Mail Call: Jackpot

When I returned home from Greece, I was lucky to have a number of art-related packages waiting for me. In fact, I hit the jackpot.



I received a small 6" x 6" painting I had purchased from Suzan Buckner's Etsy shop. Just love the vibrant colors, the random drips of paints, and the rough textures. You can also check out her paintings and her unique style of journaling at her blog Thrifty Collage Artist. Be ready for a burst of color.






I also received this stash of original papers from Jan Post as part of a Yahoo group swap of old documents and typography. These will soon find their way into some of my work...although a few of the pages may end up in my large and getting larger pile of art materials that I like too much to ever actually use. Anybody else have that problem?







I got this 5 foot long verdigris cable chain from Brooke Medlin's Etsy shop Gemmafactrix. Not quite sure what I will do with this yet but I loved the patina and thought that it might make a good addition to a handmade book. I love how she used a moo card as her tag for the packaging as well.





This gem came to me from eb at Be...Dream...Play. I received this as part of a project that I am involved with that I will be posting about soon.




As extras, eb also included a few river rocks and Lake Champlain stripeys. Beautiful examples of the art of nature.

Memories of Greece

There was so much to experience in Greece and so much to remember.

Shrines...everywhere. In the churches. In the mountainside. On the trails. On the highway.















Views..everywhere. In the villages. On the mountain. Across the trails. In the city.















Rust...everywhere. Okay, I just couldn't resist.













A moment lasts all of a second, but the memory lives on forever...author unknown.

Greece: Graffiti

I found Athens to be a very compelling city, at once both modern and ancient. One very noticeable visual aspect of Athens was graffiti. It seemed to be everywhere, including on many public municipal buildings. Interestingly, some of the earliest examples of graffiti known were found in Ancient Greece. Most of the graffiti I saw was scrawled letters and looked like unwanted vandalism. However, there were several examples of graffiti art that was quite impressive. In fact, I saw for the first time two examples of mixed media graffiti, clearly by the same artist. Unique and creative, it is one of those ideas that seems obvious now but I have never seen it before. Has anybody else? Here are photos of several pieces, with close-up details included as well. Click to enlarge to really see the mixed media details.








While graffiti is certainly controversial, I definitely admire the more artistic examples and recently posted samples I have seen in New York City. You can read a very interesting discussion about this issue on Deryn Mentock's blog here. Below are some examples I saw in Athens.














Do you think Keith Haring was in Athens?



For those of you who would like to try you own hand at graffiti art without breaking the law, go to Graffiti Playdo. The site can be addicting.

Greece: Doors & Windows

What is it about doors and windows that attract and interest me so? Perhaps they represent a specific viewpoint. A portal. An entrance. An invitation. A way in to the inside to what is important. To the heart of the matter. A way out to the outside. To new discoveries. They intrigue in part because you don't always know what you will find on the other side. They allow you to both keep things in and keep things out. They represent both entrance and exit. Perhaps in that way, a metaphor for the journey. When ever I am away, I am always searching for them and feel a bolt of inspiration when I find one that really seems to capture the place I am visiting. Click here to see my discoveries when I was in Mexico last November. The images below are just a few of the doors and windows I discovered in Greece. Click to enlarge for detail:

The DOORS we open and close each day decide the lives we live. Flora Whittemore

















Art is the WINDOW to man's soul. Without it, he would never be able to see beyond his immediate world, nor could the world see the man within. Claudia Johnson

















Perhaps my favorite door of all. Picture this. A mountain climb. The first ridge. Reach the top and there is a door. In the rock. Literally. Built into the mountainside. Open the door. What lies inside?