Imagine This

Take Me Away to Tunica

Woohoo! Jerry and I are off tomorrow for a five day trip to Tunica, Mississippi to attend the Blues Foundation Music Awards.

Tunica is about 25 or 30 miles southwest of Memphis, TN. It boasts being the beginning of the blues trail in the middle of where "the blues" was born and where southern hospitality gets its name.

Whatever possessed us to go to such a place for such an event?

My cousin, Teresa James, is the sum total of the impetus for this excursion. She has been nominated for

Contemporary Female Blues Singer of the Year!

Teresa James, singer/songwriter/keyboard

Teresa's 85 year old dad, my Uncle Jack, lives in Hillsboro, Texas and will be making the trip with us. Even though this will be a 9 or 10 hour driving trip, we plan to spend the time singing, listening to music, arguing over who knows the best shortcuts, and reminiscing about the great times our families have had together.

Oh, by the way, Tunica is also the largest gaming resort area between Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Don't think I don't know that my DH is hoping for some quality time in the Grand Casino - but he is playing it on the down low.

Teresa and her husband, Terry Wilson, live in Canyun Country, California where they both make their living writing songs, composing and editing music, and playing and singing with their band, "Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps."

Terry is a base guitar player and singer who is quite sought after himself -- often by big name artists looking for local band members to play in performances. He has quite a list of film credits for serving as music editor, song writer (like Sitar Dude for Dude Where's My Car?), composer, music performer, and even actor in a couple. Check out his filmography here.

Teresa, is the lead singer and keyboard player -- her jazzy, boogie accompaniment rivals the best - actually, it IS the best! Teresa and Terry perform all over the world. Teresa has also used to sing and write songs for movies and TV. (like "Sittin' By the Side of the Road" written by Teresa James and Terry Wilson and performed by Andie MacDowell for the movie Michael, starring John Travolta. Also, the theme song for TV show, Step by Step with Suzanne Somers.  (just to name a couple you might remember.) Funny anecdote - Teresa said when they called to ask her to write a song for Andie MacDowell to sing which was supposed to be a really bad song because her character was a failing song writer, Teresa answered, "Well, sure, I can write a bad song as good as the next fellow!" Teresa went on to coach Andie Macdowell in her singing of that song for the movie.

You can see Teresa and the band performing at two venues on You tube for a little taste of her great sound:

• Two songs and some great keyboard here - Teresa James & The Rhythm Tramps - Live Rhythm & Blues performance in Houston, Texas, USA at The Howling Coyote 11AUG2007. (Jerry and I were there for this one!) Listen for that great keyboard.
• A clip from one of their cruise performances here - Teresa James from Rocking the Boat.

And  check out "Come Up and See Me Sometime" performed on an IndieFeed audio podcast. You'll hear the super keyboarding here, too.

I have it on good authority (Uncle Jack) that Terese will be singing twice at the awards banquet - one of her songs, I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know (Listen to a snippet here) - as well as a duet with one of her friends, Tommy Castro, who is up for male singer of the year and who's band is up for band of the year. Yikes, that's good company, no? Jeepers, I'm getting excited just writing about it.

Hey, I sure hope Jerry wins enough in the casinos to buy me the Blues Foundation's new pink t-shirt to support the arts. On the back . . . they've used a title line from one of Teresa's songs, "Since I found the blues, I've been in the pink!" from their newest CD release, The Bottom Line. (This is the first time the Blues Foundation has used a woman's lyric on their merchandise.)

OK, you guys have a good time and play nice while we're gone.  Meanwhile, you can check out the latest news on Teresa and Terry and their music friends here. You can find her CDs on iTunes and Amazon as well as on her website.

See ya when we get home.

Inspired

I Stand at the Door and Knock (Rev. 3:20)
(Excuse the really terrible digital picture)

I was inspired by Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the US. A non-Catholic, I found the words of this scholar and theologian heart warming and encouraging. His theme, Christ, Our Hope, I felt was realized in every way and especially in his homilies. This piece, I Stand at the Door and Knock, is illustrative of Revelation 3:20.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Notice that the heart in my piece has a huge door -- big enough for Christ to come in -- but no handle on the outside of the door. So Christ must be invited in and the door opened from the inside. That, to me, is the beginning of our hope. . . when we invite Christ in to be the Lord of our life.

