From Leslie to Janet

Front, back and insert from Leslie.

Leslie says:

 I call this Altered Mondrian, as it goes with the quote on the insert

 (Alter your life by Altering your attitude.) 

Jean says:

If you are not familiar with Mondrian's work, it is very linear and exacting. I recall seeing a book about his work and it was interesting to see his early work - some trees that looked like trees - and then gradually they became more and more geometric - and eventually, his work was very abstract. Leslie's work looks like she is *walking back* through the steps he took.

Very cool.

***

Here is an opportunity to go down a very deep habit hole. It has nothing to do with lettering or mail but I know quite a few readers are also into sewing and/or quilting and/or other fiber arts. My own journey started when I was 8 and my mom taught me how to sew. I loved sewing and over the years graduated from cotton to wool and then one day I discovered silk. My dad had brought some home after WWII for his mom (my grandmother) and she had never used it so she gave it to me. It was dreamy and once in a while I would splurge on some silk and make something. We've all heard that silk is made by worms - but, I really never bothered to learn anything about the whole process. The link is just his most current blog post. But, if you are interested, you can wander around and learn a lot about silk. I went back and read some posts from when he first started - and they were very interesting.

He teaches - and this excerpt really caught my attention:

I’ve been living and making my living in this 650 year old mountain hamlet and 150 year old silk farming house for over 25 years now. I didn’t think much about it and basically enjoyed the time and seasons go by. 

<snip>

Showing up in Japan on my 25th birthday with a backpack and a single five-word-sentence from a conversation with my bestie Ingrid Mclainewhen I told her I was going to try to set up a life in Japan. 

http://japanesetextileworkshops.blogspot.com

I also followed a link to this place and was lost for a while. It's only 10 am -- so I guess it wasn't all day.

These people choose to let the moths live. Others choose to boil the cocoons, kill the worm, and harvest the silk promptly. 

https://www.muezart.com/pages/eri-silk-most-sustainable-fabric

That original silk that my grandmother gave me might still in somebody's closet. I cut up the dress and made a shirt for my renaissance tribe costume. And then I gave the costume to a lady in Minnesota. Maybe she has tossed it. Or maybe she uses it... somewhere I might have a picture of me in the costume. I really liked it. But, after setting up a booth at the local renaissance faire (they invited me) I realized that I did not fit in. I'm not into cosplay. Plus, all *those people* were illiterate - so, we just weren't on the same page. 

August Exchange from Carole - Cows

Carole kindly sent to both George and me even though I indicated that exchangers only needed to send to him. I was gone for more than half the month and figured he would enjoy getting some fun mail.

Carole enclosed cow-themed book marks and George was very happy with his. He reads more than one book at a time and can always use a nice bookmark.

I love how the three cows are focusing on the address. I have such fond memories of being around cows (beef cows) when I was a kid and spent some time at the ranch where my mom grew up. These are dairy cows and when I was very young, they had a milk cow. Really memorable - trying to milk a cow. The smell of the cow barn is one of those smells that i can conjure up even though I have not smelled it in about 60 years.

*****
For the postal junkies looking for places to surf:

https://blog.evankalish.com/

A lot of documentation of a lot of visits to post offices.

Or if you just want to hit the Iowa post offices:

https://blog.evankalish.com/2011/04/why-oh-iowa.html

Memory Lane and a Shirt

P.S.

I'm adding this at the beginning because surfing through 204 books that the Guggenheim has put online is probably a better use of your time.

https://archive.org/details/guggenheimmuseum?&sort=-downloads&page=3

P.P.S.

Once again - all the comments readers had been leaving were in my Spam file. My apologies for not adding them to the posts promptly. Thank you to the people who congratulated me on the 1-millionth post.

I am reprinting Finnbadger's comment because it's so funny:


I'm enjoying the word 'Hollerdaze'. And by 'enjoying' I mean quietly rocking in a corner with the blinds closed until Dec 26th...


Yup - there are a bunch of us in that particular boat.



