Back to it then...

So I have literally had this one piece sitting on my monitor heater for months and last night, I stopped worrying about bills, fleas on the new cat, Christmas presents, and did a little work. (Yes, yes I should emphasize the little here....)

Anyways.

I got the final ribbon touches on my lingering piece and started the background for the next one. It's nice to feel like I got something done! The new kitty (Shiro or her evilness) was as intensely curious about what I was doing on her chaise lounge...

As I was playing with both charcoal and black oil pastels and Shiro is pure white (and deaf, poor baby), they did not go well:

Who doesn't love the Muppets?

Okay, so friends have been tweeting about the Green Album that came out this week with a bunch of people covering music from the Muppet Show (oh, my love hate relationship with the Rainbow Connection. Northern Stars rule.)

Anyways, I was killing some time on NPR when I got to experience the following:

My favorite part, Statler and Waldorf because everyone should watch cat videos...

The Man in the Blue Pajamas

I had to share this:

Again, Big Brother's travels through Southeast Asia continue and while I totally dig the food (see a previous thought I couldn't get out of my head or this posting on the Chiang Mai market) but I think (unless they end up as a resort chilling on the sofa-like thing in the little  gazebo by the infinity pool) the place they visited recently will be my favorite....

Only I don't think the blue outfit they make you wear at the elephant home suits my brother.

You were here...

As part of my job I do about four bookmarks a month, sometimes more for special events (or just because a certain event such as one on stories as a tool of community preservation should NOT be placed on the other side of the bookmark I call "Hungry Kitten").

Occasionally, I actually proud of the work. (A lot of them are just cropped pictures that are PRET-TY.) And yes, I use clip art . The really fun ones are my black and whites (BW's): while we have white cover stock that handles color photo quality pieces well, my boss invested in these electric (bright, bright, bright!) colors of card stock which are just plain old fun. I suppose I can be less simplistic and do something with color ink on them but with my laziness guiding me, I just design everything around black print. (Less thinking is always good for me.)

The other thing is, I make sure at least half of what I do isn't overly feminine, hence the Lizards:

(I don't think I will do anything like this again....it took hours and I still see areas that don't look right because I can't crop at an angle....)

Anyways, that is all SOP for me and lately between making promo stuff for summer events, fall events and my computer classes I have been a little burned out. Which is probably why this month's BW's are a little off kilter: each one is kind of a mini-story...

Fish Friends

Hungry Kitten

 As head tilting as they may be, I absolutely adore them...I haven't liked anything so much since the lizards. It's kind of annoying really...I like them so much I show my co-workers and say "Isn't it cool? Aren't I fabulous?"

Total geek-out.

Patchwork

Months back my mother came to visit (I blamed her for not posting during that period, which obviously was not so...as my laziness is a documented fact at this point). She left me with towels to wash and fabric scraps. I have a sewing machine (although I managed to bust it in one use...don't worry I won't build the suspense, mother fixed it on the next visit) and I've played around (in my head) with sewing scraps together and creating a patchwork piece for mailing...

And then I thought: Sewing takes too long. (Told you, my laziness is completely documented.)

So I turned to the ever powerful and awesome (as in awe inspiring -- not an '80's Dude. Awesome. Which really is the same kind of meaning but apparently one of my mental differentiations. Well hello stream of conscious, where have you been?) turbo tacky glue!

That's how I ended up with Sophie's Picnic:

With the exception of the glittery (shiny) flowers and frogs scrap book stickers, it's all fabric: ribbon, cloth and more ribbon. It's like a continuation of cutting out elements on ribbons to build something as I did with the Modern Pastoral. It remained unifinished because I couldn't stop thinking that something was missing-- hence the frogs and flowers.

Which kind of took a sweet but interesting little collage all the way to a tooth ache of cuteness and light.

So I sent it to my neice. She's adorable and almost four, and will hopefully like the visual candy (well, visual candy for a four year old).

Just a thought...

I might just kill my brother....

It is completely brought on by jealousy. He's is on, what looks like, this incredible tour around Southeast Asia and his girl is posting these amazing pics of the food and the sites.

Admittedly, we (Brother and I) could travel to the same place (most likely on separate trips) and our choice of  accommodations, sites and food would be completely different (okay, not the food --- just check out the pretty pics of his pork and duck noodle soup, Red Robin: YUMMMM). 

Anyways, I was envious when I heard about the trip but Jen's pic are winding up the green eyed monster....but I still blame him.

(I also wish them an awesome trip and we'll miss you in Maine. PS. MORE FOOD PICS!)

Reciprocal!

So I got my first piece of reciprocal mail....in return for Conspiracy Theory. I also added a new page (Message Received) to have a gallery of reciprocal mail (probably not a correct term but it is all mine) and hopefully there will be more in the future...

Granted I haven't sent a single postcard to other "mail artists" but it's still really cool to get fun (and kind of creepy) postcards.

I present from the little one, a creepy collage face from Canisius College:

Is it the fact that the ear is so removed from the rest of the head?

Return of the Googly Eyes!

