May 2025 iHanna Post Card Swap - made by me

 I wanted to work with a fine stencil and use acrylic paint on the background. I decided to draw a mail box. It's really sad that they are constantly disappearing. The post office says it's because they keep getting broken into.  So, now we need to park and go into the post office to mail a letter OR leave it out for the letter carrier.  That works and it is convenient, but it feels like there could be issues. For instance, the letters/cards could be dropped or lost.  Although, a letter carrier is a professional! 

I added some cutouts from peel and stick wallpaper that I designed and used a few ink stamps. There are some duplicates below. The idea of dots and squares of different sizes is interesting to me. So I played with that a bit. I just ordered more wall paper swatches of the wonky white squares on a colored background in different sizes.

May 2025 iHanna Post Card Swap - received

 Here are the cards I have received this May/June:

Becky in Nebraska

Hilde in Norway

Sandy in British Columbia, Canada

Linda from California

Polly from Ohio and Tina from Minnesota

Monica from California

Tessa from Arizona

Roxanne from Connecticut

So pretty!  And finally, here is number 10 from Florida:

Thanks everyone!

My postcards for the November 2024 iHanna Swap

 

My postcards. I used direct ink, ink on tissue paper, acrylic paint, gloss medium and metallic markers. I'm not crazy about the way the gloss medium interacts with the ink. I need to remember this! So that I don't do it again. I hope I have something new to explore next time.

November 2024 iHanna Postcard Swap

 

Michelle - no location or email!

I love the message. There is a tapping meditation I do when I'm feeling down that has an emphasis on being enough.

Cornwall, England

Mesa, Arizona

Prescott, Arizona.  The envelope is as fancy as the card!

Postcards that I made for the May 2024 iHanna Swap

 

These didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped. Using heavy watercolor paper with inks and coating it with gloss medium. Puffy metallic paint. I made the stencil.  

Postcards for May 2024 iHanna Swap

 I am finally getting around to show the postcards I received from the May 2024 swap. Lots of fun!

From Austria

Illinois, Minnesota, and Massachusetts

Florida, Bakersfield, Missouri, and San Diego

Brooklyn, NY

iHanna Postcard Swap 2023

Continuing the tradition, I am posting the postcards I made for the iHanna postcard swap. This was for Spring 2023. I used spray ink and stencils for the background, and a paintbrush with ink for the portraits. It's very fun, but I paint them freehand. If I would pencil them in first, I'd make fewer mistakes, I imagine. Work without a net!

I've received seven cards so far. These are from Wenatchee, Washington; Columbus, OH; Orlando, FL

San Antonio, TX and Rhode Island

Another from San Antonio and one from France!

Las Vegas and Austin, Texas - Numbers 8 and 9:

And the 10th postcard arrived from Arizona:

Wild Arts Festival, Portland, November 17-18, 2018

This is the final year for the 6x6 Artist Open at the Wild Arts Festival. I made two works of art this year using watercolor, collage and topped by encaustic.

Harry Heron - before the encaustic top layer

Harry after the encaustic layer - photo enhanced.

A side view of the 1.5 inch cradled panel. A better depiction of the final colors.

Autumn Crow - before the encaustic top layer

Crow after the encaustic layer

The encaustic wax does dull the colors, but you can touch the surface! It soaks into the paper layers and changes them somewhat.  The work can be shined with a soft cloth every couple of months.  

More information about the festival is here:

http://wildartsfestival.org/

They will put up a slideshow of all of the 6x6 works for this year before the festival.

Spring 2018 Postcard Swap

Time for iHanna's Spring Swap.  Here are my 10 cards:

Mt. Hood, Oregon - Linocut and acrylic paint

Here are some lovely cards that I received. Lots of cool techniques:

Collage with Glassine over top.

The Gap. Words by Ira Glass. Film by Daniel Sax.

Film of The Gap on vimeo.

Here's a short film accompanying audio by Ira Glass.  He is talking about the gap between what you want to make and what you're making. I posted some of his thoughts on the subject a few years ago. 

This film is very cute and only takes a couple of minutes.  I love the printing on the map early on. This was mentioned in the latest newsletter from the wonderful Annamieka Hopps Davidson.

As for my own personal experience, it is taking me forever to get anywhere.  I know I need to work more and I've made gains in that area, but I don't even know what watercolor paper I like.

Anyway, here's a recent sketch on Hahnemuhle Nostagie paper, 5 and 3/4 inches by 4 and 1/8 inches.
(Not watercolor paper.)

Wishing everyone a very happy 2018.

Klea dog

Post card #10

This one came from Taiwan. It took about 3 weeks from the postmark to arrive in Portland.

"The rabbit is a rubbing from an old cake press"

 

Pretty stamps and a clear postmark.

More postcards received

Cute one from Ohio. I like the boxes.

One of a series from San Francisco

This is an affecting message from Athens, Georgia. It references a group called "Free the Girls" focusing on liberating girls forced into sexual slavery.

 

I really enjoy these swaps. Love seeing the different styles and points of view.