August Mail

It’s the end of August in San Francisco and summer is finally here, (we tend to do that season in September and October). Visitors continue to stream into Glama Rama to see the show and all the while I am busy sending out some new mail art.  The PO Box is filling with fun things too, including these pieces (shown above):

1. E. Coles sends a new piece from Bath in the U.K. and asks, “How many times can you use a tea bag?”  I believe a few were used in creating this piece.
2. A new piece arrived from Sandra Lefever.  Pink seems to be a theme this month. 
3. Mim Golub sends a new piece from Virginia where she is trying out water colors and yet reminds me a bit of tea bag art.
4. I always like anything Lotería-themed including this new piece from Dori Singh down in Southern California.   Perhaps a Lotería-themed mail art show needs to happen.
5. Diane Keys is keeping the pink going with her latest piece. 
6. I wonder if the parking lot tickets that Jennifer Utter used were all parking she paid for in San Francisco.  It’s a city where $25 per hour can actually happen in some lots and garages. 
7. And finally an Aegean Sea piece from Katerina Nikoltsou in Greece in response to my Lake Erie series.

Thanks for all the cool mail – time to send out more soon….

Layers of time at Letchworth

Lost Letchworth Postcard, 4”x6” mixed media on board

Imagine a postcard lost in time since the 1970’s and finally arriving in your mailbox in the 21^st Century.  Okay, that’s an exaggeration.  But I am experimenting with image transfers and used a copy of a photo of my brother in Western New York’s Letchworth State Park.  We always stayed in Area C where we rented a cabin.  The same cabins that were built by our grandfather’s Civilian Conservation Corps crew during the 1930’s.  There are a lot of layers of material and time in this little piece.

Trouble at the Lake

From series titled Trouble at the Lake, mixed media on matter board, 4”x6” each

Lake Erie has played a big role in my life.  It’s the lake that is surrounded by once-prosperous, industrial cities.  It drew my ancestors like a magnet.  As an infant, I lived in an apartment building in Buffalo, right on the shore of the lake.  I continued to live nearby for my first 14 years.  When winter, arctic air blasted across Lake Erie it was the source of amazing snowstorms, and it was the place of summer of beaches as well.  Back then the lake was terribly polluted, but the EPA and Clean Water Act helped turn things around.  Next, the demise of America’s heavy industry was a blessing for Lake Erie’s waters.  But the disappearance of industry nearly killed the cities and towns surrounding the lake when jobs vanished.   The factories were closed down rather than upgraded.  Then, many of the remaining jobs were shipped overseas leaving workers adrift. 

Lake Erie, and the working families who live on it shores, have been victims of unbridled capitalism. The same forces that have nearly destroyed the lake’s waters and its great cities, is now shutting off the water for poor people in Detroit.  And, this month, the people of Toledo were not able to drink or use the water due to a toxic algae bloom.  The algae bloom is a phenomenon linked to global warming and agribusiness.

Lake Erie and a city like Toledo might seem faraway to many Americans, but the lake could be called the United States’ Canary in the Coal Mine — or we could say Perch in the Lake.  The health of Lake Erie, and the quality of life of the communities that surrounded the lake, reflect the overall health of our entire country.

This series of 25 pieces of 4”x6” handmade postcards is being mailed to some of the artists I exchange mail art with.

Summer Mail

It’s been a hectic summer having opened a large show last week.  I haven’t been able to check the PO Box for about two weeks – I finally got up there today and was not disappointed.  All sorts of notes, cards and mail art treasures were waiting for me.  A big thank you to everyone who sent them out.  It’s time for me to make some mail art and start responding.  In the meantime, here a re a few favorites:

1. Adrienne Mason sent down this large collaged card from British Columbia.  More of her work can be seen at toughcitywriter.blogspot.com
2. Jennifer Utter was celebrating National Ice Cream Day.  Isn’t that every day?  It is for me.
3. Marina Salmaso sent this big measuring card – fun on both sides from Denmark.
4. At first I saw Rebecca Guyver’s piece and thought, hey this looks like I did it.  Of course Rebecca wrote that I inspired her – I’m flattered and love it.
5. Dori Singh’s card is great from both sides.
6. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene) sent a something soft and fuzzy made with denim and bleach that arrived from Québec.
7. Mark Dean’s latest card arrived from France last month and it’s been on view for a few weeks – I just realized the patterns are actually above views of cups and saucers.
8. A little handmade book from Phyllis Lucas-Haddon arrived from Santa Fe.  I’m starting to get quite the collection.

The Opening for Collage + Landscape = Collagescape

photos courtesy Lars Jonnson

A few photos from last night’s opening for Collage + Landscape = Collagescape - the show is up until September 28, 2014. Details here.