Apparently, googly eyes are considered non machine processable by the US Post Office when glued to a postcard. If this didn't incur an extra charge I'd probably be less huffy.

I believe I mentioned before an ideal I had about a winking goat. My cartoon drawing skills were not up to this idea and it evolved into a flock o' sheep, no winking.

Basically I had this pic from a magazine with a herd of sheep: I cut it to fit my postcard and proceeded to glue googly eyes on any sheep where eyes were visible (for the most part, any one eye visible sheep just looked weird so I had to still another eye next to it....not that a flock of sheep with googly eyes isn't weird in the first place).

(It looks less swishy in real life)

I call it Conspiracy Theory: They are always watching. I think I link this to paranoia because of a book series, (the only one that is extremely lengthy, that is more than three title in the series) that I read: J.D Robb (Nora Roberts) In Death. Any time the lead character finds herself in the countryside, she freaks on the ideal that there are more farm animal then people and that these animals are likely to be planning to overthrow the humans (as they out number their overlords).

So I thought I would make the imminent animal coup very obvious.

Swirls

"Swirls" is one of my favorite clip art look up words. It always has interesting little pieces that I can do quite a lot with...(I really need to scan some of my destination bookmarks made for our summer reading program Novel Destinations. Add it to the list, Jeeves. Sigh, I would love a butler...especially one that washes windows and dusts.)

Swirls are also a favorite doodle and the way I draw them, they are really a self propagating species of vine...My love of swirls combined with a need to practice (and use, since I spent money on them) with the pastels started what became "Innocent Dreaming".

In fact, I had done this multicolor, softly blurred card then slapped some fixative on it and it proceeded to sit around staring at me longingly while I put together Modern Pastoral, Winter Forest, and Champagne. Occasionally I would look at it and think, well what am I going to do now? Eventually after numerous sorting through my clipping file to work on these other projects, more elements (or cut out images and a piece of swirly purple ribbon) were set aside with my swirly background.

And, eventually, I got this:

Ribbon, magazine cut outs, pastels, fixative and a thin (okay, thinner layer than I usually do...although anyone can see it is still overdone so much so that it hasn't dried completely clear-- oops (see it without the gloss on the Index Card Creation page) layer of gel medium make up this particular piece.

The lesson learned, or more precisely, the lesson underlined three times and highlight in bright yellow, is some creations take time....lots and lots of time, coming together piece by piece and walking away is just as important as sitting down and doing some work.

With my already admitted lack of patience -- It is unfortunate but true, that the length of time afford to this project to develop actually comes from my bone-deep laziness....Oops?

Cool

So randomly came across this photographer (okay so that damn msn page had it as a story) and I just love the stuff she's doing....bonus points as she is Japanese like my other new obsession, Maru:

yowayowa camerawoman diary

Bubbles

Materials for my creations tend to come from a few sources: my mom's quilting scrap pile, random ribbon, magazines, catalogs, rejects of craft projects. Champagne is one such creation.

I could once again harp on the difference between what I image creating and what the end product is but demonstrating is so much more fun....

I had a co-worker at the library punching holes in the middle of cut out flowers and I asked from the remainders...numerous tiny circles. The gel medium was still very new when I requested these scraps and I thought it would allow me to create a piece where it looked like the dots were suspended in the clear gel.

The result is Champagne:

The scan is really really bad. In reality, it's better. I swear. So I suppose I should still give a material run down: pink, white and yellow punched holes, pink and yellow marker with lots and lots of gel medium. It's really cool looking if you hold it to the light (which you can't....darn computers).

I mentally tied the tiny circles to tiny bubbles to champagne to my favorite Dorothy Parker lines from the poem Inventory:

Three be the things I shall never attain:

Envy, content and sufficient champagne.

(From there, I naturally had to send it to a friend who has joined me in killing tat least of two bottles of the stuff.)

Trees, Take 1

...And Action!

So as previously mentioned I have this obsession with trees, in particular the leafless kind and the way they look against the sky (I once had an art obsession that dealt with a disembodied hand and rail road tracks).  I have finally mailed off my first completed piece based on my little obsession.

I know it's going to a good home....(oh so corny and true).

Anyways.

For the first attempt at my leafless trees I decided to go free form. This piece establishes a baseline for later attempts, a way to measure my success in achieving my goal of the perfect leafless tree sky. I am hoping that each attempt will reflect a new medium or approach, resulting in steady improvement. (Of course this is all subjective, thus my opinion is the only one the will matter in my search for perfection)

(This is a highly amusing statement: I don't believe in perfection. I believe in timing, and things that work together and the line from the Rolling Stones song. "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need.)

It was really kind of fun to create this piece, I got to spend time smudging pastels to create the blue sky. (I also believe more adults should finger paint.) It's a pretty simple drawing: create blue sky, draw black twisting lines that interconnect. I found myself trying to think about the way in which wind and time has shaped the tree branches. Imagining the branches trying to grow in straight line but wind and storm over time twisting and pulling it in a different direction as it grows.

