Dispatch From LA

Horsing Around

Horsing around with some of the laser-cut paper I picked up in Berkeley at the mega-scrapbook store.   These are called Doilies.

 

My coil-bound recycled calendar book I use for spray experiments is getting full!  I have a 2009 Snow & Graham calendar I'll be turning into a test book too.  Interesting to look back and see when new stencils came to live at Moss Cottage.

 

I also picked up some of these Glimmer Mists.  Didn't expect to like the shimmery glimmery colors, but I DO!  Perfect for cold winter nights when I need a spray fix, but going outside to the spraypaint station is out of the question.  These might be the best little pump sprays I've tried.  

Suede Buttons

By December 1st I should be completely finished with getting REMAINS OF THE DAY up and running.   I had the luxury of being off-track while I was preparing my last online classes, so it's taking me a little longer to set things up this time.  Well, that and I only have 2 speeds for most operations:  slow and slower.  It's only Sunday, but I'm already looking forward to the weekend and my next block of uninterrupted time.  

p.s.  If you're in the STENCILRY class I just added a new post to the class blog with some links you might be interested in...  Scroll down to find it.

New Stencils

I ordered some new stencils from dear Ginny's Emporium earlier this week and they arrived in a couple of days.  So fast!  Ginny lived out here in LA before making her big break for Cleveland with her sweetheart John.  We started our blogs within days of each other.  Ginny also has an Etsy shop with some stencils not carried in her Emporium, which, if I didn't already say so, is quite fabulous.
Coffee Break Design stencils are such good quality and really sturdy.  I spread them all out today in the late afternoon and got busy in my book.  Wave after wave of giddiness washed over me.  

The flock of birds and skyline.  Much, too much, too much.

 I am a big fan of experimenting with stencils.  I don't know why I never devoted a book solely to quick & fast work.  It's pure PLAY.  A big stack of new stencils, a few cans of spraypaint, and a warm day.  Perfect.

 I've also taken to cleaning my paint brushes off on the pages in my Coil Bound Stencil Tryout Play Book.  That's where that dusky carnation pink color came from.  Who cares if it matches anything or not?  Not me.

My neighbor gave me these vintage Japanese stencils a few months ago.  She got them at a flea market.  They are all cut on thin brown paper and each stencil is sandwiched between layers of cardboard.  I keep them in an old plastic zippered bedspread bag out in the garage. 
My sister alerted me to these Portugal posts over at one of our favorite UK bloggers, Jane Brokett.  HERE is the first one.  And HERE is the second.  Naturally, both are about food.

 

Sunday 71 Degrees

Sunday in the city!  The weight of the atmosphere is perfect.  The temperature sublime.  A perfect day for throwing a temper tantrum.  Gah!

Don't look to these photos for clues.  I didn't leave any evidence of my moody crime.   Let's see if I can sum it up in 10 words or less.  No wait.  A cautionary tale would be best.  Here:  Do not lovingly layer cloth paper paint & shiny red duct tape into a drop-dead gorgeous travel journal then stitch it all up on the sewing machine.  You. Can't. Sew. Through. Duct. Tape.

That's all I'm saying.  You won't get another word out of me on the subject.

Spraying paint over stencils and masks in my old calendar book is making all of my former  bitterness dissolve.  I found some giant 1 inch holes to spray through.  All is well in the universe, sewing shenanigans aside.

Go look at all of this PINK stuff on Parcel Post.  Pay special attention to the Snow & Graham cards.  Love those!

Have A Seat

Having fun with my new mid-century chair stencils from STENCIL 1.  Have you checked out his blog?  Nothing but a good time to be had over there!  I also ordered some teeny tiny pattern stencils and some cool leaves a la carte.  If you're in my Stencilry class you've already seen me plug Ed's book over on the class blog.  Dig, dig, dig.

This  8 x8 spiral bound book was made from last year's calendar.  It was originally slated to be a pure collage book, but I'm enjoying adding the stencils.  It's nice to keep a visual record of the ones I cut, as well as the ones I buy.  So I think I'll continue in this vein.  

There's the little pattern stencils on the left.  Each is about 3 x 5, but I kept mine attached to each other.  I just affix large post-its around the stencil I'm using.

 I had a stack of these coated cards laying around.  Quickly sprayed over the top then stenciled.  I think I'll stick on a stamp and pop this in the mail.

I thought I'd try the spray ink from STENCIL 1 too.  I was a little heavy-handed, but I think a lighter mist wouldn't have bled so much.  These remind me a lot of Maya Mists only they come in WAY more colors.  This bottle is good quality and doesn't drip, unlike those Adirondack Color Wash sprays.  Gorgeous colors, but OY the mess!

I'll stick with aerosol myself, but it's good to have a few of these around for days when you just want to give a quick spray indoors.

Have a seat.

My regular visual journal hosts plenty of experimental spraying parties.  No surface is safe when I'm trying out new stencils.  Most of this will get covered with paint or paper.

A kind reader sent me these lovely new die-cut papers from Anna Griffin's Darcey Collection.  Absolutely thrilling.  Thanks Nancy!

