a t-rex in my mailbox

The cool clothespin photo inspired me to photograph these on the clothesline but the light wasn't quite in the right place and the line kept wanting to twirl. Harder than I thought!

My first mail art of the year arrived from the sweet and generous Jeannine Saylor, who sent me hand-drawn stickers, a charming assortment of illustrations, a stamped letter and photos all tucked into a handmade envelope. She sent this all to me even though I actually owe her at least two envelopes of mail (and now three!). But that is Jeannine for you ~ she is super kind and thoughtful like that. I am very lucky to know her. Check it out:

I pinned them to my grape vine trellis instead where I could admire them all together.

The T-Rex is colored in a soft palette with (I think) colored pencil. It makes me think he's very gentle and is probably opening his mouth to sing rather than to eat. The daffodil is also very soft and springlike. As the weather gets chillier here, I'm grateful for spring reminders!

Additionally, as she promised on her blog, she sent me Valeria Poropat's Traveling Sketchbook, which is small and delicate ~ not what I had expected from seeing earlier artists post photos of their contributions! I was expecting a big, fat journal and here it was so tiny and light. It was a nice surprise.

Each panel is fairly narrow and long and the theme is completely open. Here it is with all the accordion folds opened, up to my blank panel that awaits me.

The book started with Valeria in Rome and has since been to Serbia, and various places on the East Coast and in Canada.

What shall I draw? I haven't decided yet. Am still enjoying all the goodies Jeannine sent me and the seven illustrations in this booklet that have come before mine. Hmmm, this will be fun!

portrait:landscape ~ on its way!

The portrait:landscape book began its journey around the world today! Looking at the list of artists it will visit I wished I could travel along to meet everyone in person.

I put all the contributors' names in the front, added a table of contents, completed my portrait and landscape, and wrote a little something on a local postcard for the back pocket. Have a look!

Cover

End papers (front)

Title Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents

My self-portrait (mixed media)

My landscape (watercolor)

Blank Pages 8-9 ~ for Chiori!

Back Pocket (with my postcard peeking out)

Now it's in the mail, on its way to my dear friend @hooka111. The journey begins! ^_^

new traveling book ~ {portrait:landscape}

The cover so far... I carved and stamped the girl and will add a title next.

We've been talking about it on twitter for a week, I've been bustling around on my end, and now ~ at last! ~ I'm ready to unveil our new collaborative project as it changes from bright idea to something we're actually doing. It's a new traveling sketchbook (a Moleskine Watercolour Notebook, to be precise) that has its own theme and a big line-up of talent ready to fill it up!

The theme(s): Self-Portrait & Landscape

Self-Portrait ~ Each artist gets a double-page spread to express their self-portrait in the broadest sense possible. The self-portrait is not limited to a bust or facial view, but can be abstract, representational and even figure-less. It is a portrait of the artist in whatever form pleases the artist or best communicates their character. I think it will be really interesting to see how each artist represents themselves.

Landscape ~ Because the book has many pages, each artist gets a second double-page spread on which to create a landscape of the area where they live. The landscape will be an interpretation of the artist's actual city or neighborhood (as opposed to a mental landscape or personal universe that would fall more on the self-portrait side). With each artist's unique style, it will be fascinating to see their interpretations of their surroundings.

I was initially nervous about choosing a theme, but I think the portrait : landscape theme is a fun play on words. Incidentally, artists are welcome to turn the booklet to 'portrait' or 'landscape' orientation for their respective drawings, but this is definitely not required in any way. Feel free to do what you wish!

The Talent:

Jessica Mack @BrownPaperBunny
Jessica Gowling @jessicagowling
Jeannine Saylor @saylor_made
Kye Sangha @KyeSangha
Anna Jane Searle @annajanesearle
Anika Starmer @aisforanika
Nicolle Cheung @heartleftbehind
Toni Rica @tonirica
Thuraya Lynn @thurayalynn
Juri Kosaka @juriko
Russelle Adams @HeedlessCeramic

and... room for four more contributors. I'm waiting to hear back from two more, so that leaves at least two spots open if anyone is interested! Just let me know.