There was, of course, a gluing accident. Please note the small white gap on the lower right hand side. Sometimes you come across the perfect metaphor for your life: slow down, don't rush, things take time so try to enjoy it. Otherwise you end up with splotches that don't fit with the rest of your picture.

Mistakes just have to get made sometimes, no?

Books and other distractions

I keep repeating some bad behavior (okay I consider it bad mostly because I do this on a monthly basis, fix it then tell myself not to do it again. So naturally I do it again).

Over the course of a couple days, whatever I'm working on in the library draws my attention to a number of books. I check them out planning to read them and at the end of maybe three days, I have a stack of at least six books on my kitchen table waiting to be read.

And they sit there, sit there, sit there...still there about a month to six weeks later.

I've been trying break the cycle, so instead of creating little pieces of mediocre art to mail out, I've been reading....and reading and reading....

So, two cheers for me, I cleared my latest pile. (Of course some I simply returned, others I read the first paragraph and said no way....) but the important thing here is for once I made it throught the stack and half of it got read. (Instead of sitting around even longer and then getting returned without reading).

So here's a list of what was in the pile (I won't tell you what got read or re-read or returned without being opened or skipped due to disgust to the first paragraphs -- that might be helpful but why should I be helpful here?):

• The Whisperers, John Connolly
• Raziel (The Fallen), Kristina Douglas
• Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowels
• The Physic Book of Deliverance Dane, Katherine Howe
• The Darkest Secret, Gena Showalter
• Quicksilver, Amanda Quick
• Blood Oath, Christopher Farnsworth
• Predatory Game, Christine Feehan

Not included are the two books I checked out but never made it off my desk at work....
(St. Lucy's Home for Girls raised by Wolves or the Peanut Butter Murders)

Fin

So another piece has found its way to an owner. This was one of those times that I had a thought and started collecting different materials to be considered, then as I was trying to fit things together just to eliminate some of my selections it was suddenly an hour later and I had done the initial gluing. 

Normally I start with an image based idea (tigers and circles, oh my) then a person pops into my mind and it builds upon both the original idea and the individual. This time it started with a person followed by a piece of ribbon...

The rough-ish composite with ribbon (the black and white, pastoral scenes (which is awfully full of beggars and crosses)), random magazine clippings and marker was confined under a  heavy coating of gel medium. (The sealing coat felt so thick I glued two more index cards onto this baby to reinforce it --- hence, this is also the piece that caused the post office lady to raise an eyebrow.)

I think I went a little wild with the marker and I can't remember my reasoning. I remember picking out the section of green and purple based on the feathery appearance of the plants then I picked out the pseudo-sun images thinking of faces the person (yes yes, one sun is grumpily frowning --- so does she, upon occasion, when people (that general mass of public person-hood who you don't really know but are still annoying), irritate her.). I do know why I kept going with the markers: trying to fix it after the first messy marker marks I had added. 


(Say messy marker marks five times fast....now look at your self in a mirror and repeat after me: "I am normal." If you can succeed in doing this last thing, I probably don't know you.)

At the center of this creation was the ribbon. I want to say it's French Provinical-ist but I'm not sure that's the right term (sounds cool)  but it is an older design with a European feel to it. I began to pull from my random clipping file (a large manila envelope in which I have stuffed willy-nilly stuff I've clipped out) that would let me create a  modern countryside setting for the ribbon. 


My favorite touch to this is the fact that I didn't use a strip of ribbon but cut it up and dispersed its elements. I rarely stray too much from my comfort zone or routine and each time I've reached for ribbon in the past, (kind of the future for you, dear reader, as some pieces I am referring to have yet to be posted) I end up using a strip of the stuff. Now I just want to see what I can do if I cut the ribbons down to their smallest design.

Well, that's my Modern Pastoral (or as I sometimes think of it, Hill's Modern Pastoral). Anyways, I have repeatedly delayed posting this because I have nothing conclusive to say, nothing profound or meaningful, no moral to wrap up this tidbit. 

(I really wish I had Wakko, Yakko and Dot's Wheel of Morality in order to conclude this post. Something totally randoms that makes no sense whatsoever fits my mood.)

Crude?

Needless to say, (which is a very silly phrase because if it was true I wouldn't waste my time saying it.) I managed to mail off something this Thursday. (Probably not a needless to say thing really as there was just as good chance that I wouldn't because deep inside me, okay not deep, is a lazy person. For instance, it took two weeks to get up the energy to put my recycling in the car trunk and then another two weeks for me to make it to the recycling center.) So there will be another post coming with a new piece to display. Eventually (you know when I get up the energy from my lazy self to do it.)

Until then you are stuck with the following thoughts.

When I stopped by the post office, the lady behind the desk once again examined the piece, giving off the vibe of " I don't know if this will make it". As she held it, she ran a finger over the edge where the layers of index cards used to create the piece were visible. I just widened my eyes and used innocent face as if I couldn't understand the concerns she was trying, non-verbally no less, to express.

(I, of course, have always assumed I do a good innocent, or as others may call it, playing dumb face. Some would say it comes naturally. I don't talk to those people too often.)