My collage was inspired in technique by my friend and yours, Sharon Tomlinson, of All Norah's Art. I love her pieces using napkins and collage with lots of painting. She is a grand master at it and through her blog, you can get totally motivated. So I tried my hand at it.

I started with a painted background of  Quinacridone Red covered by Titan Tan acrylic and then water soluble pastels for mark-making. Next I affixed a picture of the anatomical heart and overlayed a clip art doorway.  I had removed the doorknob in Photoshop. Then, my favorite part, the napkin with flowers to match the heart. I added a few stamps of a heart diagram in the background.

From there I went about matching the colors with acrylic paint, water soluble pastels, and colored pencils as I tried to make the doorway look like it was built in to the heart and the whole thing look nestled in a grove of blooming plants. The miniature door knocker was added to allude to the Bible verse. Lastly, the text and butterfly were added.

By the way, I got that doorway image from a website I was clued in about in one of my groups (don't remember which). I didn't look around very much because one of the first images I saw was that door and since I'd been thinking about Christ knocking at the door, I just stopped looking and took that image. (Later I realized I even have a rubber stamp of that doorway.) Anyway, I have a feeling this web site is a terrific treasure of copyright-free images. You all probably already know about it and have been using it. Sometimes I wonder what rock I live under!  The site I'm talking about is Liam's Pictures from Old Books. There seem to be lots of really terrific images there from which to pick.

When I first showed my new piece to my DH, he guessed it was a frog house (!) Well, I have to admit, that his comment was helpful -- I always have to wonder if it is just him or is it the piece -- but in my first attempt, there was a dark line through the heart over the door that sort of made it look a bit like an orange lemon or something. I hadn't noticed it until I saw it with Jer's eyes and wondered why it didn't look like a heart. See what I mean below.

Frog House (A bad first attempt.)

See that dark line where the arrow is pointing? Well, I thought that was the culprit so I painted it out and I, at least, think it fixed it. Now, I think it looks more like a heart. So what do you think? Did you even notice at first, when you saw that first image above, that it was a human heart with a door in it or did you only know that after I told you?

Why in the World . . .

. . . Why Do I Do This to Myself???

Last Friday morning I got up enthused to go out to the studio. I picked up the last Somerset Studio issue and thought I'd see what calls they had for art. I haven't submitted anything to them in a long while so I thought maybe I would. OH, the Halloween issue is what they are looking for now. Great. I love Halloween. And it was due four days from then. So, I can do that.

I grabbed a piece of watercolor paper, wet it, and started slapping some paint on it. Oh -- how fun -- red, orange. yellow -- Hey, that looks like some figures emerging. I whipped out my water soluble pastels and went to town defining the figures somewhat. I'm creating now. Yippee.

Detail from Halloween, Right? Mixed media on watercolor paper.

I had almost finished the whole piece when I looked up at the clock. It was 10 P.M. and it dawned on me that in order to get this piece to Stampington by the deadline, it would have to be mailed the next day. Oops, the next day is Saturday and my post office would close at 1 P.M. I reasoned with myself but, as usual, myself is headstrong so I worked until one or two in morning to get it finished completely. I planned to get up the next morning and get it ready for the mail. Groan.

(Detail from Halloween, Right?)

I awoke bright and early Saturday morning and started pulling together mailing envelopes and packing stuff. Well, let's see what all do I have to submit with this? Oh, mercy -- a description and a few words about the process, label it with my name, email, etc. Include a SASE if I want notification that they got it. Enclose a check for the return postage. Hurry!!

