Mr. T (Toy)

Meet Mr. T.
Green eyes, irresistable smile. You can tell by his ears that he is a great listener. And he has a big heart. A lovable guy all around! His name is Thälmann, but his friends call him Mr. T.

He is looking for a new home. Will his story have a happy end? We will find out...hopefully.

P.S.: I made him out of an old towel. His eyes are buttons I found and the T is from a set of scrapbooking letters I found at the Dollar store. I used to have a teddybear that traveled with me everywhere. His name was Jürgen and he was my favorite toy ever. :o)

I left Mr. T sitting next to the computer at the Nautical Bean, a wonderful cafe in San Luis Obispo.

Travel Log

I love traveling! If I had a lot of money, that's what I would do. Travel the world, meet new people, explore different cultures, learn new languages. It's so exciting to be on the road. Everything you own is cramped into the backpack on your shoulders and you feel like the richest person in the whole world. I almost died on that trip, and yet the 10 months when I was traveling in Mexico, Cuba, Belize and California were the best 10 months of my life so far.

The cover for my Travel Log was a leftover from a book arts workshop I took a while ago. I just never put a signature in. I found it and it was perfect for this weeks Found Art Tuesday theme. In November last year I made the fabulous discovery that there is a treasury of patterns hiding on the back of all the stamps I have. Since then I've been collecting envelope linings, the insides of envelopes that is. For me envelopes and stamps are symbols of travel and I use a lot of stamps in my artwork. The tell stories of different cultures and different times, and they have traveled the world.

I used pieces of envelopes to create some sort of map as a signature for my book, then I added names of places I would love to visit.
I've been going through some sort of identity crisis lately... naaa maybe not crisis. More of a search, I guess. Trying to figure out who I am, where I come from and where I belong. And one thing I have figured out: Home is where your heart is, and that doesn't have to be a place... it might well be on the road or just with a special person that shares my values, ideals and world view.

Are you home yet?

Art Found!

Yippie! Another piece found a happy new home. Mother Nature spread the love and the word about Found Art Tuesday! I knew it. :o) Lena found "The Full Price", and joined Found Art Tuesday. How exciting! Here is the story:

"I walked into the grocery store one day and was immediately drawn to a small green piece of art. After looking suspiciously around me, I studied it closely, turned it over, and saw the name of a familiar artist. She was a local favorite of mine so I was excited to have my hands on her work. Again, I looked around, and began spinning different scenerios in my head,"hmm..." I thought, "could she have lost it? Is it some sort of self promotion, and I should leave it where I found it? Was it a gift ,left here for a friend of hers?" . Against my instinct, I left it where it was and rushed home to email her about my find, that's when I was introduced to ,"Found Art " . Wow, a way to share art with the world with no strings attached. Freedom from judgement, from money, from expectations... I have been painting for many years now, and yet , I approached my first found art piece with no paint at all-not even realizing that I'd done so until I sat down to write this. I'm eager to see what other walls will come down. I look forward to this expedition . -Oh, and when I went back the next day, Pachas piece was still there, at the store, waiting to come home with me, now it lives in my kitchen ( : "

Thanks Lena!

Love Connection

For some reason blogger sometimes doesn't allow me to upload pictures... very frustrating, since I'm late on my posts anyway.
Oh well, I had all kinds of ideas for this one. It started out as two pieces (halves, I guess), that I wanted to leave behind at two different places for two different people, and tell them on the back to go here to find the other half. I wanted to make a connection between two strangers. But I didn't like the way it looked, so I started over again and ended up with this ltlle wired piece. I was trying to show the different connections we can have: some of them rusty, some shiny, some rather loose, some not really pretty but nevertheless connections. If you connect the dots in the center you'll get a heart, of course (in case you haven't had that figured out, yet :o)). And the heart buttonb symbolizes Love as well as Connection (being a button, which are usually used to connect things). At the top it says "Be Connected" and on the tag is a quote from my cup of yogi tea that I enjoyed while making the piece: Where there is love, there is no question. Weird coincidense, huh?

I left it on a gate at Domaine Alfred, a winery that makes biodynamic wine. I think the girl that works there must have taken it, since she closed the gate while we were there (we were almost the last ones in their wine tasting room.)

The Full Price (Green)

I just dug deep into my green bag. :o)
Somehow the face appeared later. No idea who she is... Mother Nature maybe?

There's a quote in the second square from the top by Sir Rabindranath "Tagore" Thakur:
"We gain freedom when we have paid the full price for our right to live."

Deep stuff, dude! :o)

I left it at VONS a local supermarket, where Mother Nature can spread the love (and the word about Found Art Tuesday :o) )