the Art Blog of Sharon Kennick

A Class Takes Shape...

  The mail art genre is so fascinating and versatile. To start with, the envelopes can be made of so many different materials. You can start out with a pre-made envelope and decorate it, or you can use any number of substrates to build an envelope from the ground up. 

  And there are so many different media to decorate an envelope with. Collage, paint, spritzers, stamps, artistamps, tape, watercolor, pen and ink - the possibilities are endless.

  Then I haven't even begun to talk about what goes inside! Postcards, little works of art, cards made from the leftovers of cutting out the envelopes, letters written on the remnant of a magazine page. The letter could be the envelope, itself, opened out all the way. Can you imagine a set of holiday greetings made from the holiday issue of a magazine, with envelopes from whole pages, and greeting cards or notes made with clipped-out ephemera, stamped and hand written? Holy smoke...Or smoley hokes, as my sisters would say.
 

  Sooo...As I was noodling around in the studio today trying out different media and techniques for dressing up envelopes, a thought began to take shape, which turned into an idea and then morphed into something a little more real. A class. A mail art class where we play with the media and  the substrates, where we paint and spritz and cut and fold and stamp our hearts out, where we learn how to make little works of art to send to everyone we know. Where we make faux postage and play outside the box. We could start a network of mail artists, with everyone in the class participating in a mail art swap! What do you think?

  Rules # 1 and #2 for anyone teaching art are to share your passion and to teach what you're passionate about, and I seem to have developed a quite the passion for mail art, so with nothing to lose, I'll think I'll start working up lesson plans. Toss them up and see where they land. I'm intrigued and excited by the possibilities.

  In between noodling with mail art I've been playing with a new "upcycle" themed book titled Craftcycle: 100+ Eco-Friendly Projects and Ideas for Everyday Living, by Heidi Boyd. Filled with  fabric, plastic bag, paper, cardboard, snack bag, and aluminum can projects, it more than fulfills the promise of the title, and provides a great jumping off point for personal interpretation and creativity. Having tried a couple of the paper projects, I find that the step-outs are somewhat lacking in detail, but if you're willing to wing it a bit it IS possible to muddle through on your own. And what is there to lose, really? A magazine or two that can still be recycled? So, despite that one shortcoming, I'd still recommend it to anyone interested in playing with upcycled crafts. Before buying, why not check your local library?

  It's day #14 of that yucky bug I picked up during the trip to Arkansas, and it feels like I'm almost done with it. Yay! Kris is a couple of days behind me in her process, and we're devoutly hoping she's feeling better by Sunday morning when she leaves to go work back east for a couple of weeks. Nutriceuticals and chicken soup; fingers and toes crossed!

  Preparing food for her journey (chocolate chip cookies), then I'm off to the post office for - what else? To send out mail art! If you'd like to receive a piece of mail art, or participate in a mail art swap, just send me your mailing address here. Fun!

  Thanks for visiting; come again soon.

Bound and Lettered and More Mail Art Mania

  Our first issue of Bound and Lettered, the magazine  I mentioned a few posts back, has arrived, and it is every bit as awesome as I'd hoped it would be! It contains a couple of very cool how-tos with clear instructions and good illustrations, and is plumb full of well illustrated, interesting articles on bookbinding and hand lettering. I'm almost glad I was still sick when it arrived because that meant I could sit and read it guiltlessly, cover to cover - several times! I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in either calligraphy or bookbinding.

  My obsession with all things mail art continues, so, despite being sick, I've been noodling around at both the computer and at my worktable, designing envelopes, developing digital stamps, and answering mail art calls. For stamps, I was mostly  playing with the "Pioneer Heritage" series, using a few of the vintage family photos Princess Christmas Joy sent me a few months back.

              

  These are front and back views of an envelope made from advertisements in a vintage magazine. The scrumbly, pixellated effect is a "moire" artifact generated by scanning an old "half-tone" image. It's beautiful in person, but I could only correct it so far...

 

   This envelope is from the same Christmas issue of the magazine, using the cover. I love the way it came out!

   The envelope below is made from candy wrappers, glue-sticked together, with a pink liner. Fun!

 

 

   And some more artistamps, using my slot canyon photography. I think that maybe I'm having a little too much fun...

   I answered my first mail art call this week. A lady in California sent out a call for art themed "Note to Self." What a great theme, I thought, then put together this VERY spontaneous piece to send her:

   Opening the envelope completely reveals the art...

