G is for....

golf ball, glacier, group, goldfish, gumball, gecko, gift, gingko, green, giraffe, glasses,

goldfinch, glove, and glass building.

(swap-bot, "pick a letter - receiver's choice" in which my partner chose a letter of the alphabet, and I created a postcard using at least five images that begin with that letter)

G also stands for goofball, but I refrained from including a picture of myself.

Baker's dozen

I made this for a recent swap.  The theme was "baker's dozen" and all I had to do was create a collaged postcard using 13 different images.

I made the thematic decision to use only tall and skinny images.

 from left to right:

1. couch

2. paintbrush

3. splint

4. salmon

5. rocket

6. spoon

7. sky scraper

8. wrench

9. pencil

10. calla lily

11. cub scout

12. snake

13. grandfather clock

and while I'm making lists,

here are 13 things I loved about my week.

1.  first graders learning how to armpit fart

2. hiring two new people at work

3. this picture of me and Max

4. the last gasp of autumn, in all of its golden glory

5. falling asleep on the couch under the puffy down blanket and the cat while listening to baseball

6. boot and scarf weather

7. trying not to crack up at the same first graders who "vandalized" the school building by writing "fart" on the door in chalk.  It was mighty hard to maintain my serious scowly face.

8. the security envelope swap at "mail me some art"

9. homemade apple pie for breakfast

10.  good leftovers for lunch

11. laughing until I cried over Max pretending to read while wearing a giant rubber horse-head mask. Wish I had a video.

12. The anticipation of a weekend away with some of my favorite people

13. This package, received in the mail, full of collage fodder, gum and chocolate. (thanks, Gina!)

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, filled with at least a baker's dozen worth of excellent things.

cat collage

Here's one I did for a recent swap - a cat collage for my "cut and paste" group.

 The kitty is from a magazine, but she looks an awful lot like my dear departed Lucy.

(who may or may not have been a gongoozler)

I'm up way past my bedtime watching the Red Sox in game 2 of the world series.  It's not going well.

I fancy myself a Sox fan, but in reality I've watched about one game per year since the last time they were in the world series (in 2007).

Fair weather fan is too generous a description.

My family are devoted members of the Fenway Faithful.  I'm the black sheep.

Fan by osmosis perhaps?

At the end of the inning, I'm happier with my glue stick.

What about you?

Are you a baseball fan?  Or a gongoozler?

Or, perhaps, both?

Done and done

It's official:

I'm going to San Francisco

February 13th I fly out with Mandy, to spend the weekend at the Ex Postal Facto conference.

The flight is booked, and so are the accommodations.

(and let's give a shout out to my mom for making that awesome airplane card pictured above and for slipping me some financial assistance toward the whole extravaganza)

I'm out of my mind excited that I'm finally going to meet Gina and Pamela, who live in San Francisco, and rumor has it, other mail art buddies are flying in from far flung places.  Tina is coming from Minneapolis and staying in the apartment Mandy and I are renting.

Who else?  Will it be you?

It's also official that I've submitted a piece for the mail art exhibit that weekend.

The theme is "mail/art/book" -

"Artists are invited to submit work exploring the intersection between mail art and artists’ books, in whatever way, shape, or form that may take. Mail art, artistamps, artists’ books, and other artworks that can be mailed and relate to the theme of mail/art/books are encouraged."

I've known about the October 15th submission deadline for well over a month.  Maybe two months.

At first I was simply procrastinating because I had plenty of time.  Then, as the date drew closer, all semblance of inspiration dried up and blew away.

I had ZERO ideas.

Until Saturday night.

Less than 72 before the post-mark deadline, I had a freaking brilliant idea.

Here's how I spent my weekend:

 Yup, it's a book/postcard in the shape of a vintage Post Office Box.

It opens to reveal an accordion book:

 

It was designed to have a fully functional lock.  Turn the knob on the front and the lever in the back locks the door.  Sadly, once the book was inside it was too fat to properly lock.  The box needed to be deeper.  Too late to fix it since it has to be in tomorrow's mail.

If only inspiration had struck a few weeks ago....

  

It has to be sent naked, with the postage affixed directly to the art.

I'm going to have to wrap the whole thing in twine before I mail it, in order to keep the door shut.

So it goes.

Here are some close ups of the pages of the book.

The entire piece is called "Letters never sent."

The handwriting is taken from pages of my journals.  I go through periods of writing "morning pages" (as recommended in Julia Cameron's book "the Artist's Way")

Three stream-of-consciousness pages every day, never to be read again.

I was getting ready to burn some of these old pages, but I found a better use for them.

This project also motivated me to make some artistamps (faux postage using my original art)

Here's a little video showing you how the whole piece works:

If I had more time, there are some things I'd do differently, but overall, I'm really, really happy with the way this came out.

I will bring it to the post office first thing in the morning.  I'm nervous that it will not arrive intact.  Assuming it does, it will be part of the exhibit at the San Francisco Center for the Book - opening reception February 14, 2014.

Will you be there?

I will!