Back to the Year of the Rabbit

12 years after the 2011 Project we have cycled back to the Year of the Rabbit.  In 2011 it was a mixed media piece.  In 2023 it is mail art with hand carved rubber stamps.

After 10 Years of Collecting Postcards

In 2011 I often used postcards in the individual pieces I made each day.  And then I started collecting more and more vintage postcards for future projects including the work shown in my 2012 installation Imagining Val Travel.  

Ten years later I find myself in an effort to use up what I have saved for decades — including the postcards.  Much of the material has ended up in artist books.  The latest one, Collage Dreams, incudes 20 handmade collages.   Each is 10.5” wide x 11” high and made entirely from the contents of postcard booklets dating from 1910 to 1950.

A book is now available that includes all the collages.   Some of the images are also available as prints.  

2011 Project — 10th Anniversary

Ten years have already passed since the 2011 Project.  Whenever I look back at those 365 pieces, I always notice the seeds of what would be future work that I have been working on since then.

Before San Francisco went into pandemic lockdown, my last museum visited was to the Asian Art Museum.   A few months later I was inspired by a video they posted.  I started painting books for my Chaekgeori-inspired series.  This latest one (see below), completed as the new year began, even has a 4x4 inch piece I did for the 2011 Project.   It is tucked right behind the remote control.  That piece was inspired by a visit to the Asian Art Museum back in 2011.

National Bird Day

Today is National Bird Day so it seemed a good time to look back at some bird-themed art from the 2011 Project.  The original story behind the piece can be found here.

Time and Art

Valley of the Wiggle — mixed media photo collage on board, 12”x9”

Five years ago, in the middle of the 2011 Project, I created this photo collage titled Beach Day.  It instantly was one of my favorites of the 365 pieces done back in 2011.  That piece was a key to my latest project, Time Travel Photos.  

The latest work for the series is of a valley that became the Lower Haight.  Where I have lived for over 25 years.  I have seen a lot of changes over time and at some point in the future may even do a series based on the changes I have witnessed in my neighborhood. 

Tennessee Valley 16 - Back to the 4x4 format

Earlier this winter friends and I enjoyed a hike in Marin County’s Tennessee Valley.  That day it rained on and off but we managed to stay fairly dry.  Yesterday was a day of late season rains that kept me in the house.  The results are a series of 16 4”x4” paintings based on that afternoon on the trail.  I deliberately forced myself to work quickly.  Any painter knows the trap of going too far and overworking a painting.  It’s frustrating when you get a work done and then keep going and, well, ruin it.

Inspiring Postcards

Various pieces from the 2011 Project incorporating vintage postcards, (4’x4” each)

Four years later, as I look back at the 2011 Project, I can see what significant role postcards continue to play in my artwork.  There have been many new pieces since 2011 that have used postcards.  And now, as I reach the halfway point in 2015, my new book Helen’s Postcards is now available.  Be sure to check it out.