I frantically prepared everything until . . .Oh no! How much will I need to enclose for return postage? Well, I got the package ready, grabbed up my postage stamps, my check book, did NOT comb my hair, put on makeup nor earrings -- I DID change my pj top for a real shirt and throw on my jeans and clogs. (Was I really going to get out at the Elkins Lake post office where all my uppity friends might show up with me looking like death warmed over?) YES! Had to!! No time!!

I cannot even believe I'm posting how I looked! Forgive me.
(The disgusted look was directed at myself for embarking on this fiasco.)

Rather than calm down like any sane person would and just skip submitting to Somerset this time, I leaped into my car and at 12:55 (think: five minutes until the post office window closes) I arrived at the window. Whew! I asked the clerk to give me the mailing cost so I could write a check to enclose for return postage. I told him I wasn't ready to post the package but I had all the stuff in the car. I also asked him if the window was closed by the time I returned and I drop the package in the bin, would it still go off today. He assured me it would.

 

Detail of Halloween, Right? (Compare with photo of me above. Hmmm, is this a self portrait?)

Ok, so I'm in my car in the parking lot rummaging around, writing the check, closing the package, putting the stamps on -- OH NO-O-O-O-O!! I don't have Stampington's address. Yikes! But do I give up? Nope. I started the car and raced back home to get the address. Raced back to the post office and dropped the package in the slot. I resisted the urge to knock on the window and ask again if it would go out with that day's mail. He had told me it would - so I'll just trust. It probably won't matter. This piece didn't turn out to be the kind of lovely art that Stampington goes for anyway.

Stampington has not returned my postcard so I have no idea if it actually got mailed on time and I'll never know if it made the deadline. But it's all out of my hands now. I may never look at the "Upcoming Themes" section of Somerset Studio again for fear that I might try to get something created and mailed in a day and a half and leave myself frazzled to the bone like I did this time.

Detail of Halloween, Right?
(These four images are just sneak peeks of the piece. When I can, I'll post the whole piece.)

Finally Found it!!

Hitched to the Universe, journal pages

About a year and a half ago I started noticing some yummy perforated paper that the talented artist and designer,  Kim Logan, was using in her fantastic collage pieces. It seemed familiar but then also, not familiar. To me, it looked like mini punchinella but I'd never seen such a thing - and it was heavy paper, not metal.

 
Altered Calendar Pages by Kim Logan 

Now, Kim is from England and I finally chalked it up to something vintage that those clever Brits had uncovered in the antique shops of England or something. I'd been meaning to email Kim about it and finally, about two weeks ago, I did.

Lo and behold, it wasn't a mysterious English thing at all. Kim said that the fabulous, multi-talented Jennifer Rowland had gotten it for her from some kind of DIY store in the US and I should ask her where she got it. Oh, my gosh, Jennifer is one of my TEXAS friends and it turns out she told me it was sheet rock tape from either Home Depot or Loew's home improvement stores.

WHAT? NOT IN ENGLAND BUT IN MY BACKYARD???

Off I went last week - on a wild goose chase to Home Depot and to all the hardware stores in Huntsville - to no avail. Finally, last Thursday I had a doctor's appointment in Conroe so I went by Loew's And YIPPEE!! I found it!!

It really doesn't take much to excite me, huh? Maybe I should get a life after all. Anyway, it's called Easy Joint Tape, Self Adhesive "Paper" Drywall Tape. •Made in the USA•(see label left) I used a little corner off of the life time supply I bought. You can see it in my journal spread above. I also used it as a stencil on parts of the pages.

Speaking of this journal . . . you can count on my being - not a day late and a dollar short - but about a month late and at least $100 dollars short!! I'm sure most of you check in on Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press  Street Team Crusades. Well, about a month ago, Michelle challenged everyone to put together a journal kit for journaling while you travel. Well, when I saw all the neat set ups that people had, I thought I'd like to do that. Of course, I didn't get it done in time for the challenge but at least I didn't blow it off like I usually do. I actually put one together the other day.

