Art Generosity: Little Art Cards

I have the best, most generous friends I ever could have hoped for. During the month of June and into July, we lived on board our boat, Rapture, at the Portland Waterfront. While I was there, I kept a daily journal on oversized, repurposed flash cards (more on this journal at a later date). As I was preparing the cards for art use, I hit upon the idea that it would be fun to prepare a smaller deck so that when my arty friends came to visit and for parties, they could create a card and leave it as a contribution for my art journal. Everyone jumped in with both feet, both hands, and sometimes with verbal exclamations of excitement! I prepared the cards (a deck of Old Bachelor playing cards) by sanding them and applying gesso -- some plain and some with added texture so they would be all ready in advance.

I had so many friends visit during the month, that's it's a bit of a whirlwind. I've sorted my photos and divided the card-making by groups. Sorta. Here's the first event: Portland artists (and one interloper from out of the country).

The next art group to board was the Portland Art Collective. You know they were excited about making art and eating good food!

My Salem Art Group came and played for an entire day! Art cards were just one of our many activities.

A lazy Saturday found Howard and Kim making art cards (while I fixed dinner).

The following Saturday we got together with our long time friends, Dave and Vicki, who enthusiastically created cards.

There may have even been a grandchild or two creating art cards . . . .

And finally, I'm home and had a chance to lay them all out and admire up close. Sigh. I love them all.

Post Card Swap

The Portland Art Collective holds an annual picnic and art swap. For this year's art swap, we decided to alter post cards -- any post card, just traditional in size and no attached embellishments (a challenge for many of our assemblage artists) so that if someone wanted to mail the post card, they could do so. Last Thursday we gathered at Sellwood Park in Portland to enjoy a potluck and exchange our art cards. I started working on my post cards in May, when our group held their spring art retreat at Menucha. I finished the cards while living aboard Rapture in June.

Each of my cards was stamped with an individual word, so it was fun for everyone to choose a card either based on the collaged image or the word -- maybe a bit of both in some cases.

I used repurposed post cards I had at the studio, either expired show cards, vintage cards people have given me, or old ones I've picked up in my travels. These are the backs.

We held our swap last Thursday. The women used paint, collage, photographs, and fabric!  They are all fabulous.

Out and About in Portland

I've been staying on board our boat, Rapture, at the Portland Waterfront since June 10th, waiting waiting waiting for the Waterfront Blues Festival to begin. It begins tomorrow, so I thought it appropriate to post some of the photos I've snapped during the past three weeks on my meanderings around downtown Portland.