January's Postcard of the Month

Happy - cold - New Year!

I had several inspirations for this month's card.  

And then was this very cool photo that my new, mixed-media artist friend, Linda took/sent me:

I just love it - I love the lines; I love the strange, patchy depth of the whitish wall 

(I see eyes there); the dark horizontal slash through the middle...

So then I was watching a movie and this gorgeous hat (can you tell it's a hat?!) 

spoke LOUDLY to me:

 Sorry!  I couldn't get a better shot - but it was very wintry, and so richly textured - 

it looked like a velvety incarnation of a wasp's nest.   Oh yeah.  :)

And it also gave me a real hankering to use some white netting.

 So I pulled out a few January-ish-looking papers:

And then I made this first stab (l.) - which I placed next to Linda's collaged card*(r.) :

But that wasn't exactly what I was going for...

And I know I used these same (old wrapping paper) trees

 in last year's January postcard:

But they insisted on an encore!  

So I played with a few more configurations:

The 4th iteration - lower r. - worked for me, so...

The Fixin's

(well, more than, and not all...)

The Steps

Something NEW!!  Here's a little movie of the steps!  
Much more fun than looking at them vertically!

But, I'm still including the individual steps w/ notes for some.  :)
 Step 1**

Step 2 - I always see so much pink/mauve in the winter browns and snow & sky, 
so a faint touch here:

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Step 7 -Wasps' nest!  :)

Step 8 - More Wasps' nest.  :)

Step 9

Step 10 - This is another piece that came from one of the 2 wrapping papers - 
it was the 'snow' under the trees.

Step 11 - some of the last pieces of one of my first (of my own) hand-made papers!

Step 12 - Silver paper from the inside of teabag wrapper***.

Step 13 - The netting!  :)

Step 14 - Inside of an envelope.

Step 15 - ditto.

Step 16 - yup, envelope.

Step 17 - and one more.

Step 18 - Trees!

Step 19

Step 20

Step 21 - I'd thought it was done at this step...

Step 22 - BUT THEN!!  >> I opened a little tin of goodies that I'd forgotten about - 
full of tiny pieces of this wonderful, unusual mauve metallic, textured paper****.  Oh, yeah.

Step 23 - Ta Da.  :)

Panel of 21 of January's postcards.

Oh yeah - this is what I like to do.  :)

It's always been important to me that each of my compositions works visually/graphically no matter which way it's turned.  A balanced 'effect' is what I aim for.  I love how dynamic and abstract the grouping becomes - just by reversing the direction of every other card. There's 'motion' in this.   

You can see more, similarly skewed panels of 'Winter' postcard collections below > Addendum I.  

Post script: 

This set of postcards is one of the few I've done in recent years that doesn't include a little piece of sheet music/notes.  Almost!  But I dropped 'em after prototype #3 - just didn't quite see where to subtly work 'em in as I was prototyping - despite them lingering so beckoningly in the fixin's' tray.  

So I decided that it's fine - appropriate for this quiet, still, cold month. 

That's my January here in Vermont: Quiet.  Still.  Cold. 

Fin.

*New artist-friend-Linda just recently moved to VT from NJ, and we met thanks to Emilie Alexander's oh-so-personalized curating at her gallery - The Emile Gruppe Gallery, here in Jericho (where the 'Winter' show opened 3 years ago).  

I took this shot of Linda's collage next to the lit up little pot of mini-Mum's that she brought me.

**I like the idea of using left-over wrapping papers in January's collages - and this January's had gleanings (3) from 2 different papers :

 - would've been 3, had I used the acorns.

***

****This wonderful paper came in a care package from another artist-friend-Linda @3 years ago, and I have carefully rationed these treasures!  First used some of them in March 2012's postcard:

Addendum I - Winter!  The show.  

The 'Winter' exhibit went out for what I think is probably it's last viewing last month.
The art coordinator at the beautiful, new-ish Deborah Rawson Library invited me to display the panels - and some individual collages - for the month of December.   Nice space; nice light.  

Unless some new appealing offer of exhibit space for next winter crops up in the next month or so, I think I'm going to finally dismantle all these postcard panels and return the cards to their rightful owners/collectors/supporters/fans.  :)

Addendum II 

Oh, just some miscellania.  :)

Some of the - companionable - regulars.

I liked the reflection of the pink dusk in the ice on the pool cover:

And I REALLY like the great sense of humor that my new across-the-street-from-the-studio neighbors are exhibiting!  This makes me smile every time I look out the window.  :)

'Twas a foggy foggy drive...  Rather quiet and lovely.

The view from the dentist's chair!  

When it's not overcast, there's a primo view of Mt. Mansfield in the background.

Some local color - My mother - and the Yule Mule in the background!

Mum's wearing the skirt I knit for her when I was 16 yrs. old - 
she's worn it almost every Christmas since then!  

And!  >  It won a 1st. place ribbon in the Topsfield (MA) Fair 
(oldest agricultural fair in the country) the summer after I made it.  :)  
She seemed pretty pleased with the sweater (that I didn't make) that I gave her this year.