brilliant! more cracker mail
January 29th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Before Christmas, Diane Keys of Elgin, Illinois, sent me a handmade book in an envelope made from a cracker box. I emailed to thank her for the mail and expressed the disappointment my husband felt that didn’t contain any crackers. So… she followed up by sending crackers! « Read the rest of this entry »
In the Weeds, Number Two: more delightful mail specimens
January 26th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
It seems my New Years, both Gregorian and Lunar, are starting off at a snail’s pace. You would think the mail would be slow, but rather, *I’m* the slow one in this relationship. So I’m still in the weeds. I just can’t seem to get it together.
The postcard collage above is from Stewart Charlebois of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. So great! I love the mix going on of colors and textures. « Read the rest of this entry »
In the weeds: USPS project mail
January 15th, 2012 § 2 Comments
This post documents mail received for the USPS project during the last few weeks.
Received from Alejandro Thornton of la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cool stamps and chop! His URL: http://www.athornton.com.ar/
figure drawing Tuesday
January 11th, 2012 § 1 Comment
Hell, yea! I’m back! Holiday festivities lasted *forever*. Exhausted and a little dazed, I’m ready to get back to it.
always something good in the mail
December 24th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I’ve been slow to document my incoming mail because of the holiday whirlwind.
Diane Keys of Elgin, Illinois sent me cracker mail! Best holiday greeting I’ve received all season:
mail from I’m a Superhero of Iowa City, Iowa
December 23rd, 2011 § Leave a Comment
relief printing a plexiglas engraving
December 22nd, 2011 § 2 Comments
Figure drawing has been a bust the last two weeks. Last week, the model didn’t show; there was a scheduling mix-up. This week I suspect it was cancelled for the upcoming holidays, but I wasn’t in the loop for that one. I did wait for a while, secretly sitting in my car drinking a forbidden can of Dr. Pepper and eating an equally forbidden bag of Doritos, but no one ever unlocked the door.
The first week that I didn’t draw, I started working on my first engraving on plexiglas. I carved a cursory image into a plexi scrap and then proofed it by hand, just to see how the material behaves since I haven’t used it for relief printing before. Then I started a second plate, a better plate, with a more interesting drawing and better attention given to carving.
I pulled eight 4 inch by 6 inch proofs on newsprint. They’re now dry enough to handle. Here’s one that I’m sending in the mail to Michalis in Greece:
(click for larger view)
figure drawing Tuesday! (Rolando)
December 7th, 2011 § 2 Comments
I’ve drawn Rolando before. I thought it was a year ago, but after thinking on it a bit, I realized it was two years ago. I’m surprised he remembered me, it’s been so long. (You can see the older drawings of Rolando here and here.)
I’ve whined about needing to practice drawings hands, so I took out ten minutes to do it last night. I drew them using a direct drawing method, which is when you start at one tip of the image and work across to the other side without going back; it’s an easy way to make mistakes and get things wrong since you’re not plotting out the entire drawing in advance. The fingers look mangled to me, but considering the method, I don’t think it’s bad start to a long future practice. « Read the rest of this entry »
the sending of the empty box, and more mail
December 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Two things happened in the same week that got me thinking about boxes. The first thing was watching How to Draw a Bunny, again, which I like revisiting once or twice a year. It’s about Ray Johnson’s life and work. Love that guy. He was a complete and total genius, and equally a complete and total nut. In an interview with Christo and Jean-Claude, they describe a work of art that they sent to him as a gift, a wrapped box. Inside the box is a note which tells the opener (Ray Johnson) that by opening the wrapped box, the artwork was destroyed, but as a souvenir, also enclosed is a photograph of the wrapped box.
The second thing that happened that week was my checking out a new book from the library: Mail Me Art: Going Postal with the World’s Best Illustrators and Designers. This book contains 2D and 3D mail art. The book’s photography is very good and the work is diverse and interesting, for the most part. I became pretty interested in the empty boxes that made it into the book. So I decided to send someone an empty.
It’s my first empty. I enjoyed making it but I think as I continue to explore the box, I will hopefully progress into making something more compelling.
(click image for larger view)
figure drawing Tuesday!
November 29th, 2011 § 2 Comments
Aw yea! Same materials as last week, same sketchbook, same timing for poses.