   Breathe Easy is a tea I drink anytime I've caught a respiratory bug, so I just happened to have an empty wrapper lying on the counter. And who hasn't written "notes to self" on a sticky? Then too, "breathe easy" seems like a good thing for anyone to remember these days. A tag with detailed instructions (it says "exhale" on the back) and a little tape to balance out the colors, and wahla! Hope she likes it! Goes in the mail as soon as I'm okay to go out. Which should be Friday if I avoid secondary infections. Fingers crossed!

I think I may have turned a corner today. Woke up feeling better, changed out of my jammies and actually felt like cooking breakfast for the first time in over a week. I'm coughing less, fever's gone, and I'm hardly snuffling at all. This would be day 11, so the timing's about right. Yay! On the mend...Stay well, yourself!

Thanks for visiting; come again soon!

Recycled Art Show, IUOMA, and More Fun with Faux Real Stamps

  Hello again, blog friends! I got a phone call last night from a lady named Colleen, on behalf of the Flagstaff Recycled Art Exhibition. I'm sure I wasn't very coherent, because I've come down with whatever respiratory bug Mom had while we were visiting, but I do remember that she confirmed the date and time for my demo - I'll be showing people how to make those folded German Star ornaments. It should be fun! I'm looking forward to it!

  The Recycled Art Exhibition is an annual event sponsored jointly by Flagstaff Cultural Partners and the Flagstaff Artist's Coalition. Open entry, with a limit of two pieces, the main requirement is that each piece be at least 80% recycled material. It's an amazing show! There are hundreds of entries, an opening reception, and weekend artists' demonstrations. This year, I've entered two new pieces, "Karmalia" and "The Secret Life of Brushes." I thought seriously about entering an assemblage piece I'm working on, "Lord of the Dance," an anthropomorphic assembly of
dead computer parts and, well, lots of other stuff. Kris suggested that I save it for next year, instead of pushing and rushing myself to finish it. I'm sure she's right...Anyhow, there's loads of publicity and several different awards given, including a People's Choice award, but I tend to not pay much attention to that aspect of the show. I attend to see the cool work people are doing; and there's plenty of that! The Exhibition runs from April 3rd through May 15th, and I hope to see you there! My demo is on the afternoon of the 8th, if you'd like to swing through. Love to see you!

  While checking out the links in the book from my last post, "Good Mail Day," I stumbled onto the website of the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA). Holy Smoke! Hundreds of mail art freaks from all over the world, dozens of special interest groups, including an artistamp group (which I intend to join...), calls for entries, a forum, and pages on pages of mail art. So I applied for membership late last night, and by 7 a.m. Arizona time, five people (two from the U.S., one from Italy, one from Greece, and one from, I think, Chile) had dropped by my IUOMA page to leave a welcome, and most of them came by the blog, as well. I feel truly welcomed. Next task, flesh out my IUOMA home page...and start sending out art!

  I'm having way too much fun, still, with the faux postage stamps, and am working at them obsessively. I forget to eat, and have to be reminded to take my nutriceuticals, cook, feed Kris, feed the dogs...I've got the mail art bug BAD. Not complaining...here are three of the designs I came up with yesterday, before I got sick enough that I had to curl up on the couch with hot rice socks.

  All three of these faux stamps are 100% digital. The first is a "Pioneer Heritage" commemorative stamp for the Fauxreal Republic. It uses an
image of my maternal grandmother, Virginia Grace, when she was still in school. The second is one I made for Kris (she may be a rocket scientist, but doesn't do digital graphics, and doesn't particularly want to...) and her "Big Sky Republic." "Yote" (short for "coyote") is her nickname, and she wanted a stamp with that on it. It's a commemorative stamp of the poster for an exhibit at the "Tycho Brahe Museum of Art." Tycho Brahe is not just a person, it's a big crater on the moon...which is where the museum is...The third is another exhibition poster, this one from the Capitol Museum of Modern Art's "Digital Expo ~ 2009," with the motto of the Fauxreal Republic up the left side, "Believing is seeing." 

  What's a hot rice sock? It's our version of a moist heat pack. You take a clean dead tube sock without any holes in it, pour about a pound of rice (any grain will do) into the toe, then tie it off with a rubber band. To use it, simply microwave it on high for 2 minutes or so. Pull it out and put it where it'll do the most good. It's a little piece of heaven on earth. I will occasionally warm my cold bed with them in the wintertime. 

