July from Christy and Carol - pranks part 2

 

Above from Christy, below from Carol. Once again - my stack of mail and postings and scans did some jumping around. Hopefully they are not repeats. They are happy, sunny designs - appropriate for the last day of August.

The postmark that's been on several envelopes, observing the 250th anniversary of the USPS has been fun to watch. It often looks like the eagle is clutching or trying to catch the stamp

***

Well, I feel like a real amateur. There are a gazillion epic pranks online. So many - I don't even know what to choose as an example.....

HERE is one LINK to a bunch of pranks  they are pretty elaborate

From Riley in July -- Xmas prank

 

Here is one of Riley's envelopes that I consider recognizable. Since I had so much fun with my August envelopes - using inspiration from Rachael for all 20+ maybe this will be my inspiration for my September envelopes. I could use up orphan stamps as well as orphan envelopes....

***

I was jabbered out - and then I found this blurb that I had written and did not post - and it's a *July* theme - so I'll tuck it in here with a July envelope.

My daughter and her family are not overly into pranking - but they do like an appropriate one from time to time. Once in a while I'll do something that is just the right amount of silliness. When I was visiting in early July, I had my all-time favorite idea. As previously mentioned, my daughter and son in law are very tidy. My son in law and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to Christmas. If I am at their house for Christmas, I'm always up earliest - and on the 26th, I tend to have all the ornaments off the tree before anyone wakes up. Then he and I have everything put away by about 10 am.

So, on my trip in July, as the family was loading up the car - for their 4 day out-of-town little league  tournament - I ended up in the kitchen with only my daughter. I asked her if she was worried what I was going to do while I was home alone for 4 days - since I had already been reorganizing things in the kitchen. She shrugged and said, "No."

I said -- "What if I get out all the Christmas decorations and set up the tree and put a big *Merry Christmas in July* sign on the door - for when you get home." We both started laughing so hard - agreeing that it would be an epic prank on her husband. We had tears rolling down our cheeks. The look on her husband's face would have been soooo good. Or not.

I thought about it the whole time they were gong -- but it was just too much. I wonder if there are websites on line that feature epic pranks.... I'll go look - and maybe there will be one more post to fill up August before I take my break.

July from Liz and Juliana - to Chuck

From Liz (above) and Juliana (below)

And this one is a continued effort to get those alcohol markers to blend.

I wonder if the type of paper makes a difference - I bet it does.

I was going to fill up the last two days in August - but I think I'll go experiment with markers. 

I'm jabbered out.

It's 97° as I write this so there is no temptation to go anywhere.

***

I'm doing my final edit -3 days before this posts - and I am happy to report that we have been having the most beautiful weather. Day after day of sunshine. People are giddy. I wonder what catastrophe is lurking.....

 

July from Kate - and cool *number* video

 

Kate has a large collection of hand carved rubber stamps. She used one of them for the border. The cancel looks like it was intentionally positioned - but I'm sure it's machine done. I especially like the way the border is a bit to the left and the way the stamp overlaps. This one get's the steal worthy label - although I'm not sure if I'll get around to carving stamps. I have the supplies - just not sure about the time. I'm writing this a month ahead - and have no idea how far along I will be on my ofrenda project.

***

As I recall, there are some readers who like number things. The first 40 seconds of this video shows a book that was hand written by someone who loved both penmanship as well as numbers. I'm intrigued with the book and maybe when I am done with the Day of the Dead - I'll comeback and watch a bit more and see if there is anything that inspires fun envelope designs.

LINK to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhSlqIe1CRQ

The title of the book - The Holey Monster -with 934 faces  - sounds interesting..... reminds me of the giant skull. I wonder how many *faces* there are on that 3D shape.

This example, from the video will either draw you in - or send you screaming in the other direction.

That is an interesting font to pair with complicated math. I think it's a lovely *break* from all the precision and technicality. Or maybe they just wanted something that looked like an old fashioned chalk board.

July from Rachael - Goodnight Moon to Davonte

I often appropriate ideas off Rachael's envelopes. She agrees with me that these stamps are a little tricky. Rachael's designs often exhibit precision that is more than what I am willing to launch on an envelope. Of course, when I try to do something similar - but a little looser - it loses a lot in the translation. I always examine the envelope closely to see what the steps were. Anything where you *color in* can be tricky. I tend to color first and then outline. 