Okay well since I've inadvertently launched into a full-frontal product launch, I may as well tell you that Mary Louise Sullivan's Viking journal I wrote about yesterday, only set me back $38 buckeroos.  Can you believe that?  I think she accidently left the 1 off the front of that price, but who am I to argue?

Sorry I'm a little lazy with the links this evening.  Trying to get this post out in under 30 minutes.  I think I'm going to make it!

Stencil Manifesto

I received my TRUE VISION book today.  Rockport did not disappoint.  What good quality books they publish!  LK did a stunning job of writing and pulling everything together.   The book is impressive.  

For consideration in the book I submitted a stencil portfolio I constructed out of cardboard and duct tape.  It's covered with sprayed stencils.  Tucked inside were loose visual journal pages which I collaged, stenciled, and wrote on top of.  The pages were backed with wallpaper to make them more sturdy.   

These are the inside  covers.  

The size of the portfolio is 10 by 16.  A good size for holding a variety of different sizes of collage pieces or stencil work.  Cover them with writing and call them journal pages.  I do.

The pages I share here are not in TRUE VISION, but they have a similar pallette as I created most of them within a few days of each other.  Not wanting to ship my heavy cumbersome Visual Journal #8, I chose instead to make something on the spot for possible inclusion into the book.  When I found a stack of cardboard in the school trash earlier that week the idea for a portfolio was born.  With the shaky pony express service I figured losing these would be less painful than having my entire journal go missing.

 

Having just returned from San Miguel de Allende a few months before,  I enjoyed copying passages from my travel journal onto some of my newly created visual journal pages.  Drives to school yielded other material.  We visual journalers are nothing, if not evidence gatherers.

Here's the whole shebang all stacked up.

It seems as though I made my fair share of these portfolios.  Trouble is I can't quite recall what happened to them all.  Did they all hit the pony express trail?  Did my sister steal them?  The 45 year old brain has difficulty recalling what the 44 year old hands were doing last year.

I took photos of them though.  I have evidence.   

Okay.  Who stole my red duct tape?  That is definitely missing.  

1:23 a.m. 52 Degrees

Today was a day made for enchantment. Los Angeles after rain. Like fine tuning the focus on a lense. Every particle of blurred dust wiped clean. And snow in the mountains so close, so close. Winter has returned to the city after a long hiatus. Drifting off to sleep to the sound of rain falling is a pleasure I'd almost forgotten.

Early afternoon was sunny for a few hours. Enough time to spray a few new stencils. KELLY Snelling was kind enough to let me cut stencils from some self-portraits she had posted to her blog. Hers is a perfect face for making into a stencil portrait. Exquisite bone structure. I rarely have a desire to cut stencils of people I don't know, but when I saw these photos. Well...you know what happened next.

Since winter found us, everything is springing up strong and full in the garden.

The heat-seeking geraniums that were supposed to love dry conditions are growing like The Little Shop of Horrors plant in the cold rain.

Here's a sneak preview of what's coming up in the latest Artful Blogging magazine. I'll be showing more in the days ahead. The photos are gorgeous, but what I'm really enjoying is reading everyone's thoughts on the process. I'm one of those people who enjoy a good wordy blog.

Here are a few more beauties for you. Pure talent coming off the pages of RED SHOES. You'll want to check it out.

I know i've sent you here before. but I LOVE this blog with all my heart. Maybe because the dogs remind me of Papa Moss and his herding years. There are only a handful of blogs I check daily. THIS is one of them.

Then prepare yourself for one of the best designed artist web sites I've seen in awhile. Martin Bochicchio is NOT to be missed.

This just in from my sister, Carol. What? Of course I don't have her permission to broadcast her emails, but she sends them to ME. And I'm the one with the blog aren't I?

You must do a follow up with the story of Dottie playing Paul Anka's "Having My Baby" in the motherhouse while the male workers were remodeling the 5th floor.

The Journal Laboratory

The underpainting experiment continues in the journal laboratory.

Digital words are all I'll add to complete this page.

Yesterday evening these clouds heralded the arrival of rain. The golden ones look especially innocent, but look at that dense black mantle above. It made a forboding line on the horizon and I for one, was glad. I may have stood out on the porch and clapped. I don't recall.

Many are not as thrilled as I about the prospect of a week filled with wet and grey.

The thought of rain fills Wyatt Earp with deep melancholy.

A few days of checker playing with the rest of the cat posse isn't going to kill him.

I'm having great fun watching a different JANE AUSTEN novel unfold on Masterpiece Theatre each week. So far I've seen Persuasion and Northhanger Abbey. Next week is Mansfield Park. 100% pure entertainment. I highly recommend them.

I also recommend going HERE to see these elaborate paper cuts. Have your smelling salts at the ready.

Oh, I Can Do Both.

Today, among other things, I underpainted a stencil. Added more sketch lines over the top. Made a pig nose. Like almost everything I strongly disliked it at first. Now I'm growing fonder. The piece I always end up loving the most is almost always the same piece/page I reject so fiercely in the beginning. Since I know this about myself I usually ignore my initial reaction and soldier on.