  You know, that sounds pretty good right about now...I think I feel a nap coming on.

  Thanks for visiting. Come again soon!

Dodging Tornadoes, Going Postal in the Fauxreal Republic, and Art Journaling in Arkansas

we're home again after a fun and interesting trip to arkansas, visiting and playing with mom, the siblings, and the kids, dodging a couple of tornadoes along the way and oooh-aaahing at the beautiful countryside. the first day out saw scattered thunderstorms in the distance all across new mexico and into amarillo (a town that continues to surprise me!), dark clouds throwing rainbows straight down at the ground, as many as four at a time. beautiful sight! since the camera was tucked away in the back of the car i didn't get a photo, but i'll remember the magical, mythical, archetypal look of it forever. day two, in driving rain and severely limited visibility, with tractor trailers lying like dead dinosaurs helter-skelter alongside the road, we managed to stay in front of the tornadoes all the way across oklahoma. it was more than a little hairy and scarey, and i hope the truck drivers are all safe. any day you can stay ahead of the tornadoes is o.k...

kris took along a new book,
"good mail day: a primer for making eye-popping postal art," written by jennie hinchcliff/carolee gilligan wheeler. it arrived just before we left and we couldn't stand the thought of having to wait a week before going through it, so kris brought it along and read it out loud while i was driving. (isn't that sweet of her?) these two gals are SERIOUS mail artists!

the book can be a little repetetive in some places, but then some things need to be said over and over...i love the "whatever works, just do it, and play around" philosophy it presents and there are alot of cool looking links i want to check out. i've already bookmarked carolee wheeler's blog, and  if you're at all interested in mail art, i think you'll enjoy it. there are prompts, and a great section on documentation, but i think my favorite part is where they talk about mail artists creating a signature artistamp, or an imaginary country with its own history and art and - postage stamps! is that a fun idea or what?

so, of course, i spent all day yesterday hunkered down in the studio, designing both a personal stamp and postage stamps for my imaginary country, "the fauxreal republic." here are a few of my favorites...the first image is my signature stamp. the flamingo-serifed "s" was done by hand with pen and ink, then scanned into a digital imaging program on the computer, and compiled with a bunch of other digital images i already had. i'd really like to rework this one in color, but thinking to turn the image into an acrylic stamp, kept it in black and white for now. the second and third images are (first issue! tongue in cheek here) postage stamps from the fauxreal republic. "cattails," like the flamingo "s," is a scanned image, a student watercolor exercise in wet-on-wet techniques, digitally combined with text and symbols on the computer. "quatres soeurs" is 
an old photo of my maternal grandmother and her sisters, manipulated in the same way. i SO enjoy digital imaging, and this is such an awesome excuse to sit down at the keyboard and play! what fun! i'm in love with designing stamps for the fauxreal republic, and look forward to inventing stories for commemorative stamps, a made-up art museum, historical events...this is WAY too much fun.

are you interested in participating in a mail art exchange? drop me an email. i'm also starting to ponder another chunkybook exchange. what do you think? maybe on the theme "my cup runneth over."

anyhow...that's the goings on since we got home Sunday. stamps and mail art, bread baking, sausage making, restocking perishables, yogurt making, unpacking, laundry, playing with the dogs. it's a good life.

now for the rest of the story...do you remember that i took along supplies for teaching the nephew and nieces how to make those german, finnish and art deco star ornaments? well, things didn't quite work out as planned. kris and i had taken along the art journals we made in kelly kilmer's "spirit journal" class in february, just in case we wanted to do some impromptu art journaling, say, about tornadoes or something (which we actually began referring to as "tomatoes"). as soon as the kids saw them they got all excited and wild, hollering, "we want to make THAT, aunt sharon! please? show us how to do THAT! that's amazing!" so much for MY plan! i had brought supplies, but for a different class...

with apologies to kelly for teaching her class (i DID give her credit and do so again here and now), next morning found us in the parking lot waiting for hobby lobby to open, hoping they'd have what we needed - or a close substitution...and about an hour and a half (and mucho dinero) later, we arrived at toad suck laden with goodies and ready to play! toad suck? yes, there really is a toad suck, arkansas. and my mother lives there. so does princess christmas joy...

here are the photos! a grand time was had by all!

