that's when I reach for my revolver

that's when it all gets blown away.

Bday card for my B-I-L. He's gonna let me shoot a gun. I can't wait.

Cut paper on cardboard, scraps from letterpress job. I like cutting and glueing. What? I LIKE it. Gotta start somewhere. Pssh. I'm no Andrea Kang, but I do have access to paper, scissors, glue, so we'll see how it goes.

my cruddy coloring, FOR CHARITY!

This week my boss played Molly Hatchett at work. I said, I think I made out with some boy in his Monte Carlo to this, back in H.S. (I probably didn't, but it coulda happened).

And I also colored a picture for charity and wrote Blue Oyster Cult lyrics in the sky.

It's taken 30 years to turn some isolating h.s. memories into semi-fond ones. Shit man, anything can happen.

Control 66: making stuff and telling stories

I've saved and repurposed/reused things for as long as I can remember. There have prob already been posts about it. I learned it from my parents. I've always been attracted to it in art. I love Nara's sketches on envelopes, Ghetti carving in pencil lead, a prisoner unraveling socks to make tiny embroidered pictures, painting on found objects etc. Of course some of it is terrible, really, but I'm inclined to find myself charmed but something humbly handmade. Again, I sadly, regularly hate the product, but I will still probably admire the effort.

In this new life of little $, I find myself using what I have. It feels pretty good. Like making curtains from fabric I have had forever (not done, hopefully future post). So, got flannel sheet set from brother and SIL for Christmas and pulled out those cardboard product cards in those plastic sleeves. They were on the table with a pile for recycling. I took a coffee break. There was a control 66 sticker on the card - I doodled a design around it. Then I drew some stuff that was on the table: pencil case, eraser, book of matches from restaurante in Baltimore, juniper wood coaster. Drawing practice while enjoying coffee. I stuck it back in it's plastic holder. This isn't really a thing made. This is really more of a combination of things that I am trying to combine. I am trying to combine: making things, reusing things, telling stories, collaborating with people I like and documenting. Ah, see, sometimes I'm the last one to know why I do things. I am trying to realize the combining in my upcoming zine. If that's what I'm actually up to and all.

"I don't believe in mistakes" - LB

I was in the middle of cutting out that image, when I stopped to meet a new friend/former co-worker for coffee at the roost. During our conversation she said, "I don't really believe in mistakes. I can learn something from everything I do." I agree.

So back to work and finishing the mailer to Will Schaff. There was a big USPS sticker in the middle to us in Baltimore from Tiny Showcase. I decided to cover it in black, glue the pic on top and then write the address in silver paint pen on the black. Black paper found, glued, ready to write the quick and easy address- silver ink pen was dead. But I knew I had another, lesser silver pen, also dead. WTF and whatevs. Peeled the black off, peeled off the old mailer label and addressed in sharpie, then laminated. Eh, doesn't look great, but it's done. I did want it to look better. I have made envelopes and postcards forever. And Will decorates envelopes (pics on his flickr) of course awesomely and coolly, cuz he's an awesome artist. So now I gots to send him my lame-ish mailer. It would be irresponsible of me to go buy a mailer and start over. Eh, there are no mistakes right? So it gettin' mailed tomorrow, word.

TY postcard for the PILs

Um yeah. I know there's probably a slicker way to lay this out, but I don't have time to figure that out right now. BUT, I do have time to stay late at work to make my lovely parents-in-law this thank you postcard. Yes, the favorite, free and handy cardboard again. Cranes - they mate for life. And the message was based on a conversation we had when they last visited. I hope they remember. I think T will. So this convo. J and I were walking to see art and I says, "hey, I'm gonna tell you the 3 most awesome things about you and the 3 least awesome. Won't that be fun?" Man, what I find fun just ain't what many other people find fun. J humored me. I start with a big one, a beautiful one, "I think you are truely kind." That's some smooth flirting right? Maybe bring a tear to your eye? What do I get for a response, "great, kind is boring." Wa!?! I obnoxiously try to define the word for him (surely he doesn't understand the meaning of the first word I would use to describe the best thing about the human being I have chosen to spend the rest of my life with). Yeah, that part was less flirty. So we get back to our apt. and the P-I-Ls are there and I ask my MIL what 3 adjectives she would use to describe the best things about her son. First word, "Kind." Take that sucka! You's kind. Eat it! I'm callin' it. I think I won that argument. Soooo, I used that conversation as a basis for the TY postcard. My PILs are awesome. Let's see, I said: Kind, True and Fun. The Fun is true, but not really what I first thought of. I wanted to write Human, but that seemed sort of obvious. Or an imperfect way of saying that I love the imperfection of humans. Oh yeah, and then laminated the whole card.

Wittgenstein chicken B-day card

I received an invite to celebrate the full moon and a new friend's birthday around a firepit in the secret lower yard. It was pretty cool. We heard some loud, strange animal noises. Sounded like amplified distress to me. Brave, woodsy westernmassers went to explore. They suggested raccoons or foxes in one of those metal tube things that water typically runs through. How clever of these animals to amplify their cries in an echo tunnel. So. I drew and painted and colored this chicken on cardboard. Then I wrote down many original quotes to amuse this friend. J kindly warned me that I could do better. I gave up and was going to use an old stand-by Wittgenstein fav, but thought it sent the wrong message. I searched W quotes to find one that suited a chicken. Then I cut bits of scratchy shaped pieces of paper to form letters, ya know, like the chicken did it. Modge podge on hand, so better layout. Some checkered fabric tape on ends then laminate. Yup, that was her present.

bookmark for B

I have a great friend. Actually, I have a small group of totally awesome friends of which she is one. This was fast and dirty. I had these small cat prints from Maeg Yosef/Edison Rex and enjoyed them in my office, but couldn't decide if I would frame the trio or frame each 2x3 separately. Crafting lead to book talk as it often does. And a book from my free pile fit the bill. Check that! Free pile blog post combining with a making post, right on. Anyway, was bringing the book to craft night and made a bookmark to hide inside. One of the cat prints + handcut vellum letters on paper, laminated. I say dirty, cuz I woulda been fussier about layout, but the modge podge was at home, so had to place the letters on the laminate sheet, add the print and then background paper. Not too bad, but I want to make this friend something amazing because I am lucky to have her in my life.