I ended up looking over what I have lying around at home. It's all pretty crude work and I thought about what I would have to do to make it better, refine it a little, produce work that had if not more class, a more finished air.

That lasted about a second before I mentally shrugged it away...no sense in trying to be something I'm not.

Work in Progress

I am currently working my way through the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly and the art side of my life is slowing down, but just a bit. I have three pieces hanging out in the house, under books or drying in the sun or stalled due to mediocrity (as defined by me...after all who's opinion matters more).

Also due to my work schedule I'm locked in to sending some stuff out on Thursday, my day off. Of course I don't know which ones to send, who to send them to or if I can really consider them finished...

But here's my mental list of what is sitting around the house...

1. Keyhole collage
2. Modern Pastoral
3. Trees, attempt number 1
4. Champagne & Dorothy Parker

(I know not the most descriptive of lists, although the trees one is pretty easy to connect some dots on...)

Only one has a definite person to which it will be sent....so the conclusion here is I need to get in gear and do some things.

I don't know if this is a thing or a feeling or a consequence (which are all things of a sort huh? I speak English I swear) but sometimes when I pick up a piece and do a touch here or there on it or sort through the scraps I've already clipped out of a magazine I can end up creating something totally new. No planning, no thinking that "I'm going to create a new piece..." Just a hmmmmm and oh, and how 'bout that and suddenly I realized I've been working for a long time (ignoring the rerun of NCIS playing in the background) and I have a whole new project started...It's one of those good feelings.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So previously I mentioned that I had this idea for a circle shaped piece and since it's been received it is now eligible for posting....

Below is Spirit Animal. It's (another) one of the pieces that didn't turn out exactly as I imagined it. I thought of having the tiger background with all these orchid and exotic flower cut outs dotting it. However, my lack of patience did me in, (I could only cut out so many flowers before the peaceful delicate blooms made me very very angry with an exacto knife in my hand) and then what I did have didn't look right (too many flowers (heh) and very gaudy).

So without the number of blooms I'd imagined and unhappy with its appearance....I thought about the person I was planning to send it to and got this:

A tiger with a flower barrette. (Of note: I used another piece of card paper to back this when scanning....)

This is made from coral colored card stock, a tiger graphic from a newspaper-like thingy and magazine flowers. I started with a plain old glue stick and end up warping it when I applied the gel medium, which I swiftly combated by smoothing it back out and then layering on gel medium (thicker than any makeup used on Broadway...including Cats. In fact, if you see the white-ish looking sections above is where it wasn't completely dry when I scanned it).

In a way it really is more than simply a tiger with a hair trinket especially when I think of its title, Spirit Animal, together with the image of this fierce tiger with the flower in its hair. I had one of the moments where I was layering on the gel medium, thinking of the receiver and it was just seemed so perfect.

This was a fierce person who can be extremely restive or boldly defending and has a feminine style which is a part of her that isn't as blatant as the rest of her tiger-ish personality but is there in more subtle smaller things. (Note: I don't mean style simply in the clothing sense or physical appearance. I would explain it more but I can't...it's that French saying, a certain je ne sais quoi. (Do I automatically sounds smarter by using a French phrase? My guess is no because with my luck I used it incorrectly...))

Time to throw a little deep, or not so deep ("after all you expect the puddle to deepen, into...I don't know,  a deeper puddle..." some book I read some time), thought into this:

I think the hardest thing to reconcile is the difference between how you see your self and the way other people perceive you. Often times you can miss all the good when you look in the mirror (which is probably okay sometimes because if you thought you were the most fabulous creature every time you looked in the mirror, you'd be unbearable to be around).

Anyways. I guess it comes down to Spirit Animal being a positive representation of a friend.... I like it and it turned out better than I had imagined.

Second Chances

I don't know if the difference will be apparent here but I used the IF piece to play with the gel medium I bought to seal some of my collage work...

Of note: I should have paid more attention to the comments on warping  caused by the mix of medium and water. It produced a thin, shiny coat but was not exactly what I wanted. So after that first coat dried and then spent some time under my over-sized art books, I did another thicker coating of the medium with no additive. Resulting in the above image...

Note the damage because I have no patience and the collage stuck to every damn thing....

I've gotten a bit better but only a bit, as you will see when I post the piece that started my investigation into sealing and glossiness.

Evil Laughter Everywhere

I've official finished two more pieces which will be winging their way toward their final location. Of course since these people may actually read this blog, there is a delay in full feature posts on these pieces at this point.

(This is unlike Walk? which was sent to someone who hadn't read the blog, and in fact still has not read the blog even though they did get the piece. It hurts a little inside. Sniff.)


More to the point, while one piece has been posted but the recipient doesn't know they are getting anything and the piece got a nice glossy finish (as well as picking up some damage from my inept gluing). As for the other, the recipient doesn't know what they are getting....hence my evil laughter. (Okay so it's totally in my head but still, it follows me everywhere and when I think about what I'm mailing it increases in volume.)