Lately, Over The Rhine sets the mood while I piddle around in the art workshop. I am in love with every song on both of these CD's.

A leisurely Sunday, made slower by the fact that tomorrow is a holiday.

I'm almost out of exacto blades. Dogoneit. This will require a trip for art supplies. Bears in hibernation don't like heading out on supply runs. Nor should they.

Running out of stencil film is less likely to happen. I order it by the foot from PJ STENCILS

These flip-flops from FREE PEOPLE have my dreaming brain working overtime.

This email just in from my sister.

Here is a good mom story... when we were leaving Panera on Friday night she grabbed, and I do mean grabbed, a couple of bites of cookie that were sitting out as you came in for sampling. She has no shame at all when it comes to freebies. So we are walking out to the car in the 5 degree weather. Picking our way precariously across the ice and slush and such and I say "Mom, stop eating those cookies and pay attention to where you are going!" and she says "Oh, I can do both," chomp chomp chomp... it was v.v.v. funny.

There's A New Girl In Town

Buckle your seatbelts muchachos! The Faux Bois bug snuck right up into Moss Cottage and bit me on the arse. Yes indeedy. From here on in expect to see everything covered in knotty pine. For a couple of months now I've had faux bois wallpaper on the brain. Secretly fantasizing about stenciling over great swaths of it. Flash forward to this weekend. I was in the hardware store picking up an arsenal of new spraypaint colors when the idea came to me, as if in a dream. It was the voice of James Earl Jones urging me to go to the contact paper aisle. And that's when I saw them. 3 rolls of the most fabulous wood grain patterns ever. 15 feet of salvation staring me in the face.
So forget whatever nonsense I was spewing about whatever latest obsession had me by the throat.

There's a new girl in town. And her name is Faux Bois.

After a breakfast date with a pesto chorizo frittata and a friend, I spent a peaceful day cutting a few stencils and trying out some of my new paint colors. I spotted this bit of humorous street art on a wall near the restaurant.

Contrast if you will the difference between one of my current boxes of paint...

and the new cans. I'm going to try my level best not to lose these lids. And to turn the can upside down and spray until it runs clear amen.

Here are the complete pages from Friday.

While I sprayed the Missus pondered the furthest reaches of the tree limbs.

She did some quick calculations of branch strength and her weight and decided to go ahead with her plan. Up, up, up she went.

And when at last she had found a suitable spot she settled in for a long winter's nap. Yes she did. Note the paw dangling limply over the edge.

My girl RANDI sent me out some birthday mailart that I haven't stopped looking at. That's the best kind. The kind you want to study over and over again. That cool little folder is going straight into the visual journal. Part of my package were these enormous circus letters. I have big plans for them which may or may not involve woodgrain contact paper.

Many dear thanks for the birthday thoughts. From where I sit up here at seat #45 the view is great. You kittens still in your 30's have something to look forward to I promise. And you mighty She-Bears pushing 60, 70, and 80 I can hear you chortling all the way from the fourth row. Save me a seat.

I'm not a wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve type, and I don't often express how warm I feel when I get some of your comments and emails. I've even met a few of you in person. (Judy, Tyn, and Suzanne) Difficult for people who know me well to believe, since saying I'm not social is an understatement. And before I started blogging, I rarely, if ever, commented on blogs. So all this is to say a deep and quiet thank you. Even, and especially to all of you who read but don't comment. I know you're out there. (see your own fun pie charts at Sitemeter when you sign up for FREE)

I see you coming from New Mexico, Oregon, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Austria, India, California, Massachusets, Minnesota, and so many more places. It's all, every bit of it, lovely & amazing.

Life's Brilliant Cast Of Characters

My wall mosaic is growing. The little canvases are quite a bit of fun. My visual journal is XXL all the way. The pages are a bit over 10 by 13. Working on a teeny tiny 8x8 or 5x7 or 6x6 boxy canvas is a completely different experience.

I've applied self-leveling gel to 2 of the canvases, but think I would prefer a thick layer of resin over the top. I think that involves mixing 2 different substances together then pouring. I like the idea of having a limited time to get the resin on the canvas, the strong odor necessitating a gas mask (?), and the vague possibility of a disasterous result. So thrilling!

The investigation I'm conducting on working outside the book continues.

And so does the fog. Just look at Moss Cottage floating in a dense layer of mist. If I can't have rain a nice blanket of fog will do just fine.

The barometric pressure seems to be wreaking havoc on the collective psyche of the cat posse. The Missus has taken to spraying the ornamental grasses. I thought only boys did that.

Someone else is pole vaulting off the counter every few minutes.

I finally got to the bottom of the flattened out crop circle effect in this pot. I blamed it on the other 2.

Yes, maybe this is turning into a cat blog. I'll lay off the cat posts just as soon as they stop doing such wildly entertainintg things. I can't say when that will be exactly.

