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Last ATCs Stateside

Dear Liza,

We will be starting our French sojourn in a few days, and I am getting some extra art time before we leave. I am enjoying experimenting with mixed media and new (to me, anyway) ways of laying down color and pattern.

Friday, I started by choosing some acrylics that seemed to go together; Marina blue, Violet, and Light chocolate. I measured, but didn’t cut, my ATCs to be 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

Working with one color at a time and letting it dry, I put a drop of each color on the paper and scraped with an old driver’s license. I loved the swoops and how the colors overlapped!

That was a good start, but all those spaces seemed to need something. I picked up a #12 micron pen and drew some curves and dots. I kept it up until it seemed done. If I have learned anything in my short time learning art, it is when to stop.

I cut the cards apart and put my card on the back, and I’ll punch a hole so I can put them in my ring to share them in France.

Looking forward!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Our Avocado, Manuel

Dear Liza,

Living in Portland after so many years in California can sometimes be confusing. The different climate up here means that “outdoor” plant in Salinas become “indoor” plants in Portland.

This has lead to our having a small forest in our guest bathroom every winter. About five years ago, Auntie Bridgett decided to try and sprout an avocado seed. After a few duds, one took root, and has been growing ever since!

Here he is in 2021, the first picture after we were sure he was going to live. We were still keeping him inside.

A few years later, we put him out on the balcony for the warmer seasons, and he continued to do well.

And this year, he is nearly five years old and back out in the balcony for summer, as tall as the railing!

We may never get fruit from Manuel, but he has been a fine plant friend. I suppose I will need to have a plan for when her is too big for the bathroom… but that’s a worry for later.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Tiny Art Finished!

Der Liza,

That delightful tin box of art (the Time Capsule that I started with Ruthie Inman a few weeks ago) is finished!

It took a few days to finish up the accordion folded cards inside, and another day to get the box covered, but I really like it.

Since it is mostly about travel, I covered it, inside and out, with maps collected over the years. Mod Podge is a good adhesive for this.

I included bits from London, Copenhagen, France, Leiden, and “the castle-iest castle in Denmark”. There is even a bit from the book I made for you, “Adventure Grandma”.

Every time I look at it, I remember, and I smile.

The cards fold up nicely, but are a very tight fit in the tin. To get them out without damage, I laid in a ribbon to pull on and pop them out. It works great!

looking forward to my next adventure!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Auntie Beeswax is BACK!!

Dear Liza,

I am happy to announce that the Willamette Week, our local paper, has decided to bring back the comics! There have been several months with no comics, and folks have missed them.

So Jack Kent’s Sketchy People, Marcy King’s Transcend, Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man, and Mat Barton’s Gag of the Week are all joining Bridgett Spicer’s Auntie Beeswax on one big, bright comics page.

If you aren’t where you can pick up a copy, go to WillametteWeek.com and follow the directions to read the paper, just like it was in your hands.

I am so happy that Bridgett’s comics get to be out spreading joy and whimsy again. The world needs it now. A lot.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Auntie Beeswax is BACK!!

Dear Liza,

I am happy to announce that the Willamette Week, our local paper, has decided (after a bit of a public outcry) to bring back the comics! There have been several months with no comics, and folks have missed them.

If you aren’t where you can pick up a copy, go to WillametteWeek.com and follow the directions to read the paper, just like it was in your hands.

I am so happy that Bridgett’s comics get to be out spreading joy and whimsy again. The world needs it now. A lot.

Love,

Grandma Judy

More Tiny Art

Dear Liza,

Every time I get together with the ZOOM Art group with Ruthie Inman, I get so full of ideas I could pop.

This past week she showed up these: tiny, accordion folded books that fit in a little tiny box. The samples she showed were people’s’ interpretations of their high school years, with black and white photos and bits and pieces from the fifties for illustrations.

I had a good time in high school. I met Grandpa Nelson there, and Ruthie. I learned a lot about who I am and what I believe in, on the way to becoming who I am. But it was just four years out of 69, and I didn’t want to make a whole art project about it.

First, we cut some heavy paper so it fit into the little Altoid tin. Then we made little hinges from paper and joined the cards together like an accordion.

I decided to start my “Time Capsule” in the 1950s, when I was born. Some old ads and papers worked nicely. Then came the 1960s with the Beatles. I had to rework my High School years because the colors weren’t cohesive with the others. In the re-do, the horse stands for our Mustang mascot .

