The Professor’s House

 It would be ideal if a copy of The Professor’s House was in this bookcase from my Chaekgeori-inspired series.   But this Australian professor teaches computer science rather than American Literature.   And while he has a model rocket on his shelf, he is not a rocket scientist (though his dad is).  Like all my friends, I find commonalities when I paint their bookshelves.  For example, so many of them have Rubik’s cubes on display.  I best not make a snarky comment about nerds and Rubik’s cubes though, because you might find one on my own bookshelf.  

Listopad

It’s November, or in Polish, Listopad.   The Polish name for November literally translates as “leaf fall.”  There is this subjective phenomenon where you can learn a word in another language and somehow find that word quite appealing.  Listopad is one of those words for me.  I like it so much I was inspired to carve some rubber stamps and then use them to make a new series of artist stamps.

Mail Art to Remember the Dead

Covid has kept me home and I have not travelled to Mexico for two years now.  Ideally, I’d be there for the Día de los Muertos celebrations — it is one of my favorite holidays. Instead, I will make my ofrenda at home in San Francisco.  And this past week I have been carving rubber stamps and making some mail art for the holiday.   These postcards are on their way locally and around the world.

Mapping the Brain

More brain-themed mail art on its way in the post.  I like the effect of rubber stamping the brain onto old maps with topography where the roads and rivers becomes veins.   

Brains!

Using some brain power to carve some rubber stamps.  This first round is a collaboration with the Lithuanian artist Mindaugas Žuromskas (he did the painted paper).   These are heading around the world in the mail — more to come soon. 

End of Summer Mail Bag

 

Get busy, leave town, and don’t go to the post office for a few weeks and the box was bursting with new mail art.    Zines + mail art, altered postcards, rubber stamping, fabric sample collages, Fleur’s ongoing documentation of Oakland public art, Kathy’s moving pieces and a more patrons of the Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera.  Some of Kathy Barnett’s pieces get hung on my apartment door to entertain my young neighbors.   Here is a list of the artist shown this month: 

1. Eberhard Janke - Germany
2. MiM – Virginia 
3. Jean-Philippe Gilliot – Belgium 
4. Valdor – Catalonia/Spain
5. Pia Zaragoza – California
6. Debra Mulnick – Idaho
7. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene) – Québec/Canada
8. Rani Goel – California 
9. Fleur Helsingor – California
10. Jon Foster – North Carolina 
11. William Mellott – Taiwan 
12. Skooter Fein – California 
13. Patti Wren & Paula Currie – California
14. Margo Hill – California
15. Meral Agar – Turkey 
16. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
17. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California

The Thorn Birds

It has been more than a year and I still am working on my Chaekgeori-inspired series.   

I usually do not paint the book titles in detail, yet many of the books in these paintings are still recognizable.  Viewers spot a few books they have on their own shelves and many of us read the same books.  In my latest painting you might notice a copy of The Thorn Birds — a ubiquitous title on the bookshelves of all moms of a certain generation.  Yes, these are my mom’s books and things.  And even though she has downsized (many of my parent’s books are on my shelves now), a true reader can’t help but fill a bookcase.  Also, like many of the paintings in this series, small pieces of my art appear on the shelves (look for the slice of cabbage).