June from Grace - a better kite

Grace is a whiz with markers as well as with nibs and ink. Getting good results with markers on colored paper can be tricky. This shade of green on this shade of yellow is so perfect with the stamp. As always - getting the colors close enough to the stamp can make such a difference in the overall success. 

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Random silliness. Maybe something better will come up and bump this.

Something better did pop up - but, there's always room for a little silliness. 

Here is a better kite idea.

It reminds me to stop being so literal. The stamp doesn't have be turned into a kite - it can just be tied to a string.

If I appropriate this idea I will run the grass all the way along the bottom and leave the name on the string - but put the address in a legible orientation right above the grass.

 

June from Irene. What those two people were staring at

 

Irene sent a suggestion to smile. Done. It came in an envelope with a pretty script name and a rainbow background. She left a tiny bit of white space around the name. Put a pin in that - as we will be seeing another example of that technique.

I'm filling in add-ons while I am in Chicago. I'm also sifting through the stack of stuff that caught my eye and seemed blog worthy. Of course, I lose track of what I post - so hopefully this is not a repeat. 

It's a painting that shows what the subjects of famous paintings were looking at. To me, it is a very clever concept. It's silly. But I'm a fan of silly. Not all day every day - just enough here and there to offset the things that frazzle us. 

@tussenkunstenquarantaine

It seems like the artist is continuing with the trend that started during covid when people were reenacting paintings. It's fun. to recall how creative people were when they had to cope with a huge problem that impacted everyone. As bad as it was, there were a few things that were like silver linings. 

June from Judi - Brenda's mailbox

Judi's June envelope was square and she knew that squares need extra postage and went with the 2-Forever solution. The items in the envelope were smaller than the envelope so you can see that the machines did some crumpling. The booklet gave the mailing enough heft that it made it through fine.

The color pallet is one of my favorites and drawing patterns is one of my favorite activities. I keep thinking I can lure my grandkids into patterns. I should probably stop trying. Hopefully I can take the mandala concept and morph it into a rectangle. 

The mandala patterns complement the Ruth Asawa stamps. 

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Brenda Walton came up with a fun idea for her mailbox. She shows all the steps in her video of painting it to look like a stamp. It might be a reel on IG. I'm not sure how IG reels work. It seems like they disappear after 24 hours. Here is a close up. I wonder if her house number is 5. When I lived in St. Paul, my house number was 6. I remember when asked for my address and I said 6 Susan Ave - it was not uncommon for people to assume I was kidding around and I would have to convince them that it was an actual address.

If her house number is not 5 - maybe this is not on the front of her house. It would be confusing to have a big 5 on the front of your house if that was not your house number.

I feel like I need to explore this idea for my son's house. He could use a new mailbox.

@brendawalton  - if you want a bunch of easy ideas in a style that is MaryEngelbreitish.

 

June (May) from Liz - USPS machine issues

Liz's work is exuberant and there have been a couple examples of me channeling her style. One of my envelopes was wacko - but she let me know that she liked it. Then I wrote something to her about her envelopes turning me loose to explore my wild side. I had every intention of doing that - until I was under a tight deadline to get the July envelopes out. 

You'll just have to stay tuned to see what she received in July that is the antithesis of wild.

And - apparently this was her May envelope. It must have come after I had posted the bulk of the May envelopes. Below is the flip side of the envelope.

I have a box of Crayola markers sitting out - waiting for me to find them a new home....but now I'm thinking I might do Liz's August envelope.

A note about the filler in the envelopes. This one did not have a square filler. The machines folded the top part down. It was quite crumpled. I flattened it out. There is no way to give specific directions on how to. prepare envelopes with stuffing that will travel through the USPS machines safely.

If they are too stiff - they become *rigid* and that incurs a surcharge. Liz knew that the square envelope required extra postage and went with two Forevers - which was more than enough.

 

June from Lynne - 5,000,000 views

It is the 4th of July, 9:18 am. This is the start of the June mail that has arrived so far. Let's see how many posts I can do in one day - keeping to the system where I post them in the order I find them in the file. 

