Contortionists and ATC's

Just before the postal strike kicked in (which is depressing for us all, losing the joy of seeing what post we get in a day) I received a couple of envelopes of art. Firstly I received another piece for the contortionists call this time from a fellow Brit, Michael Leigh. His shape is interesting as he has gone for the traditional meaning of the word contortionists in his work. I like the fact that he didn't just get an image of a contortionist but instead got a number of images and intertwined them together to make it look like they are contorting.

Secondly I received a nice RAK in the post from Xtina Soland. I don't know who you are Xtina but I appreciate the ATC's. Maybe you could post and let me know where you found me as such. These 3 ATC's are lovely with I think silent plea being my favourite although I love the crop circle image on Do you see it? I love the person (to my mind a girl) on silent plea and the way the colours work with eachother to make the image stand out to you! So thank you very much Xtina - I think they are lovely!

Contortionists Call incomings

Ok so I've had a couple of pieces in from my contortionists call. The 1st piece is from Cyndy O'leary and as you can see has gone for more the fire and brimstone effect. Taking use of the words, coming to devestate in a town near you. I like the colours used, it makes a good effect.

2nd piece I've had in is from Marlene Russum Scott who has gone for this weaved effect which I really like. Theres something about it that catches my eye and draws me in to it. I like how she made one green as well, so it has a contrast to it.

I have had post ....

and I have been awful about getting it on here. I am have been a busy bee with work and also travelling. Wwith Sam having moved to Bristol I am away most weekends and I've been travelling with work as well, having me out of the office a couple of days a week after the last couple of weeks. So apologies to all who have sent me stuff and it has not appeared on here. I will endeavour to fix that!

Mailbox full of colour

So I went to my dads and I was right a mailbox full of colour stuff for me!!! It was very exciting going through. 1st I looked at the postcards I got.

This 1st one is from a Rupert Hoydell who lives in england but only put his name and a postcode on the back so not sure how I am going to bea bel to send him something back. Rupert if you come on here, post me a comment or email me your address please. Next we have another postcard from a Sean Whatever who lives in the U.S.A. The bottom half is an enlargement of a beautiful red and yellow flower which can be seen in small on the back of the postcard and the top half is like the word color has been cut off. I like it, we know what the word means even though it isn'
t all there and the bright colours of the flower are a reflection of the word.

I got a selection of postcards in an envelope from a Barend G van der gracht - I am glad he included a typed piece of paper with his address as I could not read his writing very well, a lovely scrawl, its looks nice but hard to understand. I liked the picture he had drawn on the front of the envelope as shown below.
These 3 postcards are what was included, he has made use of existing postcards and added to them or used them as a base. We got u like my colour - the aborigine is interesting and has some kind of tattoo's on his face which you don't see often in our culture. There's the girl where he had added some colour with crayon and then the man, where he has used an old postcard as a base, seems to have whited over it with paint or tipex (probably paint) and then created the man on top.
Then by the same artist we have the hand seeming to draw the postcard - I like this concept, its like the picture is being drawn in front of you. Has a monty python feel to it where they use animation with real pictures.
Finally we have my favorite which is nothing against the other artists who sent in their work but I have been admiring Fabio's work online since I saw his entry to the Small Art Project on www.mailart.org and I feel priveleged that he sent a piece in to my call. I love the pop art feel his work has and I do like the space theme to this. The decoration on his enevelopes is great and I felt bad that I could not be more careful when opening them.

I received these ATC's from a blind swap on one of the new Blind swap yahoo groups I joined.
These are all so different and unique which I think is what is good about them. I join in alot of themed swaps so its nice to get one's on random theme's every now and then. I am glad they are not all the same theme and the one's I will be sending in return are not.

I really Like the 2nd one - Flow of Mind it is called - it has a texture to it, not sure how it was made but I have enquired to Satu, the lady who made who is from Finland. I think the green bits will glow in the dark but I have yet to remember to test it! The 3rd one called Elephant, the card has a real rough texture and i like the beads. Brads have been used to keep the beads in and I like the feel the card has in terms of a kind of Indian feel to it. I will be popping round to my dad's today and he says I have lots of mail so maybe there will be colour mail art to be added - woo!

Its Only Words comes in

And what a good collection of cards it is. Everyone has had some very different idea's and there a variety of music tastes!!! I am really proud of all the cards I received but I do have a couple of favourites. The 1st is the marilyn monroe one, what a nice (and quite young) picture of her it is. It is a simple card but I think this is what makes it so great, the lyrics are so so clear and go so well with the picture and I think the sequins stop it being boring - just give it that something extra. My other favourite is the beatles, help from my friends. I love the multi-coloured background and I love the song. They have chosen the best lyrics from it I think. I am intrigued as to how they made the background, it is fantastic. So as you can see some lovely ATC's and this was such a fun swap to be in - tricky at times to think what lyrics I would use and what images i could put with it but great because I love music so much. I hope people are equally as happy with the cards they got from me!

An ATC and some Colour

This is an ATC from Heather where we did a one to one swap on the theme of "In the Frame" as there weren't enough people in the swap so we ended up with a couple of our own cards. I really like the lock and key on this, so small but just adds a little extra. I have really used embellishments like that so am intrigued about them and the possible thought of trying to use such things in the future!

Then this is another colour piece come in. This is from Rachel Freeman and I really like that it has some texture with it, the petals of the flower are slightly raised and the paint feels quite rough compared to the smoothness of the stamps. The blue is very pearly which gives a nice effect. Should be getting some ATC's from the Its Only Words swap in the next couple of days so keep your eye out for them on here :)