Oh The Places I Go!!

Time for another art trip to Portland, Or. And I am having fun driving myself crazy...er...I mean, getting ready....
Of course I have to make things. Much more fun than figuring out the clothes to pack.

I need a travel journal....
This will do. I like green and I am going to the Uptown Stamp Show to forage through  postage stamps. But, it is kind of plain, don't you think?
SEE the last trip to Uptown Stamp Show here

Hummmmmm
This is better and Portland IS The City of Roses....

I really want this Cavallini paper to line the inside covers but no one in San Francisco seems to have it, And online shipping costs as much as the sheet of paper so I hope I will find it in Portland.

A little stamp action on the cover....

Altered Book From Previous PDX Trip here

And, I needed a tin to carry some art supplies. I am going to a letter writing social at
NOUN.
You can check it out right here

So, here is my book, ready to toss in my carry-on and work on  in PDX. I am hoping I can talk my PDX pals to work on a page to add to my book too....

Isn't this fun? I was browsing the Back-to-School supplies (would you expect any less?) and spotted these cool pocket dividers and I thought I could do something with them....
I cut them down and added them to my book and I can tuck in business cards and ephemera inside.

I prepped a few pages...

I think I will add a photo to this page later on.

My newly made tin is all packed up and ready to go.  My
HAVING A GREAT TIME
WISH YOU WERE HERE
rubber stamp comes in handy at a time like this.

I really don't bring much -- my altered book and tin plus double stick tape, glue sticks, washi tape on a ring and postcard backs.
I am pretty sure my PDX pals will share their art supplies with me if I am good.

And my address book, of course!
You CAN put addresses on your cell phone but I'm analog. 

So, here you go -- all packed up and ready to go. But clothes? Not so much...
This is the fun part of packing.
So, Karen and JJ and Miss Polly and Michelle -- get ready because I am coming!
See you all very soon.
And, I'll see the rest of you in the mail or back here at the blog when I get back.
Don't forget to check my IG photos @PamelaArtsinSF in the meantime.

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Art, More Art & Food

The last week has been pretty great around here. I wish you all could join in the fun  here but I bet you are all having your own fun.
Saturday was an art field trip from SF to Sacramento CA -- my pick up time was 7AM! I am NOT a morning person -- just ask the other three who were in the car with me!

My friend Monica and her sisters and old friends have had a yearly art  and crafting meet-up and I have been lucky enough to be invited along the past two years. It is too much fun!
We shop at places like SCRAP or book sales, we craft, we have show and tell and we eat.

This year my talented pal Monica brought a big box of stamps she made using a die cutter, freehand, pieces of plexi and sticky back foam from Michaels. They were so much fun to stamp with. Some folks stamped the designs on tote bags but I made my pages for my altered book.
Now I really, really want Monica to help me make a bunch of these stamps for ME.

I loved seeing all the recycled papers on the work tables and all the different things everyone made.
This is an incredibly creative group I can tell you..

Even the trash was pretty nice. We had to clean the stamps with baby wipes so the ink pads wouldn't get all muddy.

Did I mention food?
Lots of wonderful salads and fruit and dips and crackers......thanks to Tracy & Melissa.

The very next day, Sunday, was the SF Correspondence Co-Op's 5th birthday party!
Five wonderful years of monthly mail art get togethers. I've made such good friends from the group. That first meeting, organized by the one and only Jennie Hinchcliff, seems like just yesterday.

Of course here was food.....

And sangria.......

And, friends and socializing....

There was an artistamp for our passports.....

There was a raffle...and a swap table.

And some of the folks even wrapped gifts to pass out...
I am looking forward to the next five years of mail art meetings and friends. As I've said before, I highly recommend starting up a mail art group of your own.

Friday I went to a fabulous show of collages by two local SF artists at
Inclusions Gallery
The artists are Mark Faigenbaum and Kim Smith. If you are local, I highly recommend the show.
And Kim has a pretty great book out (used on Amazon) too.
(The above collages are Kim's)

These are some of Mark's. I would like to have them all if anyone wants to buy me one.
After that I went to the soon to be reopened SFMOMA on a special tour given by two pals who work there.It was so amazing I didn't even take any photos and that is a first. It is huge, filled with art and the store is great too. I'm just saying. 
GO
if you can get to SF. 

Today I just had to kick back and think about all the art I've seen in the last few days.
And, I did have to eat lunch. There is something so wonderful about being with other friends and making art together and going and looking at art together.
I am so inspired.
I need to stick around my studio for a few days now and get busy and make things.
But -- being out with all my friends is addictive -- I am planning the next adventure in my head now.

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A Little of This and A Lot of Art

I've always got something going on here.......one day when it was too hot to do too much of anything I stayed in my studio and whipped out a postal zine...
always fun to do.

I made fifteen -- they take a while because I glued in real stamps and rubber stamped them -- I like to personalize them and not just xerox.
The first fifteen went out so fast I had to whip up a second set of 15....

Packed up the mail art kit and took a super-fast trip down to LA. I was down and back in the blink of an eye but I did manage to work on some LA-inspired pages for my own altered bookI love starting the day in a hotel room with breakfast and glue!

I have a thing for avocados!

There are so many fun spots in the LA area to eat (even if you do have to drive all over the place to get to them).
Avocado BLT at Tops.

Back home at the wonderfully messy work table -- I took out ALL the paper ephemera I dragged back from Spain and Morocco and I am determined to use it all up! I finished the travel journal about 98%, made a small collage book and an origami wallet that I filled with Spanish and Moroccan business cards....this is a well documented trip.

Some torn posters from the trip.....

I made some more pages to send to my special friend Dori to add to the altered book I made her for her birthday.
She is a little Texas gal, transplanted to CA, so here is a Texas page....

And, she likes tea.....

Altered book page for Dori

So, there you have it -- lots of things being made around here...

And, of course, some good mail going out too.

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My mail has been coming at 6 and 7PM!!!!

That is just too late in the day if you ask me. OK, no one did ask me but really....
It's another warm SF day today and I better go to the studio and make something.
It's a Maker's Sunday -- what are you all working on there days?
Have a good one!

Save The Earth

Every city and town should have a center for creative reuse. It makes so much sense. Let's keep things out of the landfill.
It is just such a great idea. We have SCRAP here in San Francisco and I took a little field trip over to the East Bay to visit The Depot for Creative Reuse.

I'm all for creative reuse (as you already know).

The fun starts right out on the sidewalk....books anyone?

Nicely organized store with lots of things to ponder a use for....

Lots of books inside too.....

It is just amazing to me all the STUFF that exists on our planet Earth...and I am happy to see some folks are really trying to limit what goes in to the landfill.

My favorite color is green! Did they know?

Definitely better to use all these pens than toss them away....

I don't actually sew....but I love old wooden spools of thread....and a pal is going to help me learn how to thread my sewing machine so I can sew some mail-art envelopes.
(Right, Dorothy?) 

Check and see if there is a Center for Creative Re-use in your town -- or in a spot you are traveling to. I guarantee you will have fun poking around -- and you'll actually be doing something good for our earth at the same time.

We also went to the dump...er....recycle center on that same field trip and we got FREE books.
My idea of a good time.

Any of you have these creative re-use centers? Let me -- and my blog readers know -- because people keep asking me about them.
San Francisco, Berkeley, Portland all have them but there have got to be more out there...
so, let us all in on the secret if you know about any others.
I finished a little zine, worked on envelopes, painted some stuff -- I'll show you next time.
Right now, the sun is shining here in SF and I'm going for a walk (to the mail box!).

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Make things from re-purposed materials -- you'll be glad you did!