Art Therapy #12

I wrote this post and then lost it. So here goes again. This is where Nancy and I make postcards and send them to each other.

This is a piece of art that I did for a Minted Challenge. I seem to do things 3 times before I get what I want. I did submit another one that I liked better. But still like this piece.

I took this picture and then altered it on my iPad. I wish I could remember the app. I like the creepy Halloween look.

I love Nancy's more complex cards. She said: "Just making up stories in my head and then thought I would try the blackout poetry that Austin Kleon does. Nice.

In closing plz send someone a piece of real mail. You have no idea how it can brighten their day. Just do it, it takes less time than you think.

Art Therapy #8

I am happy that Nancy and I are getting our lives back under control. She's moved. The Miata is gone. The Summer construction is finished. And we are back to sending weekly postcards.

A psychic once told me that I had 3 happy lives in Paris. I do believe that. I often search old photos seeing if something seems familiar. I have moments of deja vu when I see photos of the Montmarte area and the Sacre Coeur. This photo made Nancy think of me. And frankly I can't stop looking at it. When I see it I have that feeling when you are in a dream and can't quite remember something.

I think Nancy is happy in her new creative space. And it is showing in her postcards. Looking forward to a fall visit to see this new space!

These are all shots of textures from the Forge Art Show that was in our neighborhood. It certainly has a moody feel to it. Scroll down if you want to see more from that show.

I spend most of a day drawing these little mid-century looking trees for a Christmas card and then just tossed it all in the trash. One of those days when nothing works. I made this postcard out of the scraps and actually liked it. Maybe it will resurface again some day.

Art Therapy #7

Nancy and I have gotten off schedule. She is moving and my Miata died.

This was a pattern that I was playing with for a possible Minted card background.

And here are a couple brush strokes that I really like that I did use as a Minted background.

With the demise of my car I got a cool, red bike. On a bike ride I did a little watercolour. I like the water a lot. I could do this one again with much better results. For me the third time is generally a charm.

This one I did specifically with Nancy in mind. She loves the Mississippi and is in the middle of a move and rethinking the next chapter in her life.

This card is a Mother's Day card that is part of a book that Nancy is working on. Hopefully her new space will be a new creative writing space.

This card is Nancy's life right now. Lots of new changes, some life and others creative. Keep traveling in this direction Nancy, you have what it takes.

We may or may not pick this up when the dust settles. Either way this Art Therapy has been good for us, especially for me in the Winter months.

shopping, lettering, reading, writing

I am becoming less and less of a shopper. Probably because I am in a serious decluttering mode. And shopping eventually leads to more decluttering. But I could not resist this Souvenir de Paris deskset. The little box in the front is an inkwell. This treasure was accompanied by this sweet note from Jill. You can visit her tempting etsy store at JBBPensPaper.

My new font, Dear Rae,  is coming along rather nicely. By the end of the week I hope to have all the letters drawn and in the font program. Now I have about 350 characters. The above pen is what I am using for this font. And ink, of course.

I just discovered vintage postage at Jim's Coins at Hilldale here in Madison! I spent some time going though pages and pages of stamps and bringing many of them home. Since I write to people weekly this adds a little something special to my notes. And while I did buy enough that they gave me a discount it is just postage and will get used up.

This book is every bit as good as everyone says. It is 500 pages and I both cannot put it down and know I will hate it when I've finished it.

Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks. When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris in June of 1940, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.

In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure’s.

Doerr’s gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of multiple characters, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. - anthonydoerr.com

Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction; a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award and the 2015 Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; winner of the Australian International Book Award; a #1 New York Times bestseller; the 2014 Book of the Year at Hudson Booksellers; the #2 book of 2014 at Amazon.com; a LibraryReads Favorite of Favorites; named one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review; a best book of 2014 at Powell’s Books, Barnes & Noble, NPR’s Fresh Air, San Francisco Chronicle, The Week, Entertainment Weekly, the Daily Beast, Slate.com, Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, the Seattle Times, the Oregonian, the Guardian, and Kirkus; and a #1 Indie Next pick, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work.