My journal and kit for traveling

The journal is a metal one that I started in a metal transfer class with Beckah Krahula about a hundred years ago. LOL. After I got home, I did a blanket stitch binding and decorated the cover with two metal transfers (which I had done in Beckah's class), and some metal findings. All the pieces on the cover are hand riveted in place. That little clown is an earring that had belonged to my grandmother. His legs swing freely from his body and he is so much fun. Obviously, the theme of this journal is the circus.

The suitcase I used is one of a couple I found a while back at a Hobby Lobby sale. (I really can't resist a great box or trunk, can you? Especially on sale!) Now for all of you that are like me and want to know everything that's in the little trunk, I'll list the items for you. It's a mini art studio!

• The small handmade journal, 4"X6"
• A set of Derwent Inktense pencils
• A tin of water media brushes
• A small plastic bowl
• A set of Karat Aquarell Watercolor Crayons
• A set of Caran d'Arche Neocolor II wax pastels
• A set of Expresso colored pens
• A Memories dye ink pad (black)
• A Kaleidacolor rainbow ink pad (Bouquet)
• A Ranger Distress Ink pad (frayed burlap)
• A Phrase roller stamp from the Paper Studios
• A small alphabet roller stamp from Studios Blackbird
• Fiscars soft touch scissors
• A small rubber brayer
• A plastic spray bottle for water
• A jumbo UHU glue stick
• A small tube of 527 adhesive
• A small drawer for two or three favorite rubber stamps (including my self designed hand stamp), tape, stapler, colored staples, cutting blade, ruler, pen, pencil, pencil sharpener, and eraser.

Whew! I'm a champion packer!! Hopefully after I get a little practice journaling, I will pare down to my favorite tools and supplies and slim this stash a bit. (More is better until you master your craft, right?)

This is the End

COLOUR PLAY ROUND ROBIN CLOSES


(Click on either side of the image to have a closer look)

Our last assignment for the Arte-Ed-Anima Colour Play RR was to do a wax rubbing and use the colors blue, black, and silver. I did this in my talented friend, Lynne Porter's, Colour Play journal. Her theme was alchemy. Here is the cover she created for her journal:

 
Alchemy, Colour Play Journal by Lynne Porter

Lynne is a talented artist from Yorkshire, England and her journal cover was outstanding. The cover itself was about as thick as a standard stretched canvas and was attached to the rest of the journal with small brass hinges. She cut a hole in the middle of the cover so that a thick block of vials from the Sign In page  could poke through the hole and be part of the cover. Very clever and quite well done!

This was a hard assignment for me because I had to do research on wax rubbings and because this assigned color combination is so NOT my palette! And add to that -- all these scans are terrible. A digital image just won't capture the shiny silver nor the wonderful textures. Even I have to admit that this spread turned out alright in real life . . . just not my colors. . . and not in the scans. Be sure to click on the images for a better look, they look a little more true in a larger scan.

The two large blue images are my wax rubbings. They are both headstone rubbings which I did at Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville. It turns out that wax rubbings are just putting your paper over something with a rough, distinctly textured image and rubbing across it with a wax cake. Actually, I used a jumbo Crayola crayon on non-fusible interfacing. I cut out the rubbed images, mounted, and embellished the spread.

(Please click on the image to get a little better look)

The left side is mounted on my brayered paper which is highly textured and infused with tiny holeless beads, glitter, minute mica pieces, etc. On the tree are four alchemical symbols. To the left of the tree, I attached an "evil eye" which swings from side to side on a silver bar. The "evil eye" is said to ward off evil spirits. Also on the left, bottom is a silver, Celtic-style heart embellishment. Both of these 3D embellishments are difficult to see in a scan.

The wax rubbed piece on the right side of the spread is a flower done in blue wax crayon on non-fusible interfacing (Notice that you can slightly see through this interfacing.) The image is cut out and mounted on a background of vintage map and clip art picture of an old alchemy lab. The whole thing is mounted on black embossed paper. You can't see the embossed squares in this scan. However, if you click on the next scan (below) you can see a little of the embossing in the black background. Although the outline around the picture of the lab looks black in the scan, it is actually silver mirror card stock. I used silver wax to add a little more rubbing through punchinella randomly on the piece.