I beginning to wonder if I get more joy from sending things out to random unknowing targets then actually being a real mailartists and participating in calls...

(Also, I might, just might have told my friend with the night sky piece that it wasn't important they read the blog....but there's no proof I said this as I deleted that text message and I doubt they saved it. Time for more evil laughter.)

Muwhahahahahahaha.....

Aptly Named

So.

In order to expand my knowledge about the whole mailart movement (movement sounds so formal and academic and goes so perfectly with the rest of this whine-fest) I have picked up reading a few random blogs.

(Okay, not so random...google reader really picked them out and they were near the top of the list with a number of followers. Did I ever explain how impulsive I can be?)

Here's the thing:
The pieces they have on the sites are much more professionally arty and infinitely cooler than mine. (Also fewer people obsessed by shiny objects.)  So colored me totally intimidated. I have been urged to mail something out and farther afield than those I know....

But I've always been a chicken at heart.

Inch by inch I'll get to the point where I can knowingly (not accidentally like I did with that first piece) send it to a stranger, until then I will keep looking around at these guys:

Mail Me Art: a British mailart project that was centered around creating the book "Medium without message".


Mail Art Postcard Exhibition: no central purpose just a place to mail pieces which may or may not show up on the blog.

Mail Art Projects: A large group of mailartists contribute to the blog which contains calls and a discussion group.

Anyways.
I need to produce a little more as yet....besides this is, after all, called Amateur Hour.

Hello Again.

So I can no longer blame my mom for anything as she had left North Carolina...

I picked up the gel medium and played with it last night. Nice glossy surface and it's, as advertise, an excellent adhesive. (I was unsticking stuff as much as I was glossing stuff over.) We'll see.

Walk? has also reached its destination and I have yet to experience any ridicule from that corner. Apathy for the piece or apathy towards communication? I can't tell.

Lastly. (God I have nothing to say but it's kind of a duh to myself as I haven't worked on anything new in days. Although, I have a few ideas, one with ribbon, one with fabric pieces and one based on the remains found in a hole punch...I'm thinking confetti)

(Shoot I forgot how I was going to wrap this up. I got all caught up in my asides.....)

(Ha. I remember now.) I spoke with MMC, who was supposed to get the hideously compelling Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling. (Skype is pretty amazing, I got to actually see my friend for the first time in almost ten years...and yes I am now concentrating on the decision to buy a new laptop so that I have a computer fast enough to talk as well as see on Skype.) The piece most likely ended up at their old apartment, and she said it would be a surprise for the bachelor in residence there now. I think I will have to make something new for her (my mom also kind of ordered me to and since I love my mom...).

So, I'm back at work...I know, you are so very lucky to be able to bask in my brilliance again. (The wonder of the internet, I can say that and not worry about keep a straight face.)

Glossy!

I have found my glossy sealing agent (so no need to buy a bunch of clear nail polish). Basically I'm taking the advice from the expert village channel on youtube (which looks really cool --- I must get back to the little black dress video soon):

Shiny is now withing my reach. Wahahahahaha.

Seal it up

In the back of my head there is a reoccurring argument about how I am going to attempt sealing some of the collage pieces I've made (all two of them). Part of me really wants to just varnish those suckers so the surfaces is heavy, smooth and yes, glossy.

But of course, I couldn't just head into this without some advice. (Well, I could and frequently do but there could be issues I haven't even thought of -- besides the cost of postage -- that need to be considered before choosing my poison.)

First was E-How's "How to make a collage". A very simple and straight forward use of the glue and water to seal off your masterpiece. Of course you have to read all the directions and find this tidbit down in the TIPS section. This will apparently seal but is it glossy enough for me? (Can you tell I get distracted by shiny things?)

What I found more useful was a collage discussion page on Flickr and this time it was centered on "How do I seal a paper collage?". 

Low and behold there are more issues then turning your collage into a glossy picture of perfection. I felt almost shamed for using a glue stick instead of rubber cement and not even considering the issue of warping and paper crinkles (of course I don't consider warping so much a problem as a reason to keep all my really cool but totally heavy oversized art books).

I haven't had a chance to go shopping to round off my supplies as I play with the glossy and sealed debate. On my list however are simple Elmer's glue, a small paint brush, some shellac or varnish (especially if it comes in an aerosol) and clear nail polish (my mom suggested it and I really want to try it out now....).

I am certain of one thing, I'm going to have a lot of fun trying...

Light Bulb

I had started a post earlier today then I did some work on a new piece and it was while I was working that I had a revelation (which naturally caused me to actually say out loud: Light Bulb).

(Yes, I stole that line from Despicable Me. I am genetically part thief, the other half is a total hardline, this is the law, kind of person. I don't know how I escaped having multiple personalities when I have such contradictory characteristics. Shrug.)

I was working on these tiny tiny flowers trying to cut them out as precise as possible and I realized that at a certain point, I was done. I no longer had it in me to sit and work without thinking of the exact knife as a tool for vengence.

