From My Art Journal

Predominantly collage, mixed media:

Wonder, photo collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Susurrus, stitched collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

stitched collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

stitched collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

sunlight through stitched collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

stitched fashion collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock, Toile La La

mail art collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

detail, mail art collage - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

Scent of Rembrandt Red, collage with reverse text - Jennifer Hawkins Hock

 

stitched mail art - art fashion creation

stitched mail art - art fashion creation

Silence in the Noise: Mail Art.

Beneath a vintage dryer bonnet, this lady - in search of pretty looks - appears to be in a zone of quietude. The moment I found this in my mail, I knew it was one of my favorites!  E, the mailer, was unaware of the memories her mail art would evoke.  Memories of:

• hours of my own beneath these humming bonnets - reading and awaiting transformation
• the look of my mother and grandmother and many other women beneath the bonnet
• my grandmother in this exact type of house/salon dress
• that exact relaxed look - beatific - on the face of anyone beneath these humming, warm-air-blowing bonnets 

As loud as they were - and maybe still are - a bit of heaven can be found beneath these dryer bonnets, in the same way that the come and go of waves can lull you to sleep at the beach.

Around the pasted image of this lady sitting primly beneath her bonnet, E used rubber stamps to create a scalloped pattern on the brown paper envelope. And around her head, E affixed "thoughts" and images.  E added color to the black and white image... I especially love the thick 60s eyelashes and the delicate colors she chose! But I wanted to free this lady from her thoughts and give her the peace so many women have found beneath the bonnet.  

It took a bit of work, as E's mail art was of course a real envelope.  Opening it in a hurry to get to the written contents, I tore the edge unevenly.  To fix this, I separated the front and back of the envelope - using parts of the paper to repair the torn edge.  E's stamps are always the greatest, vintage and/or interesting graphics, so I saved those.  Then - to create an atmosphere of tranquility around the seated lady, it was necessary to paint over the thoughts E had given her.  E's stamped scallops reminded me of clouds, so I painted white all around the lady under the bonnet. 

And finally, to firmly attach the added layers of paper, I machine-stitched a few lines.  And now, the mail art - mailed from E to me - is ready for a place on the wall of my studio... to remind me to take a moment to relax from time to time.  Thank You E.

Mail Art Mailbox

toile la la mail art to E

Mailbox lid - mail art

Mailbox full of mail art and correspondence

mail art from E to toile la la

mail art from E

Within even the construction of our mail art lately there is a conversation or new kind of creative language... a back and forth of imagery.  E sends a letter to me, I alter it... and sometimes vice versa.  One letter made two round trips and then I mailed it to my daughter - who likes to observe our progression of evolving mail art and correspondence.

Initially, my handwriting was not as refined as I wished.  I serendipitously happened upon a wonderful antique typewriter and began typing my correspondence for a small number of recipients.  As another artform, I began stitching on paper to alter images - or in envelope assembly and to add texture or a border.  

E began typing and stitching to me too.  She has acquired quite a collection of vintage typewriters - and her sewing machine has a more extensive range of stitches.  

Having familiarized myself with her collection of rubber stamps, embossing seals, sewing machine stitch patterns, typing ink and envelopes - I recently requested from E a particular combination:  red thread, a French stamp inked with brown-black ink, red typing ink, and a seal on her natural envelopes - which remind me of unbleached linen.  I was delighted to promptly receive them and have been using them for correspondence with E, so she's been able to enjoy her own handiwork via mail art!  Stamps she shared with me from her own collection add great color and visual interest.  I was inspired by the writing on the stamp and decided to add a speech bubble with characters.

mail art, toile la la (on an envelope from E)

E's stamp collection and embellished envelope

two letters from E

E shares my affinity for antique imagery and vintage fonts.  As she knows how I adore the history of art and fashion, she often surprises me with vintage magazine or pattern ephemera.  

I love how the typing here is visible from the reverse side - and how E added gold touches to Renoir's blue nude:

For one of my letters to E, I altered a vintage photo of a man holding a baby. With scissors, I snipped around the baby to make him appear to be perched in a tree.  A few weeks later, the tree-baby returned to me on the outside of E's envelope!

Recently, E sent me several vintage postcards - to which I added collage elements, or handpainting.  For a few days, I contemplated the transformation of this souvenir restaurant postcard - and then decided to add George Washington, the lighthouse, and the painted clouds and seaside:

toile la la mail art:  collage and handpainted altered postcard

Collage Postcard for E.

The female image is from a vintage museum postcard - Musee du Luxembourg - called "Au Crepuscule" - twilight, by Paul Chabas. She was standing in a shallow pool of water, looking cold - so I transported her to a forest, interlocking foliage and postcard - clipping in a way which left the girl free, so that she projects ever-so-slightly from the green background. The stump and bush are courtesy of a Giorgione colourplate from a vintage art book in my stacks. The garden belongs to someone featured in Architectural Digest - with a wonderful green thumb, or a talented gardener.

Collage Postcard by Toile La La.

I found the vintage postcard in an assortment of maps, postcards, and interesting antique ephemera which I purchased from Kathleen Sawyer's the back of the boat shop at Etsy. The blue link will take you there - where you will enjoy Sawyer's collage artwork and her amazingly affordable collage art kits - (5 dollars!).

Mail Art - Creative Correspondence.

Lately, my mailbox bulges with happiness... lots and lots of mail, and my camera is stuffed full too. More mail art, and more posts to come soon - and, perhaps - a guest, but for now - some photos, and Number One Good Luck - my Project Inspector tabby.

The seal of approval from my Project Inspector - Good Luck Number One.

Toile La La stitch-altered story for mail art correspondence. Image Toile La La.

Toile La La button collage.

E, my most long-standing mail correspondent sent me a Keats poem on a vintage envelope with stamps dated 1944 - and she sent a card bearing 3 pearlescent buttons. Sometimes she returns something I've sent her - with commentary. I had mailed her a snippet of an antique photo strip with 2 men and we wondered if they were brothers - maybe even twins. One frame bore only one man, so I decoupaged him to a pearly button. I mailed to E, along with the button collage, a page from a 1930s story - which I edited with machine-stitching and paint (to create a poem of sorts). And, I included a china fragment from my grandmother's back yard and a china fragment I found on the riverbank while canoeing. In the second photo, you can see E's very clever envelope closure she created - using a metal button, attached with a cotter pin. That was one of my favorite things!