Commit Acts of Art: Miscellaneous Wednesday

 "Visual memory is the second strongest after smell. Images connect culture, identity, and beliefs across millennia, generations, and continents." The COMPASS GALLERY

I sent out 11 letters last week, all in decorated envelopes. I have been creating 365 decorated envelopes each of the last five years. Well, I sometimes failed to finish the goal during each calendar year, but I did complete each goal. I am now in the middle of the sixth series of making 365 message containers, so I have a multitude of envelopes from which to choose when I send a letter, a thank you note, or a "Hello, how are you?" card.

I wanted to work on some collages this week, and I finally was able this afternoon to go down to my basement studio and do some tearing, cutting, and gluing. I rummaged through several containers of paper scraps, magazine pages, ink stained papers, gelli plate monoprints, and left over odds and ends  from past projects. It never fails when I start a project, that I get side tracked while looking through storage containers and finding unfinished projects, articles [such as the "Top 100 Western Movies of All Time"], and assorted ephemera to mull over. I found a few paper weavings I started playing with thirty years ago and never used for anything. All that exploring fritters away my limited committing art time! I should be able to use these weavings for something, but what?

Below is the collage I created today. I love circles. I hope I have not over done it on this piece. That is me in the middle as I was 73 years ago: a hot-shot cowboy! I have used that image on Artist Trading Cards. The thought just popped into my head: maybe all those little circles are gunshot holes.

Commit Acts of Art Every Day!

Enveloping the Word: Book and Magazine Page Envelopes

 I took a page from an old, oversized art book showing photographs of a modern art piece and, using a template, cut out an envelope. I used a black fine-point Sharpie to outline some shapes and added tiny marks around them. I had a good time listening to a Russian army band rendition of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor [one of my all time favorite Bach pieces in any instrumentation] while I was working. After I folded the envelope, I added a few little embellishments and called it good.

The cut page from the art book.

I enjoy taking pages from discarded art books and various magazines and making envelopes out of them. I use the envelopes to send letters to my grandchildren and other relatives and friends. They always know they have a letter from me when they see the envelope in the box.

An envelope made from a magazine page with a few embellishments.

This is not great art, but it is my art. It is not as avant-garde as Ray Johnson's mail art and his New York Correspondance [sic] School members. I wish I had known about the growing mail art community in the early 1960s when I was an art student, before life took me in a different direction. I believe my first art teacher and mentor, Floyd V. Cornaby, would have loved it. It was much cheaper to mail letters back then, too! First-class postage in 1965 was five cents.

Commit Acts of Art Every Day!

Enveloping the Word: February 1st to the 10th

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it does create something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

I am selective about the postcard and letter trades I sign up for each month. I rarely, very close to never, join trades that involve stuffing selected items in an envelope, and I usually join only a couple of trades a month. But my first week and a half of February this year started off with five swaps on Swap-bot: a chunk-o-cardboard trade with three partners, a collaged envelope trade, a handmade postcard, a U.S. National Park postcard trade, and a Movie/TV listing the filmography of Betty White on the message side of a purchased card.

I prefer swaps that require the sender to create a postcard or envelope with original artwork. Most swap hosts don't like handmade cards because some swappers slap a few stickers on a card and call it good. So, the majority of the swaps require a purchased card with a written message on the back fulfilling a prompt chosen by the host. I have not mustered the courage or found the time to host a swap of my own.

Here are a few of the early February swaps:

The Collage Envelope

The Three Chunk-o-Cardboard Postcards

Since this swapper has a collection of bicycles, I added a different flourish to the back.

Enveloping the Word: January, Part 2

 "Not every act of art creates something special, but it creates something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

A few more envelopes: pen and ink and folded magazine pages:

Commit Acts of Art Every Day!

Enveloping the Word: January

" Not every act of art creates something special, but it does create something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result."  Michael L. Goodman

I finished my eighty-two Christmas card envelopes a few days before Christmas. I mailed the cards to overseas addresses in early December. The ones going out of state were next, followed by those within my state. I saved the envelopes for cards to friends and relatives in my city for last. I have a friendly acquaintance with a clerk at the post office who takes my city cards and letters, hand cancels them, and puts them in the next day's delivery. This saves two or three days of delivery time.

I have made a multitude of "chunk-o-cardboard" postcards for swapping on swap-bot. The chunks do not have to be decorated, but it is against my nature not to decorate the cardboard with some little flourish before I send it off to find its way in the world.

My art in December and January has been making envelopes from Southwestern art magazine pages and decorating letters with pen and ink. Here are some samples.

 

I need to develop a new design for the inked envelopes, even though they are fun to do. February inspires some possibilities. We will see what happens.

Commit Acts of Art Every Day!

Enveloping the Word: Christmas Card Envelopes

  "Not every act of art creates something special, but it does create something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

Last week, I was hurkle-durkling [a Scottish term for waking up but lying in bed for a few minutes, thinking, pondering, reviewing the need-to-do list, and mentally preparing for the day]. I remembered with shock that it was already December, and I had not started decorating my Christmas card envelopes. I send out close to eighty cards every December, tucked in hand-decorated envelopes. We bought the cards in early November so I could get started earlier than in past years. Did I get started early? NO! I had not even decided what to doodle on the envelopes. Ack! I haven't written my yearly Christmas letter yet!

That morning, I hurkle-durkled for longer than usual, pondering and hoping for a quick solution. I needed a design that was simple and would not expend too much of my time to finish each card. I settled on circles, or globes, encircling the address field in a wreath. I cut a simple stencil of circles that I could easily and quickly embellish, and proceeded from there.

This is the stencil pattern transferred to an envelope.

This was the first attempt. I added another circle. Eh

This is the second rendition.

The third iteration. My wife likes this one, so I am going with it.

Here are a few of the letters I mailed in November while I should have been working on Christmas cards.

Commit Acts of Art Every Day!

Commit Acts of Art Every Day: Exploring Art in September, October, and November

  "Not every act of art creates something special, but it does create something. It is the act of art that is important, not the result." Michael L. Goodman

As I was writing out some notes on postcards for three different Chunk-o-Cardboard swaps [seven cards in total], I was signing the cards with this blog address. I realized that I haven't posted anything since August. I was juggling too many things and trying to live up to my creed [Commit acts of art] to have mental clarity enough to blog anything. I will now try to slow down and catch up.

In September, the Exploring Art class created sketchbooks using a reverse piano-hinge binding. I love this binding because it lies flat. You can paint, draw, or collage on the pages, and, if needed, pages can be easily removed and replaced. I try to make a couple each month.

The October class explored mail art and ATCs, or artist trading cards. We folded single pages from magazines and calendars into envelopes, used templates on printed papers to cut and fold envelopes, and drew designs on regular, "store-bought" envelopes. To prepare for Halloween, we made a pumpkin patch of jack-o-lanterns. I urged them to send a Halloween message to someone using the envelopes.

A week after the class, I received a note from one of the class participants. She sent me a template she made of a small envelope her husband received that week. She chose not to "carve" her pumpkins.

November's class was a messy festival of paint and paper. We explored monoprinting with jelly plates.

Now I need to get busy on my Christmas card envelopes!

Commit Acts of Art Every Day!