So I worked with other stuff I had already cut out. I'm not unhappy with the newly finished piece (and once again I have a sendee in mind) but. Yes there is a but here. (And if my humor was  a little more juvenile.. .oh heck, it is. I said butt...heheh.) It didn't come out as planned, again more simple than the intricate masterpiece I was planning.

Thus revealing two flaws I try so hard to work around....

I lack patience. I do not have it in me to cut out these itty bitty little flowers to create my vision. I settle. I could spin this as creative problem solving, but it really is plain old laziness. Sloth. (How often do things get ruled out simply because they are beyond the amount of time and effort we wish to give for the results?)

My second flaw became apparent as  I worked tirelessly to fight against it this evening. (Oh, so brave. Yes I am speaking of me...seriously, almost). I don't know when to stop. I will keep adding unnecessary details, extra little do-hickeys unless I have a good reason...(like the promised foot massage I am looking forward to tonight.) Which is how I ended up with the following piece:

(I'm pretty sure that yellow spot is completely unnecessary and that both the gate and words (Live your dream or some such nonsense) in the background could have been saved for another day.)

IF is mostly a combination of various images I collected from brochures and magazines with some ribbon and marker to give it some kick. Had you read my previous posts you would be prepared for the orangeness that is IF. I think I ended up wielding both the glue stick and turbo tacky glue to create this sucker.

Alas it has no sendee (yes I know sendee is not a real word) and it still needs to be sealed some how (and I wish it to be glossy) but it will eventually find a home or a place in someone else trash bin.

Visitor

So my mother is visiting me down in NC this weekend and this blog is suffering. Friday's post was a little weird and not alot of fun to write (I don't even want to read it over to check it out and see if it is as boring as my memory made it...and I'm not about to link to it either) so I can't imagine it's all that interesting to read.

Also because I have a visitor, I haven't done any work. The good part of the visit (besides getting to see my mom) is that she also packed up all my portfolios from past art classes, junior high to college, and brought me my favorite piece I ever made (with the exception of the series I did around a hand in front of railroad track. Perspective is so much fun to learn.): a collage we built in miniature then recreated on a larger scale.

Anyways...back to my guest.

Strange Affection

I have a great deal of affection for clip art. As campy or boring as a majority of the images are (the actual photographs they put in clip art can be great for a presentation but using too many of them is a bit of a soul sucker). I keepusing clip art to create promotional stuff for work...

Why? Because infringing on copyright makes my stomach go all sour.

Does this mean clip art is really within the public domain of free usage? I have no clue.

(I should probably clarify this...but that would require I stumble through the legalese of Microsoft, so do it yourself.)

Anyways, the reason I am still a fan of clip art probably has more to do with the functions in Microsoft Office Suite. I can recolor, I can make background color transparent, fading, color saturation....the old stand-by's of flip and rotate.

Basically I can take two black and white abstract designs and create this background:

The background pattern is entirely made by yours truly (can you hear the modesty or is that my imagination...oh, my imagination, got it). I did it for a book mark where I wanted an gingham-ish pattern in a rosy-brown.

I know this has no mail, no art and no philosophy but it is part of why I am enjoying my mailart projects so much. Sure someone else may have created the basic block you are using to create but you can still end up with something interesting and totally your own.

The Night Sky Incident

This is a case in which the receiver has no clue what's going on and since I've finally pronounced it finished then promptly mailed it off, my night sky piece is fit to be posted.

The first mention of this piece appeared in Snags and Cake, followed by another bit in Brain Drain (which you can go read or stay tuned because both pretty much dealt with the same problem -- I can be boringly fixated on subjects). The first time I stepped away from this creation, it was beyond obvious that it was boring as all hell. Thus generating two posts in which I chew to death my frustration over what to do to fix the complete snore fest that was my night sky piece (strangely enough night sky isn't the title but then again the person who receives this should get the point).

Anyways, in the end I added more "stars" and called it a day. I like it (not as much as googly eye Paranoia) but it has its place: a perfectly predictable melding of black, blue, red pastels with white pastel "stars" then glossied up with fixative (the glossy kind). Admittedly I may have over sprayed this piece with fixative but it ended up adding some character (and I survived the fumes!) so it's all good.

So this is Walk?.

It's simple and direct: one hopes the receiver of said piece doesn't completely trash it...and that they get it.

One of the best parts of living in the rural mountains of NC is the number of stars I can see on a clear night. Totally beats out Syracuse...so I win right?

In the Works

At this point, as I have sent off the night sky piece, I have a few ideals being considered for the next project....in no particular order (but I did number them):

1. Leafless trees: I'm afraid this is very much along the lines of the night sky but worse. I've tried this before and I always end up with squiggly lines that look nothing like trees or branches. I will be working with a photo this time to help me nail this one...
   
2. Circular post card (almost stealing this idea really from the hand made wedding invitations an old friend did): I have this great cutting board, exacto knife and circle patterns to create this and though it will cut down on the space on the back, I think it would work really well . I also have this incredible tiger graphic that has inconvenient text so the circle would be a good shape for it.
   