The book will travel by mail to each participant and return at the end to me. I'll finish it off with an introduction, table of contents, etc. Then, one day in the future... we'll have an art show of collaborative books and we'll all gather together to eat, drink champagne, dance and have an art party. Perhaps Toni Rica will play guitar and sing for us! Doesn't hurt to dream, right? ;-)


The very simple and general "rules" of this collaboration:

1. When an artist receives the book, they have two weeks to complete their artwork. If life intervenes and you must take three weeks, then take three and don't panic or fret. However, a two week limit is more ideal since there are 16 artists that need a turn. Just do your best! :)

2. In the back pocket, each artist is encouraged to place a postcard from their town/area/country with a little note about themselves or their artwork. Since we have participants from many different places in the world, it will be fun to see their drawings as well as a postcard of their hometown.

3. Artists, please send me a message via twitter, email or this blog when the book arrives to you and again when you mail it off to the next artist. A list of the artists in sequence will be in the back pocket so it will be easy to tell where it goes next.

4. Please post pictures and information on your blog or twitter so that all the other participants can follow along and see the book's gradual development! We'll all be looking forward to seeing each person's contribution and the book's progress.

5. Have fun!

That's about it. If I've left out any information or you have any questions, just ask. I want to give a big Thank You to all my dear friends that are participating! You guys make me very happy. ^_^

mix tape artists' cards

 The Mix Tape Project is now winging its way to Maryland. It will still visit Canada, Japan and Kuwait before going back to Brown Paper Bunny's Jessica Mack in Australia. The last things I can share with you from the project are the illustrated cards from each artist, tucked in the book's back pocket. Enjoy!

Kimi

Helen

Liz

Sara

Jessica

Good bye, Mix Tape!

mix tape traveling journal

Some months ago Jessica Mack (aka @brownpaperbunny) of Canberra, Australia asked if anyone wanted to join in on a traveling journal. I signed up, waited patiently, and one day in August the book arrived to me. Now I can share the story of my turn...

Each artist gets to fill out two double-page spreads with simple rules: at least one line must be carried over from the previous page into the new one and the theme is: blue.

Jessica's beginning.

I'd seen Jessica's initial drawings on her blog when she gave the book its start and the artwork was even more charming in person. Since that time, three more artists had drawn in the book, making eight images total to fold out on the accordion pages.

Helen's pages

Helen had sent me the book from Thorndale, Pennsylvania and her pages seemed to echo Jessica's initial art. Both had a city view followed by a countryside scene and were done mostly with ink and colored pens. Two other artists' works sat between them. (I'm showing you a bit of the pages they connect to in the photos as I think it's interesting to see the lines and shapes the artists chose to continue on to their page).

Sara's dark blue

Sara Carns of Phoenix, Arizona had very intriguing pages with layers of pattern, design, gesso, paint, ink, stamps and embellishments. Her first page accented twitter (where the project originated) and the second page addressed the "mix tape" theme of music ~ hence the lyrics from Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin ~ which is a pretty excellent band to choose, not just for the blue-themed song but also because The Mixed Tape is another song on the Everything in Transit album. This mix tape book is definitely in transit, so that was simply brilliant on her part!

Liz's pages are so pretty and bright. You can tell she designs greeting cards!

Sara's work connected to the perfect penmanship and dainty decorations of Elizabeth Caldwell. I'd seen many of her designs that she shared on twitter or her blog, so it was a little thrill to see her familiar style there on the page. She carried a bit of the tweeting theme along, too, tying it to a cute children's song that I knew because I once taught it to a group of five-year olds for a spring choir performance. It brought me right back to theie little voices warbling as they shook their clappers in time and two girls clanged tiny cymbals as accent notes. Kids are so sweet. One of her little birds is even wearing over-sized heels, like when you're little and you try on your mom's shoes. That's incredibly cute in my book.

So, I oooh'ed and aaah'ed over all the completed pages, and then it was my turn. I had some ideas but didn't know immediately how to begin. I scribbled on a notepad:

having the blues

singing the blues

blue suede shoes

blue monday

blue skies

blue is the sky when I'm without you

ocean blue

blue whale

blue agave

bluefin tuna

A picture began forming in my mind of friends at sea, in a boat at night, playing music. A little sweet, a little familiar, with a bit of that magical storybook feeling. {I hoped, anyway, that it would turn out like that.} When I studied the lines that Helen had left for me to connect to, I was very pleased that she'd been so generous as to give me the lines of two leaves in addition to the basic horizon. Looking at how they would continue out, it was almost immediately clear that on my side of the page the leaves could only transform into a flying gull. And so it came to be.

The night sky demanded a full moon and as I started drawing the mast of the boat I recalled that the Italian word for mast is albero which also means tree. Soon, branches were growing and the sail became a living one with leaves.

