MAILART EXCHANGE WITH CANADIAN HIGH SCHOOL ART CLASS

As some of you probably already know, I've been incredibly interested in the world of MailArt and last year I initiated my own MailArt call based on portraits. The only rule I have is that any person who sends me their interpretation of a portrait will receive a portrait from me in return. Since last May, I've received somewhere over 100 pieces of MailArt, (mostly portraits), from 13 different countries, France being the most represented, as well as from 13 States in the U.S. In turn i have sent out over 100 handprinted postcards.

I've been communicating with High School Art Instructor, Barbara Burns, in Alberta Canada over the past year and somewhere along the way I mentioned that it would be fun to do a MailArt exchange with her students. I have fond memories of exchanging a handmade felt, (made from raw wool, start to finish), envelope and letter with all of the wording embroidered with an artist named Sas Colby while I was in High School and thought that I'd like to turn the tables and be the artist on the other end. Barbara agreed to the idea and incorporated a MailArt project into her curriculum with this years students and in addition to myself, a number of other artists have jumped aboard and are exchanging artwork with her classes as well.

Today I received the package with a bundle of 11 students decorated envelopes with their Artist Trading Cards or postcards included as well as a wonderful gift from Barbara Burns the instructor.

Below is one example of what I received, the rest of the images are posted on my "Portrait Mail Art" Blog and you can follow the trail back to the kids by checking out my "Portrait Mail Art Reply" Blog.


ROBYN BLACK / Athabasca, Alberta CANADA

ENCHANTED FOREST - COLOR

I've been feeling the urge to paint again so I decided to start small and add some color to one of my most recent prints. I think I'm going to keep it simple, minimal painting and not too much fuss. I still have to add color to the "eyes" but not quite sure what's going to work at this point. I'm hesitant to add yellow/green to his eyes for fear that he'll look jaundiced.

LAUNDRY DAY

Linocut image from my "1-A-Day" series.

BERUBE-BUG / ENCHANTED FOREST BUG

Not sure where this guy came from, I worked on it while my friend was visiting from Chicago, and if memory serves me correctly his hair used to look a bit like this in college.

This guy is not a bug from an Enchanted Forest, it is the Enchanted Forest as a Bug, tree trunks are now legs, mouth and eyes pop out of the leaves. Watch Out!!!

CHICAGO WEATHER

SNOWY 52ND STREET


MOMA SCULPTURE COURTYARD


This week a good friend of mine from Chicago came to town for work for the first half of the week and then spent the rest of the week with me. The past few times we've talked on the phone or via email, he's told me how Chicago has had a really tough Winter. Sub-zero wind chill factor, snow storm after snow storm, winter thunderstorms and flooding.... all of the reasons I left Chicago over 12 years ago and have never been back. The beginning of this week here in NYC, we had 60 degree weather and as soon as my friend landed, it started getting colder. By Friday we had to cancel our plans of taking a 90 minute train ride up through beautiful Hudson Valley to get to DIA Beacon because the Museum was closed due to "Inclement Weather". It seems that my visitor brought the Chicago weather with him as we ended up with some where between 6-8 inches depending who you listen to. Fortunately though, it caused us to alter our plans a bit and instead of going to DIA Beacon, we walked over to MOMA and saw an incredible exhibit of Lucian Freud's etchings, many of which were accompanied by small oil paintings of the same subject matter. If you're in NYC and get the chance, it's well worth the trip.

TRAVEL FEVER

I've been having a hard core feeling of the need to do some traveling this summer and decided to look at images from my trip in 2006 to Thailand and China. The linocuts and photo's here are all from Thailand, as that part of the trip was more "nature" related and holds a special place in my data bank, heart and soul. China was more about large cities and millions of people, their history and culture and although incredibly stimulating visually and mentally, I'll save those images/pics for another time.

At some point the linocuts here will have color added to them as back and white just doesn't do it justice.

LAUNDRY DAY

I did this print as part of my 1-A-Day series documenting a month or so with a daily linocut. This was laundry day at the same laundromat I've been going to for the past 11 years. Luckily it's close enough to the apartment that I can come back home during cycles.

FALLING

As part of my duties in putting together this showroom, I get to play with chalk on a giant chalkboard painted wall in the kids section. Since it's for Fall 2008 and they didn't have any other suggestions or reference, they got my version of leaves.

HAIRPIECE

This is the back panel for the masks that I created for the Swan Lake dance sequence in the short film titled, "2081". It was printed on to fabric and hand-stitched to each of the masks with a top hairpiece print also added.

FLU-RUBE-BUG

I started feeling a little off kilter on Monday but just figured it was a little cold so I dosed up on various vitamins and acetaminophen and worked Tuesday and Wednesday assuming that I'd be fine. Well, by Thursday morning when I got up for work I could barely move and by Friday I had a fever of 100 degrees. The last time I was this sick was probably 10 years ago while traveling in France, so it's been a while and I had forgotten just how annoying it is to be that sick. In my opinion being sick is nothing more than an inconvenience and an utter waste of time. And feeling like I had to be able to do something while I felt like crap, I decided to draw this Berube-Bug while in the throws of this cold/flu thing.

MASKS / 2081

I created these images to be used as masks for the 3rd of the trilogy of short films I worked on with choreographer Scott Rink. The images were eventually printed on to fabric and hand-stitched together with a back and top "hairpiece", also linocuts. The masks were then worn by the ballerinas dancing to Scott's version of Swan Lake.

INVASION

I created a few dozen of these little guys for the short film titled, "The Watchers". They're approximately 1/2 inch long and made from a fine gauge wire.

A BEER UNDER THE TREES

A simple combination of a few of my favorite things; Nature, Recycling and Sapporo Beer. My version of a votive holder.

TILDON - WIRE HANGER SCULPTURE

I decided that since I've been out of of the studio all week and unable to even think about being creative after working a slew of 12 hour days I would post some work that I have hanging around the apartment.

This one is another wire hanger sculpture of my dog Tildon. It's a pretty stationary pose with a few curious details so I'm posting shots from both sides and the one from the front on an angle. In case you're wondering, he's a Jack Russell Terrier or "Parsons Russell Terrier" if you're into the new, official breed name.