It was time to send something to Davonte, my postal worker friend. I liked the idea of lifting the lettering style from the stamp. Rachael's looks better with the yellow background. And mine needed a little darker green - but, it's OK. I did not enjoy doing the scalloped border and doubt that I'll do it again - and yet - I think I liked some of the ones where I put the frame as a border on the whole envelope.

I thought I had already posted Rachael's but now I can't find it - so -- here it is -- on its own - in case anyone is keeping a folder of images that they can use for inspiration. Grrr at myself that I have not been doing that..... 

 

June from Patty and Lynne - Books to consider

Once again, I found unopened mail from the previous month. If I had not opened it, I think that means I have not posted it. Apologies if these are repeats. I'm pretty sure they are not because I do not recall talking about marbling. The topic has come up a couple times LINK to previously mentioned marbling I have marbled. It's lots of fun. 

While I have not yet read any of these books - two of them are recommended by our pen pal Clover.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek 

and The Book Woman’s Daughter.

Another book that I have on reserve from my library is 

MAILMAN: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home, by Stephen Starring Grant

Here are a couple excerpts from the review in the NYTimes:

Grant found himself grudgingly delivering the mail in middle age (he was 50) because he’d lost his job as a marketing consultant. He had a wife, two teenage daughters and a tiny but worrisome nugget of prostate cancer. He needed the job for health insurance and to ward off the biggest dog, depression. Several years earlier, he’d moved his family from Brooklyn back to his hometown, Blacksburg, Va., in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so that his children would grow up with grass under their feet. Until he was laid off, he still commuted regularly to New York and other major cities.

<snip>

He liked the days when orders of baby chicks came in, though delivering the heavy bags of chicken feed that followed was a bummer. People gave him cookies; he often got free coffee at Starbucks. He got a lot of steps in, often 15,000 a day.

<snip>

The United States has the largest postal system on the planet, and it accepts no taxpayer dollars. It pays for itself. Mail carriers may grouse and weep and have dark senses of humor, but they have a camaraderie that resembles that of line cooks. They are proud of their work and have genuine integrity, he writes.

<snip>

Grant is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, but he does not say, in “Mailman,” if he ever took a stab at being a full-time writer.

<snip>

Has he read Charles Bukowski’s “Post Office” or J. Robert Lennon’s “Mailman,” those wildcat novels, or Eudora Welty’s story “Why I Live at the P.O.”? Does he know that Charles Mingus delivered the mail, and that John Prine wrote some of his best songs while doing so? Has he ever listened to “Please Mr. Postman” or “Return to Sender”? Has he seen “Il Postino”? Is he aware that William Faulkner quit the post office because he didn’t want to be at “the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp”? 

OK - that's about half the review -- enough.

 

August from Irene - John Willenbecher

 

This gorgeous pointed pen work came from Irene. She said she incorporated ideas from a recent class with Rachael Yallop called Double Stroke Capitals. Irene said the second line is tricky - trying to get the spacing right and the length just right.  She also included this pinwheel which she said is a work in progress. As with most things - they probably get better if you do hours and hours of practice. IMHO, both are lovely - and it's something I would not even attempt. Although, I had an idea for doing concentric circles with a compass as well as dividing lines to make it easier to do the pinwheel. I wonder if I'll remember to try that idea.

***

Your add-on for today is a charming interview with an artist who has lived in a loft in NYC for decades, John Willenbecher. While he is not well known, he was able to make a living as an artist. His work appeals to me on a few levels. If you have time to kill or you like mid- 20th century art you might enjoy the interview. It led me to the gallery that represents him - and the list of the gallery's artists included Ray Johnson, the father of mail art. I haven't mentioned him in a long time, so maybe it's time to mention him again. I might remember to do that someday.

Link to interview with John Willenbecher

I liked this description of the gallery:

Side Room Gallery is a curatorial and archival project by Gilles Heno-Coe whose program showcases emerging and mid-career contemporary artists as well as overlooked and historically important figures deserving broader recognition.

LINK to the gallery

Willenbecker was influenced by Louise Nevelson and Joseph Cornell.