   
(Please Click on the image to get a better look)    

Between the two pages of the spread, I wired in a small booklet. The covers of the booklet are decorated with more of the brayered paper that I used on the left side of the spread. The booklet is a traditional stab binding through eyelets in a vintage metal ruler. The medallion on the cover is a white ink print on black cover stock of a hand image I designed and had made into a rubber stamp. That image on black paper is mounted on silver mirror cover-stock and then attached to the cover.

Inside the booklet are images from two cards of Symbolon, The Deck of Rememberance by Orban, Zinnel, and Weller.

(Please Click on the image to get a better look)

At the bottom of the image on the right side, I attached a tiny, clear vinyl envelope into which I put a "magic" coin to bring Lynne good luck.

The ending of this round robin is bittersweet. I'll miss those crazy assignments for the Arte-Ed-Anima Colour Play book but I don't doubt for a minute that we'll be onto another idea soon. We've submitted designs already for the 2009 Wall Calendar designed by Arte-Ed-Anima's own Kim Logan, skilled artist and photographer.  And this just might not be the last of the Colour Play books that you will see. There is a little something more in the works that I can't say anything more about -- you all know how that goes... sometimes you have to wait until an offer comes to fruition before you can post about it, right? Right! Just stay tuned.

There will be more later from Arte-Ed-Anima no matter what. Ya can't keep a group of crazy artists down! (Especially when they are led by that incorrigible and multi-talented Brit, Sue Berry. Watch for her name in lights - it's bound to happen! LOL.)

Spring - From the Wingkeeper

Mail art by Sharon Tomlinson (Click on image for closer look.)

Ya gotta love spring! Even my mail perked up in bright spring colors and flowers. I got this surprise from my talented friend, Sharon Tomlinson of All Norah's Art. According to her blog, Sharon has declared March "Mail Art Month." Lucky me -- I got a sample of her fantastic mail art. See the little lavender spot just below the address label? That is actually a little section of the see-through window of a business envelope and a purple flower is showing through the window. Isn't that a clever idea? The purple flower is on a gorgeous napkin that Sharon tucked inside. Sharon is the napkin queen. Her use of napkins in her art is exemplary and exciting. I always get the best napkins from her stash.

And that's not all. She slipped a few other things in for me as well. Check out the scan below and you'll see lots of neat goodies, a little note, and of course a couple of wonderful feathers. After all, Sharon is the Wingkeeper!

You must visit Sharon's blog and read her post about her wingkeeper episode with a titmouse. It is the most thrilling story if you are an outdoorsy type or a bird watcher or . . . even a curious artist. You also might want to scroll on down her blog to see some amazing pictures of blue bird nests, eggs, and babies!

Here is the picture of all the grand things that were nestled inside my RAK  from Sharon:

Don't miss the great idea of cutting decorative corners on those darling feather tags! Thanks so much, Sharon, for this bundle of Spring!. It makes me want to send something off to someone right away. That's the neat thing about RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness), They're contagious! (Hey, my address is on that envelope above. Anyone else feel infected by the Spring RAK bug?

He is RISEN!

 

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Matthew 28:6 (NIV)

CHRIST AROSE

Low in the grave He lay
Jesus my Savior!
Waiting the coming day-
Jesus my Lord.                                                

                                                                    Up from the grave He arose,
                                                                   With a mighty triumph o'er His foes;
                                                                    He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
                                                                    And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
                                                                    He arose! He arose!
                                                                    Hallelujah! Christ arose!

                                                                    Vainly they watch His bed-
                                                                    Jesus my Savior!
                                                                    Vainly they seal the dead-
                                                                    Jesus my Lord!

                                                                    Up from the grave He arose,
                                                                    With a mighty triumph o'er His foes;
                                                                    He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
                                                                    And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
                                                                    He arose! He arose!
                                                                    Hallelujah! Christ arose!

                                                                    Death cannot keep his prey-
                                                                    Jesus my Savior!
                                                                    He tore the bars away-
                                                                    Jesus my Lord!