 making covers clockwise from the left are mary, patrick, princess, my buddy kris, and katie (i'm the one behind the camera...):

princess christmas joy painting her cover with with stencils: katie, our other autistic artist, with granny looking on. isn't it really clever of her to wear one of her dad's old shirts backwards? and latex gloves? i'm going to try that at home...

all the finished covers set to dry in the sun...

but one...

 i didn't take photos while the pages were being made because the kids were using spritzers, and i was concerned about getting dye on the lens. here are some of the finished pages:

15 year old patrick, diligently and meticulously cleaning off one of my stamps...

smiling, happy people! katie and kris; kris decorated the pages and gave hers to mom...

mary and patrick... princess christmas joy and mary...

  my finished demo-journal. i snagged the rusty bell off a wind chime on the porch. don't tell...

and the aftermath. not too bad for a whole day of play with the nieces and nephew! how we kept spritzed dye off the concrete, i don't know...

with newsprint laid down, cleanup was easy. princess christmas joy is catching on to this altered/mixed media thing. "hey," she says, as we start to take up the paper, "we should just save this newspaper and use it to make art!" with another convert, i knew my work here was done!

kelly is still offering this class, and you'll find it listed on her blog. take it! you'll love it! and come away with a really cool art journal!

thanks for visiting. come again soon!

Let It Snow!

Hi blog friends! I haven't forgotten about you in the least! There's some catching up to do, for sure.

First...I want to say hi and thank you and welcome to all the wonderful folk who showed up at the Sinagua PTA craft bazaar last Saturday! You are the reason I keep coming coming back every year. Special thanks, as well, go out to all of you who've expressed interest in receiving announcements and taking classes in the coming year. I'll have a class schedule drawn up by Christmas, to be posted and sent out right after the holidays. What fun we have to look forward to! There's nothing more satisfying to me as an artist than to share the joy and passion I feel for creating!

I've been out of the studio for a little over a week now, which is pretty normal after a show, BUT we've been super-busy, nevertheless.

Goodness, it's SO not like me to go for over a week without posting an update to all my blog friends! Here's what's been going on. Snow has been going on, my friends! The night after the Sinagua show it began snowing. And snowing. And snowing. By Tuesday night when it stopped (as all you Flagstones know) 30 inches of heavy wet white stuff had piled up in the front yard. Which isn't unheard of in Flagstaff, but you can guess what we were doing for several days...This photo was taken from the end of the driveway after clearing the sidewalk. We had run out of places to put it all, piling snow completely up to the mailbox and half burying the apple tree in the front yard. Then the next day found us shoveling off the roof. We lost power and both satellite dishes off and on for a couple of days, but we heat with wood and managed to be quite cozy through it all. By yesterday a good half of the snow had melted or evaporated, just in time for it to snow again today. The forecast is for a ho-hum 6 inches by tomorrow morning, but the way it's coming down this afternoon...we'll see. Glad we haven't decorated the yard yet! 

Following the last show of the season, studio time finds me more directed toward greeting cards, mail art, and playing along with Tim Holtz's Twelve Tags of Christmas. FYI - he's extended the deadline for the 12 Tags contest to Dec. 31st, if you'd like to play along. 

This year's holiday card uses some of the techniques I picked up at the Raevn's Nest art retreat in Wisconsin last October, from Bernie Berlin's
"Secrets of the Burnt and Bound" class. Since we celebrate Christmas, Solstice AND Yule, the "Rising of the Sun" theme just fit perfectly for all our friends. The main panel is loaded with different media and fun techniques! Let's see...it's collaged, and stamped, and heat embossed, inked with 3 different dye pads, layered with foil tape, gesso, and twinkling H2O's, then distressed and wrapped with string before applying the medallion focal point. The medallion has a big glob of heavy body gel medium underneath it, which makes the finished card highly dimensional and puts just a little bit more magic into it. I used this same motif on a bound journal recently, and will probably be playing with it some more in the near future.

When I haven't been in the studio or shoveling snow, I've been indulging another of my passions - knitting - finishing up (well...and starting) holiday gifts. It happens every year; summer and fall find me getting ready for the fall and winter shows and all but ignoring my Christmas knitting list. So the needles come out and I start knitting madly the first week of December. I'll probably still be finishing up a project or two in the car on the way to the ancestral homestead in Central Arkansas...It wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't! LOL! Fortunately for me, it's a two day drive, and I have plenty of time on the journey. I've even been known to buy yarn in Arkansas to knit up on the way home...So, yes, I'm a total knit-wit! Here are a couple of projects I've finished up recently.

