A neighborhood couple I know is moving to Montana (I think—somewhere out west, anyway) to a horse farm (!) and during a party to say goodbye to their many friends and neighbors, one of them, J—, dug up an ancient tube of glass the other had purchased in Murano, probably decades[1] ago, which was given me:)
mixed media on back of envelope, 3 – 15/16 x 5 – 9/16; 100mm x 143 mm, Crane brand “pearl white kid finish”, with washi paper, Japanese and US ephemera, metallic watercolours, hanko ink, PVC glue, 31may2026; photographed in natural light, pixelpro 6, unified transform & crop tools applied in gimp
Their going-away party was literally across the street from me, so that it made it easy to dip in and out of it; frex, the second time I swung by (to drop off this note), I stopped at an ‘art table’ some kids had set up with paper and acrylic paints, and made some very bad sakura; oddly enough J— kept that horrid sketch:)
I was so touched.
Anyway.
The point of this digression is to note (ahem) that I started with the blue water patterned paper—I really like it, and its clean graphic pattern was something I thought J— would appreciate. Plus, it co-ordinated with the high-end paper of the envelope.[2] The rest flowed from there.
The little strip of washi paper is particularly poignant because it was given to me by another artist, M—: we're all (roughly) from the same generation, and M— is currently battling a resurgence of cancer: she made these strips for lampshades/mixed media wall art, but of course had leftovers, and was thinking, no doubt, that if she gave this old stuff away, then would have more space for new scraps.
In a sense I feel a stewardship for this person's bricolage: being able to pass it along to another artist, who also has had health challenges, felt special. These sorts of hidden connections, really only apparent to me, serve a sort of secret scaffolding, underlying the more obvious connections, such as the blue and yellow colour scheme.
as above, but with the addition of a tiny horse made with gel pen; I wish I had thought of the horse iconography sooner, as I adore horses, can draw them, & could've done a good job incorporating that component if I'd thought about it from the get-go, as opposed to the afterthought here, which to be honest, weakens the overall design.
Among other things I acquired from the recipients during their prep-for-the-move garage sale was an almost full box of Hokusai note cards, but I wasn't really thinking consciously so much about their love of Japanese iconography, as simply taking advantage of the stuff lying around— except the little moving truck icon—that came from business-oriented ad or other[3] under the mistaken impression that Rejiquar Inc is still a thing. But I liked the graphic design, confident that the little commercial vehicles would likely come in handy, as indeed they did.
Phew. That was waaaaaaaaay more text than this quick little assemblage needed, or indeed deserved. Ah well.
[1]judging from the beautifully antiqued quality of the masking tape tag on the storage tube, which yes, I asked the wizard to remove for me;)
[2]Which is turn is legacy from my sister-in-law, who bought it to write notes after her mom passed (pretty sure, though they could've been from her father's passing, which would make more sense, as that was later, when her life was harder) We, which is to say, f2tE and I, found this writing paper, along with the addresses—I thought about trying to take over the task, but by then a decade had passed, and I figured most would just be returned, so I didn't; and honestly, I don't remember that we did much better, writing notes after our sister-in-law/aunt died, which has absolutely nothing otherwise to do with this page well I suppose is another of those submerged connections, as both my sister-in-law and J— strike me as the sort to appreciate nice notecards, excepting to say, (a) if a grieving person doesn't respond, they're probably trying their best; (b) the opportunities for physical letter writing are ever-shrinking, not to mention the options for these older, small-ish envelopes, as the post office keeps restricting what even be mailed, and (c) while I wish my friends the very best of luck, I'm still sad they're moving so far away: it is for serious occasions that I tend to reserve these envelopes (though the beautiful, engraved angel notecard I inserted was from a different source, my bestie perhaps?)
[3]I think from Progressive
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