                                                                    Up from the grave He arose,
                                                                    With a mighty triumph o'er His foes;
                                                                    He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
                                                                    And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
                                                                    He arose! He arose!
                                                                    Hallelujah! Christ arose!

HAPPY EASTER!

Friday of Mourning (Good Friday)

Closing in on the end of the Round Robin

Damaged in Handling                                      R#6                  

I'm at the closing weeks of this art journal round robin called "Colour Play."  This is the spread I did for Liz Smith in her art journal. The assignment  this time is to use transparencies and the colors white, cream, tan, black & accent colour. (Note the British spelling! Isn't that quaint? When in . . .{an RR in}. . . Britian, do as the Brits do!) Every step of this round robin required the use of a different technique and prescribed colours.

The photos in the vintage photo album pages are actually transparencies made from vintage photos. The album page on the right is turned backwards so the funky ripped side revealing the yukky cardboard would show. Kewl! 

And what is that weird thingy in place of the brass shell on the far right? Well, I wanted it to look like the fourth shell used for photo holders was torn off and the brads from the back are falling down. I know -- weird. But all four shells on there - all neat and proper  - looked boring. So sue me.

The background is real - not copied - vintage papers collaged on and then like an idiot, I covered them almost entirely with diluted white acrylic, tissue paper, other collage items, and rubber stampings. Oh well, I know of their authenticity and it makes me love this spread for Liz.

A while back, Liz created a spread in my journal using the required molding paste and the colors blue, green and gold.

Journal Spread by Liz Smith

This round Robin designed as a one year project for a terrific group of laid-back, talented, artistic-type friends has gone on now for over two years! And we are all still great friends and much better artists, too, if I do say so myself. A person changes over the course of two years! I'll have one more spread to share with you and then this project comes to a close and no telling what we'll dream up to do next - besides, of course, publishing the 2009 Arte-Ed-Anima wall calendar. YES. I love these gals and their art, too. Here's to Art-Ed-Anima! Hot-Diggity-Dog!! (which is what you get when you cross a hot pepper, a shovel, and a Chihuahua- my grandchildren are visiting -- can you tell?)

Hey, Remember that RR I'm in?

The Arte-Ed-Anima RR, Colour Play, has been going on now for two years! We are all making a push to get it finished and the books back to their owners. This is the latest entry I've done:

For this spread, my assignment was to use Claudine Hellmuth's peeling paper technique (as described in her book, Collage Discovery Workshop) and the colors yellow, ochre, gold, and red brown. If you look very closely, you might see the peeling paper background.

This spread is in Evie Zaccardelli's book. Evie is a talented mixed media artist from Scotland who sells her paintings and fabric pieces in her etsy shop . This is a spread Evie did for my book:

Altered Journal spread by Evie Zaccardelli

Her assignment was to use the colors hot pink and lime green to make a Nick Bantock style collage. Didn't she do it with imagination? We all felt that hot pink and lime green was hard to do in the Bantock style. But Evie pulled it off well. My Lime green and hot pink spread using the Bantock style was in Sue Berry's book:

 

Evie also did a peeling paper technique using the yellow, gold, ochre, and red brown colors. Hers was done in Sue Leslie's book:

(Collage by Evie Zaccardelli)

All of these artists are in the Art-Ed-Anima group with me and do fantastic art work. Both Sues live in England. Yes, that is the very same group who did the 2008 calendar. Check it out.

Miss Witherspoon Rides Again!

Imagine my surprise . . .

As I was watching my new IndieArts DVD issue 5, I suddenly saw my paperdoll article from Art Doll Quarterly (ADQ)! Remember the story of how Miss Witherspoon - AKA Remington Express, my altered booklet paperdoll, spent  FIVE YEARS at Stampington -- lost in the halls of magazine editors -- and then was published in ADQ?

Have you seen Indie Arts, the DVD Magazine? I've only seen two issues so far and I've really enjoyed both.

(Click on image to read contents.)

