Ticket! Ticket! more on the horizon(tal)

If you have collected tickets or ticket-like-ephemera and aren't sure what to do with it, my suggestion is that you put it all in an envelope and send that envelope right to Cascadia!  Let me tell you… what you get in return will be very satisfying, indeed!  I contributed a handful or two of tickets and similar from way back when (that I found, combing through my collage box) and in return I have umpteen sheets of these beautiful stamps to lick and use as I see fit.  

Of course, I archive them. But each time I hold them and look carefully at them I think, maybe I could use them just this once!

Cascadia's record keeping must be impeccable and his generosity is always astounding. All I know is I am lucky to have got on his mailing list. 

Check out the front of the envelope to find my stamp. 

If you've got a head, get a hat!

 ...and if you don't have a hat, you'd better have a full head of hair! This gorgeous inside outer-envelope is an example of content and style all rolled into one.  The story of the characters, the red and black hats, the repetition of 'sou' in the titles, the way the nederland stamps recede, decpite the full hairdo. and the juxtpostion of orange pattern and salmon with flashes of marbling all meld to make a really appealing design.  On the flip side, the colours heat up  and the hats get more spectacular!

 In Herman's original style, the next set of cards, russian dolls of material nested inside of each other are always a welcome sight.  They tantalise and fill me with curiosity .  Below are the contents, opened and dissembled. To me, they are the items you find in the bottom drawer of a loved one, nestled with the holey socks. Or perhaps in the pidgeonhole of an antique desk, YES, that's it.  Look carefully at Herman's stamp ' Bureau Herkalux'...  these people and drawings belong in a pidgeonhole.

I am delighted to see Herman's anthropomorphised  'infectious diseases' Wear your face mask and wash your hands! and let's make some new doodles about viruses.

 Herman always writes me a little something.  This time he responded to one of my more political mailings, aligning with my views. So even though we will be brexited in four days, all is right with the world between this American living in Great Britain and that dutch man. 

Thanks Herman! Beautiful mailing. 

So today I found this piece of mail art on my painting table.  I guess it must have arrived before Christmas and in a flurry I put it down and raced to the next activity/task/sick-bed. Meanwhile Patti and David were singing.  Who knew? My biggest regret is that this didn't make it to the cards, clipped p around the kitchen during the festive season. Other people missed David's genius!

Thank you and happy new year!

No shame?

As I tune into the impeachment trial, Cascadia's title words couldn't be any more prescient .  Of course, Cascadia was referring to a different shame, one where we heard that the man on the top believed it would be appropriate to trash (bomb the hell out of) the culture of another country, an ancient civilisation, IRAN. Despicable. 

All I can say is that I HOPE the senators are listening. What kind of world? Thanks Cascadia for raising my blood pressure a little further.

Mikel Untzilla's Network

In case I haven't said it, Happy New Year to my mail art friends. This beautifully stamped envelope takes me back to the weeks leading up to Christmas. although not stars, the yellow and the feeling of beacons makes me hopeful about the holiday season anew. Mikel's bespoke postage stamps on the inside of the mail art got me revved up to make/finish some of my own mail art.  If you can imagine… I actually posted twenty pieces over the first week back in the studio! I guess I am back in action.  Mikel, you are next on my list. An I am determined to keep the postal ledger up to date too!

New Years' Doodle Therapy!

My holiday period began when i started trying to pull our house and the studio into shape for a visit from my mother, our kids, their partners and some family who visited from NYC. I learned a long time ago that for me, the best thing to do is to down (art) tools and let go to focus all my attention on family. Trying to fit time around all the stuff I do (lots of traditions) is frustrating and disappointing so I don't try. I guess it's been at lease four weeks, but as I recall, it was more like 2 1/2 weeks before the first people arrived that i had too many jobs to do to do anything else. 

And then I got the flu on boxing day.  It wasn't the worst flu, but it was the worst thing I've had in at least twentty years. 

Lucky Pierre's post arrived while I was still preparing for the upcoming holiday season. I only opened the envelope today,  Good thing, if I'd been asked to DO ANYTHING more I woold have balked but now, it sounds possible. 

What a fun idea, but I suspect I (and my collaborators) will find a way to break the rules!  Thank you, LP. I hope to stop being remiss immediately!

Check out that octopus! 

Wear your hat of sadness, Keith Chambers

I recognised the ' Portrait of a Woman by Filippo Lippi' as the starting point for one of these images. I wonder if 'Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta by Piero della Francesca' is the starting point for the image above.  

I don't know how Keith does what he does but I admire it! Beautiful fishy work and words that are like riddles that take us back to the dark ages. 

Look at the stamps and the pink puffer fish!

Beautiful work and sorry I am slow to blog.

Thank you!

stamps!