3. My wax stamp: I have a monogram wax stamp (you know for when you write letters and pretend/wish you were from another, older century..only with indoor plumbing). In fact, I have two. I was thinking that it would make an interesting feature to add to each piece.
   
4. For some reason I think I want to create a winking goat. That's it, the entire ideal.
   
5. Desperately seeking an ideal to justify buying a spool of smiley face ribbon. I got nothing for it yet and I am very afraid I bought it because I have a weird affection for ribbons and smiley faces. (Normally separately. Normally. heh.)

I wonder what will make the cut....probably just the goat.

Always Watching You

While Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling (oh why did I make the title so long and annoying to type over and over again) was the first piece I showcased here at Amateur Hour, it was not my first creation. Since the friend who received the following piece also follows the blog (Hey, my first and only follower!) I didn't want to post it until after she got it in the mail.

At the begining of this new hobby I did a tour around the crafty section of the local Wal-mart (forgive me mother for I have sinned). I pretty much grabbed things that just appealed to me, I tend to shop that way often, and one of the things I picked up was an assorted pack of googly eyes. The kind you can rattle and will follow you wherever you go...

I knew pretty much from the second I picked them up exactly what I wish to do with them, hence...Paranoia:

(I just love this piece...again dubious artistic merit but come on, love the googly eyes..freaky and cool all in one with a dash of Sesame Street).

This is another Index Card Creation: I did a lot of scribbling with sharpie colored markers and then used a glue gun to attach an entire packet of googly eyes. Also, while I do enjoy the ease of using plain index cards (they were cheap too!) I am constantly plagued by the need to glue two together to give it some extra strength....(Oh and I doodled on the back...sorry no pic of that)

I finished this just before phoning an old friend (by that I mean a friend of long standing...heh) and after describing the project and my googly eye art she wanted this particular piece.

So I blame Fran for leading me astray from the general guidelines of mailart.

This remains to date my favorite work: I love the look of it and it matches well with the  feeling I was trying to recreate. The ideal that paranoia often includes an over-the-top sense that you are constantly being watched and any feelings, happy (red) sad (blue)..and so on and so forth, which you wish you could hide are always visible to others.

Plus, again, googly eyes are so much fun. There will be more: I have some that are all flirty and winky.

Brain Drain

My mind is tired.

At the library: its still tax season, I'm branching off into what we like to call collection development (or to everyone else buying books --- if it were only that simple I'd be a master of the universe) and we are about to start what is our busiest month yet: April. (Civil War exhibits, National Library Week, an e-book petting zoo (staff only, so I can help you get your e-book, theoretically) and I set myself up to teach no less than four computer classes...(and since I did it myself I really shouldn't be whining about it but am I really whining? questions for the ages)).

So anyways...

The point, my mind can't take any more or the gray mater will explode and I will be nothing more than zombie food. In order to avoid this fate I started my Sunday nice and slow by reading a mind-candy( IE, romance) paranormal trilogy Court of Angels by Stella Cameron:

1. Out of Body
2. Out of Mind
3. Out of Sight 

(Hang on there is a point...it's coming, I swear.)

It was okay and now my laundry is done...no progress on the mailart front though. Still wondering what I'm going to do about the night sky, created a collage piece centered around the color orange (of which I am not a fan....though the dislike has continued to keep me from committing a felony) and am considering buying shellac. Why I don't know, maybe to cover the collage piece so it has a smooth service...couldn't I use a varnish? Maybe just hairspray....

(Shoot there isn't a point...I lost it somewhere and you know what?  I am not going to go and find it because I have other work to do!)

Mail it

As I am still struggling with my night sky, and am resolved to not actively think about other projects (that is I am trying not to think about the tree picture I took while hiking the paths on Mount Jefferson and how much I've always wanted to do something around the way leafless trees look against the sky).

See how good I am at ignoring it...


So I thought I'd share some of my mailart research with you. These links were the ones I thought sounded really cool that I found on the other links page of the postcrossing website. Some are about sharing an object and watching it travel the world (think of that gnome in the Amelie movie) and sometimes it about sharing a creation.

Mostly I just wish I was either talented enough or a lot less stingy to take part in some of these sites:

(and they are arranged in a ranked listing, starting with the ones I'm most interested in)

1. postcrossing: send a postcard, get a postcard from around the world
2. ToyVoyagers: oh yes, toys traveling the world depending on the kindness of strangers
3. International Girl Aereogrammes: making a letter that is also the envelope and mailing it
4. PostSecret: you have probably heard of this one but who doesn't enjoy a little cathartic release now and then
5. BookCrossing: Share your books with people all over the world who wish to read them...

I love and hate the BookCrossings idea...love because what is more fun than sharing books with people who want to read them (hello, librarian). Hate because if say, one of my books is out there hopping around the globe, I can't read it and that upsets me.

See, I said I was stingy.

Snags and Cake

So,
I've hit a few snags. Things have gone wrong. Not hideously, dangerously or even illegallly wrong but as they say in Meet the Robinsons : I just don't know how well this plan was thought through...or something like that.