Since I got married right out of school, the kids came next. Sticking with the vintage ads, I showed our girl and boy….

And started in on the adventures! Traveling to France, learning French, and getting out in the world. I like how it folds up!

I am trying to choose colors that are cohesive so it looks like they belong together. Bridgett tells me this is color theory, which I have always rebelled against. Oh well.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Artist’s Trading Cards Run Amok

Dear Liza,

I started making these little Artists Trading Cards last week and now I can’t stop!!

I started with collages of soft backgrounds and black and white photos. The words came mostly from the J. Peterman Catalogue.

Then I used the same soft focus backgrounds for some neurographic art, which seems to be just lines which cross and create negative space. I like how the flower shapes play with the flowing black lines. I gave some of the spaces dots, and some a wash of color. they don’t say anything, but they’re pretty.

I love so many things about ATCs. They are small, just 2.5 by 3.5 inches, so you can make them out of next to nothing. When you get bored with one medium, you can switch and not be stuck with a whole canvas to cover. And you can share them! I’ve mailed some, but I’m also making some to take on our trip.

Just before my hand gave out for the day, I picked up some scraps from the cards I’d made and a page from an old, old book, and made three more.

Who knows what I’ll make next?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Another Way to Share ATCs

Dear Liza,

You know how creative people are… once they get an idea, they follow it to the next, and the next. That’s sort of what is happening with my ATCs, or Artist Trading Cards.

Once I got the right size figured out, I laid down some floral bits of art from a donated calendar. To make them a softer background, I brushed on some white acrylic. I cut them to the proper 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

Then, to contrast with that lovely pastel, I searched the calendar again and found black and white photos or darker images to add. I really liked the way each one told a story.

But I’m a word person, snd I wanted words. I found them in Auntie Bridgett’s ‘French Phrase a Day’ calendar. Taking our current national situation into consideration, I added phrases. (I will let you look them up…) These were really coming along!

Then, to top it all off, Ruthie Inman suggested punching a hole in each one and keeping them on a ring! A portable, share-able art gallery! I am having fun imagining when I might share these on a train traveling through France, or sitting in a park. Of course, they have my information card on the back so folks will be able to find me on the ‘net.

Ain’t art grand?

Love,

Grandma Judy

Artist Trading Cards

Dear Liza,

I have found a new kind of art to make, and even a group of people to share it with! Ruthie Inman’s ZOOM art group includes Zoë, a delightful lady who lives in Tasmania, Australia. Zoë and Ruthie both make ATCs. That is, Artist Trading Cards.

Artist Trading Cards are little pieces of art, 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. They can be painted, collaged, drawn, just about any medium you can imagine. You make them, then mail them to friends, who mail you theirs. It’s like having artsy pen pals!

I used a few failed Valentines, but mostly clipped bits from the art calendar Jennifer Coile sent me.

I made my first ATCs using Auntie Bridgett’s old business cards as backing, then realized that they are a half an inch too small for the ATC trading rules.
They are just two in he’s high and 3.5 inches wide.

But that’s okay! First, because I don’t think art should have rules; and second, because I can still send them to friends who don’t care about the rules.

But for my second round, I’m doing something different. I laid out rectangles of the right size, and made six ATCs at the same time, with bits overlapping.

I glued bits of art down, then gave it a quick smudge with white paint to soften the colors. I really like them, but they need something… I’ll show you what, tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

President’s Day Protests

Dear Liza,

As you know, the United States’ newly installed president has spent his first three weeks in office dismantling the Federal government, rolling back human rights laws, and generally setting himself up to be a dictator.

With his appointment of billionaire racist Elon Musk as head of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), he is quickly firing the staff of any agency that might stop him.

Even more frightening, the Republicans in Congress are doing nothing to protect the government they were elected to.

This angers me… and hundreds of thousands of other Americans.

So on Monday, which was Presidents’ Day, about 2,000 people showed up at Portland City Hall to protest, chant, and eventually march through the streets. A peaceful but vocal crowd marched across the bridges and up the east side, carrying the message of resistance to tyranny.

It was good to be part of something bigger, of a flood of hope and passion for our democracy. Portland’s Raging Grannies were there, and Federal Workers, Union Members, and thousands of just plain folks.

This will not be our last protest, you can be sure. I’ll keep you posted.

Love,

Grandma Judy