Tales from Studio Mailbox

Put Something In

I'm not much of a "poetry" person.  When people start discussing poems I start getting nervous.  I love art and all things creative so I'm not sure exactly what the problem is.  The hard cold truth is that I just don't "get" most poetry. 

It especially freaks me out if some of the poem rhymes and some of it doesn't.  I want to come up with new endings to the lines to either make the entire thing rhyme OR to make the entire thing NOT rhyme.  I have poem issues to say the very least.

So when an altered book came to me with the theme "Illustrated Poems" I started to sweat.  Because of my adversion to poetry in general , I began by focusing on the "Illustrated" portion of her theme and went to the bookshelf and pulled down Shel Silverstein.  These were the poems of my childhood.  These are the pages that inspired hours of painstaking doodles in attempts to re-create his goofy drawings.  I spent weeks trying to get the twists on those crossed fingers that illustrate "Superstitious" just right.  (A Light in the Attic, p. 48)

And then it was like magic.  I started going over his poetry through the eyes of an adult.  And I was shocked!  They are so brilliant in simplicity yet at the same time meaningful in a way I didn't see as a kid.  When you compare his books with the plastic, primary-colored world that children are surrounded by now, you've got black-and-white print in perfect balance with quirky delightful sketches. 

Below is what I decided to include in the altered book, which made me think about all us creative people who sometimes might just be taking ourselves way too seriously, as well as It's Dark in Here, p.21 from Where the Sidewalk Ends.  This seemed fitting for a poetry-themed book because it's a poem about writing a poem from inside of a lion.  Surely a place where all brilliant writers find themselves at times!

Put Something In  (Shel Silverstein)

Draw a crazy picture,
Write a nutty poem,
Sing a mumble-gumble song,
Whistle through your comb.
Do a loony-goony dance
'Cross the kitchen floor,
Put something silly in the world
That ain't been there before.

Mason Pearson Hairbrush Artwork

Mason Pearson Hairbrushes are probably one of the most magnificent examples of handcrafted luxury here on planet earth. 

With pricetags usually prohibitive of being an impulse buy, I'd still recommend researching their selection according to your hair type and saving up for one of these!  For something you'll use once or twice a day for the rest of your life, it's worth having something so well made.

The hairbrush that really does change your life, complete with packaging so nostalgically wonderful you'll want to create your own mixed media artwork instead of tossing it. 

Travel Altered Book

I've been working on a small altered book for bringing on the road.  I noticed while I was reoganizing my things that I have tons of paper ephemera left over from trips.  So I decided to try make a place where I could put the paper scraps immediately instead of letting them pile up into overwhelming heaps.

In between the spreads I've cut the corners of pages and then stapled the edges to create little pockets to hold miscellaneous stuff that I don't have the heart to throw out.

This last trip was a reunion of high school girlfriends at Moutain Lake Resort where scenes from the movie Dirty Dancing were filmed.  My book is the perfect place to put my checked luggage stickers, boarding cards and notes so that when I go back into it I will become flooded with memories of my crazy childhood friends.  Little details I might forget in a few years are now scrawled onto the pages and sure to make us hysterical with laughter the next time we're together. 

I love you Peers!!

Pretzel Sighting #17

That's right folks.  You can get a pretzel without even getting out of your car.  The world will never be the same.  Notice not only the realistic looking pretzel in the "Drive In" sign, but also the clever use of the letter "B" in the bakery's name.

This post would not be complete without the inclusion of the cartoon baker door stop: a personified stalk of wheat wearing fashionable checkered pants. 

The real delimma a client is faced with at this bakery is whether to take advantage of the drive-thru or to enjoy the welcoming wheat-man.  (Or wheat Frau?)  Clearly everyone's a winner, either on foot or 4 wheels...

June Creative Daily Action

For June's daily creative 15 minute exercise, I went back to art cards...and man did it feel good!  I was seriously happy to glue and sew, stamp, emboss, punch and doodle while watching the month's work accumulate as I secured the cards with clothespins to my drying line day after day.   

The only thing I really did differently than at the begining of the year was that I tried to do a little "more" in the short time I allow myself to get the exercise completed.  I simply tried not to think, let go and throw something fun together.

Round Framed Frinchies

When I presented the genius concept of How to Make a Frinchie, I really thought mixed media would never be the same again.  I expected a profound impact on the inchie world, the immediate coordination of swaps throughout mail art groups everywhere and maybe even cries for a Frinch Fest.  Secretly inside I hoped I had frinched up your lives.

Umm, I don't think any of thses things have happened.  But maybe, just maybe it will happen when I reveal this amazing concept:  the inner line of the frinchie frame does not need to be sqaure...it can be round!!

Simply use a round punch instead of a square punch when making your initial frinch holes and "whaa laah."  You've got a whole new look.  A circle inside of a square, the perfect marriage of two elementary shapes.

Now I realize this is earth shattering, but try to get yourself under control and just go make some!

Square Melons

Just as my disappointment from the end of the white asparagus season felt bottomless, I stumbled across these! 

At first I was distressed at the thought of underpaid field workers turning melons at extremely precise intervals until a deep conversation among friends convinced me these are probably just growing in some kind of transparent breathable cubes.

Stuff like this renews my faith in the endless possibilities of the universe.

TJ on MJ

I was in London when the King of Pop died.  I was grateful to be in a place where the news was being covered in English.  A memorial banner of sorts was spread out on the ground near Embankment, and some less than kind words were being scrawled on it.  (I liked the masked bandit sketch here but don't know what the message is written across the mask.  Anybody?) 

This post isn't for opening a discussion about Michael Jackson's moral character.  However I would like to take this opportunity to suggest the possibility of assuming the best about him.  I'm sad that we live in a world where not only do we often assume the WORST of people, we actually like doing it. 

In a strictly creative sense, MJ was an amazing artist.  So today while his funeral service takes place, I just want to think back to when I cried my eyes out on my bus ride to school when I heard his hair had caught  fire while filming his Pepsi commercial.  I always loved his hair, especially the old photos of him as a child that have his afro backlit which made it glow.  At one time he was just an ordinary little boy with extraordinary talent. Maybe we should all wear a sparkly glove on one hand today, even if it's only for a few minutes and nobody sees...

Arty Bicycles

Is anybody else hypnotized by department store window dressing? 

Well look at the bicycle craziness I discovered while walking the streets of London...and just when I was thinking of throwing out that giant bag of seashells sitting in the world's biggest cupboard.

And to think I dislike my mountain bike because it's orange.  Who would've thought the problem is that it just needs MORE orange!

Sorry it's too late to inspire you for your 4th of July parades...but maybe we should just go alter our bikes anyway.

Pretzel Sighting 16

Nearly three years in Germany and look what's been in my grocer's freezer all this time!!  A home baking kit full of frozen twisty goodness, complete with a rock salt packet for custom sprinkling. 

The packaging is what gets me of course... I want to enjoy fresh pretzels in an alpine setting too, although in reality I'd settle for someone just coming to clean my scary oven.