My First Challenge

I've always liked reading and  looking at art blogs, even before I started my own.  And I've always wanted to take part in one of the many weekly challenges that I run across.  But for some reason, I  felt that  you had to be a blogger to participate--I know you don't have to--that's just the way I felt. So now that I too am a blogger, I wanted to look for a challenge.

I was reading Betzie's blog--her blog is called Time Enough, and  it's one of the many creative blogs that I've found in the last couple of weeks (there are so many, it's almost overwhelming). She was talking about letters that she had that her grandfather had sent to her grandmother during WWI, and how glad she was that she  had these treasures. So she submitted a piece of art using bits of the letters and photos of her grandparents for The Three Muses challenge of the week, which is mail art.

Like all vintage artists, I too collect old postcards, stamps, letters, and any kind of old interesting mail, to use  in my art.

My most favorite are the handwritten letters.  I think that those are an art in themself, and it's rapidly becoming a lost one.  I mean, let's face it, who really writes letters anymore when you can email or better yet pick up your cell phone and call anyone in the country for free.

So after reading Betzie's post, it  made me think of my grandparents, and that I would like to incoporate them in a piece of mail art for The Three Muses challenge. Thank you Betzie for giving me this spark!  My grandparents were both Italian.  My grandfather's father came to Ellis Island in 1892 and my grandfather was born in 1897.  My grandmother came to America when she was around 20.

They were your typical Italian grandparents.  They never held back their emotions--always laughing or yelling at each other.  When my grandmother was really mad at my grandfather she would start yelling at him in Italian so us kids wouldn't understand  her--she was definitely the boss, and she was also an excellent cook, which I never really appreciated when I was growing up--but I sure would  now!

To begin with,  I turned a gallery wrapped canvas over and collaged  the old  postcards that I had onto it.

 Unfortunately, I don't have any old  correspondence of my  grandparents, but I did find some very old photos from my cousin's Facebook--thanks Carol!!

This photo was  most likely taken around 1922.  My grandparents were in their early twenties, and their baby here is their first born, my father.  He was not quite a year old, and at the time that this photo was taken, she was already expecting her 2nd child.  They went on to have 5 children altogether, which I included in this optical lens hanging above them.

They also had 11 grandchildren, and many great grandchildren, so even though they're no longer with us, their journey together is still continuing.