The original post had this re-run envelope. It no longer interests me. So, I might replace it.
I am deleting my original comments as they were more drivelesque that usual. Except for this line written after I had been digging back on the blog to find something:

I was surprised to see that as far back as 2015 I was obsessing about my Swedish Death Cleaning - even though I had not yet read about SDC. My blog is like a diary.

And then this line explains why I was re-running this envelope. Yup, I have some last minute mail to tend to. Not sure I am going to go with this idea.

This is being re-run because I think it could be a fun holiday themed style. It reminds me of ornaments. Quick and easy for those of you who leave things to the last minute....

A quick P.S. tucked in because my off-topic items do not deserve their own posts. Although, part of me would like to pull up anything I've posted that has envelope related clothing and things made out of fabric.

Something caused me to surf through the spring 2018 Burberry collection. This is lovely. I'm trying to picture what kind of man would actually buy this shirt. If someone buys a winning lottery ticket and sends it to me - I'll be buying one for Alan Blackman.

***

5 minutes later.
Holy cow - I just did a search for *quilt* on the blog and found 22 posts with references to quilts. Some are just stamps - but there are some fun quilts.

Anyone looking for more surfing ....
https://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/search?q=quilt

Surfing

Because today's regular post is a bit lame, I am adding a post about a rabbit hole that may be of interest to some of you who love books.

It is a link to an article with several links to digitized offerings from libraries. If you scroll down, you will get to the U of Iowa and there are two links. One to miniature books and another one to a very interesting book - which I happened to note was donated by someone I am acquainted with who lives a few blocks from me...Fritz James - for those of you who may know Fritz.
Anyhow - here's a good rabbit hole:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/most-amazing-archival-treasures-digitized-2017

Not to mention that atlasobscura has a ton of interesting stuff.....

Hanging Scissors (Sat off-topic)

Off-topic, although it does lead to some interesting recycled paper that relates to mail. Also an opportunity to delve into mail art if I ever feel adventurous.

Whilst surfing around looking for ideas for creative mending, I found this site. If I had time, I would become a performance artist and have my little desk in a museum where I would sit and address envelopes. I would have all of my pens and markers hanging over me on retractable cords. I guess I would need an assistant to pull each one down as I needed it. Although, I should probably get up and retrieve the pens on my own as it would be better to get a little exercise.

If you go to the site, you learn that the artist invites the viewers to cut fabric which she then mends. I've been mending clothes because I get holes in some of my favorite shirts and I am looking for creative ways to mend them so that I do not have to find new things.

http://ddirarchitecture.com/beili-liu-the-mending-project/

It gets better.

I Googled to see her current work. Then scanned back over previous work. Discovered a really cool mud-brick house that she built in Nebraska. That reminded me that I need to go visit the sod house that is only open in warm months. I've always wanted to go into a sod house. I've been in a root cellar - which I found to be very cozy...so need to visit a sod house. I think there is one in Iowa where you can even stay all night.... like AirBNB -- only DirtBNB...or SodBNB

http://www.beililiu.com/The-Little-House-Stands-on-the-Prairie

And it gets even better.

Obviously, I wondered where the little house is. That led me to Art Farm. They have many little buildings and offer artist residencies. I could apply to do a mail art project. If I was accepted and went there - my family would have no idea where I was. Only my brother reads the blog and he would not tell anyone. Of course --- they could track me through my cell phone. I might not be able to go that far off the grid.  It is tempting. I'm thinking I want to collaborate with a film artist who would want to make an odd film out of the experience. It seems a little too close to camping....

http://www.artfarmnebraska.org/

The opening page is very off-putting, unless you like complicated descriptions. It looks more interesting when you get to the descriptions and photos of the different buildings and studios.

Finding Strange Things

Sometimes when we are sifting through the flotsam and jetsam we run across things like this post - the part below where there is a bunch of editing. It could be from 2017 or 2016. It is just random babbling. Feel free to ignore the babbling and just click on the link - at the bottom. I suspect anything I link that is alphabet related is worth looking at - if you are obsessed with the alphabet. I'll never know how many people read the blog or what your obsessions are. Maybe you are like me and are parked in front of the computer, putting off the things you should be doing. I know I do that. I'm convinced there is some value in procrastination. I'm not sure what it is but I just feel like it must exist for a reason. Reminds me of a favorite Rilke quote - something about don't worry about finding any answers - just embrace the questions. Yeah. I could easily do that.