June from Janet

Janet usually encloses a note - and this time it included a *grrrr* - she said that *neatness went out the window.* I know the feeling. Her inserts are lovely - and more than make up for whatever bothered her about the envelope.

The '24 in the corner suggests that Janet has a stockpile of artwork. 

I have one, too. I often wonder what it would be like to use up everything in the stockpile.

And I guess she didn't have a stamp that she liked for this one. Or maybe, like me, she gets distracted and makes more than one envelope for someone on the list - and then every month - forgets to use one that is already half done.

There are probably a lot of parallels in our studios. When Patty stopped over to pick up supplies to make flowers for the Day of the Dead ofrenda - she noticed that I had various parts of the project in the living room, the kitchen, the family room - and commented on how she too feels like there is never enough room in one's studio - and art projects seem to infiltrate the entire house.... yup - I have two bedrooms with parts of the project and also a two-car garage. Adding all that up is a little concerning. 

***

This was on the back of Janet's June envelope - and I forgot to post it....

Her return address says:

From Janet Renaud, a well-bred envelope designer, who would NEVER do anything intricate.

The upside down piece says: 

The Envelope Is Part of the Letter

Use envelopes of standard sizes in order that your mail may be more easily and quickly handled. Select envelopes made of white or light-colored paper. Do not select envelopes with intricate designs or embossing. Simplicity in stationery selection is a sign of good breeding.

I think we need to revisit this whole topic.

 

July to Smash - Jillian Kaye

Finally - an envelope that I really like. There are some things I would change if I did another one but it's a solid idea that did not have a stamp in mind - and it was a very happy moment when I found this one. I'm tempted to do a snake series.... but not every letter is snake-friendly.

Here is a fun quilt for someone who likes snakes. The background is a little too busy for me - but it looks like a pattern that might work as a border on an envelope. 

***

Our add-on is Jillian Kaye who does mail art. I posted one of her envelopes in 2021 LINK to the first post

It's quite a trip down memory lane - reading what it was like during covid. 

As I wander through my folders - I see that Jillian is still in business and she is on IG.

LINK to Jillian's IG. Her handle is PB and Jillian - which is very cute. Her work is equally cute.

Here is a link to a party invitation for her son - when he turned 1. If you have time to look at her IG, she has several videos showing her process. If you find the one where she draws sushi it will make you want to draw sushi - or if you are not into sushi - there are lots of other ideas. 

 

July to Riley, Jessica - Jenine Bressner

News flash - in real time: Denmark is shutting down their mail service for letters. They will only deliver packages. So, you can still make mail art - but it's going to be expensive.

 https://apnews.com/article/postnord-denmark-postal-service-mail-ce78db2f2234a50e676063fac790a617

Riley and Jessica's are the last of the green envelopes for this month. I still have some left and need to strategize how to use them. The colors on this stamp look nice - so I think I need to set them aside until there is a new chartreuse stamp with 20 of the same design. That will streamline things - and insure that there are more *hits* than *misses.*

***

Here's a link to someone I found in the ancient folder. At the time, she just had a blog - and I looked through it - and saw where she announced that she was joining IG. So, I checked out IG - and the first post was a video of her giving an impassioned plea during a gathering. It looks like (sounds like) a group of developers are trying to buy a building that has been artist studios for a very long time - to kick the artist out and continue the gentrification of the neighborhood. <sigh> Why don't developers like artists? We know the answer. $. 

Here is one line from her speech that resonated with me:

The happiest people don't HAVE the best of everything. The happiest people MAKE the best of everything. 
 

I recently had a.n.o.t.h.e.r. conversation with someone who was lamenting a situation where people with endless resources were nudging artists out of the way on a local level. I assured them that the artists will figure something out - they are perpetually being nudged out of their spaces - but they always find a new place. Then we wondered --- what would artists need to do to be appreciated and welcomed. <sigh> There's no answer to this particular musing. Or, if there is, I'm sure someone will leave a comment.

LINK to Jenine Bressner's IG.  She makes a variety of things.

July to Leslie

 

Here is another one from the series where I drew a bunch of lines. You can see in the photo below that I botched the name. After staring at it for a while - I decided to embolden the name and then spend the right amount of time redrawing the little guys. It's OK - and I was OK sending it - but then - when Leslie's July envelope arrived I was aghast at the thought of what I had sent her. She sent two -- and they are both very nice - but one of them is stunning. They might show up pretty soon as I think we are almost done with my July envelopes....