This one is from Lynne. The style of writing is WeaverWriting - a style invented by the late Gwen Weaver and one that I have not done in a couple decades. It's on the to-do list. I tried some flowers on my July envelopes and *woof* - they were duds. I salvaged some of them. I needed to get them done and in the mail by the 7th because of a quick mission to Chicago to stay with the grandkids. 

I also need to fill up all of July.

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Now it is the 5th of July. Every holiday should be on a Saturday so that Sunday is a day off. I managed to fill up all of July in a couple hours - with the photos. About half have their blurbs written. 

I keep forgetting to mention that the blog passed 5 million views a couple days ago. Imagine if I had monetized. <sigh> Although people who monetize usually burn out. I'm glad I'm dodging that bullet.

 

June to Irene, JeanR and Janet - TRAP, not WPA

These are the other half of the ones I started with just lettering - and tried to come up with something else. I like the border on Irene's. Overall, it's fairly simple - which is usually fine with me. Although I've been filling up a little more space recently.

Jean gets a round stamp every month and I think there are 4 or 5 still to come. As I say every time one of these pops up, I should have done all of them at once - since the roundness is a very strong and fun design element to lead the way.

Once again, Janet ends up with a ho-hum, bordering on dud. I need to establish a rating system for envelopes. Also a system where Janet doesn't keep getting duds. 

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This is the end of the outgoing June mail. Also the end of me talking about post office murals from the 1930s. The person who took these photos - but doesn't have her name on her Flickr account had this to say - which clarifies that thing I wrote a couple days ago about wondering if I had the name correct - and I did not. 

She wrote:

Although it's often assumed that the New Deal-era Post Office murals were WPA art projects, they were actually painted by artists working for the Section of Fine Arts that was administered by the Treasury Department. The main goal of "The Section" was to make art accessible to all people by funding high quality art to decorate public buildings. More than eleven hundred post office murals and sculptures for federal buildings were created under the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP).

The oil painting on canvas is "Time Out" by Joseph P. Vorst (1942). It is the Bethany, MO post office

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So, now we know and I am not going to go back and correct my earlier posts. Or maybe I will add a disclaimer when I do a final edit right before this pops up.

I'm not going to search for info on the artist, Joseph P. Vorst. I noticed that he has the farm wife wearing heels. That seems a little odd. 

 

June to Jeannette, Judi and Juliana

First I found a style of writing that I liked and had forgotten about. Then I decided to try some borders.

That vintage air mail border appeals to me. I need to try it with bolder markers.

This one needed more - but what? I still can't think of anything.

Same opinion on the one below.

Ho-hummers. 

At least I have a good story - or a story that I like.

As I was scanning through all the little post offices around Iowa, I spotted another shot of an interior with a 1930s era mural. When I clicked on it, it led to a person with a Flickr account. 

This is her blurb that went with the photo:

More of my latest interest: Depression-era post offices with murals! The Bloomfield Post Office on West Jefferson Street was built in 1937. Its New Deal mural, “Autumn in Iowa,” is oil on canvas, painted by John Sharp in 1939. He also painted murals for the post offices in Rockwell City and Hawarden, Iowa.

 

 When I looked up John Sharp, I discovered he was from Eldon, Iowa and - you won't believe this fun, fascinating fact - he happened to be the young man who volunteered when artist Grant Wood requested a tour of the town of Eldon. It was John Sharp who made the decision to drive by and show Wood the little house that ended up being the backdrop for the world famous painting, American Gothic. Aren't you glad you know this!! :o)

***

Here is a link to the photographer's info - I can't find her name - I don't know that much about Flickr other than that it's a place where people can post photographs - and it attracts some really good photographers.

https://www.flickr.com/people/34086110@N06/  

 

June to Grace and Riley - another PO in Iowa

Grace deserves way better than this. I thought I had some good ideas and had done a couple roughs. I didn't have time to start over - so I enclosed the roughs as well as the first attempt that was so bad I had to ditch it.

