Saturday, March 31, 2012

Blocked

After a break from our postcard project, Lynn climbed back onto the horse, making a slew of cards to catch up. She used the face of her first card to explain why she was behind. She was, she explained, having an artist's version of writer's block. She had plenty of ideas as she wandered through life, but none when she sat down to put them on paper (or to do some sort of sewing project) and it only got worse as time went on. 

This is a lesson learned from this project. Being creative, doing art, is no different than staying in shape. If you take a break from exercise, it is hard to jump back on the treadmill and to get moving again. Similarly, it is hard to sit down and make something you like when you have not done so in a long while. Somehow your hands and brain do not cooperate quite the way that you wish.

Thank you for climbing back on the horse, pal. I remember getting an envelope full of cards with news, thoughts and inspiration on day when I was feeling particularly far away from home. A wonderful gift.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Dots

As I am sure has been said before on this blog, when Jessica draws with dots she finds it therapeutic and relaxing.  This image is from one of her work projects focused on literacy and numeracy.  Jessica remembered the French photographer who came to Ghana to shoot photographs was a lot of fun and had had some pretty cool previous jobs including White House photographer (complete with Press Pass).  I think photographer would be such a fun job, do you?

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Japan 2011

A professional exchange program brought a group of Japanese teachers to Michigan early last year - just after the earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear disaster struck. I imagine that it was a strange time to leave their country, all considering. Lynn said that the group was kept very busy and that the teacher who stayed with her would come home and want to hang low during her down time, recovering from the last few weeks of trauma.

The teacher's visit, and the fact that she had lived in northern Japan years ago, made the event feel closer to home for Lynn. This postcard memorializes the time with a very Japanese aesthetic.

Eye test for love

These dotted hearts were inspired by the tests used to check whether someone is colorblind. Lynn had always admired the pictures with warm colored dots surrounding a dotted green letter in the middle.

This card reminded me of how my brother discovered he was color-blind. While working on my aunt and uncle's Christmas tree farm,  someone complimented him on the green sweatshirt my aunt had given him to work in. He replied by thanking them, telling them that he liked that it was plain. This led to a bit of confusion because it was not plain at all. It had the bright red farm logo on the front. He had missed the message on his chest.

The situation makes the story funny, but at the time I felt sad that he had missed the cardinals that would have been sitting next to him in the pine trees while he worked.

Thursday, March 8, 2012


This news story on Slate a few days ago caught my eye.  I tend to read any headline with postcard in the title! Its about a tradition of women proposing during leap year.  At first I wasn't sure if it was just on Feb. 29th, but it seems to be about the whole year.  Sure made me glad I was a woman of these times, I just found some of the Slate cartoons to be sad and infuriating in the way they made women appear to be trapping and tricking unsuspecting men into marriage.  What do you think?