My blue vision.

Since the next spread was also mine, I liked the idea of having a less marked delineation and just sort of 'spilling' onto the next scene ~ totally appropriate since it was almost all water and I wanted to move on to a water creature I'm quite fond of, the blue whale. I have a soft spot for whales and the blue whale in particular. They're magnificent and swim most of the world's oceans but can be found along the California coast quite often. They're the biggest animals in the world and the loudest. They can hear for 1,000 miles and their newborns weigh 3 tons! They live 80 - 100 years unless attacked by sharks or injured by large ships. Unfortunately, they're also endangered. I used pencil and watercolor to express my admiration for these beautiful krill-eaters.

Now I'm working on my artist card to add to the mix's back pocket and then I'll send it off. I'm sorry to see it go as I've gotten rather attached to it! But it will be fun to see what the next artists come up with.

By September 1st, I'll send the book off to Sue in Maryland, after which it will pass along to three dear friends of mine ~ Jessica Gowling in Canada, Thuraya Lynn in Kuwait and Juri Kosaka in Tokyo. Another stop in Australia to comic artist Lisa McDonald and then it'll be back to Jessica once more. Can't wait to see the songs and blues they add to its pages and read the continuing adventures of the traveling mix tape!

on the road ~ {nevada}

Our road trip has begun! We drove 8 hours today, leaving behind California's golden hills and green forests and making our way well into Nevada. I was familiar with the California portion of our trip, but from Nevada on almost all of our trip will be new to me, so I'm really excited to see the landscape and its shapes, colors and changes as we go.

The desert's pale sands and red rocks made some very picturesque views. A small river ran nearby the road at times, providing a little greenery. The landscape changed from desert to chaparral and back. The sky was huge.

Sometimes the sand hills looked like they'd been shaped by a child's hands in a sandbox.  Other times the wind had eroded the sand away revealing craggy, striated rocks.

I haven't taken photos in black and white in a long time and the last time I did, I developed them in a darkroom. It's quite different to take them digitally and I feel I have a lot to learn, but felt like these three photos communicated a little of what I saw today on the road. It was a good first day of travel.

Tomorrow, onward to Utah!

traveling journal

Brown Paper Bunny (aka Jessica Mack) has started a traveling journal and I've signed up to participate! I heard about it from graphic designer Elizabeth Caldwell (@ecdesignz). Both of them did the Sketchbook Project (which just started its tour today ~ so exciting!) and wanted to keep the fun going.

This book is interesting because the pages fold out accordion-style, so everyone's images will eventually connect. Each artist will complete two spreads and the dominant color must be blue. She's calling it "Mix Tape" so the subject matter is quite open. Here is Brown Paper Bunny's first spread:

Image from Brown Paper Bunny's blog.

I'm looking forward to inventing my two pages and to also see what others have come up with. It reminds me a little of Sandra Dieckmann's Haus Stories, although her collaboration goes vertical and is an online art connection. (One of these days I must make a story for that house!)

I haven't heard what will happen to the traveling blue journal once it's finished, but I like that the collection will be tactile with all pieces physically gathered together at the end.

It's fun to meet the other artists that will contribute. Besides me, Brown Paper Bunny & Liz Caldwell, here are some of the others who have signed up so far:

• Sara Carns ~ a crafter & scrapbooking photographer who is also a stay-at-home mom in Arizona
• Lisa McDonald ~ graphic designer, writer of comics & painter from Australia
• Helen @Red1332 ~ photographer, knitter, artist in Pennsylvania who is also a programmer, gamer & geek
• Susan @MagicBartender ~ I couldn't entirely follow her self-description but she seems like a wild & crazy gal (grandma?) from Maryland that paints and journals.

If you are interested in joining in, please send an email to carrot{at}brownpaperbunny{dot}com and let her know!

Update: several of my favorite artistic friends have joined in!

• Thuraya Lynn ~ something of a poet living in a surreal world of her own, zine author, sweet sketcher, passionate about Japan but living in Kuwait.
• Juriko Kosaka ~ ah, I've already gone on about her in an earlier post! Tokyo painter who also captures the people she sees in digital sketches.
• Jessica Gowling ~ my mail art pal and creative printmaker and Canadian artist, always super nice, outgoing and positive. She's so creative that her Sketchbook Project was covered in fur!

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for our connected blue scenes.