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

Midsummer Mail

This time of the year, I need to dodge throngs of Haight Street tourists to get to my post office box on Clayton Street – but it’s always worth the effort.  Here are is some of the mail art I found waiting for me:

1. CeCe Chan sent this happy little gang.
2. Andrea Roccioletti sent an injection of mail art.
3. A new piece from Sandra Lefever – I need to frame some of these and make room for a little mail art gallery in my home.
4. Fleur Helsingor sent an Oakland piece called “layers in the built environment.” 
5. A new bit of intrigue from Gregg Biggs at the Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera.
6. And finally, I wanted to show the backside of this piece from R.F. Côté for the upcoming Pink Mail Art show.  I love the Canadian comic book super hero stamps.

Keep the mail coming and remember, I need your Pink Mail Art for the upcoming show in Sacramento (see more info here).

Summer Postcard Series

Summer Postcards (12”x12” each)

Here is a new series for summer that started with a big stack of vintage postcards.  There was a good deal of beaches, lakes, motel pools and even a few cruise ships.  As expected, that Kodachrome blue dominates each one.  But as is often the case with my collages, a few unexpected things happen.  The play of all the shades of blue creates some movement, almost like shimmering water when you look at the art from across the room.  It’s a magical art experience that you just can’t replicate on a screen – you have to see the art in person.  And then, all those blue circles started reminding me of the view from a window seat when landing at an airport.  Especially in places like Florida or Southern California where very other backyard seems to be dotted with a swimming pool’s blue circle.

Prints and other items inspired by this series can be found at Society 6.

Postcard Aloha

Postcard Aloha, mixed media on board, 8”x10”

As always, July has been a mostly foggy and cool month in San Francisco, but I have been going to the “beach” at least in terms of my artwork.  Working on some commissioned pieces that have me cutting up old summery postcards.  The piece shown above is available as a print as well on various phone, laptop cases, etc. from Society 6. 

Droughtscapes

Droughtscapes (approx. 5"x4" each)

The droughtscapes are my latest series of mail art.  They are going out today.  Over the last few years I have been looking for ways to make my own collage material.  With these new pieces I used different types of black paper and painted them with bleach.   Until I got started, I was not sure how the paper would react due to the different dyes that are used in paper manufacturing, etc.  I like the effect and was immediately reminded of an aerial view of a dry landscape.  Right now in California this relentless drought becomes a grim inspiration.

I also owe a big thanks to the artist Dorothy Yuki who showed us examples of this bleach technique at this month’s Correspondence Coop meeting.