Mail Art & Mr. Printer

For Father's Day, I thought it would be fun to do a mail art project to my dad (I'm really into mail art and while my artistic outlet has become more focused on painting and sculpture, mail art still holds a dear spot in my heart). He never gets any mail, yet still checks his mailbox constantly in hopes of getting something good. So, this is the first object out of four that are making their way to his mailbox. This one he received yesterday (to much praise and bouts of laughter) and the others will be spaced out to arrive each week for the next month.

Here's what the back looks like:

I'm pretty proud of the idea--it's a large laminate sample from Home Depot (measures about 3.5x5") that I painted on one side and slapped a tiny folded envelope to the back, which houses a sappy little note telling my dad how much I love him. With his address slapped on along with a couple stamps, out it went. I can't wait to do another! Oh, the "Slug Assassin" is Maxwell, my dad's adorable cat, who used to actually hunt slugs (he eventually stopped after realizing that slugs have a tendency to glue one's mouth shut with slime). Silly kitty...

In other grand news, Mr. Printer has been ordered and is hurriedly heading my way, along with plenty of wonderfully archival, smooth velvet paper! Yay! Vast mountains of neato prints are on the nearest horizon, my friends.

I also shelled out about $100 on shipping/packaging supplies today online, which makes my stomach hurt. It's actually incredibly cheap for all the rigid envelopes and cellophane bags I'm getting, but it's always so painful to spend an amount like that on...envelopes. Such is life, though.

Also, lets talk movies.

For my birthday my dad bought me the 2-disc version of Pan's Labyrinth (which is well worth the extra moohlah, if you're debating between the standard vs deluxe versions, by the way). Love love love. Mom bought me the Planet Earth tv series (for a sea & odd critter lover like myself, this is gold), which I've already seen on tv but is millions better with David Attenborough narrating.

And then today I snagged "A Fistful of Dollars", "For A Few Dollars More", and "The Magnificent Seven" (which I haven't ever seen and now I'm horribly embarrassed--I had no idea Yul Brynner is in that one, and he is *by far* one of my all-time favorite actors). I love good westerns, esp. the Sergio Leone classics. There's something so...comforting about them. The crackly sound and music combined with the simplistic story-structure makes these flicks perfect films to watch while creating stuff.

Alrighty folks! I'm off to paint some miniature paintings that I'll be turning into awesome hair pins (at least, that's the plan--we'll see if it all works out) for the shop. Tonight I'll also be seeing Ocean's 13 (with low expectations, might I add). I love Stephen Mirrione--the editor who has done all 3 of the Ocean's series. Between him and Soderbergh, the films have a perfectly cool, experimental and sharp look (while usually lacking in the plot structure side of things, but oh well).

Here's to a great week for you guys!