Back To Basics

Mail Art OUT
It's all about the mail....

Cutting and pasting and playing with old photo postcards and off they go....

OUTGOING...inspired by my Postage Stamp Art workshop with Monica Lee.

OUTGOING
Sending off some ATC's and Altered Rolo cards in a little folder

Why send it plain if you can send it fancy?

OUTGOING
Collage still traveling to Russia

A BIG pile of OUTGOING surprises and a birthday postcard....

Sometimes you've got to write a letter....Mr Zip card by Jessica Manack

OUTGOING

OUTGOING
A little birthday surprise to my pal Patti in an altered Altoid tin

OUTGOING
Thank you tins to Linda

Ain't it the truth????
Rule certainly applies around my house -- nothing is safe! And I love to re-purpose.

So, I've been busy. And you?
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We Are Family

For various reasons, I have been thinking a lot about family lately.
Most likely because I just lost my beloved, ancient father in law. Some families are being split apart by politics and others by a member being deported.
When you lose someone, I think you start to realize how important it is to keep your loved ones close.
Your friends, your family, your tribe.

My career and first passion has always been photography. I had a Nikkormat in my hands when when I was just a kid and never put it down.
And, I collected vintage photos, tintypes and old albums for years and years. I just took a bunch of them out to look at some of those faces.
Someday someone at a flea market or vintage paper sale will probably be looking at my old photos someday (hopefully not too soon though).

I have a teeny tintype album given to me by my step-father (now gone) and he was so excited that it was dated March 25 because my birthday is March 26. I kind of have to laugh every time I look at that -- I mean, it is a day off -- so really.....
The rest of that date is 1874 and no, that isn't my birth year.

Don't you just wonder about all these people? What were their lives like?

Another thing that got me started thinking of family and photos is that a member of my mail art group brought a lot of his own family photos to the swap table. He said no one in his family wanted them and he thought (correctly) that those of us in the mail art group would certainly know how to put them to good use.
I used the photos in making collaged postcards and sending Jerry's family members all over the world...

Jerry's family sitting on lawn chairs in Spain -- I bet they didn't expect to find themselves there!

So, now I am inspired -- I've got out a bunch of old photos and glue and scissors and Rolodex cards and passports and I am getting to work.....

I'm sending JB, my lovely FIL, on a long fishing trip.....working on his passport is a good way for me to honor and remember him.

Have passport -- will travel

Thanks to all of you who comments on my last post. Your kind comments -- and the emails and cards -- were all very much appreciated.
It's been a rough few months and I've been sad but having my tribe sending kindness has most certainly helped. A lot.
And making art helps so I'm off to my work table....

SEE YOU IN THE MAIL!!!!

Altered Passport Project

In the fall, I am usually dusting off my own passport and getting ready to go on a trip.
This year, my trip sadly got canceled so I may have to send some others off to travel instead of going myself...
The travel journal was all prepped and ready...

I love to travel and I've always loved passports....little books filled with exotic rubber stamps? How could I not like them?
So, I started picking them up any time I got a chance....and one thing lead to another....and....
I started creating fantasy passports for imaginary people going on imaginary trips...
just my type...

When I found these small, vintage photos at the Vintage Paper Fair I knew these ladies were going to have to go on a trip.

I change the photos of the travelers. After all, who ever likes their passport photo?
We need new and glamorous photos for our fantasy trips.

I collect small photos (especially when I travel in other countries) to add -- and I add in rubber stamps and postage stamps and really, anything that seems to suit the trip...

Sometimes I give the pages a watercolor wash....or collage on them...

A trip to Morocco inspired this page....I didn't see any camels but I saw donkeys.

A France inspired page...

Those two ladies look like they would enjoy an English Tea - so I sent them to the UK.
(real immigration stamps)

I always leave any existing  stamps and visas showing and work with them. This is a real visa for a trip to Japan so the two pages are Japanese.

Japan Passport picked up at the VPF
I found a Swedish one too....
You want to see them? Let me know in the comments.

This Japanese passport had A LOT of wonderful stamps from entering and departing Japan....
I think I will just leave them as-is. So cool.
One thing that really bugs me is that many times I just breeze thru immigration and my passport doesn't even get stamped at all. I really hate that.
If I am talking to a person I ask to get it stamped, but
I took a train thru a few countries in Eastern Europe and it was oddly like there were no borders,
No stamps in my passport at all....

A Russian Passport
Don't you love that handwriting? I am going to have fun with this one. Since I've been to Russia I have some wonderful bits of old ephemera from flea markets there to add....

I find that passports are difficult to find. They are very expensive on eBay. I have gotten lucky a few times at the Vintage Paper Fair.
But -- that Japanese store - Muji - has little, inexpensive notebooks (pictured) that come in red or blue and are the exact size as many passports, rounded corners and all.
So now I think I will be making a few of my own own passports -- I wonder if I will have to invent a new country?
Himmmm......I could give a workshop in my studio on making these......that would be a lot of fun.
Would you come?

I am kinda sad because of my trip....but the best remedy for that is making a lot of art in my studio so that's where I am headed off to now...

Ciao bella.

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Damn right I had fun!

The more art field trips I go on, the more I want to go on...and my mail art pal,  Leslie
invited me to take Bart to the end of the line and go visit her in Tracy, CA.
It is a long way from SF and it was made even longer buy the fact Bart broke down for five hours in the middle of the day while I was in Tracy. Happily I didn't know!
One Woman's Hands
Check out her blog -- there was some show & tell of the pieces in her post here.

After riding to the end of the line, Leslie picked me up and there was a quick stop for coffee and then on to the thrift shop she has been torturing er....telling me about for the past year...

Everything I heard about it was true! We scored big time. Books to tear up and re-purpose.
Collage books. A typewriter book. All kinds of great stuff. Did I mention I had to carry all my scores 100 miles back to SF?

Can you see those prices?
.50 cents for a hardcover? .20 cents for a paperback?
The next best thing would be free books and oh yes -- there will be a post coming up about free books soon too.

Leslie scored this charmer -- an ancient cookbook with bits glued in and making the whole book even more cool.

After all the excitement at the thrift shop (and there was no fighting over the books...really...we agreed to share)...there was show and tell in Leslie's studio.
I love to see what she she is working on and there is always a lot to see.

I love these pages she made (she talks about them on her blog).

And this envelope! She actually sewed bits of fabric and that little flower design on there. Is that my type or what? I love it and it would be very nice if she mails it to me. (I can try).

More Show & Tell -- besides what she makes, there is always a treasure trove of cool stuff she has found in her travels around town. I swear Tracy has more cool stuff to find than SF.
Too much competition here in SF.

You know lunch if always involved. Yummy deli sandwiches taste better eaten on those vintage
plates....surrounded by ephemera....

Looking around her studio is always great fun too...

Collage by Leslie

Some artwork by Leslie and her mail art friends -- I spied one Postal ATC by me!

More of Leslie's art....

I could have stayed all day but I had to head back to SF about 5:30PM.  Major Bart delays so I had had a lot of time on the train to think about what a terrific day I had. Totally worth the trip!
And I am already invited back.
I must have been on my good behavior.
Seriously, I can't think of a better day than spending it with someone who loves all the same things you do. We speak the same language.

Go ahead, set up an artist playdate with a friend. You won't be sorry!

So, what are you guys all doing for fun these days?
I want to hear about it.

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and
It's Spring -- go out and play!