Okie Adams died in the house fire in my neighborhood late last week. I was intrigued by his bango-making history, which I heard about on the news so I googled him and found this:

Okie has a long and colorful history in the Southern California banjo building scene. I knew and worked with him in the mid-to-late '70s as he was building block pots for Stelling banjos. The last time I saw and talked with him was early this summer at the Topanga Canyon Banjo/Fiddle Contest. Although hampered by old age and poor health, he was still active and happy, still building banjos then.
Okie was a fun, generous, humorous, non-conventional person to know. He helped many of us along as we were growing up in the banjo scene, leaving his mark permanently in our lives. A straight shooter, strong on clean living, hard, accurate work and faith, he took me in and taught me some of his trade and philosophy at a time when I was needing both work and skills. I know a number of others for whom he did the same.

and this:

I'm playing a banjo that was made by Okie Adams. Okie's philosophy in making banjos is "...the heavier the banjo the better it sounds." I bought this one from him in 1969; at that time his heavy banjos were 20 pounds, however in later years some of his banjos went up to 50 pounds. I consider myself lucky not to have met him in his 50-pound phase. Anyway, it seems like the older I get the heavier this banjo gets, but boy, it sure does sound good.

You never know who's living just around the corner. Okay. Enough waxing poetic about life's brilliant cast of characters, I've got wee canvases to stencil. Someone hand me one of my cans of paint and a fat cap! Clear the decks!

Pssst...wanna see something cool? I thought you might. Go HERE

Now go check out MADE by Mother. Plan to stay awhile.

Oh Dear

Another journal arrived on my doorstep late this afternoon from Patty . It felt so luxurious to sit out on the porch in all of this bright November heat and turn the thick pages one by one. Another persons visual journal is such a mystery and a wonder. And this latest book to grace my doorstep is a big painterly delight. Rich pages weighted down with paint & all manner of paper, vintage photos, stencils, glue, and a fine sprinkling of words.

A couple more pages from my visual journal. Soon these ideas I'm working out in my book will leave the confines of these pages and find their way onto a different surface. Canvas, cardboard, wood I'm not sure which. In my mind I can see an entire series of collaged portraits. For now I continue in the book. Everything goes into the book.

A few favorite blogs I can't seem to get enough of:

Wolfie and the Sneak

A Little Deer

Poppytalk

Go see this gluebook NOW over at Crust Station

Diana Fayt and her FOLKLORE pieces.

Go here this instant and scroll until you get to the 4 posts on SBP: Print & Pattern If that doesn't send you careening down your front stairs and running all the way to your nearest scrapbook store to touch all the paper nothing will.

Oh dear. The night is young. And I have 2 stencils ready to cut. 2 visual journals to pore over. And a lemon cream martini waiting in the wings.

Greek Spraypaint

I had an unexpected visitor the other night. A nice man named Harry hand delivered my spraypaint. I wasn't sure who who the fellow on the porch with the little box was so I just opened the french windows while still sitting at my computer.
"Uh...are YOU Dispatch From LA?" he asked. (My paypal identity)
"That's me."
"Sorry it took so long."
Wow. That's what I call customer service. He was probably not expecting Aunt Bertha donned in full apron getup.
Spraypaint from Greece without nozzles. One surprise after another. Harry explained the way things work carefully. I took notes. Now I have a pack of 50 fat caps on the way. Harry is one of the co-owners of CREWEST the store/gallery that sponsered the historic Meeting of the Styles a few weeks back along with
FOLAR.
HERE'S a video shot on that day that shows some of the murals being painted. I had no clue until I watched this that Sabotaz paint from Greece was the largest donator of spraypaint for this event. Cool. I can't wait to use it.

I'm having all sorts of good times with the scrapbook paper (SBP).

Also I'm suddenly into cutting stencil portraits of children. This is me circa 1972.

More evidence of SBP and my new acrylic pigmented ink. This time in white.

Looks like some of the little people are excited to be back in school. I'm still adjusting, but I appreciate their unbridled enthusiasm.

Another Sunday Sets In Los Angeles

Another Sunday sets in Los Angeles.

I've added a photo album of my sister's visual journal there on the left. I'll be adding more pages in the coming days.
Lately I'm enjoying spraying my stencils on top of vintage ledger paper. I found 4, 1930's ledgers that came from a fire insurance company in Pittsburg a few weeks back. 26 bucks for a lifetime supply of ledger paper. A good bargain I thought. I love that buttery background underneath a flat black stencil.

I discovered scrapbook stores about a year ago. The variety and design of the paper is spectacular! Who knew? That's another perfect surface to layer a stencil over. I had been making mailart on book covers the last few months until Patty sent me some mailart last week on scrapbook paper. Mailart is endlessly inspiring don't you think?

Someone hand me the glue! Toss me those scissors! Clear the area. I've got ideas rumbling around and a lot of them involve S.B.P.

The result of that rumbling will be landing in someone's mailbox this week.

Another fixation. Pen nibs and little glass wells of ink. I cleaned mine off and got a few bottles of new ink.

Lately it's all I write with in the visual journal. There's something very satisfying about dipping that metal nib into all that glossy ink.

Do you have a minute? Good because I have a few links for you. Well on second thought, this is gonna take longer than a minute. Go grab your livliest cup of coffee or tea and a cat for the lap. You can thank me later.

