November Mail

It is always nice to have a post office box crammed full of mail art when you return from a long trip.  And, that is just what I found this week. There was a fold out booklet from Peter Müller, a rubber stamped postcard from William Mellott, a new piece from e. coles in England, and Marina Salmaso must have made a trip from Denmark, because her envelope was mailed from England. In Lithuania, Mindaugas Zuromskas is also making cards with British postage stamps (I have created plenty of work with Her Postal Majesty myself – I get it).  Melissa Wand is turning her post office photos into postcards.  That’s a great idea.  I always tend to photograph small post offices when I am on my road trips. Here is the list of the mail art shown here:

1. William Mellott– Taiwan
2. Valdor – Catalunya, Spain  
3. Kerosene– Québec, Canada
4. Mindaugas Žuromskas
5. Melissa Wand – Wisconsin
6. Fleur Helsingor– California
7. e. coles – England
8. Deble Faulkner – California
9. R.F. Côté– Québec, Canada
10. Peter Müller – Germany
11. Marina Salmaso– Denmark
12. Bonniediva – Illinois 

Mexican Sunsets

Mexican Sunset, acrylic on paper, 12"x9"

Typically I don’t paint sunsets, and purple is not a color with a prominent place in my palette.  But, when you are on vacation, rules can be broken, extra desserts, sleep in late, do nothing if you like, and paint sunsets.  I am home from Mexico now, so it time to get back to my routine.

Tile-Inspired ATCs

I love mosaics and ceramic tile.   San Francisco has plenty of wonderful examples of tiled public art (including right around the block from my home).  That said, I needed to come down to Mexico to be inspired for a new series of ATCs painted on playing cards.  I suppose it took escape-vacation mode to make these happen.  More soon….

24th Annual Pink Week.

The Pink Week microART Invitational opens tonight at the Sparrow Gallery in Sacramento.  The show remains up until November 30th.  Of course I have a micro piece in the show.

Scrappy Scrapbook

For about two years I have been working on the same scrapbook. I’ve reached the point where the book is full.  In other words, it is becoming difficult to close the book.

It all started at one of San Francisco’s library book sales where they sell donated and discarded books for $1.  I already owned a guide to London’s National Gallery from a visit I had made. I really had no practical use for a much older version, circa 1960.  Or did I?

My original thought was to cut the images out of the old book for collages.  Instead I started filling the book up.  It began with left over paint on my palette and scraps from other projects.  Collage bits, old postage stamps, maps, chocolate wrappers and other ephemera kept getting added.  The folks at the San Francisco Correspondence Coop contributed many of the artists stamps and some of the rubber stamps.  And finally, some of the random scraps I have received in the mail.  Some of the results are shown here.