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!

Drapery rods on your mind?

So I was playing with this technique for a swap.

I have a love/hate relationship with swaps.

(do I write about this at least once a week?)

I get so excited about various swap themes I click YES-SIGN-ME-UP, and then get stressed by all the deadlines, and grumble that I'm not doing any "serious art" for myself, because all I have time for are these  *&%#! swaps.  But if I didn't have these parameters and deadlines, would I be making this much art?  I think not.  I think I'd be sitting on the couch lost in the laptop, and still not doing any "serious art."

Perhaps swaps are a very convenient excuse that let me pretend I want to make SERIOUS art without having to put in the time and effort and vulnerabilty.

Or maybe it just feels good to be silly most of the time.
There's a lot to be said for silliness.

Last Sunday night we watched "Nacho Libre" and I made this:

Tonight we showed Max "Life of Brian"

and I worked on this bit of fluffy frivolity:

Talk about silly.
But if I don't keep my hands busy while I watch TV, I fall asleep.
Having mom snoring on the couch takes some of the fun out of family movie night, so Sunday nights are about moving-without-thinking.

But not thinking is just about impossible for me.
My brain is on overdrive right now.
I have agreed to speak at a gathering of women this week.
My friend Marilyn is a life coach and all around amazing person and she asked me to speak at this event she is calling "Spirited Women Live"
Here's the description of the evening:
 

"Join us as we gain inspiration from four incredible Spirited Women.  They have found their way, although not always in a straight line, to an exciting, meaningful place in their lives-a place where they’re connected to what matters deeply to them and, despirte the challenges they’ve faced along the way, creatively move in a forward direction."

And here's what the flyer says about me:

Like many other women, Karen is fully committed to her career and is grateful to be engaged in work that makes a difference in the lives of children and their families as Director of the Southboro Extended Day Program. But, Karen has another side to her life, creating and connecting to people as an artist and blogger, passionately exploring that world to sustain and energize her.  Taking risks as an artist allows her to stretch and strengthen areas of her life that unfold in ways she could never have imagined. Take a moment and check out some of Karen's work. Iamrushmore.blogspot.com  and  www.mailmesomeart.blogspot.com

 

What on earth was I thinking?

All the old negative scripts in my head have come pouring out as I prepare for this event. 

I will be impossible from now until Thursday.

Best to keep my focus on the absurd:

Put an "S" on it

September was "Put an S on it month" in my Super Mail Artists group.

The swap challenge was to create postcards featuring an animal that starts with the letter S.

I chose Stoats as my animals.

I have to confess, stoats fall into the category of animals I only know about from reading "The Wind in the Willows" and as I result, I wasn't entirely sure they weren't fictitious.

Mandy assured me that yes, they are real, but no, they don't wear waistcoats.

As it turns out, they are not only real, but live in my state.  Who knew?

I have never seen one in my yard, but this week they are abundant in my studio.

(I might have to save this one for the "animals in chairs" swap later this month)

(this one has two S creatures - stoat AND sea monster.  does that get me a triple word score?)

 They're rather cute, aren't they?

They may be vicious killers of backyard bunnies and birds, but in my mind they will only ever be slightly dimwitted guards dropping stones off the edge of Toad Hall onto poor unsuspecting Toad.

Have you ever lit your painting on fire?

I hung out with my friend Catherine Weber in her studio this week and she wanted to try a new technique.

After creating a background painting with encaustics, we covered the top with a mixture of shellac and gold pigment powder, and then lit the shellac on fire.
Here's mine:

The fire does the most interesting things to the shellac/pigment.

Here are some close-ups:

I love the way the gold just floats on top of the layers of wax:

If you look carefully, you can see lines and letters from some of the collage paper I used in the encaustic piece:

Below is a shot of the entire piece.  It's a 12"x12" wood panel.

I feel like it doesn't have a focal point and could use one, but I'm not sure what I can put on top of that shellac layer. 

 

Catherine's going to be teaching me a lot more about encaustics in the coming months and I'm really excited.  Even if we don't light stuff on fire, it will still be a blast.