Category: Uncategorized

Rebellious Art Cards

September 6, 2025

Dear Liza,

A while back I told you about art cards, small pieces of art that you can send to friends or give away to strangers. I’m building mine on old baseball cards.

This past weekend, I got an inspiration of another way to share them. I was at the No Kings March downtown, walking with thousands of other folks to protest the current administration’s unconstitutional and illegal takeover of our country.

When we got home from the March, I went into my art closet to make more art cards. Before, I liked leaving the back untouched so you could see that it had started life as a baseball card. Now, I wanted to use it for a rebellious purpose.

I tried a few ways of treating the photos… flat acrylic looked streaky, but an impression from a sheet of shelf liner made a nice surface so you can still see the player.

I pulled letters from my box of words to spell out a simple message.

I like the ransom-note effect.

Now my art has a purpose. I can hand these cards to folks at future protests, a small piece of art to give encouragement. I even punched a hole in the corner and strung some ribbon through, so they can be tied to a backpack or belt loop and not get lost.

I have a hook in my art closet for my growing collection.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Fall Approaches

August 31, 2025

Dear Liza,

Fall is on the way. During our last weeks of hot weather, I got into the habit of going for walks early in the day to avoid the shingle-irritating bright sun and heat.

I noticed that Laurelhurst Park is very different early in the day. The cool damp of night is still in the air. Tai chi groups perform their slow dance among the trees.

Firwood Lake is a perfect mirror… until the ducks wake up! Then, somehow, the ripples make the mirror even more beautiful.

And passing the Blair Community Garden, I see the raspberries getting ripe.

I am happily awaiting the day when I will need a second layer to be comfortable. J’aime sweater weather!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Flowers for the Table

August 27, 2025

Dear Liza,

Sometimes I need to make a few tries at a project before I get it right. At our last ZOOM art group, Ruthie Inman had us start this vase of flowers, made with the windows from business envelopes. Mine turned out really tiny, about three inches high, and I wasn’t crazy about it.

The other members of the group used bigger windows from bigger envelopes, and therefore, bigger flowers. I liked theirs better, so I found just such an envelope and gave the project a second chance.

Ruthie also suggested creating surroundings for the vase, to ‘give it a place to be’. So I started building my scene. I started with the inside of that same envelope, which had a striped pattern. I gave it a thin coat of a really pale lavender so it would fade into the background.

It took a few days to draw, cut, and watercolor the flowers, long stemmed yellow and orange daisies. To go with that bright yellow, I found an abstract blue page out of an art magazine for the billowing curtains. It was starting to look like a picture.

I remembered that Shirley, from the ZOOM group, had used blue paper to make the water in her vase. I wanted mine to be transparent, so I mixed some aquamarine acrylic paint with some glue and painted it on the plastic. It stuck!

Then I used the same color for the sky through the window, a soft yellow paper made the window frame, and graph paper made a nice tablecloth.

I now had all the pieces for my picture, but I wasn’t ready to glue anything down yet, because I didn’t like where they were. It felt static, even with the curtains billowing in the wind. So I walked away and thought about it overnight.

The next day I moved the window a bit to the right and the vase a bit to the left, loved it, and glued it down. Finally, I glued the stems into the vase, but left the flowers loose, so they can flop a bit.

Another Ruthie Inman inspiration, all done!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Some Cut and Paste Fun

August 24, 2025

Dear Liza,

I continue to recover from shingles, and as with all recoveries, I have good days and bad days. On bad days I just sleep and watch architectural history videos.

But when I feel better, I do like to make a bit of something, and I use what is laying around. The other day, Auntie Bridgett brought home a great pile of old baseball cards from the 1990s. After I made sure they weren’t going to make me a millionaire, they became collage fodder.

First, I glued the cards together with four edge pieces so they’d be easier to work with. I use UHU because it dries fast and doesn’t make the paper curl. Then I collaged the four as though they were one piece, sticking bits down in whatever way seemed best.

I’d seen something like this done by Zoe Walker in our ZOOM group, and I thought I’d give it a try. I laid four of the cards face down, chose some leftover papers from other projects, and went to it.

There are so many things I love about collage. There’s really no wrong way to do it, just whatever looks right to you. I try a few bits together to see which colors play well together, and wait to put the most detailed bits on near the end.

Once I got to this point, I decided to cut the cards apart and see how they looked.

I liked them! But I was wearing out and they still needed… something.

So I hunted up bits from old magazines to freshen the color, put in dots, and I was done.

I’m not sure what to call them, or where they will go, but I managed to get some rest, stay happy, and use up some scrap paper. And sometimes, that’s enough.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Auntie Katie’s Next Adventure

August 17, 2025

Dear Liza,

The end of summer brings a festival called Burning Man to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. It is a week-long happening of art, music, creativity, and fellowship. It is also camping out in dust, wind, and heat.

I will not be going, although I love many things about it. A few years ago I went to a mini-exhibition Burning Man in downtown Portland. It was delightfully quirky.

Then last year, I attended SOAK, the northwest’s own regional festival, and that was enough outdoor living for me. Sleeping on the ground was more fun 40 years ago.

But Auntie Katie, being younger and more adventurous, has been to Burning Man many times and is packing up again! Every year has a different theme, and this year’s is “SPACE”. Aliens, space travel, astronomy, science and fiction and silliness, all are welcome.

