more experimenting

Inspired by the journal pages that Wendy Brightbill makes with cardboard, I made and mailed out the following cards:

I made them pretty quickly and wasn’t as methodical with my paper and paint chaos as I usually am. I really like using cardboard even though I am not quite sure how I am feeling about these.

I was beating myself up about whether these pieces were good or not, when I found a quote on Keri Smith’s blog. I am copy and pasting the whole thing I like it so much:

Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping,…Stop it and just DO!…

Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw & paint your fear and anxiety…

You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO!…

Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be…

I know that you (or anyone) can only work so much and the rest of the time you are left with your thoughts. But when you work or before your work you have to empty you [sic] mind and concentrate on what you are doing. After you do something it is done and that’s that. After a while you can see some are better than others but also you can see what direction you are going. I’m sure you know all that. You also must know that you don’t have to justify your work – not even to yourself.

excerpted from a letter from Sol Lewitt to Eva Hesse (via Keri Smith)

inspiration from one of my favorite cities in the world

These past few days, I was able to visit one of my favorite cities in the world, a city in which I spent nearly 8 years of my life: New Orleans. It was a quick trip but what a gift to be able to go back and visit. I haven’t been since before Katrina.

These photos are of some of the images that I have clung to in my memory and was so happy to see. I missed you New Orleans!

experiments

I am trying to be accepting of experiments and not always making work that I consider perfect. My experiments started with a “Layers of Flavor” swap on swap-bot. The idea was to use at least three techniques from a list provided and to experiment. These are what I came up with:

 

Afterwards, I made the following three in the hopes that spring would arrive soon:

I have more, but this is good for today!

a big rock

My father is visiting from the East Coast of the U.S. On Saturday, we visited Steamboat Rock in Central Washington. Isn’t it amazing? I’ve been wanting to see it for long while now.

I’ve been making as usual. I sent a bunch out today. I’ll post some eventually.

to be mailed at some point

Sometimes I make collaged cards and then they sit on my desk until I get around to addressing and mailing them. These are some that meet that category:

yahoo! a brief glimpse of sun for me.

I was in Southern California this past week for work- the perfect place to visit in February when you have just had it with the grey and the extra weight of coats. And the light… I noticed it even as I waited for my buddy to pick me up at LAX. So clear and light, yet not overwhelmingly bright. You could stare into it without worrying too much about destroying some vital part of the sensitive to light northerners’ eyes. This could all be in my head. Nonetheless, the colors were vibrant and hopeful. Here are some of the creations made in my Westin hotel room:

This last one is of the San Bernardino mountains that are overwhelmingly present when looking East and yet people cannot tell me much about them. Do people live on them year round? Can you hike them? What is on the other side? I want to make more collages to acknowledge their majestic presence.

mm

oops

I forgot to share this one the other day. I really like it.

I’ve been in Southern California for the last week for a training for work. In the evenings, I made collages. I’ll share them shortly.