Dahlia Time

In a world gone mad, one of the ways I cope is nice long walks to Golden Gate Park.  This time of the year the dahlias are in bloom. Beautiful and inspirational.  This weekend was spent carving rubber stamps for a series of dahlia-themed postcards.

Collage Dreams

 

For many years I have collected and held on to a great amount of ephemera to use one day in various collages.  This has included maps, postage stamps and hundreds of postcards.   More recently I have been using up a lot of what I have saved for decades.  Much of the material has ended up in artist books.  My latest artist book, Collage Dreams, incudes 20 handmade, or as one now says, analog collages.   Each collage is 10.5” wide x 11” high and made entirely from the contents of postcard booklets dating from 1910 to 1950.

 

When I started these collages with the goal of creating an artist book, I did it without an intentional agenda.   This project was simply taking images out of their original context and arranging them to make pleasant and even amusing landscapes and cityscapes.  Yet, as this series of collages neared completion, I began to suspect that I might be recreating some of the surreal, fragmented places that I keep seeing when I dream.   I need to ask myself whether some of my dreams are about collaged places I will create instead of actual places I will one day visit.

A book is now available that includes all the collages.   Some of the images are also available as prints.  

10 Years of the S.F. Correspondence Co-Op

The first time I went to a San Francisco Correspondence Co-Op meeting was the group’s first anniversary party — back in 2012.  Here we are nine years later, and the co-op is now 10 years old.  We missed having our party in 2020 and finally had out first in-person gathering this weekend, safely, outdoors in a quiet, financial district park.

Every time we meet, one of us does an artist stamp to be shared with co-op members.  Many keep their stamps in special passports.   For our 10^th anniversary we did something different.   29 other co-op members sent me artwork that was then turned into a set of two commemorative sheets of artist stamps.  Here is our very cooperative effort.

Envelopes and Postcards and More

The mail art that arrived this month included quite a few envelopes trying to upstage their contents.  Marina Salmaso sent a handmade envelope that needed to be disassembled to reveal a collage celebrating the 100^thAnniversary of Joseph Beuys’ birth.   Thea Albert’s mail art needed to be assembled — and the box now is on one of my bookshelves.    The mail shown here includes: 

1. Jon Foster – North Carolina 
2. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene) – Québec/Canada
3. Jennifer Utter – California
4. Virgo – Russia 
5. Deble Faulkner – California 
6. Chocolatine et stooby – France 
7. Serse Luigetti – Italy
8. Meral Agar – Turkey 
9. Margo Hill – California
10. William Mellott – Taiwan 
11. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
12. Maria Quiroga – Argentina 
13. Marina Salmaso – Denmark
14. Thea Albert – Washington State

The Bird Revolution

 Cutting up old postcards and making some ATCs.

Back to Museums

Yesterday was my first museum visit since before-the-Event.  It had been 15 months since I have been inside any museum.   About one year ago, I walked by the de Young Museum for the first time during the lockdown.   That moment made me profoundly sad.  Since then, I have walked by the museum many times and gotten used to the museum being closed.

I always prefer weekday afternoons for my museum visits — it is the best time to avoid the crowds.  Yesterday it was nice and mellow.  Masked up and vaccinated, with our reservations on our phone, my friend and I got to get in some museum time.   There is signage reminding us to social distance, passageway walls have had art removed to prevent visitors from lingering and some of the gallery benches have been removed.   The museum felt a little bare, but it was still good just to be inside and wandering around.   

The big change, after spending a year painting books, I am now really paying attention to paintings of books.  I have always enjoyed the de Young’s gallery filled with trompe l’oeil, yesterday it was becoming a real favorite.   John Frederick Peto’s books are so inspirational.   Although, I will never have the patience to master that level or realism in my own work.

May Mail

Sometimes with mail art the envelopes try to upstage the contents — and this month has seen a few examples of amazing envelopes in my mailbox along with some great contents.  Plus, I am noticing more and more postage stamps and artists stamps honoring, doctors, nurses and medical research.   I even hunted down some Jonas Salk postage stamps for the vaccine-themed mail art I sent out a few weeks ago.  

The mail shown here includes:

1. Rebeka Torowin-Borowicz – U.K. 
2. Wabi Sabi Sews – California
3. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
4. Jennie Hinchcliff – California
5. The Sticker Dude – New York 
6. R.F. Côté — Canada
7. Peter Müller – Germany
8. Margo Hill – California
9. William Mellott – Taiwan 
10. Fleur Helsingor - California 
11. Katerina Nikoltsou - Greece
12. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California