Part of the Burning Man ethos is sharing with the community. Folks make food and art to share, and help their neighbors. Katie and her buddy Douglas play music for folks, wandering around the camp with their ukuleles. like traveling minstrels. I know they are good; they play for us on Thanksgiving!

They spend months compiling and rehearsing on-theme songs. This year’s play list has a few hundred songs and includes “Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime” by John Coulton and “Yakko’s Universe” from Animaniacs, so you know a good time will be had by all.

And Katie made space boots! An old set of boots finally died and they have become ART BOOTS. Silver paint, adorable pink and teal planets, and tiny bright lights will go with her silver-y jumpsuit and make a fine, shiny show walking around camp at night.

I (almost) wish I could be there to see it.

Love,

Grandma Judy

More Gelli Fun, and a Rolloff Page

August 16, 2025

Dear Liza,

Every now and then, I go back into the Art Closet and try another few Gelli prints. I am trying to be more methodical so I can photograph the steps as I go and learn what works for me.

Friday, I started with a bright red plate and made this cool pattern with a cardboard vegetable tray from the market.

Then, because I always forget that yellow is transparent, I tried to lay some down. I added some orange, to try and make my point.

Once everything was good and dry, I put some black on and rolled it out. I like the print, but wish the yellow and orange were more visible.

While I was Gelli printing, I used a page in my Art Journal as the rolloff page.

And while you and I were chatting in Saturday, I cut some black paper into a simple sunset landscape. I think it’s done, but I’ll have a look tomorrow.

More printing and snipping tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Gelli Cards!

August 12, 2025

Dear Liza,

I am still making lots of mistakes with Gelli printing, because there are dozens of ways to do it wrong! But Ruthie Inman said don’t let a little thing like that stop me, and every now and then I get one right.

These are my favorites from the last few weeks. As you can tell, two used the same sycamore maple leaf and one is some lavender blossoms,

For today’s project, I chose these two to trim up for greeting cards. I couldn’t find a mat that worked with either, so I glued them down by themselves.

Only after I glued it down did I notice the white blotch on the lavender blossom one, but there is always a way to fix it! I pulled out my box of words cut from calendars, J. Peterman catalogues and magazines.

A few snips and careful UHU application (tweezers are best for those of us with short fingernails!)

and this one is ready for a friend who has just moved to a new country.

And that’s my art for today!

Love,

Grandma Judy

More Art with Ruthie

August 8, 2035

Dear Liza,

Between her busy art gallery (Artful Journey in Peoria, Illinois) and my Shingles, it has been a long time since I’ve sat down for a ZOOM art session with Ruthie Inman in Illinois.

So when we finally got together this week, we yakked and cut and collaged until I was totally worn out! Ruthie had chosen a very fitting collage project.

She had us building a small accordion book to glue into an existing art journal. I am still writing most days in the Journal I was keeping on our France trip, and always welcome the chance to add something interesting.

We measured some light-to-medium card stock about 3 by 5 inches, and joined 5 pieces together by their one inch flaps.

Since it was going in my France Journal, I chose bits and pieces that reminded me of the gardens, museums, restaurants and Emergency Rooms we had visited.

I used quite a few pages from Jennifer’s donated art calendar, adding them to ‘failed’ Gelli prints and roll-off papers, bits of an old Time/Life book on medicine, and pages from falling apart French language Agatha Christie mysteries. When I’m totally happy with it, I’ll stick it in my Journal.

I just love sticking bits of nonsense together to tell a story!

Doesn’t everybody?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Walking in the Rain

August 6, 2025

Dear Liza,

I am slowly (way too slowly, if you ask me) getting back to normal after Shingles knocked me flat. I still have some pain most of the day, take medications to sleep, and get tired easily.

But the world is still out there, and I’m getting out in it more. I like walking in the early morning, because the shadows are long and better for my still-light-sensitive eyes. And, as always, Laurelhurst Park is my favorite place.

Early mornings at the park are quiet and delightful. There were the usual dog walkers and baby walkers, but also pickle ball players, tai chi groups, and a maintenance guy power washing the picnic tables. A lady was training her puppy to sit and stay.

And there was the rain. Just a light drizzle, not enough for anyone to mind, but a steady, cooling reminder that time moves on and summer will end.

I was enjoying it so much, I walked until I was very tired. Feeling discouraged on my way out of the park, this piece of serendipitous advice found me, and I made it home.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Trying Something New

Dear Liza,

You knew I wouldn’t stay down forever, right? Once an Adventure Grandma, always an Adventure Grandma.

So while I am getting up to speed after the Shingles knocked me flat, I am learning something that I’ve been wanting to try for a while:

Gelli Printing.

Ruthie Inman sent me the basic equipment years ago (because she knows I’m cheap and really wanted me to try it), a squishy gelli plate and a brayer. I pulled them out last week and I’ve been itching to feel well enough to jump in.

I watched several videos enough to feel that I had the hang of it….

And, as so often happens, only got the first steps right.

Sometimes I tried to roll paint over the masks, or got my left and my right mixed up, or this one, where I tried one too many layers and covered the whole thing up,

Finally, after watching Carolyn Hassard‘s beginning video all the way through, I tried a simple, two layer print. First, the background layer.

Then the second layer, green paint overlaid with some masks cut from watercolor paper scraps.

And finally, my finished print!

It is embarrassing how many tries it took me to get one simple print right.

But now that I’m feeling better, I realize that even if a print is not what you were after, or even ‘pretty’, it’s usually going to be interesting!

Love,

Grandma Judy