Issue 5 includes an on-location visit to Stampington with visits to all the departments and editors' offices. At the time, Michelle Flores was editor of Belle Armoire, Belle Armoire Jewelry, and Art Doll Quarterly. When she was featured on the DVD, as she discussed each magazine, there were pictures flashed on the screen of pieces shown in the respective magazines. When she started talking about Art Doll Quarterly, there on the screen was the page about my paperdoll.

WOW! Was I ever surprised! And thrilled, too, of course.

(Click on image to read article.)

I recommend IndieArts the DVD magazine. It has very interesting and informative articles and interviews, as well as, gallery views of various artists' work.The other issue I have is issue 6 winter 2008:

(Click on image to read contents.)

The next issue, Issue 7 Spring 2008, is due out April 1. Each issue has a preview guide which includes a detailed viewing guide complete with web sites for the artists involved. I'm not affiliated with Indie Arts -- just a satisfied customer - as they say. I recommend that you have a look at the issues available and check out the viewing guides. Each issue is a fun couple of hours of watching current trends in this world of independent art. The DVDs have menu selections so that you can watch one or more articles at a time as you please - in whatever order you want to see them. Check it out.

Why Didn't Someone Tell Me?

Hey, I've gone now for four years -- count 'em -- FOUR YEARS thinking I had every book that Nick Bantock ever had published. He is one of my all-time favorite artist/authors. His art is genius. Well, it was my bad. For some reason I thought that his book, published in 2004, was the same as another book published in 2004 by another one of my favorite artists, Henrik Drescher. Drescher's book is Postal Seance (left) while Bantock's book is Urgent 2nd Class (right).

   

Geeze, when I get something in my head there's no shaking it! I'm sure that when I saw the title, Urgent 2nd Class, I just thought of Drescher's book (also a mail title) and figured I already had it in my collection. Duh!

Well, while I was watching issue six of the digital magazine, Indie Arts (more on this in another post later), I saw the cover of Urgent 2nd Class by Nick Bantock and realized I didn't have it -- had never seen it before! Of course I ordered it right away. It is exactly the very book I had hoped Nick Bantock would write - a how to of his art style. Wow, I love it. There are lots of pictures in it, too. I can't believe I could have had it four years ago!

All of this put me in a Nick Bantock mood so I tried a little of his style on my next mail art envelope:

(Click image for a better, closer look.)

This is actually a digital rendition of the envelope I sent to my talented artist friend, Deryn Mentock. I scanned it before I took it to the post office. At that point it was just the background and the image of the girls. Then after I added Deryn's address and some more postal cancel stampings, I forgot to scan it again. So when I got home, I rubber stamped the postal cancels on plain paper and digitally added her address and the stampings on the envelope I had scanned.

The best part of the story is the part about the post office. I actually took a distress ink pad, paper towel, and some postal cancel stickers to the post office desk with me. (Gutsy, huh?) It's the first time I ever tried this. I wanted to have the post office postage meter strip put on it (rather than a postage stamp) because I didn't want a postage stamp or stamps to detract from the composition with it's postage stamp at the bottom. So I went up confidently to the desk and told the clerk that I'd like her to print out the postage strip and let me stick it on the envelope. I also told her that I wanted to put a little ink on the strip so it wouldn't be so white. (I'm telling you, I was pushing it.)

Lucky me, the postal clerk really liked the envelope and handed me the postage strip because she said, "I don't want to mess it up." She allowed me to put the strip exactly where I wanted it and then step aside to apply the destress ink to it. YES! While I was at it, I added the sticker at the bottom for balance and distressed it, too. When I handed it back to the clerk, she said softly, "Wow, that's really cool."

Obviously, I couldn't take it back home and scan it. So, I mailed it. When I got home I pulled up the scan and digitally added a different distressed postage strip (of course, it cost me a little more than $.99 to mail it), the address, the other rubber stamped cancels over the address, and the little distressed sticker at the bottom. Don't you think I'm getting clever with my digital skills? This envelope looks very close to the actual one I mailed to Deryn, right Deryn? (Maybe she will send me a scan of it as it arrived to her and we can compare it.)