As I peruse the ancient folder of things I thought might be interesting for the blog, I run across quite a few where the websites no longer exist. Maybe the people moved to other platforms. Maybe they just gave up their creative pursuits and went with something more mainstream and their creative pursuit is reserved for their own enjoyment. I've noticed a lot of burnout amongst the people who think they want to be *content creators.* I don't think I'll ever burn out because I don't create content - I create envelopes. I can't picture a future without actual mail. There's less of it - but that's exactly what makes it so special.

As I've said for decades - having a job where you make pretty things looks like it would be fun - and part of the time it is fun - but it's still work and there are still headaches and there are still rough days when you aren't sure you are on the right path. 

Tomorrow I will post a link to someone who is fighting a battle - along with others - to maintain their studios.

July to Maggie & Mary (2nd layer)

These two were started on the trip to Chicago and then finished when I got home. I keep pulling out the alcohol markers to see if I can figure out something fabulous. So far - the results are OK - as my broken record keeps saying - it's hard to do horrible flowers. 

The top one has more black outline. To me - it looked better with additional outlining - but the difference hardly shows up in the photos.

Here is something from the ancient folder - a collection of alphabets by people who were intrigued with the idea of having people contort into the shapes of the letters - like the song YMCA - only much more detailed. There are many examples - I chose this one from 1534.

If you would like to see more: LINK to the article

 

July to Amy

I was a little nervous about this one being too hard for the USPS to read. Hopefully it made it to Amy. We might spend a little more time on this idea. It seems like it has some potential. 

I have only 6 posts left to fill with my musing. When I was writing the part about the low blood pressure that lingered for a couple days after the hatching of the babies, I remember the only *treatment* for someone who couldn't even sit up without fainting much less stand up was to give them coffee and candy bars. At the time, it seemed like the field of medicine had not spent enough time researching remedies for the condition. 

I figured that over the past 40 years *they* would have come up with something better than coffee and candy bars. Nope. I didn't cross reference or dig deeper than the current Mayo Clinic's website.... but they didn't have much to offer... and they didn't include candy bars -- just coffee. 

I'll check my ancient folder to find something more interesting for tomorrow.

 

July to Juliana and Mary (1st layer) - the last comments about Tara

I had fun on Juliana's - but it's a bit ho-hum. Mary's needed something else - and the finished one will pop up later.

Here is my last look at Tara Donovan's work.

When the museum in my back yard had an exhibit of her work, I remember seeing the pins and toothpicks. I do not recall the glass. This piece was assembled with 4 wooden walls that were like a fence. I was not assigned to work on this piece - which was fine with me - because it was super tedious. People had to fill the box shape with pins or toothpicks. As I recall, she did not figure out a way to buy the items in bulk, so people were opening little boxes of pins and toothpicks. I thought that was absurd - but, that's just me. If there was a third box filled with glass - I do not recall how that worked. I can see how the pins and toothpicks would have been tangled up enough to hold together when the wood walls were removed. But, I do not see how the glass would have held together.

I can't find the dimensions of these pieces - as I recall - they were at least 3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft - but maybe a bit larger. I also recall someone telling me that Tara was not pleased with where the piece was placed and wanted to reconstruct it in a different position. There was discussion. Tara did not get her way. 

And there were no ropes around these pieces - people could have run into them and they would have fallen to pieces. I should have asked if I could watch them when they de-installed the pieces. I guess I could ask the preparator. Now that he's retired - I wonder if he's ever pondered writing down the stories of the constructing and deconstructing of some of these types of pieces

 

July to Sharen and JeanR - More Tara

Sharen may or may not have been in the health care world - but, I love the colors in that stamp. Below is the one that sat on my desk for a week - it needed something else - and then I spotted the detail on the stamp. I had done this one - thinking it would look nice with the Goodnight Moon stamps - but the blue was waaaaay off.

I added a note on the back to Sharen that it would have been fun to make the H out of bandaids. Bandaids are harder to draw than one would imagine.

I ran this one - without any color or stamp. I like it very much. 

And now back to Tara Donovan who builds things out of many, many other things.