Reverse applique stenciled t-shirt anyone? Hightail it over HERE to Alabama Chanin. Plenty of fabulosity all under one roof. Start in the projects and keep clicking those red arrows. Their blog is fun too.

Next go see COG & PEARL

Katie Muth has some must see prints.

Finally, have you checked out INGRID'S visual journal lately?

Nope, not done yet. I hear Etsy calling your name. AMY STONER has stolen my heart. Can someone go pick it up for me? And while you're at it I'll take 8-10 of her pieces. No gift wrap necessary.

Got Darts?

I really am a one-trick pony. Things get lodged in the brain and like to stay awhile. The spokes of my burst of rays are stuck fast and I'm not planning to remove them. They are wedged in just in front of this great big fat 8. That's been there since late 2002. I didn't put it there. That's just where it landed. The number blinking across my internal news crawl today though is 49. That's because in 49 days I get to take a much needed break from school life. I'm really looking forward to my 42 day vacation. I'm a solitary person. I need A LOT of silence and uninterrupted days upon days to think, sit, dream, BE. Teaching is not conducive to solitude. I imagine days where I don't have to hear another human voice asking a question or dispensing information ALL DAY LONG. mmmmmmm I can just picture that day in my mind. The clouds will be extra white, the sky extra blue. I will go camping. I will sit by campfires. I will sleep in the middle of cool redwoods under a dark blanket of stars. Alone.

There's something about these rings and spokes and rays that my mind finds restful. So after school I tore off a fresh white page of bristol out of my pad and began to spray. This folder was on the table. It got sprayed too.

My ream of good paper arrived. I will sew in the pages of Visual Journal #9 any day now. The weekend has arrived. I will probably cut another stencil or two of my sister. Right at this second I am really really really grateful to KATIE for putting the link to The Be Good Tanyas up on her blog. I need to send her a giant boquet of stargazer lilies to say Thank You. I am digging this CD more than I can say.

LISA sent me this box of treasure.

Who doesn't want to get a box of treasure in the mail?

Some of the mailart I dispatched reached its destination safe and sound. This is what became of those stenciled book covers. I like it when those rascal steeds from the Pony Express find the right house.

Finally here is another shot of the earlier burst of rays. I like seeing them all laying next to each other.

I decided to take the Zen approach to my blog links. Every month I'll be rotating out some of the old and adding in some new. A new one I listed the other day is Dear Ada . This is an exceptionally good blog. In my opinion she's got some of the best referrals in the blogosphere. You will want to get over there the second you're done reading this sentence. You can thank me later.

Burst of Rays

Will you just take a look at that tuckered out box of spraypaint. "For crying out loud Mary Ann," I can hear some of you saying, "What happened to Operation Clean Nozzle? Where are the lids? Why are some of the cans missing nozzles? WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE?"

I'll tell you what's going on. It's me playing Andy Warhol on crack. It all started the other day when I could not go One More Second without knowing how to make a sunburst starburst line thing. In my mind I could clearly see the stencil of my sister with these lines radiating from her head. So I went HERE to this Photoshop Tutorial where it says right there in black and white: Learn how to create rays simply and easily.
Well I'm going to tell you right now that is a big fat lie. So I decided to do it the old fashioned way. You know BEFORE Photoshop existed. I mean surely Burst of Rays were being made back then.

I apologize for the unattractive backdrop, but this is not a stage set. This is a spraypaint crime scene. Nozzles are routinely zinging through the air, lids are getting tossed, things are pushed out of the way, cans are falling over, an ant is crawling up my leg, and in the middle of all this I'm running out of spray adhesive. WHAT?! (insert blood curdling scream here) That's NOT something you can run out of when you're in the middle of what is possibly your most staggering work of heartbreaking genius. Can you? NO! I did what any sensible person would do at this point. I went in the kitchen and ransacked the drawers looking for adhesive substitute. I found some! Skewers! You hold them like chopsticks, only you have 4 in your hand instead of 2, and they are very good stencil holder downers. Think Edward Scissorhands.

More frivolity and foolishness. Then I added some floral stencils to yesterdays bookcovers. Today, another round of decoration. Tomorrow, who knows? This is all pure experimentation & play which means the entire lot of it will become Mailart at some point.

Oh the ideas were coming one right after another! Let's have another glass of iced tea with lemon! Someone hide her circular dot halo stencils!

In between fetching spraypaint nozzles Wyatt did his best to look bored and unconcerned with the brouhaha happening out back.

10:19 P.M.

Back to the hardware store today to get more spraypaint. My color palette is growing. The cans runneth over their box. Now I have 2 boxes filled with cans. Most have lost their lids. How come the can can't just be the color of the paint is what I want to know? I only intended to stock up on black, but ended up with all sorts of new shades to try.

Then I came home and went at those book covers. I had an idea I wanted to try. These aren't finished. And the backs are hopelessly unlike the fronts. No matter I can't let a little matter of coordinating fronts and backs get in the way of a perfectly good idea can I?

