MailArt: Melinda Hands Over A Power Deck

Speaking of family, my son, Ell, reached a landmark age this year which, of course, got me thinking and planning another mailart piece. And, as Count Rugen said (Princess Bride): "Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything." The idea came to me as I considered that we are dealt life cards in which we have no say. Yet, when we go out into the world, we take them with us and can shuffle them to our choosing. If we're lucky, we have time to choose from several career options. We all have to watch out for the joker. And, our spiritual beliefs are our ace up the sleeve during tough times. If we've had good guidance and if the deck has been stacked in our favor, life could go easily. Or, if not, there can be confusing misfortune. We can also choose to throw the best cards out, not realizing how important it is to shuffle wisely. This mailart piece is about the size of an Uno card deck: card stock, pencil and ink, solarplate images, glue, clippings from the NYTimes, and one deck of cards.

Color Returns: Tucson, Art and Things Heating Up

I'm pleased to report that the city of Tucson, along with Flagstaff, AZ, are suing the state over the recent immigration law signed by Governor Jan Brewer. The temperature today: 92 degrees, or 33.3333 C. As some of you know, one of my blog posts was plagiarized recently. But, what you didn't know was that I also dropped my cellphone...in the...you know. (!) Nobody wants to use it now. Sheesh. And, our dear KayDee dog has tick fever. She's gonna be fine with meds. The phone?...not so much. I'm also pleased to report that I am still here (relatively cheerful!), still working, hopeful that we will continue to converse on subjects aesthetic, political, personal and global. I will, however, be thinking about these issues as they relate to being online. If you want more information about blogging and plagiarism, which I didn't know was so pervasive, here is a link to a wonderful blogger, Velveteen Mind, who did something about it, and a link to Mr. Artyfice's rant. Feel free to weigh in. This painting is worked from the photo I took for the solarplate image you see from the previous post. It is 9" x 12", oil on linen panel artists' board. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Mail Art Experiment, Solarplate Marking a Day in Tucson

It was a warm and quiet day. The sky was clear, the quail, the grackles, the rabbits and the desert finches owned the yard at Fuerte y Claro. I'm good with that. I've had an idea for a mailart piece again. This time it included solarplate prints. Guess I'm approaching this thing backwards because I've got photos to share of today's work, even though I'm only just beginning the project. This next one is the first small cactus image on white paper. This second one is of a landscape I've never actually visited, but the image was a public one and I manipulated it enough to use it in my work. Each image is approximately 3" x 4." You can see that I was thrifty with the paper and, I'm happy to report, the solarplates that have been sitting in the dark for a couple of years (at least!), actually produced images. Mirabile dictu: I took some photos. Manipulated the images in Photoshop. Visited the local office supply store and had transparencies printed of my images. Dug out the old solarplates and cut them to size. Put them altogether in the glass sandwich and exposed them to the sun for 2 minutes, 34 seconds. Washed the plates in cool water for 5 minutes. Found scraps of BFK Rives paper and dampened them in the bathtub. Inked the plates with black relief ink. Printed the images in the Ettan press (how I've missed the dear press and how lovely she prints. Et voilà! I'm seeing that I've been away for way too long. Goodness, guess that Life in Hell cartoon I found the other day hit me a bit harder than I'd thought...And gee, after such a fun time with the last post. Sheesh. Hey, we can laugh and cry about this. Hope you're all feeling energized with spring and happily working on meaningful art. UPDATE Here are photos of two of the solarplates I used. You can see how thin the plates are and the polymer side with faint image: