My Christmas Wish For All of Us

Christmas Wish

2020

 

Some New/Old Cabinet Cards

 Just finished three cabinet cards which will be Christmas presents for three dear friends.  (And they, of course, should NOT be looking at these because they are secret. You know who you are.)

A Boy and His Dog

The Christmas Elf

Were You Bored at School?

Happy Snowmageddon, East Coast!

Snow Day

2020

 

Biden and Harris Are Elected

 

Seen on the Web...

 

RIP Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Remarkable Human

 

Lost and Found

 So, with time on my hands these days (thanks, COVID!), I occasionally avoid work by haphazardly cleaning out my studio.  I find this to be an excellent way to procrastinate, and sometimes I even discover things.  Yesterday, while looking for the right kind of substrate for a project, I found a series of artist's trading cards (ATC)* that I made in early 2018: 

*These are smallish cards (2.5" x 3.5") that people make to exchange or give away to other artists.  Interestingly, although I have made a number of these over the years, I've never actually traded or given any away.  I don't seem to be doing this right...

Work in Progress: The Matriarchy

So, here's what I'm working on today.

Awhile back I saw a poster with a phrase I liked -- "The Matriarchy Is Coming."  I immediately wanted to steal that, and imagined it as the center of a delicate little embroidery piece, maybe an antique handkerchief.  But mulling it over, I decided it would be more fun to make it part of a small series of feminist textile pieces, mildly threatening in theme but nicely girly in execution.  I imagined that phrase in hot pink letters on a stark background with lounging, ghostly guys in black suits.  As I worked, however, I hated it.  Slowly it evolved:  the ghostly men in black suits became vintage men from old knitting catalogs and W Magazine.  Black images became sepia images, and then, unhappy with that, I started adding hints of color with watercolor pencils.  After trying out six (yes!) different letter colors, the hot pink (cheesy!) finally became light gray, barely visible lettering  And that's where we are now.  The fabric images are sewed/glued on the tea-dyed background, coloring is complete (I think) and I'm adding embroidery touches.  And maybe tiny buttons.  And...

SHAPE

I recently completed another altered "workbook" -- altered books that I use to explore a technique or material.  This one is all about abstract shapes, formed by collaging paper bits to the over-painted pages of an old book.  Size = 7x7, 15 pages. 

Here are some pages:

I Apologize

I apologize for not being able to tell you

the end of this story.

The Thorn and the Rose

But he who dares not grasp the thorn

should never crave the rose.

Anne Bronte

Getcher Free Zine Heeah

I'm having one of my quaranzines printed and would be delighted to send you a free copy.

The printed copies should be ready to go in a week or two, so if you'd like one, send your name/mailing address to me at lynnskordal@gmail.com, and I will snail mail one out to you.

Ten Hats

PSBA (Puget Sound Book Artists) had to cancel its annual member's show because of Covid.  Instead, some of us are participating in a book exchange -- you make books, you get books back.  The theme is "10" in honor of the tenth anniversary of the organization.  I just finished my ten little books (actually, I made 13 because, well, you never know when you might need a few extras).  My book is called "Ten Hats" and it highlights the multi-faceted Donald J. Trump, Very Stable Genius.  They are hand-sewn with covers of Lotka paper scraps.  Here's a peek:

Collage o'the Day

What's Your Outlook?

Recent Collaborations

My good friend, Sabine Remy, and I have been collaborating on collage pieces for years.  One of us makes a starter and sends it off, the other finishes and returns it.  Dusseldorf (Sabine's home) and La Conner (my home) are half-a-globe apart, but today that seems even further than usual.  I miss you, Sabine!

Here are a couple of our recent collaborations:

Margaret

(#109/2020, started by Sabine, finished by me)

The Mediator

(#108/2020, started by me, finished by Sabine)

Family Album

(#107/2020, started by Sabine, finished by me)

7.1.20

Aqua

Live in the sunshine,

swim in the sea,

drink in the wild air.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

100,000

People continue to die of Covid-19 every day.  The United States is one of the world's hotspots in this pandemic, despite the fabricated claims of our incompetent President.

Last month, when the death toll reached 100,000, I made a memorial book for the dead.  Most died alone, in isolation, without the comfort of family and friends.  This little book is a reminder of who they were...mothers, fathers, family, friends, and neighbors.  Here are some pages:

Four Visual Poems

Sometimes I make a poem and integrate it into an image, a "visual poem."  Here are some:

before you

In Omaha

Typewriter Poem

You and Me

My Daily Quarantine Schedule

Gwash Buk

Awhile back I got a set of gouache paints and in order to see what they could do, I started painting over the pages of an old poetry book.  I leisurely painted, doodled, experimented, copied, stamped and collaged for a month or two, and when I ran out of pages, I gave the whole thing a fancy title and closed the cover.  Here are a few pages:

Fascism and Mr. Trump

In 2003 Lawrence Britt, who describes himself as an author and amateur historian, compiled a list of early warning signs of fascism.  This was for an article published in Free Inquiry magazine and was turned into a poster which was sold for awhile in the Holocaust Museum.  I understand it is no longer available there.  This is my re-working of that poster.

How's Donald doing??