More news tomorrow from the stencil portrait front. I'm cutting a few new ones tonight. Ideas are racing down my neural pathways. My neuro transmitters are itching. My brain stem is humming. I need a drink. Someone's not getting any sleep tonight and it isn't the cat posse.

Here's that collection of earth & water I've mentioned before. Pieces of places I've visited. Here's that beautiful white sand beach of Carmel. There's the fountain water from San Miguel. Look, the Aegean Sea is in that bottle right there. I'm constantly staring at my bottles and dreaming of trips to far away places.

Today I read a poem about Venice that I loved over on Soul Humming's BLOG . Anyone who can see the beauty in the grittier parts of LA is a person after my own heart. I don't think I've been to this blog before. Go take a look I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

I sort of feel like I'm blowing my own trombone by pointing you over here, but it isn't everyday that someone like Judy captures my alter ego in a stencil. Giddyup on over HERE and see what you've been missing!

Recently I came across THIS artist - Amanda Sears. Her work is over the top. Way over. I can't figure out if she's using stencils or silkscreen or something else...? Zip on over and prepare to be dazzled. Patterns, numbers, texture, and color. Oh Muchachos, I'm feeling feverish! Someone get me a cold compress.

I went to see one of Blaine Fontana's shows at a Silverlake gallery earlier this year. His work induces a trance state. I enjoyed THIS little U-tube video tour of his new studio up in Washington. Very very cool.

Finally, one more completely thrilling spot I found today while zipping around the blog galaxy. Are THESE wild mobiles cool or what? I'll take 7 please.

Oh wait. Let me get my trombone back out. I added more Mailart to the photo album up there on the left.

Crusade Número Diez

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

"Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems. I am not a poet, but I am a lover of poems and this one really made my heart vibrate when I read it early this morning.

This MAILART made it's way across one wide ocean blue and across 2 continents to land in Morocco recently. I like imagining her final resting spot. Maybe she can see out a window into the North African countryside. I like to close my eyes and imagine I'm seeing what she sees.

Michelle has worked her Street Team into a frenzy with this lastest CRUSADE #10 . Go check it out! And while you're at it, check out her new flame stencil/mask.

This large floral number below is the latest stencil I cut. I like it very much. The truth is it makes me clap my hands together and screw my face up in a very unattractive way. It also makes me want to curse. A lot. A weekend guest from out of town was forced to sit and look at every possible color variation of my new stencils. Even when his eyes began to glaze over my enthusiasm didn't wane one bit. Nope. As I said before, the heart loves what it loves. And I am head over heels with these babies.

This is more cardboard from my dwindling stash. While I think about the form of my next visual journal I spray these.

You've seen my stag before and you'll see him again. Look out your window tonight. He may trot past. I may be flying out behind him on a magic carpet. You never know what sorts of things you'll see on a hot summer night in the middle of July.

Okay. I'm a reasonable person. I'll admit these colors are a little over the top. A little garish. I can't help it. I don't plan these things out. Really. But do look for a bouquet of these flowers in the stag's mouth when he pokes his head in your window tonight to see if you want to come out and play.

Cannonball Avocados

Super sweet Japanese heirloom tomatoes anyone? When I saw all of these fat flower-shaped tomoatoes sitting in a wooden crate I kept saying over and over, "They're so beautiful." I mean just look at them! Who could resist? Then I saw these enormous avocados. The flavor is buttery and mild. Mmmmmmmmmm perfect for a mid-afternoon snack with a dash of salt & pepper. The vendor selling these babies told me they were known as "Cannonball" avocados. This morning found me at the Pasadena Victory Park farmer's market. It's quite a bit larger than the Montrose market and a fun change of pace.

Wyatt Earp is at the ready to inspect everything.

I have fallen in love with this stencil I carved today. I'm sure by the end of this post you'll know which one I'm referring to. I also cut another self-portrait. I have reached the absolute END of my visual journal. AFter I spray/stencil the covers that'll be all she wrote. In October this bursting at the seams book will be headed to Tempe Arizona to The Paper Studio for their annual UNDER THE COVERS art journal exhibit which lasts for a month. My friend & mailart buddy extraordinaire RANDI is a regular participant in this show also. This will be my 3rd year participating.

Once I cut a stencil I have to spray it on everything. This old music booklet came from a winter trip to the flea market. I'm not so much into sheet music, but it does make a nice background for a stencil.

Sometimes I don't have the patience to wait for the paint to dry. Things get stuck together, pages rip, accidents happen, stencils are flying. Most of this stuff I never use. But oh.... the fun of so much unbridled chaos!

I'm very fond of this deer. He insisted on being on the cover. And about 6 or 7 pages inside.

More experiments.

And a monoprint. MICHELLE had an in-depth post this week about spraypainting/stencilling. In it she mentions printing with stencils. You can go here and read more. Sometimes the monoprints come out cooler than the actual stencil. Sometimes they're a goopy mess. Spraypainting is wildly unpredictable.

Here's that last page I was telling you about.

And the back cover.

