walking feet

These postcards of walking feet were inspired by children's book author and illustrator Jenny-Sue Kostecki-Shaw. She wrote two beautiful books, My Travellin' Eye and Same, Same, But Different. I love Kostecki-Shaw's mixed-media art. It is charming, naive and sophisticated at the same time. (http://dancingelephantstudio.com/visualart/blog/)  It is rare to find childrens' books, where the story depicted in pictures is as captivating as the story told in words.  In Kostecki-Shaw's picture books, I cannot stop looking, my eyes are enjoying the richness of the visual narrative. 
These shoe images also remind me of an old, but favorite drawing game that we like to play as a family.  We sit around the table and everyone starts with one body part, folds their drawing over and then passes the sheet on to their neighbor.  The paper circles the table until a creature has been drawn.  It is always such a wonderful surprise to see the revelation of the full image at the end of the game.

198/365, sent to Berlin

199/365, sent to Seattle, WA

200/365, sent to Philadelphia, PA

201/365, sent to Seattle, WA

202/365, sent to Sherman Oaks, CA

loss and celebration in one week

Last week a dear friend and important member of our community died unexpectedly. He was hiking in the mountains with friends and his heart just gave up on him.  Gazing at the nature surrounding him, his last words were, "This is amazing."  Just like that the reality of those loved-ones he leaves behind changes into a nightmare. Below postcards go out to his wife and those who amazingly support the family during this immense tragedy. We will miss him dearly.
At the same time, we attended a Bar Mitzvah at our synagogue and the community pulled itself together after this great loss and was able to celebrate with the Bar Mitzvah boy.  The fourth postcard is inspired by the young boy's sermon - a strong calling to all of us to take good care of this earth for future generations.

193/365, sent to Seattle, WA

194/365, sent to Seattle, WA

195/365, sent to Olympia, WA, designed and written by guest artist Ephi

196/365, hand-delivered in Seattle, WA

197/365, hand-delivered in Seattle, WA

half-point mark

I still can't believe that July 1 has past and I made it beyond the half-point mark of my 365 postcards.  I am thinking back to that winter day when I browsed through the local bookstore for inspiration and I walked out with an idea to create a postcard for a year. At that point, I had so many questions, as to how I would do it, if I could do it, to whom to send the cards, how to document the process, how to muster up determination and stamina and how to come up with 365 different images? 192 days into the project, lots of questions have been answered and I feel humbled by the process. One of my goals has been to practice art without having an excuse and I do see progress in my artistic expression. But more than that, I see that I am able to stick to a promise and that I have the discipline to follow through. I am also amazed how the receivers of cards sort of just pop up as I go on with my life. I am inspired by what somebody says or thankful for a deed that somebody did and "Voila!" another postcard recipient is determined. It still amazes me that something so small can have such a huge impact on my life. I am glad I still have 173 postcards to create.

187/365, sent to Seattle, WA

188/365, sent to Olympia, WA

189/365, sent to Seattle, WA

190/365, sent to Olympia, WA

191/365, sent to Giessen, Germany

192/365, sent to Seattle, WA

boats

When you live in the Pacific Northwest, you want to stay around for the duration of summer. Plan your travels for the rest of the year, but make sure you are here for the gorgeous months. During July-August, the sky breaks open and the snow capped mountains appear in the distance. You can swim in open water and then take a hot shower overlooking Lake Washington with glimpses of Mount Rainier in the distance.
The first two weekends of summer, we went camping at Deception Pass State Park.  It felt like paradise with a camping spot overseeing the bay.  One day, we rented Kayaks and I was left to see everyone pull away from the land, I was inspired by the vibrant colors of the boats and felt inclined to depict them on my next set of five postcards.

181/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

182/365, sent to Berlin, Germany

183/365, sent to Seattle, WA

184/365, sent to Seattle, WA

185/365, sent to Teaneck, NJ

186/365, sent to Frankfurt, Germany, byt guest artist Yonah L.
PS. My 6 year old is the very proud owner of a pocket knife - which came in handy for our camping trips.

mixed media explorations

I continue to experiment with water color. The postcard paper does not lend itself well for the task, but it can tolerate small amounts of water without too much warping. I discover that I am drawn to multimedia. I combined pencil with water color and sharpie to produce these set of five cards. I also find the marriage of image and words intriguing. Here, I searched for botanical images of leaves and mixed them with excerpts of poems. Slightly random, but the outcome is satisfying in my eyes.

176/365, sent to Seattle, WA

177/365, sent to Seattle, WA

178/365, sent to ???

179/365, sent to Braunfels, Germany

180/365, sent to Los Angeles, CA

Summer is here

These colorful postcards were inspired by the book Water Paper Paint, by Heather Smith Jones. I painted them on one big sheet of watercolor paper and then cut them to size to send out as postcards. Did I mention that summer is here and my children are out of school?  With that, finding time to do art and keep up with the documentation of my postcard project is challenging.  But I am sure I will get into this new rhythm and enjoy every minute of having my kids around.  The best moments are when we all do art together and my children are inspired to create something on their own or design a postcard as well. 

170/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

171/365, sent to Bellevue, Wa

172/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

173/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

174/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

175/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

Glasses

How do we perceive our world? Does the way we look at our surrounding change with the type of glasses we put on? (I for sure had fun designing these different glasses below.)  I am currently learning about the extrovert and the introvert lens. Then there is the female and male lens, the adult/ kid outlook.  My world view is influenced by my German upbringing, my Jewish believes, my femininity, my identity as a mother.  What color is your lens? Do you tend to color the world with gray and dark hues or do you always wear a pink tint. Just once, go through your day and try to observe how your personal perception influences your view of the world. 

165/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

166/365, sent to Seattle, WA

167/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

168/365, sent to Bellevue, WA

169/365, sent to Bellevue, WA