I was working out that curly banner that's on the stamp.

Riley has sent a couple envelopes that surprised me that they had made it to Iowa.

One was the tiny one - and I have forgotten what the other one was. 

Since I had run out of RuthBG ideas - but I had photocopied the sheet of stamps - I thought I'd use the photocopy in a vellum envelope. It seemed like it was not going to be scanner friendly. I hope it arrived.

I sure hope I come up with some good ideas for July.

Here's another Iowa post office. Lots of them popped up when I did the search for the one in Leon.

Here's the one in Beaver, Iowa - population 44 in 2020. 

Oh, WOW! I clicked on another post office and found a really good story... for tomorrow.

 

June to Leslie and Sharen - lackluster

I actually liked these. But, I'm not sure they have broad appeal. They just look like what I like...and I think my taste is not mainstream. What's the opposite of mainstream? Google says: fringe, unconventional and alternative. Yup. Those three describe me to a T or is it tea or tee. I am too lazy to do the research on that one.

 

I think there are only four more posts to fill up during this session that is late in the day with my lackluster writing. Should I look for synonyms for lackluster since I used that word yesterday? 

boringflatho-hummuteduninspired

WEAK

blahblindcolorlessdarkdeaddimdrabdraggydrylaid-backleadenlusterlessmattenothingobscurepabulumprosaicsombreunimaginativevanillavapidzero

June to Mary - Mary's June envelopes

 

Vellum envelopes do not photograph very well. I have quite a few of them to use up. Maybe I'll figure out something that looks better. 

Mary kindly sent me some envelopes - so I'll add a couple here since my jabbering is so lack-luster.

I'm pretty sure I am going to steal these two ideas for my July envelopes. I have some black and Kraft envelopes to use up and I have paint pens. The only stumbling block will be stamps.....

June to Kate- Leon post office

 

I loved the envelope that Kate sent in June and felt bad that this is what she received in the exchange. I had a card that went inside - and I guess it was more than an ounce so I had to add the school bus. The silly little stickers were left over from the Monster stamps. I made the mistake of taking it in to a post office and handed it to a clerk who I have met up with previously. She seems like she is trying to do a good job - but she also seems like she doesn't really understand what's going on. 

Here is a post office story. My son was out doing whatever he does for the USPS at the post office in Leon, Iowa - and heard a sad little kitten meowing. He fed it and then it looked pathetic so he brought it to a vet in Des Moines - and now it's at the place that cares for stray kittens before putting them up for adoption....and he can have it if he wants it. Since he had a cat that died - he's been wanting another one....so.... I thought I would illustrate the story with a photo of the Leon, Iowa post office - and I think I already featured it in a blog post. It was built in 1936 and still has an original WPA mural. I think WPA is the right name - I'm too lazy to research.

***There is a correction that will be posted on Wed, July 15th. It was TRAP, not WPA.

Then I found this - is the study for the mural. 

The study is tempera paint on panel and it is at the Smithsonian.

If you look at the details - the study is so much better.

I wonder if the person who did the study did the actual painting.

It looks like they sent someone else to paint the mural.

Or - perhaps the person who did the study wasn't skilled at transferring a study onto a wall.

June to Lynne and Liz

 

I've seen some very fun envelopes where people add a body to a portrait stamp. Many of them are very clever. These are moderately cute. I didn't do any surfing to find good images or ideas. I just drew out of my head. Drawing out of one's head is probably better if one does a lot of drawing. I don't draw any more. I've taken another break from working on the blog posts and as I write this (on June 28th) I see that I'm a little bit behind - plus I should be thinking of what I'm going to do for my July envelopes. I found some very old Xmas stickers - and was thinking of doing Xmas in July. That sounds like a terrible idea. Also it is 5 pm - not a time of day when the jabbering flows easily.

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"Other people go to pilates or take meditation classes. I like making soup."

