how i enjoy these days of doing nothing. being home, being right here. walking through these 4 rooms. roaming the garden. i can sit at one of my desks, by one of my windows, and busy myself with sorting paper, rummaging through old stamps, opening and shutting these metal boxes that are now home to my waxed linen, labels, some mailart rubberstamps.
i’ve developed a serious interest in mailart. a renewal in my interest of all things postal. dormant for so long now it’s roaring back to life.
with my machine still out on one of my desks it’s easy to stitch paper whenever i feel like it. and today i felt like it!
some outgoing mail…
this afternoon i started wondering whatever happened to my old 2005 paris travel journal. a dig through the bookcases and it is uncovered!
how good to read these long ago stories. i was facetiming with sister this afternoon and reading her some of the entries and we had some good laughs. neither of us remembered getting the special tour from the madame in the castle. we did remember letting ourselves in this massive side door that was closed but not locked. oh the thrill of excitement as we stole up the stairs!
the sketches have a crudeness to them, but the words i scrawled next to them bring everything ALIVE. i am right there by the window with the rain beating wildly against it. sitting on the damp stone wall in the freezing wind.
i remember nights at the big wooden table in the kitchen in the apartment under the eaves. 101 steps to the top. writing with an atlas next to me obsessively retracing our tracks down so many little roads. so glad i did that now!
i remember carefully putting in all of the dates using photos & dymo labels before leaving LA.
our madame spoke no english and we spoke only 3-5 words of french. somehow we understood everything. or thought we did!
oh and i found this postcard while i was rummaging through my paper.
we never know in whose house or hand our writing will one day land do we? impossible to know.
“hello dearie”, she wrote.
hello mother, say i. got your postcard. i know it was meant for geralda, but i got it too. 103 years after you wrote it. just wanted you to know. hope you’re feeling better.
Goodness me, I know you told me once upon a time where you got those square labels with the scallop-like design, one of which is in the first photo, upper lefthand corner. But I lost the link and I don’t know which post it was! 🙁 Could you please tell me again? I know it was a stationery store with an online presence. Thank you so much!
baum kuchen if memory serves! google…they have an online store. weeeee!
Yes! That’s it! Thanks, MAM!
You couldn’t possibly remember me, but I have never forgotten you. Life took me away from your words and art until tonight when nostalgia took control over. Thank goodness I gave in because this is just what I needed. Love the written word, the older the better.
Don’t be ridiculous! How could I forget you? Tell me what you’re doing these days. Working? In college? How’s your mom? Delighted to hear from you 🙂
Thank you for these precious (and hilarious) moments in Blois. You and Sister are really fearless women ! The pizzeria in Romorantin is still there, and if Sister tasted the “croissant” just in front of your hotel, you chose the Président de la République official baker (it is no more)!!! So, you’re genial genius.
Mary Ann, I loved reading the pages of your French travel journal. I also keep a written journal while traveling, along with a visual journal of ephemera and photos. And sometimes I’m able to combine the two into one. But there is much joy in reading the day-to-day descriptions, taking me back in time to the setting.
Your typewritten list is hilarious! Those are the sort of notes I write myself all the time.
Would love to see a “studio tour” of your desks etc. Of course, there may be one somewhere on your blog and I never noticed it.
I used to buy a lot of postcards on ebay, and once I got one addressed to a house in my hometown. Total serendipity!
Sister! I plucked my France travel journal off the shelf today to compare to your memories. Ahhhh that was a trip. Remember zipping along the lanes in the small towns in France with those trees that had recently had their haircuts? And the strawberries and creme fresche and walnuts and cheese. And the shower that was not really big enough to turn around in? I will forever recall my very first bite of a warm croissant walking along on the sidewalk in Blois. Can that really have been 12 years ago?
Hello Mary Ann – Oh how I loved seeing an earlier journal of yours ! What a delight it was to see how much your journaling has changed since then. I would say progressed or more elaborate, but there is such beauty in simplicity of the earlier journal too that I think it would be more appropriate to simply say “reimagined”.
curious…what has sparked your new enthusiasm for mailart?
i like that word reimagined very much. the old travel journals are DEAR.
making STITCH*BOOKERY got me excited about the possibilities of sending art through the mail. I have several smallish folded paper projects that are perfect, and that i demo in class.
You visited the most beautiful and historic part of France. Where I come from actually I am from a small town called Saumur which is long in history…We also have a beautiful castle, old medieval houses. Balzac wrote Eugenie Grandet there. We have a famous cavalerie school, wine, even a dolmen without mentioning all the kings etc who visited and left their foot prints, besides one of the Huguenot university which does not exist anymore… I could go on, it is part of my heart as I live in the US now…
hello annie,
i will look up your SAUMUR. it sounds enchanting. i hope you are able to visit your beloved home from time to time.
Love your mail art. Did you put any real postage on it? Your letters will probably end up in the postmaster general’s office for official approval. Enjoying stitch bookery but nothing produced yet as I have yet to unearth my sewing machine and relearn threading the needle. And will probably have to get a new prescription for glasses. Think I will just make another Sister cocktail and watch some more of the videos.
i have snuck in some real postage in between the old stamps. i like my USPS to work hard for their $
excellent idea to sip cocktails and watch videos. it’s best to let the ideas simmer.
Was this your first travel journal????When I look back at my earlier journals I love to see the development of my style through time. So Fun!!!
my first was in 2000 – a greek trip.
these old travel journals are such a joy to read through. that’s what i like best.
Thank you so much for sharing these pages from your time in Blois and the area. I was there a few years before you and reading this brought back some memories of my own. Documenting, even when exhausted, makes so much sense years after the travels, especially when I sometimes can’t even remember what happened yesterday 😳
yes! i think it’s why we keep journals and notebooks and keep letters. we are DOCUMENTARIANS.
i hope your lungs are okay up there. we got out just in time to escape the smoky air…
It’s a weird kind of smokey air – mixed with a marine layer. Kind of like the smog I remember from Southern California and yet you can smell the wood fire. It does make the setting sun an orange ball. Haven’t seen the peaks of the Olympics in days.
Wow, Mary Ann, you are on fire with your artful passion … and that is a good thing!
Right now, I’m having my early morning mocha latte and reading my email.
I’ve been busy with my VIDA collection, figuring out what to do with shadowboxes, and learning encaustic painting on my own.
Husband is still not completely well, but improving daily. Best to you!
–Deb
glad your husband is getting better deborah 🙂
Beautiful entry. Love, love, love the postcard.
oh they are so dear aren’t they? maybe you’ll get some good ones in the things your colleagues bring you!