Spraypaint Ship Of Love

Imagine, if you will, a summer morning on a tree lined street. There are lavendar petals littering the sidewalks from the last of the Jacaranda blossoms. There are real ponies strolling down the sidewalks with real babies and toddlers saddled up top. There are embroidered tablecloths billowing in the breeze. Chickens are roasting on a giant turning spit. Grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches are being made on soft hunks of sourdough bread while you wait. Hot crepes are being delivered from griddle to waiting plates then smothered with fresh berries and chocolate. Bright exotic drinks sit in these clear barrels. And then...look! Giant deep-red-in-the-middle strawberries are in a box with your name on it. Leave your diet at home and come and bask in the culinary treasures of the Montrose Farmer's Market!

But don't do what I did. Don't forget to check your wallet before you leave home. My 12 buckeroos got me exactly 3 baskets of the sassy berries and 6 pounds of ripe sweet peaches. Next weekend I bring the big bucks and have a grilled cheese and maybe a scoop of gellato. Who cares if it's only 9 in the morning. According to both my sisters gelatto and grilled cheese combine to make the perfect Super Food. What? I didn't mention the gelatto man? Oyvey.

Remember the cardboard I've been spraying? I made this pair into a Stencil Manifesto Journal. Inside loose pages with visual journal on one side and wallpaper on the back. I had another book all ready to gut with my exacto and sew fresh pages inside. But that was before I found the cardboard. Before my spraypaint pallet grew. Before I got the new gas mask. Before the spraypaint bug bit me in the arse. Before I boarded the spraypaint ship of love.

This growing pile of pages waits inside. It's like a journal portfolio.

This photo below is part of my new one-woman, I'M FAT SO WHAT campaign. Who says Dove are the only ones who can promote body-acceptance? I mean just because you've got arms like tree trunks is no reason to suffocate the arm flesh in too much fabric. I'm thinking of spraypainting my weight in giant numbers on a t-shirt. Oh. and I also wanted to model my new gas mask. It's comfortable and keeps out the particles AND the fumes. At the rate my memory is heading south I really do need to preserve what I have left.

Thanks to the ongoing tips from Michelle , I've added a widget to my blog so that when you visit my links they automatically open in a new window. Think of it as Hansel & Gretel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for you to find your way back home.

I bit my tongue and got 2 charley horses in my calves all at the same time when I found this *&!!%!?# blog yesterday. Seriously. AMY RICE'S blog is some serious diggable fun. It's exciting. It makes my heart race. You already know what it did to my calves. Hightail it over there pronto Muchachos, and don't look back!

Well except you'll need to come back here to go over to see HER other blog that features more of her work.

Then there's her WEBSITE. Yes I know you could find that on your own. But just in case. I'd feel bad if you missed seeing even one piece of her shockingly beautiful work.

Sunday

This is summer. Breakfast with friends.

Early trips to the farmer's market for whatever strikes my fancy.

Today it was peaches, plums, nectarines, and strawberries.

A rusty star I caught last night when it fell out of the sky. I hung it on my little oak out back.

I cut this stencil of myself from a photo. I used a Sharpie to color in dark areas so I knew where to cut. Halfway through I almost gave up because I just wasn't seeing myself in all the cut out areas. I'm endlessly fascinated with the way blocks of light and shadow combine to make a recognizable image. After I sprayed, it was like magic. Wow. It's REALLY me. Cool. Will keep using this Sharpie method.

This is from last week.

Visiting Judy's BLOG always makes me happy. I love reading her garden & art stories. And yesterday a stencil portrait. What more could a person want?

Suzanne sent me THIS link to street art & stenciling in Romania. Loads of stenciling and street art to absorb here.

I found THIS journal on Flicker. You may want to have a look too.

I know I've taken you here before, but aren't THESE paintings b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l? I keep going back again and again to look at them.

A New Set Of Punks

My name is Mary Ann and I am a stencil junkie. I found a pile of cardboard in the school trash and brought it home to spray. Now I want more. And more and more and more. The pieces are a perfectly cut 10 by 18. Both sides are seeing action. When it comes to color lately I’m a one-trick pony. Red, Black & White and appropriate variations thereof. Is there any real reason to add anything else to the mix? I don’t think so. But my tunnel vision didn’t stop me from picking up 12 or 15 new cans with some new colors. The young check-out fellow at Home Depot took one look at all the spraypaint and called someone over to go hunt down some 2 for 1 coupons. Now that’s what I call service.

None of these are finished. But almost.

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Meanwhile back at the ranch, I got a new set of little punks to educate.

Red, White, and BUCK

I’ve moved on. From portraits to objects. But I’ll be back. I got sidetracked on this camera and the 5 and the sacred heart...one thing led to another. That’s how it works around here. Zip Zing Zap the ideas are bouncing off my nueral pathways and orbiting around my head until I reach up and pull one down.
A long accounting tablet has accidently turned into my portfolio of stencils. I try them out in here first. Today the sacred heart will find its way into the visual journal. But first I had to experiment.

And experiment again. It sort of looks like a woodcut I think.

Experimenting is fun.

Maybe too much fun.