Onward.

Third of three.
I refolded this so that there was less white space on the bottom. Remember the offer to redo any envelope that was deemed unworthy. This one is unworthy. I hope I remember to send Anne a bonus envelope. Maybe I should make a list of the ones who deserve better, then come up with one idea - so I can crank all the make-up envelopes out without the pressure of coming up with a new good idea.

This post was scheduled quite a while ago. This paragraph is being added on Nov 11th to pop up on the 12th. I just returned from a 3 week trip and had a glorious time opening all the mail that came in the October exchange. Almost all of it was seasonal - Halloween. I realized that Halloween is a really good holiday for mail art. I love the envelopes - and will probably hold them and post them next September so you can all steal ideas from each other.

I'm tempted to remove the envelope today - it really bugs me. But, I have been pretty good about showing the duds. I should redo the duds and make them lovable. s-o-m-e-d-a-y

Three weeks without surfing - I will probably stay up all night. This was the first thing I found on Pinterest.

 http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650/

I could probably stay up all night just on this one website.

Removed an envelope - added a surf spot

Third of three.
I refolded this so that there was less white space on the bottom. Remember the offer to redo any envelope that was deemed unworthy. This one is unworthy. I hope I remember to send Anne a bonus envelope. Maybe I should make a list of the ones who deserve better, then come up with one idea - so I can crank all the make-up envelopes out without the pressure of coming up with a new good idea.

This post was scheduled quite a while ago. This paragraph is being added on Nov 11th to pop up on the 12th. I just returned from a 3 week trip and had a glorious time opening all the mail that came in the October exchange. Almost all of it was seasonal - Halloween. I realized that Halloween is a really good holiday for mail art. I love the envelopes - and will probably hold them and post them next September so you can all steal ideas from each other.

I'm tempted to remove the envelope today - it really bugs me. But, I have been pretty good about showing the duds. I should redo the duds and make them lovable. s-o-m-e-d-a-y

Three weeks without surfing - I will probably stay up all night. This was the first thing I found on Pinterest.

 http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/an-alphabet-of-organic-type-ca-1650/

I could probably stay up all night just on this one website.

taking a break / took a break

update:
below is the post i posted on june 30th. i kept posting and responding to readers and figured out that i could run some re-runs of old envelopes rather than taking a break. so there will be something to see every day - probably. after i hit a half million hits i would like to get to a million before i actually retire. so we'll see how it goes. it took 6 years+ to get to a half million. i think i can keep up for another 6 years - and hopefully, i will have some new content pretty soon.

thanks to my readers who commented and helped me figure out a way to keep going daily.

below is the original post...

i'm taking a break from the blog because i have run out of time to scan envelopes. i'm sad to stop because i know there are several people who start their day with a cup of coffee and an envelope. my stack of cards and letters from fans is one of my favorite stacks....but the other stacks are out of control and it is time to do something about them. who knows, i might do some impulse blogging....or maybe post something once a month...just to let you know if i am making any progress towards getting back to the blog.


i know there were people looking forward to the next exchange. i'm sorry that the exchanges are also on hold...but i imagine i will get back to them eventually. i certainly have a lot of stamps left to use up.





the image today is from this blog.
it was going to be another sunday post. i had a couple of them scheduled - which is why there was a sunday post yesterday.

http://www.anachropsy.com/blog/index.php

you have to scroll down to see this image. so far, i have not found any actual envelopes on the blog, but this would be a fine envelope with a stamp and an address tucked in some where.

uber surf worthy link

sunday?? guest artist

my head almost exploded in a good way when i saw this.

i guess it is by pablo dugaz.
it appears to be one of several pieces of mail sent to cecile pierre.

you may click along and see more nice work at the link

http://callicecile.canalblog.com/albums/mail_art_recus_/photos/102271505-pablodugaz.html

tomorrow i will explain why we are having sunday again.