The back of her envelope is not really Bantock style - but similar. I thought you might like to see it anyway:

The next envelope I did was another attempt at the Bantock style:

This scan is not very good because the envelope has embossed gold and copper ink and some glitter glue embellishments which, unfortunately, don't scan well. This envelope is not finished because it is just an extra one without an address. (I had made it for someone in Poland who wanted to buy a copy of Altered Books 102, but decided that the international mail cost was prohibitive.) So there is space left on this envelope for an address and  postage.

The back of this one is sort of a Bantock style. I had printed this image accidentally on paper that already had black bars on it (some kind of printer test sheet or something) that somehow got into my stack of printer paper. I decided to use it anyway on the back of this envelope:

This, too, is unfinished as I'm sure I'll want to add some small supplementary images and probably some more postal stamps, etc. Meanwhile, I'm still in my Bantock style streak. So maybe there will be more to share later.

Alrighty Then - Some Mail Art

(Click image for a closer look.)

Hmm-m-m-m, maybe I'm just easing back into doing some art by sending off mail art?? Well, that will work. I had some things to send to art  buddies, winners of prizes, and folks who wanted books and calendars, etc. Whew! I think I've caught up now with the mail.

Do you recognize the image on the envelope above ? I cropped my October page for the Arte Ed Anima 2008 Calendar. Then I opened it in Photoshop to take the color out and modified it to look like a large rubber stamp image. I brayered ink onto the manilla envelope for a background and then did a water/inkjet transfer of the image onto the envelope. Then I finished the whole thing with some collage pieces, markers, pen, pencil, and postage stamps. If I remember correctly, the post office clerk put two big red hand cancels on the stamps. If I get a scan from Sandi, I'll post it so you can see how it looked when she got it. Meanwhile, here is the back of the envelope:

(Click image for a closer look.)

You know what it is like to be working on a piece of art and have it go bad? So you do more to it and sometimes that fixes it. But for me with the envelope below, no matter what I did, it made it worse. I think the way it ended up is way too busy and not well composed. I like the colors ok but I think the background called for a much simpler design. Since I didn't have the time to start over, I just went with it. Hope the recipient wasn't too put off by it. It's the thought that counts, right?

The one below was done at about the same time. It, too, is too busy but the composition had potential. I just should have stopped adding to it long before I did. LOL.

Well, after those fiascoes, I took a break and when I got back to mail art to finish out the mailings, I was in a totally different mood. I got off on a Nick Bantock jag. I wanted to do some of those African women collages. I will post the results tomorrow. They turned out much better. Whew! sometimes I worry that I've lost it and will never be able to get it together again. Ever feel that way?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

A Little Valentine - back of a mail art envelope (collage, ink, and markers)

By the way, today is the day for the drawing over on my ArtPub blog. I'll be drawing for the winner soon. Have you entered? You have until I get enough breakfast and email done to get your art scan emailed to me so I can put your name in the pot, too. The prize is one of our Arte-Ed-Anima 2008 calendars. Hurry. Check out the info here. Then hop over to the Art Pub Studios to my blog to check out the winner later today.

¡¡¡¡¡Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

I Am Who God Says I AM!

Sometimes, through illness come revelations. I don't know if that is the case here or not but at long last I have a new Page about Believing God! Since I've been missing in action for weeks now, I thought it would be ok to start back with a post about the Bible study I've been summarizing in my side bar pages. It's titled, I Am Who God Says I Am and it is the fourth lesson in the series.

This lesson is hard. Who does God say that I am? Do I believe Him? Does my life indicate that I believe Him? What took me so long to get this summary done? Check out the story on page 4 in the list of pages in the right sidebar of this blog. Click on the title, "I Am Who God Says I Am." And think about this --

ARE YOU WHO GOD SAYS YOU ARE?

P.S. I have lots of art to share now that I'm feeling better and trying to catch up on all fronts. I thought, though, maybe a life lesson would be appropiate first... so check out the new page on believing God.