First, my attempt to create a night sky piece has produced a very boring postcard. A total snore. In addition the person to whom this card was going to has some background in graphics and it was doomed to ridicule either way. Ugly and unappealing are okay but boring is completely unacceptable.

Now I am focused on trying to fix it. Add more to the original piece? Try same ideal in different medium? I can't really decide...I think I keep looking at it from other people's perspectives.

I have a thing for the night sky, it's like the ocean (actually large bodies of water in general), I find it calming and soothing but so awesome (Lizzie, please note the appropriate use of the word awesome). Anyways.....

Lastly, naturally, Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling has the wrong address on it. Let this be a lesson to all: update your address book regularly. On the other hand, I left a note via facebook for the receipent (MMC) which led to a briefish IM run in where I directed her to the blog and caught up on old times.

That conversation solidified something that has been rattling around in my head (enter tiny philosophical bit): Individuals create. Doesn't really matter what your primary interests are or what job you do, there is some little bit of your life in which you make something. Maybe others don't consider it intellectually challenging or interesting or artistic or original but there's a satisfaction to be found in the making of something physical that you share with others.

In my friend's case, sharing is the best part! It may be the only green food I would truly enjoy eating...

MMC's Ben 10 cake for Alexander

I like it! Mostly because I can't even get a nice swirly pattern when I frost a cake, let alone manage to frost a figure...

Ugly but Compelling, right?

Okay so here is the first piece I'm able to post:

Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling

I used two kinds of plaid ribbon and made some very rough squares with a black sharpie marker. It was a messy but simplistic project. Using Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue, I wove and glued the ribbon strips right on to my index card. It ended up drying within a few days but I attribute that to the fact I went a little glue crazy (is there anyone who doesn't enjoy peeling strips of tacky glue off their fingers?). Being Turbo Tacky Glue it was suppose to be faster...

It also warped so the index card with ribbon strips spent days underneath the following tomes:

1. Van Gogh A Retrospective edited by Susan Alyson Stein
2. American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I distributed by Hudson Hills Press, New York
3. Monet A Retrospective edited by Charles F. Stuckey
4. America's Art Smithsonian American Art Museum by Theresa J. Slowik

That's when I added what was suppose to be black squares. My lack of patience produced less than perfect results. After which it became very apparent that while I found it endearing, it was pretty much ugly. Also, I don't think it has many redeeming qualities as an art piece.

On the other hand as representative work of what the bedroom ceiling of my childhood room (it's still my room really, who else would have it...) use to look like, it is spot on.

I mailed it out today to my best friend from high school, who spent the odd holiday vacation with my family up north, who lives in Denmark now.

Can't wait to see if it arrives without falling to pieces. Go, Go Turbo Tacky Glue!

Setting Up

I have two mailart projects in the works and one is complete. It is also scanned but won't be posted until after its been mailed out.

I realize I need some ground rules for this undertaking, so here goes:

1. Each mailart piece will be posted and added to a creation page.(Right now there is only the Index Card Creations --- the basis for current work, so more may be added later)
2. Posting will occur after the piece has been either: mailed, received or destroyed (depending on circumstances)
3. Each post will contain a title, materials list and thoughts behind the creation as well as information regarding where it has been sent (which may not be detailed due to privacy issues)
4. Each piece is individual and unique (although of questionable artistic merit)
5. Any mailart received will be also be posted accompanied by any attribution information provided and my personal feelings on the piece.

Again occasional there will be a break in mailart posts for tiny bits of philosophical wisdom by yours truly (which may not include any wisdom or philosophy but will be tiny).

One day...

So, (I begin so many things this way, perhaps writing on a daily basis will allow me to correct such annoying behavior...I also have many asides sitting smack dab in the middle of my posts) one day at work I was working on an interlibrary loan with a patron for this interesting contemporary art magazine anthology, Hi-fructose vol 1, and as she works over at a local post office we begin talking about mail...

I love getting mail, real mail: Letters, cards, postcards. They have to have some substance to them as well, a card with a cool graphic or a letter filled with different thoughts and weird ideas. Postcards with fake names written instead of my own (I have to admit here that I never have received such a postcard, I'm often the sender: Here's to you Sailor Rosner and Ma & Pa Kettle).

Upon this revelation, the patron begins telling me about mail art (I know I'm referencing wikipedia and I'm a librarian but it is a good general description with history and this isn't an academice paper). Basically artists create these mailable works of art, letter or postcard, and send them out to different people who place calls for pieces. She told me to look it up...so I did.

I'll get more into what I found but what I realized was this is for me. I'm not a real artists in any sense, but I do love to create and I love getting mail....

So.

Welcome to Amateur Hour, my adventures in mail art....

Should I stay or should I go...

Is is easier to stay where you are or pick it all up and head out in a new direction?

I myself haven't done much staying and sometimes I stop to think about it and it is transformed into a courageous decision to go outside of what I consider home. The fact is, however, that going has been easier than staying for me....

So maybe it comes down to the individual....for some staying is easy, for me it would be hard.