The white hat is from a pattern I found last winter at our local yarn store, and the beret is one of those make-it-up as you go along projects. Both will be presented with a simple knit scarf (which have yet to be knit of course...). There's another hat done, with a matching poncho, a child's sweater which only needs buttons to be finished, and a whole slew of socks and gloves to be started! Knitting needles, yarn, hot chocolate next to a cozy fire, idly watching the snow falling outside the front window...Life is so good.

One of the best things about December for me, though, is that it's the time I plan out classes for the coming year. Developing new projects and ideas, stepping out classes and designing lesson plans, taking input from from prospective students and writing proposals, I get so juiced up for the coming year! The winter/spring schedule will be published right after the holidays, and input from all of you is an integral part of the process, so if there's something you're itching to learn, please drop me a line, okay?

Oh, heads up to all my Flagstone friends! About Memories and More, our locally owned scrapbook store, is having an awesome "Coffee Club" class this Tuesday morning. I'm definitely punching a hole in my day get over there for it. For more info and a great photo visit Kirsten's blog here: About Memories and More.

Well, this has become a very long post (making up for lost time...), and the snow has stopped falling, soooo, I'm off to shovel the sidewalks again. Til next time, thanks for visiting, and come again soon!

Playing Along

In between getting ready for the show this weekend I've been playing along with Tim Holtz's annual "12 Tags of Christmas." It's a whole lot of fun, and Tim is just brimming with creative new ways to use all of those wonderful Ranger materials! And I can't stand myself first thing in the morning until I've made that day's tag...I've gone one step further and mounted them as holiday greeting cards.So here's what I've done...

Day 1

Day two

 

Day 3

Why not pop on over and join the fun? He's having a great daily giveaway, too!

Time to knuckle back down and get ready for the weekend! See you at Sinagua!

Thanks for visiting. Come again soon!

Whoo-Hooo!

Hi blog friends! Today I'm celebrating a milestone. The first of what I hope will be many tutorials is finished and posted! You'll find it on the left sidebar, under the heading "Classes and Tutorials."

As I wrote yesterday, it contains directions for making a richly textured and layered holiday card that's easy to construct and that's sure to be treasured by all who receive it. So, check it out!

We had so much fun that I can't wait to post another! 

Thanks for visiting! Come again soon!

Coming This Weekend: a Tutorial!

I'm SO pumped! Started working on the first tutorial today, a holiday greeting card, and should have it posted sometime tomorrow. Sunday at the very latest. All the photos have been taken and edited, and I'm in the process of fleshing out the text, and formatting the layout. Here's a sneak peek:

Tutorials will be listed on the left-hand sidebar, under "Classes and Tutorials." Sooooo...come again soon!

A Post Card for Princess Christmas Joy

I have a baby sister whose Ya-Ya name is Princess Christmas Joy (it's a long story for another time, possibly involving sacrificial chickens), who recently announced on Facebook that she and her four children put up the Christmas tree over the weekend. In August.

Now, the back story is that she and the kids LOVE Christmas. Alot. And every year the children would beg Princess C.J. and her husband Ray to put up the tree earlier. Soft touches both, the Christmas tree began going up on Thanksgiving; then as the years passed, they relented further by setting it up a couple of weeks earlier and decorating the tree come Thanksgiving.

Many years after this became established tradition, Prince Ray developed brain cancer, and in the September before he passed away, asked if they could put up the tree. Ray celebrated Christmas with his loving family for the rest of his days, well beyond the holiday season and into the new year.

So, a new tradition came into being in the newly widowed Princess Christmas Joy's house. Every year the Christmas tree went up on Labor Day weekend, and every year, the children would beg to set it up earlier. This year she finally relented; the tree went up last weekend, and Christmas blessings were broadcast throughout Princess C.J.'s Facebook friends list.

In the spirit of Princess Christmas Joy, I wish to be the first to send Christmas greetings out this year. Assembled all the tools and toys to collage the Christmas post card below to send her. (Please, nobody tell her, okay?)

              

What a hoot! I can't wait to send it to her! Hopefully tomorrow...

So, Merry Christmas! Peas on Earth! God bless us everyone!