A Small Artist Book

I have been creating artist books for several years.  Often, I start with an old book that I repurpose with collage and paint directly onto the pages.  This is the smallest book I’ve done so far.  Starting not with a book, but an expired passport.   
This little book tells a story.  The passport belonged to my grandmother who travelled the world more than many people I have known.  Growing up, I knew no one who travelled like she did.   She was a department store buyer who made frequent trips to California, New York, Hong Kong, and Europe.   As a child this was just grandma’s job to me.   I knew it was a bit unusual but as an adult, I started to understand how extraordinary it was for a woman born in 1919 to have that kind of career.   She also played the more traditional grandmother roles with ease — no one made a better apple pie than she did.

Fresh from the Printers

This afternoon a friend and I hopped in a zipcar and headed over to Berkeley.  My new book, Helen’s Postcards, was ready at the printers.   Now arrangements are being made to ship and distribute copies (the print run is sold out).  If you would like a copy, but did not have a chance to pre-order one, you can still purchase a print-on-demand copy when you visit helenspostcards.com

The Larkin Story – a Preview

This is one of the more unusual postcards that I have added to my collection.  It is a folding postcard that would be sealed and addressed on the outside.  This one was mailed in 1913 after a visit to the Larkin Soap Company.  The Buffalo-based company is largely forgotten today, but, in it’s day, the Larkin Soap Company was a well known company for soap, dry goods other groceries and household products, even furniture.  Adjacent to the factory was a state-of-the-art company headquarters designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  A little more history is at this link. 

The Larkin Soap Company also plays a major role in the upcoming book Helen’s Postcards.  Helen worked at the factory in 1915 packing and fulfilling orders of soap and men’s shaving kits.  She and her coworkers would slip in little pieces of paper with their names and addresses on them.  Imagine instead of finding a piece of paper that read Inspected by #17, you found a young lady’s address!  This lead to a number of pen pals and plenty of postcards arriving in her mailbox from all over the country.  One of her coworkers eventually met her husband this way.

Details from these stories and plenty of the postcards will be included in Helen’s Postcards.  To guarantee you receive a copy of the book, be sure to support the Kickstarter project and preorder a book before February 28th. 

Helen’s Postcards

A new book of vintage postcards 

If you know my work, you know I love old postcards.  Well, I have some that I can never cut up for art projects because they are family heirlooms.  It’s unusual to have an intact scrapbook filled with nearly 400 postcards sent to one person a century ago.  That scrapbook belonged to my great grandmother.

In 1907 she was 13, the oldest of ten children, and had to leave school to help support her large family. As a young woman, she held a number of different jobs and her circle of friends grew.  She kept in touch with friends and family through postcards.  One hundred years ago, one of the fastest and cheapest ways to communicate was to send a postcard.  You could send quick messages, a happy birthday, corny jokes, make plans and even flirt.  At the time, young people were using postcards very much like email and texting is used today.

Now I am turning that scrapbook into a book called Helen’s Postcards.  Anyone who enjoys old postcards will obviously appreciate the book.  The book will also be a document of the lives of young, working class women in the 1910’s.  It will offer a glimpse into the world of Polish and German immigrants in Buffalo, New York.  It has the stories of young men going off to war, some matchmaking and even a hint of romance.  And some of the postcards are just plain funny.

The finished book will be full color, soft cover and about 65-70 pages.  The book will contain images of many of the best postcards.  The messages written on the backs of some of the postcards will be transcribed and annotated with stories and background about my grandmother and her friends and family

The only way to make the book affordable and accessible is to print many copies at once.  I have started a Kickstarter campaign with that will guarantee every supporter gets a copy Helen’s Postcards.  When you support the campaign and pre-order the book, you will be helping to finance the entire project and will allow for an even larger printing.  Your generosity can help make Helen’s Postcards happen.

You can learn a little more about the project at helenspostcards.com

Here is the link for the Kickstarter campaign:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/176235615/helens-postcards

   

Packing Tape Transfers

Inspired by a piece of mail art I recently received from Adrienne Masson, I’ve decided to try my hand at creating image transfers with packing tape – I have a new obsession.  And yes, that’s lil’ Tofu doing an interpretive dance at the campground (look closely).

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.

Albright-Knox

As a kid in Buffalo, my dad and I walked to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery countless times on Sunday afternoons.  I carry on the tradition by taking the young people in my life to art museums.  Happy Father’s Day.

Public Transportation

Public Transportation, mixed media on canvas, 24”x24”

I’ve lived car free since the 1980’s.  When I am feeling broke, it’s fun to estimate how much money I have saved over the years by not owning a car.  I do drive and rent cars for road trips and also use the car sharing service zipcar.  There are times I want to do suburban shopping errands as well as other times when a car makes life easier.  Living in a compact city with decent public transportation makes it all possible.  Out of both necessity and some genuine admiration, I love public transportation. 

When I travel to different cities I always seek out the adventure of public transportation.  There is something magical about emerging from a subway station in a strange city for the first time.  I still can remember the moment I emerged onto a Barcelona street and beheld Gaudí’s la Sagrada Família.  Many of my dreams play out on public transportation.  I often dream about stations and trains over and over for months before I first see them.  This has happened for me in places like Frankfurt and Washington, D.C.

This new piece is made up of public transportation maps from around the world.  From my familiar MUNI and BART to DC’s Metro, to London’s Underground and many more.  You also might spot a few bits of MUNI Fastpasses, transfers and BART tickets.  I also have a DC Metro Ticket with President Obama on it.  That one stayed on the refrigerator door.  I couldn’t cut that one up.

Prints and other goodies based on Public Transportation are also available from Society 6.

A show that makes me want to visit NYC

Stumbled across a link for a Show called Dead or Alive at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

"Dead or Alive will showcase the work of over 30 international artists who transform organic materials and objects that were once produced by or part of living organisms-insects, feathers, bones, silkworm cocoons, plant materials, and hair-to create intricately crafted and designed installations and sculptures."

Work by Nick Cave is enough of an enticement to go, this show is reminding me a I need a New York visit.