Celebrating 10 Years of Fish Mailart

I can't believe that I've been making mailart for 10 years! Since fish have always figured prominently in my mailart I thought it would be fun to feature one fishy postcard from each of the past ten years. The one fan of my blog already knows this, but I went to school for Marine Biology and somehow ended up in an office instead of on the water. At least I can see the ocean from my office....

One of my very first postcards ever was this alluring gem from 2007

I loved sushi back in 2008 and I still love it now!

By 2009 I was playing with more painted backgrounds. This one has some paper napkin too.

 

In 2010, I did a little more dabbling with paint. I should probably try to paint some of these fish now that I've been painting longer and honed my skills. I remember being REALLY impressed with myself back when I made this.

 

I chose "Fish by the numbers" to represent 2011. Boy do I have a lot of ephemera...

Now I'm thinking that I really should use some more of my hoard of ephemera and make some more collaged cards like this beauty from 2012.

I did a bunch of teaching in 2013 and this postcard came about during an image transfer class.

In 2014, I was collecting wool sweaters in earnest and felting them. One of my many projects was this argyle flounder. he survived the mail just as you see him in the picture.

A nice simple altered vintage postcard for 2015. That reminds me, I have a pile of unused vintage postcards hanging around here somewhere.....

This postcard for 2016 is one of my favorites. I love taking lots of disparate pieces and melding them together. this one has an old plot plan, a cookbook bit, junk mail, scrapbook paper, and of course...fish!

I hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane... Here's to 10 more years of Mailart!!

Mailart Inspiration in Light Blue and Neutrals

Isn't it amazing how different people can create with the same theme and arrive at very different results? This is Danielle's Round Robin Mailart Zine. She asked the 5 of us to create a zine with the color theme of light blue and neutrals. This is her entry-

She also asked us to add to her cover page. Yes, the fish is mine....

Next in line was Tera who added these hippos. That one in the front is a little un-nerving. He just keeps looking at me....

After leaving Ohio it went on to Massachusetts where Karen added 2 beautiful collages.

All the way back across the country the zine traveled to California where Kerri worked some magic.

Finally, after it came back across the country to me and sat on my table for a month (or more), I finished my page. The note that is hard to read upside-down says *If you have clothes on, don't take them off. They protect you from shark-skin lacerations. Good advice, I thought. It is now off to Tarah in the Netherlands for its last stop before going home to Australia.

A Weekend of Fishy Mailart!

I have fish flying all over the dining room this weekend! In the picture you can see an "add and pass" to go to Rosalie, an altered game postcard and an envelope for the MMSA envelope swap. I have a bunch more fish postcards happening, but I don't want to show them all before they go out. But here's a sneak peek...cracking myself up, just like Karen .

The words are from a Manga comic book from the thrift store...go figure... :)

July is "Put a Fish on It Month"

Soooo...If Cloth, Paper, Scissors can call May "Put a Bird on It" month, we can call July "Put a Fish on It" month, right?

Here's a little inspiration to get you started... Have Fun!

Art Journaling

There are a few moments on a slightly cloudy morning in the frigid winter when we get awesome red color through the trees. Okay, the color wasn't this bright, but it was beautiful and it became this after I played with it. This is looking east from my front porch. The ocean is about a quarter mile as the crow flies.

I bought myself a copy of Somerset Studios latest Art Journaling magazine and I love it.

http://stampington.com/html/art_journaling_w09.html

The one thing I have taken from it already is to use my own pictures. I get lazy and never print out my pictures, but I'm making a concerted effort. The picture above is my fish, colorized and otherwise futzed with with Photo Impact Pro. When I went to print it out on my favorite matte photo paper from Sam's I ran out of some ink so I threw it back through the printer the other way. Then for kicks I printed another pond bottom image over the whole thing. Running out of ink made a neat effect. I pasted that picture in the journal and will add that photo later.

I'm trying to commit to some art every day. So far, so good.

Hmmm..maybe if I committed to more blogging more people than just Sam would read it. :)

Waterfall, Pond, Fish, and Frogs

I did manage to get out to the pond a get a couple of decent fish pictures yesterday. Since we had sooo much rain (almost 5 inches) the pond was really full and the fish were hanging out near the top nibbling on lettuce. Starting on the left you can see Armour first. He's the biggest. Then Sashimi and Halo are deeper in the water and Steve is on the right in the water lettuce. Steve has an awesome blue spot on top. Someday I'll get a better picture of him.

This is Armour up close. They have all gotten much bigger in just the past couple of months. I can't believe that it is almost time to start thinking about putting them to bed for the winter.
We now have four frogs and we're thinking that they might be terratorial as they all stay in certain spots in the pond. This one is the waterfall frog and he is the biggest.
We have the screens all out of the windows in anticipation of the painter coming so I took the opportunity to take a couple of aerial views from the bedroom window. We still need lots of plants to fill in the spaces.
Andy and I are starting to work on THE BIG CHALLENGE. My art things are currently all over the house. I have a huge sewing room and have still overtaken the dining room with my stuff. Watch for some before pictures as we try and get my stuff under control so we can host Thanksgiving.

Aquarium of the Bay

The very first place we went in San Francisco was the aquarium down at pier 39. It is a amall aquarium, but still pretty neat. The main exhibit is 2 large tunnels that you walk through. One has assorted bay creatures and the other has sharks and rays. My favorite part was watching the schooling fish. This picture is of a fish tornado.

Whales in Boothbay and Fish at Home

We went on our first whale watch ever last week on the Pink Lady 2 out of Boothbay Harbor. It was awesome! We saw mostly finbacks so I didn't get any of those fabulous whale tail pictures, oh well.

Our whole Boothbay trip was fun, as usual, but this time I was antsy to be home with the pond. Next year we need to take one of those vacations where you stay home. It was great to see Chris and Roxy. Chris owns Mr. C's restaurant in Boothbay Harbor, ME. If you want to have some great food with some fantastic people, Mr. C's is the place to go!

Now for the fish at home...We have named the 2 original fish Armor and Sashimi and they are getting huge!! Armor is finding it harder to hide beneath rocks and likes to hang out under the water lettuce. That's Armor in the picture. Sashimi is his bud so they are together a lot. We made another trip to Kingston Nursery on Saturday and came home with 2 butterfly koi and another regular one. Their names are Silver, Halo, and Steve. Steph insisted it was time to name the fish. We haven't seen Silver or Halo much, but Steve has been hanging out with the bigger guys. I can't wait until they are all too big to hide all the time!

On to more fish....We are going to go to New Tokyo in Plymouth for sushi tonight. Well, sushi and Teppanyaki. Their sushi isn't as good as it is at Sushi Joy, but I can get Andy to go there for the grill. And as a bonus, Mondays and Tuesdays are half price. Woo Hoo!!