LINK to her page at her gallery

One of my favorite pieces was a wall of plastic straws. And one of my least favorite things about her work is the use of environmentally unfriendly things. Lots of plastic and styrofoam. So, I ended up with mixed feelings about her work. There are enough other artists who make fabulous things out of natural materials and found objects. 

Here is a wall of straws. I liked the *sound* it made when you were close to it. It was quiet - but if you spoke - you could tell that the sound was different from what the sound would have been in the room without the wall of straws. This reminded me of those devices with many blunt pins that will reflect the shape of your hand. I can't think of what they are called. I always thought it would be fun to replicate this - but every place in my house that has two perpendicular walls has a window - and I couldn't see covering up a window. 

This is a stack of CDs

I found an image of these things - they seem to be called a pin art board.

July to Grace and Irene

I enjoyed doing these two. It's a very easy idea. I did not even use a ruler. I might revisit this idea and see if I can come up with something I love.

I went to the Tara Donovan listing at the Pace Gallery. They offered the words that I couldn't come up with: 

For over twenty years, Tara Donovan has created large-scale installations, sculptures, and drawings that utilize everyday objects to explore the transformative effects of accumulation and aggregation.

*Transformative effects.* I love gallery language. Transformative. You might love it or it might irritate you. I need to start using the word transformative when I need to be more diplomatic.

As a person who hoards things when there are multiples because I keep thinking that one or two would be easy to toss - but because I have 50 - they might be really cool if made them into something. Even things like bags from dry cleaning. When Patty came to pick up her first batch of flowers for the ofrenda, I only had one dry cleaning bag on hand to give her - and we agreed that there aren't many trips to the dry cleaner any more. After she left, I was wondering how hard it would be to come up with more dry cleaning bags - and - voila - there was a box in my garage labeled *dry cleaning bags.* So - I'm happy that I can use up that hoard. Oh-oh - when I opened the box - there was only one dry cleaner bag left. Note to self - record the number of items when filing the hoard.

I've veered way off topic....so will continue with Tara Donovan tomorrow.

 

July to Kate and Janet - Tara Donovan

These ran with just the names and I was pretty happy when I returned from my trip and found stamps that worked so nicely. I've had a hard time parting with these stamps. In my endless scrutinizing of details, I see things that I could point out that could have been better - but, I have an add-on today, so I will spare you the nit-picking.

When I read my post about the cool crate that was presented to the preparator at the museum and read the part about being hired to  work on some installations - I remembered the Tara Donovan exhibit. I haven't thought of her in a long time. Her *thing* is taking ordinary objects and using extreme quantities of the object to create sculpture that is -what- ? I'll have to read some reviews to see what words people choose to describe something that is very ordinary - but made extraordinary by doing something fairly simple.

The piece I worked on was a room filled with stacks of plastic cups.

That's pretty simple.

You know if you stack cups high enough, they will start to curve. So imagine a fairly large room filled with stacks of cups. The stacks are different heights ranging from about 12" tall to maybe 24" or maybe 30" - creating a landscape effect.

Here it is:

The view above is what it looks like if you are seated on the floor.

Below is what it looks like if you are standing.

Imagine getting paid to stack plastic cups all day.

Tara just comes up with the idea - and then assistants do the actual work. 

I'll post some other works tomorrow - this is not my favorite.

Although it was interesting to note how the piles of stuff affected the sound in the room.

 

July to Patty and Lynne

I don't know what to say about these - they are a hot mess - but I had fun tossing around ideas. Sometimes I think of that one more thing to add - to pull things together. This time - the one-more-things just added to chaos. I chose to stop - even though there was still some white space.....  I covered up a navy A with that self adhesive paper for making your own mailing labels. Then I thought about covering up the T with a better green... but that would have made me redo the Y and at a certain point I have to stop.

I think the problem with Lynne's is that her name is too small. I should have covered up the Lynne and put a larger LYNNE in the space above Salierno - or - better yet - should have incorporated that vertical line that shoots up between her first and last name into the LYNNE. It's so annoying to see the solution two weeks after I mailed the envelope. The outlining on the zip code should have been bolder.

I thought the colors would work with the Goodnight Moon stamp - but I didn't leave enough room for the stamp - and the monster was a better choice for a stamp that has to overlap.