I’ve reached the Epilogue of my visual journal. I need to make some sort of nice sturdy strap to hold her together. The spine has started to crack with the weight of the pages. It’s okay though. I’m not interested in creating works of archival significance. I like the thought of looking through my book in 20 or 30 years and seeing a complete shipwreck. I might sew some sort of slipcover though. It gets mighty dusty in Moss Cottage with all the windows flung open all the time.

My friend and long time mailart companion, RANDI sent me this giant mailart on a piece of cardboard. It is Very Big. You can see it towering above all my other mailart in the basket. I DIG this portrait and all the photos and the text. Randi is on her way to Kansas City this week to teach a great visual journaling workshop. If you’re interested you can contact her via her website.

Today is Buck's 12th birthday. I've had him since my early 30's. That's hard to believe. He was a tiny cat baby and I had to bottle feed him and make him catfood shakes in the blender. He is the leader of the cat posse. What he says goes. Today he says Wyatt and Corky Lynn are banished from the house. He wants me all to himself. It's hard to get a good photo of him because he keeps shoving his head against the camera.

p.s. I didn't plan the red, white, and blue color theme in the visual journal page up at the top. Really. But it IS the 4th of July. Time to go buy earplugs and get the nerve pills ready.

Visual Poetry

On my way to school this morning on The Orient Express, I pulled over on a non-descript street in a run-down part of Lincoln Heights, the same street I drive down everyday, to add the cream to my McDonald’s large coffee. As I was stirring, I glanced up and saw something of such heartbreaking beauty that I almost cried. Really. On an old wall whose bottom half has been graffitied and painted over a hundred times in a different shade of blue, I saw these magnificent shadows putting on a show.

This building is some sort of enormous laundry. Great puffs of lint blow out of the windows and coat the poor trees. But in the morning light the white and startling blue wall and black shadows were pure visual poetry. Luckily I had my camera with me. I wanted a stick of charcoal and a ladder so I could trace these lovely shadows on a giant piece of white paper, skip work, go straight home, and wallpaper my bedroom.

But I didn’t. I made these pictures instead. Now they are etched onto the walls of my mind

So I’ve been playing with stencil portraits. Cutting, then spraying them. It’s all I want to do. I only have a few pages left in my current visual journal and at the rate I’m going those pages are destined for stencil portraits.

A couple of months back PATTY explained her technique to me for cutting her own stencils that she learned from her high school art teacher. It was so easy even a dummy like me could figure it out. Instructions that are too complex tax my brain reserves. Patty must have intuited that when she sent me the details. Her book: Stencil Cutting For Idiots & Morons is coming out in the fall. I erred only in my use of dull Exacto blades. Sometimes I flub up even the simplest instructions. I think she had written, “under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you use dull blades.” I wish people wouldn’t tell me what NOT to do when they write instructions. I always unconsciously veer in that direction.

Nevertheless, I am more than pleased with my portraits. I keep going to look at them in my journal and every time I grin like a jackal and clap my hands together. I'm starting to scare the cat posse. The only problem I can see with my new-found hobby is that I want to stencil EVERYTHING with my portraits. I mean I even went HERE to find out how to do it in my neighborhood. But I’m way too nervous. Plus Mama Moss would be so disappointed if her 44-year old daughter got thrown in the slammer.

Little Black Kitty did an excellent tutorial last week on HER blog about how to make a self-portrait stencil. She suggested I make one of myself wearing the gas mask. If I had the proper software to turn a photo into an image suitable for stencil cutting I might consider it. I wouldn't want to scare people though.

This was the last page I did before the portrait fever hit. I'm working on a sacred heart stencil. Someone who DIGS sacred hearts as much as me really needs their own stencil. Don't you think?

Got Spraypaint?

Today is a cooler overcast day in the city of angels. I love these days. They are made for staying inside and piddling. It won't last though. By Sunday the highs will be close to 90 and all of that bright sun will be knocking on my door begging me to come outside. My garden is an official crime scene. So much to do. Where to begin? After seeing THIS lovely California garden I really need to get busy in my own. When your yard is 12x the size of your house it can be a bit daunting. Nevertheless I should take advantage of this cool weather to at least get some things weeded and pruned.
Meanwhile in the back patio the cat posse lines up to watch the spraypainting sessions. This morning Corky Lynn decided she'd go for an aerial view of the action and got stuck. After she unstuck herself she posed for a few pictures. The other 2 just rolled their eyes.
I attempted to cut out a stencil that I drew. Note to self: practice first BEFORE trying in journal. I also decided to spraypaint the stencils and make prints with them on some copies of some of my old visual journal pages. I won't bother to point out which is which since it will be fairly obvious.
Finally, I am posting a photo of the scene of the disaster - my art table in all of it's untidy glory. When your house is only 650 square feet the art table tends to be on the small side. I like to start with a clean table but by the end...well...you know how it goes.

Spraypaint Experiments

Michelle Ward & Lisa Hoffman thanks for the inspiration.
I'll let the photos speak for themselves. No narration needed. More experiments to come! Note to self: wear gloves next time.