That is a line from a video about a woman who loves color. There are plenty of unconventional features in her home. It's a ten minute tour around her home in the Cotswolds. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gjhQwewT8w

June to Renee and Jessica - store windows

I had this one penciled in prior to stamp pondering. Then when I had so many RBG stamps, I thought the oval was enough of a connection to her lace collar. I was wrong. Perhaps I will revisit this border. Perhaps it should be larger. Perhaps I will find some better ideas.

Below is the first idea to go with the stamp. It's a warm up. Jessica gets a lot of warm ups. Certain names pop into my head because they never miss an exchange. I always feel bad about them getting warm ups - but last month Jessica got one of my favorites - so I hope that evens things out.

I already know that she will get a warm up for July and it's pretty good.

The window display guy that I posted yesterday reminded me of how much I loved the annual trek to downtown Minneapolis every year to see the Christmas windows at the Dayton's department store when I was a kid. They were spectacular. I also remembered seeing pictures of Tiffany windows over the years that were gorgeous. As the video mentioned, window decorating is becoming a lost art. It's still fun to see what small local shops do. Once in while there will be something fabulous.

A few days ago I saw a blurb about a big company that had ripped off a very specific style of *totem pole* sculpture that an artist has been producing for many years. It was outrageous what they had done. But, I do not recall the name of the artist or the store that ripped him off. Maybe it will pop up again and I can add a link. 

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Well, that was easy - 2 clicks and I found the artist - Dustin Gimbel - and the store who had copied his totems was Nordstroms - and they have taken all of them down. My guess is that some youngster on staff was just surfing around for ideas - and some of these young people are clueless about the ownership of ideas. It's especially hard for people in the world of fashion because there are many components of fashion that do not fall under copyrights. 

Ironically - Nordstroms did all their knockoffs in cardboard - my favorite medium. 

LINK to Dustin's IG

LINK to totems for sale

$3,505 for the trio - they are ceramic. That seems like a very reasonable price considering how expensive it would be for the materials plus all the time it would take to build them - and how large they are. 

LINK to landscape design. Well, since he is a landscape designer - maybe that's how he makes a living and this is a sideline - and he has a studio where several people are producing the components. But it is still a lot of work. They appeal to me because they are not plants - but look like plants. I like sculpture yards because it takes care of itself. I have a few ideas percolating for my son's yard.

If you like yard art made out of junk - and want to see more - just Google *yard art made out of junk*

 

June to Kerry and Jackie - window display guy

I just wrote the blurb yesterday with the wire sculpture - and I thought I would be inspired to write names and fill in some colors - and then these two popped up and they are soooooo boring compared to the idea I had on the previous post. I wonder if I always do better with more colorful stamps. It probably depends on if I have markers and pens in the right colors. I'm a big fan of monochrome and muted color palettes. 

These two are so-so - veering into dudsville.

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If you have 23 minutes to fill up and if you were ever wowed by window displays. The blurb that goes with the video is a good description.

In a story from The Current, legendary design editor Robert Rufino revisits his early career designing windows for iconic New York institutions—from Henri Bendel to Tiffany & Co.—helping pioneer the evocative display style known as “street theater.” Set across a series of 10th Street storefronts, the year-long project culminated in a week-long celebration. Captured in a short film by Joshua Charow, the result is both an ode to a lost art form and a portrait of a creative force still shaping culture nearly 50 years on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVUUg0UmC80

 

June to Troy and Patty - wire sculpture

Last month Troy sent an envelope with a kite and my name written in *string.* I did a variation and it's so-so. Then I did a second variation because I was using up all the RBG stamps. Another so-so.

Patty sent me a photo of what it looked like with its cancel because she knew I would like it. Very nice addition to the composition.

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Here's a fun guy who is doing very well with his wire sculptures. I'll link to his website and if you scroll down there is a nice 15 minute video showing how his current style evolved.

https://www.jdpaterson.com/

The pice above is $22,000 and the one below is $4,000. They have moving parts.

I can feel myself being inspired to make envelopes - write names and color in some spaces