Tamale Tree

This is a dot portrait from a photo Jessica took in Tamale.  Sometimes she posts photos of her neighborhood and office which help me to imagine her daily life in Ghana.  Still finding dot drawing therapeutic , Jessica wrote about making time to be creative helped her to add something more than just "de-stressing" to her life.  It was a time for a whole other way of being and thinking.  She sits down two times during a month to utilize postcards as a way of getting in touch with a different part of her life.  My process is more doing batches of postcards at a time, sometimes 4 or more in a day.  It's interesting to me to read about her process and compare it to mine because both of us use these postcards to make time to do art because art is an integral part of our lives. 

Camels

This card reminds me of one Jessica drew at the very beginning of this project, almost three years ago. Then she was visiting Cairo while living in DC. These camels were inspired by a airline magazine (again). Jessica was feeling inspired by the arrival of new staff people and had a wonderful group of summer interns who had just departed. It was nice to hear her upbeat about people and know she was getting some balance in her life in Ghana.  She even noticed that her use of colored pencils showed how much better she was feeling of late!

Finding time to stitch

Ghana has great fabric. Knowing Lynn was sewing, I remember asking Lynn if I should send her some so that she could keep stitching. She laughed at me. Apparently, fabric was not a constraint, but making time to sew was. About a month later I received this postcard from her. Proof that she had fabric and plans. Lynn, were you able to make these plans happen?

Postcards from hell, 2011

Typically you get postcards from warm sunny places with palm trees, coconut drinks and umbrellas. The cards are signs of affection and an easy way for your faraway friends to show off. Very rarely do you get a postcard from the armpits of this world. Too much is brewing there; who has the time or inclination to write? And if they did, how would they fit all they had witnessed and felt on the back of a 3x5 card?

A recent Foreign Policy photo series by Elizabeth Dickerson Postcards from Hell, 2011 takes a stab at this. The combination of striking pictures with short narratives make the series seem postcard-like in an ironic way. Worth a glance, since it is unlikely you are going to find these in a mailbox near you.

Stockpiles and Seasons

While I stock pile sketches for inspiration, Jessica sometimes stock piles her cards and sends 6-10 at a time.  I get bunches at a time and then catch up with what she wrote on each one.  Unlike me, she doesn't write them all at once!

This card has a summery image of a starfish but really Jessica drew it in the fall.  She wrote about missing seasons in Ghana, and how the Indian summer and leaves changing color were some of her thoughts of autumn. Oddly enough with all her talk of the fall, Jessica spent hers in South Africa where it was actually spring.  She wrote about feeling like a new beginning was happening with the blooms and the energy. It is fall now, again, and for me back to school always makes me feel a renewal.  What about you, do you think of fall as starting again (new things like supplies and new faces, kind of like when you were a kid with back to school) or is it just spring that makes you feel energized and like starting fresh (maybe cleaning and waking up after a long winter)?

Doodles lost

Lynn's discovery of an old sketchbook has been referenced a few times in the last few postings. It seems that the rediscovery of old doodles provided a real source of inspiration. This doodle is a piece cut out from that very same sketch book. I feel lucky to have gotten a corner, even if it means that next time the sketchbook is re-found it will be missing a piece. I like to think that perhaps its finder will come looking for the rest of the puzzle.

On the back, Lynn wrote, "And here is the only fun doodle I found in my sketch book. I like to think of phones like these. We had a rotary phone when I was in elementary school - and now kids have crickets/cellphones! Remember how cell phones exploded after Junior year? Sometimes it even amazes me that you can call me from Ghana. I guess I sound like an eighty year old with all this babble about 'the old days'."

Oh pal, you are my favorite Luddite. And, yes, I owe you a call.

Picnics

Water color pencils. I had almost forgotten that they existed, and I never understood what to do with them until I received Lynn's card last summer. Lynn clearly knew that these nifty pencils can make clean lines easier. A great attribute, since successful clean lines are a headache for any new water-color student using a brush, or at least this has always been my experience (I know this may mean I need to learn to live in a world without lines; I am working on this. But as my post cards demonstrate, I have a hard time letting go of borders).

Lynn wrote on the card's belly that she had been thinking of picnics. Picnics she had decided were better thought of than to be had. Bugs, ants and heat, resident picnickers, make her prefer to enjoy her sandwich somewhere other than reclining on the lawn. Although I have had my share of lovely park picnics, living in the tropics, where we take all of aforementioned components up a notch, I must say that she may be on to something.

Cheers to the waning days of heat and bugs my pal.