Can you make rubber stamps with rubber bands?

Yes!  With some inspiration from the Rubber Stamp Museum blog, a bag of rubber bands and some wooden blocks I was ready to get stamping.  The first batch was dropped off in a mailbox this afternoon.

Mary Fields Artist Stamp

When the San Francisco Correspondence Coop meets every month, one of us always creates an artist stamp to share at the meeting.   This month it was my turn.   When I first read about Mary Fields online, I knew I needed to do a stamp.  She was the first African-American woman to work for the U.S. Postal Service, and that is just a piece of her remarkable biography.

A Trip to Stockton

I am a big advocate of visiting museums when I travel, and I always seek out lesser known museums in smaller cities.  Sometimes I have to remind myself there are smaller cities right near San Francisco.  Stockton is a little more than hour’s drive.  Yesterday was my first visit to the Haggin Museum.  

It’s a hidden gem and right in a lovely park in the center of town.   The Haggin is both a history and art museum.   Much of the collection was saved by happenstance when the family moved from their Nob Hill mansion prior to San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake and fire.  And now it is safely in Stockton for everyone to enjoy.  Most of the collection reflects the taste of wealthy, late 19^th Century Americans scouring Europe to fill their mansions.   From across a gallery I immediately spotted that blue.  I strode across the room to confirm it was, yes, a Jean-Léon Gérôme. 

The Haggin Museum’s collection of J.C. Leyendecker’s work is what puts them on the map.  It was the first time I had ever seen his paintings in person.  They were reproduced millions of times in advertising, magazine covers and prints.  As is so often the case with most painters, no print or online image can quite do Leyendecker’s work justice.  His paintings glow and the thick brush strokes want to pop off the canvases.  It is also easy to speculate that Leyendecker’s work influenced Wayne Thiebaud.

Now, I have to wonder, what is hiding out in Modesto?