50 States, 50 Sketches Postcard Project

I've been working on this project since May and my goal was to finish by Christmas. (Project- to send 50 state sketches- one to someone in each state.) I almost got there! I got 8 done on Christmas. It was pretty fun working on it with my family around because they gave me good, fun ideas for the sketches and I learned things I didn't know about each state. My Grandpa grew up in PA and my Grandparents lived in VA also so I heard stories from those areas. I still need a few more people to send them to in states like Wyoming, Maine, CT and hopefully I'll find someone who knows someone before I resort to sending them to the Governor. Enjoy!

Alabama

 Delaware

 Montana

 Nebraska

 New Jersey

 Pennsylvania

 Rhode Island

 Virginia

Recipients: AL- no one yet. V. Hollis, RI- R&J Highley, VA- S. Caldwell,  DE- M. Bryce, PA- P&E Cirino, NJ- E. Ozga , MT- J. Freytag,  NE- N. Koetter

Christmas postcards- St. Louis World's Fair Flight Cage

My St. Louis Christmas postcards this year were of the 1904 World's Fair Flight Cage.  In trying to figure out what St. Louis treasure/concept I wanted to embrace for my card this year, I knew wanted to do something exotic. I thought of the flight cage. Not many people know or consciously know the Flight Cage is from the 1904 World's Fair. When chatting with my parents about it, my mom does remember people put up a fight against extra webbing being added in the 1980s. If you google around the internet, you'll find some treasured photographs from the past. Flamingos are a favorite animal of mine so I was excited to include them on this drawing- thinking about warmer weather! And with writing this post, I already know what my St. Louis postcard Christmas card will be next year!

Merry Christmas!
& Cheers to 2013

Book Sketch: Wild.

This was my book selection for December. It was written by Cheryl Strayed. She went to hike the Pacific Crest Trail after many life changes. The trail definitely changes her life.

Enjoy the sketch.

Merry Cardmas!

This is some of my participation in Merry CARDmas! I was given 5 random names from the Merry Cardmas pool and got to send them  homemade Christmas cards! I made Christmas postcards out of paper scraps and old maps.

50 States. 50 Sketches Postcard Project.

Recipients: M & K Gerber

50 States. 50 Sketches Postcard Project.

Still trucking along sending postcards to people I know! Sketching at coffee shops while friends, who went to school in Indiana, study and read. My sister gave me insight to Indiana also with the song Fly Over States by Jason Aldean. Enjoy!

Indiana

Massachusetts

Recipients: Indiana- Luepkes, Mass: S. Eisele

50 States. 50 Sketches Postcard Project.

Alaska

 Iowa

Recipients: Iowa: C. Robinson, Alaska: N. Randle

50 States. 50 Sketches Postcard Project.

Arizona

Recipients: K&E Turner

50 States 50 Sketches Postcard Project

Getting closer to halfway, getting better at sketching and doodling, getting better at knowing my states. But I am also getting to the point where I am running out of people to send them to. So I turned to my Facebook friends again and got a great response. Wyoming and Maine are still up for grabs though.

 Wyoming

Maine

Missouri

Lucky Recipients:  Missouri: B. McDonald  Wyoming: up for grabs M. Zill  Maine: up for grabs

Book Sketch: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Amanda chose this book. It was great!

Here's a bookmark for the book with lots of details from the book!

 

50 States. 50 Sketches Postcard Project.

Michigan

Recipient: King Fam


and as I am ... hopefully... halfway through the postcard sketches, I received one back! It came from my New York recipient G. Stearns. It was fun to pull this from my mailbox!

50 States. 50 Sketches. Postcard Project.

My designs are getting better- which is why I started this project in the first place, to become a better sketcher, so I can write a children's book someday. I've been to both of these states and felt like I knew enough to fill the postcards. I think they embrace the states!

Nevada

 Washington

Recipients: Nevada: A. Kruenegel, Washington: Youm Family

50 States. 50 Sketches Postcard Project.

These were pretty fun and somewhat challenging. New York had a wide range of things that reminded me of the state from "The City" to Upstate but I didn't know much about Minnesota- or all I think of about Minnesota are lakes, outdoors and the Mall of America. Enjoy!

New York

 Mississippi

Minnesota

 Ohio

Recipients: New York: G. Stearns, Mississippi: Up for grabs  11/30/2012 UPDATE: J. Barnhill,  Minnesota D. Madden, Ohio: S. Miner

Book Club Sketch: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

As each person picks a book for our Book Club, I draw them a bookmark once we've read the book. Megan picked this book... Here's one for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. 

DART St Louis Photo Challenge

DART this year was apart of St. Louis Design Week. Raising money for Rebuilding Together.

DART is a photo challenge. In September, I, along with many others, threw a dart at a 8'x8' white board. They were showing a ditigal map of St. Louis city on the board and where my dart fell, my new challenge was to photograph that intersection with in a one block radius. I can only submit one of my photos to DART and they will have a party to show off everyone's submission in early November.

My dart landed on Kingsbury and Laurel. I made the trip up to the neighborhood to find that it is tucked in with some streets gated off.

I started shooting and found some plesant details and surprises in the area.

 

   

    

    

      

    

I have yet to decide which image to use but it'll be great!

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own. -Susan Sontag

Elevated Envelope- Malicious Surprise: Clue Style

Tara/Ephemera started the Elevated Envelope in 2011... " project where creative strangers from all over the world send each other artistic snail mail." 

 This was my second time participating. I had a great idea all lined up, then she gave us a theme: Malicious Surprise.  I had no clue what to do because I don't like scary things. Now, all of a sudden, great ideas come to me. But I started with the cut out letters like a ransom note- creepy hopefully!? Then I sat for a while with artistic block. Then Clue came to me, somehow. So I made each of my recipients a card with a Clue character, a room and a weapon. Enjoy the mail art below!

 

 

 

The backs were decorated too and inside each recipient received a tea bag the color of their character (ie Prof Plum: lavender tea)

And because I had to make a complete set, I made a keeper for myself to remember all this fun!