they get the surprises and they have Aries birthdays after I do.
(You know who you are)

SEND GOOD MAIL --- GET GOOD MAIL

Well, that's usually true.......

Collage Class -- Part two

An embroidered postcard I fell in love with at the wonderful show
Secondhand
at Pier24 Photography. If you live in the Bay Area I recommend you stop by. It seems many people don't know about this wonderful photography resource.
Free -- but you must have an appointment. Just check out the website.
The show was so interesting and I took so many photos, I may have to do a post about Secondhand.
Many of the photos in the show were altered in some way, like the embroidery on this card, which may me rethink the definition of collage/altered art/assemblage. 
I collect embroidered postcards and have made some mail art by sewing on photos so it was fun to see this in a museum.

Collage classes continued....
One thing I have realized from this class is that the definition of collage -- or simply collages themselves -- is much broader than I had realized.
For example, looking at this photo, I see a collage. And it may not be permanent but it existed in the moment and the photograph is a record of it.
Maybe that's why I have always loved taking photographs like this?

Here's another......

I also realized my Stamp Head series on vintage photos are collages too.
I never thought of them as collages but they are...

collage: 1. a kind of surrealist art in which bits of flat objects, such as newspaper, cloth, pressed flowers, etc., are pasted together in incongruous relationship for their symbolic or suggestive effect. 2. a picture so made  --- Webster's Dictionary1960

A collage attempt -- not entirely successful. I find, when given a  topic or told to do something in a certain style, I really freeze up. I'm used to working on my own.
But I'm trying to just open up my mind and try things without really worrying how they actually turn out.

Previous week's collage...

After some slides and pointers the class gets down to work....it is really lovely to see how quiet and engrossed in making collages everyone gets....
Here's a link
which goes in to a bit more detail about the definition of collage. And, by the way, it was pretty obvious by the work in the class that collages don't have to be flat works on paper.
Times change.
Quite a few folks made three-dimensional pieces -- very cool ones. 
(I didn't think I should show other people's work).

Matt Conzalez Collages at Dolby Chatwick Gallery
(all sold out -- amazing!)

We are having crazy weather in the 70's so I am out going for a lot of walks (and you know I am picking up a lot of paper ephemera) -- and I am seeing wonderful street art and collages out there on the streets. Someone made a wonderful group of these right down the street from my house.

This looks nice and layered and collage-like to me too...

There are times I really get frustrated -- all the links I put here have just disappeared -- and it is a lot of work -- Blogger can sure be annoying. I will try again.....

There are some interesting shows to check out here in SF at the moment --

Secondhand at Pier 24

Matt Gonzalez at Dobly Chatwick gallery

Melinda Tidwell
At Andrea Schwartz Gallery

The photos are messed up and out of order but I give up --  who says there is a right order anyway?
I am posting this and hitting the studio and getting to work -- and taking another walk on this beautiful day.
I'll will think about art on the walk.