New Old Photo Finds

I spent last week in Door County, bumming around, staying with my aunt and my brother and sister-in-law, visiting galleries.  Since I've gotten home I haven't accomplished much except reading and working on family history.  But I did find some good things at my local consignment shop.

These two photos are are people I do not know.  They were photographic postal cards that I found in the big drawer filled with mixed cards.  Sometimes I buy old photos of strangers just because I like their expressions or their clothing.  I store them mixed in with my other photo reference pictures in a file box, and perhaps they'll make their way into a painting.  My first preference is family related imagery, since I get twice the enjoyment; I can think about the people and I can use their attitude and costume in my painting.  But sometimes I find photos like these that speak to me on another level.  The young brothers wear clothing that seems very strange and formal, and their expressions are so serious.  The men appealed to me because they seemed to be enjoying something together, something amusing, and I like their similar postures.  Two very different representations of men I only know through old postcards, bought for next to nothing.

Recycling, Art, and Vacation Postcards

We were away for a week recently, hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, and visiting with friends in Breckenridge, Colorado. When I showed Dick the pictures he said there were too many of him, not surprising since I am the one who carries the camera.

The scenery was stunning - a mix of mountains, lakes, trees, and wildflowers that just took my breath away. Of course, the altitude might have had something to do with this effect as well.

I took along the little paint set I made from an old metal cigarette tin, with pans made from Fimo, filled with my Winsor Newton paints, a cut down sponge, some pens and a sawed off paint brush. The postcards were old ones coated with gesso. This was an experiment to see how painting on recycled post cards would go, and I liked the results. Painting little scenes doesn't take much time or paint, and the results can be mailed home. I sent this one to myself to see if it arrived intact, and was pleased by the results. None of the paint lifted, despite the fact I had no way of fixing the little watercolors. This snow scene was from imagination.

This is another little watercolor on a recycled post card. I made a couple to send to our host, and another group of friends who joined us on vacation. I never like fussing with carrying too much equipment, and this whole kit fit nicely in a sealable plastic bag.

Elkhorn Postcards

My mother collected post cards. She gave me several of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the town where she grew up, and where I went to high school. The most impressive building downtown is the old hotel on Wisconsin Street. The building dates from 1893 when it was the Elkhorn House hotel, and it became the Loraine Hotel in 1929. The building once was also a bus station. It hasn't had an operating hotel since the 1960s. These days there is a popular Chinese restaurant called Moys in the spot. I realized this morning that I have several cards showing the hotel from about 1907 until the 1950s. I wonder when the clock on the top level was removed, also the top level of the spire in the corner. It's interesting to see what businesses have come and gone in the location, how people dressed, and even the vehicles they drove.

Anyway, I've fallen into collecting cards since Mother died a few years ago. I always considered it to be an old lady sort of hobby, so maybe that's what I am becoming. Other than cards my relatives sent (I like to see their handwriting), I only collect linen cards of places I have actually visited. I like looking at the old stamps, reading the messages, and I like the colors on the vintage cards. Plus they don't take much room, which gives them an edge over other things I have collected, such as dolls, or old glassware.

Grandma Smith's Mystery Teapot

Great Grandma Smith, married first in 1900, later in 1914, both times in Seattle. She is nineteen years old in this wedding portrait.

Hotel Butler, a formerly grand hotel in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle. The hotel has been torn down and is now a parking garage. Notice the insignia; it's the same as on the teapot below.

The teapot with the engraved insignia of the Hotel Butler

I was "up north" this week visiting my aunt, a woman I adore, and who has agreed to be my "substitute mom" since my mother died a few years ago. She was having a rummage sale, and asked me to help her get a few items down from high shelves for the sale. When she saw this 8 oz. silver teapot, she said that it had belonged to her grandmother, my great-grandmother.

I did a little online digging around. It turns out that this is a Reed and Barton teapot. They were produced between 1900 and 1940 for use in restaurants and hotels, and usually had the hotel's name engraved on the bottom. This one said "Hotel Butler." At first I thought that was a brand name, but then reconsidered. I knew she was married in Seattle, twice (two different men). Her second husband came from a well-to-do family, and the Hotel Butler was once one of Seattle most elegant hotels, catering to those returning successfully from the Yukon gold rush. It stood in the Pioneer Square Skid Road district, a place I visited in May. I also found an image of a postcard of the hotel, and the little symbol engraved on the teapot is also on the postcard.

I wonder if my oh-so-proper English grandmother walked off with a souvenir of her honeymoon?

Postcards from Washington

Mt. Saint Helens and Spirit Lake, Washington 

Bonneville Dam, Columbia River

Cans of salmon, Washington state

Aerial view of Spokane, Washington

Lower falls at Spokane, Washington

I returned from my two week train/driving trip to Washington state on Sunday, and I'm just beginning to catch up on laundry, mail, cleaning and my rest.  I still haven't downloaded the zillion pictures I took from my digital camera.  I'm behind in my reading, my gardening, my art.  I had hoped to do sketching on the trip, but we seemed never to sit still for very long, except on the train from Columbus, WI to Spokane, WA.  I tried drawing a little in a Seattle park at the end of the vacation, but the magic of seeing someone doodling in a notebook just made me several friends in the park where I was working.  Looks like I'll be working from memory and photos once again.

The short version of the trip was that my sister-in-law invited me to join her on vacation, and agreed to let me track down some distant cousins and quiz them on family history.  In addition she agreed to let me experience the less touristy part of Washington east of the Cascade Mountain range.  We took the train to Spokane, had a cousin tour us around that city.  We rented a car and drove to Fairfield, where my maternal great-grandparents raised their family, and where many cousins are buried and some still live today.  We headed south toward the Tri-Cities area, where Grandma lived on a wheat ranch, and where the Hanford Nuclear Reservation stands.  We drove up the Columbia River gorge, and up to both Mt. Saint Helens and Mount Rainier.  Then we drove around the Olympic Peninsula, spending three days at lodges in the rain forest and along the Pacific Ocean.  We ended up in Seattle, where we boarded the train for the two day ride back home.  

It was wonderful - and exhausting.  We met good people, ate good food, and had a good time. We saw antelope, bison, moose, elk and mountain goats from the train, and lots of other fauna and flora closer up.  

I hope to write more specifically in the upcoming days, but this will serve as a beginning.

A Note From 1937

vintage postcard from Alton, Illinois, July 14, 1937

Today started out on  frustrating note.  We have two Macintosh computers, and they had both been mostly out of commission since Monday.  I spent hours on the telephone, and had tech guys at my house twice, frowning and speculating, and not getting the problem fixed.  Finally I went to my cable company and requested a different modem, and made a appointment with my Mac tech to come get it all set up again.  In the meantime I was edgy, shaky, in withdrawal.  So rather than fume about not being able to work online, or to check my emails that have been coming and going fast and furious in preparation for my trip on Saturday, I went down to the local consignment shop to look over old postcards.

This one struck me immediately.  A grasshopper beating a drum could be humorous, but it struck me as ominous.  Nineteen thirty-seven. The Dust Bowl.  Lots of people were "beating it," leaving farms destroyed by drought and grasshoppers to start over on the west coast.  Think The Grapes of Wrath.   Tonight I read the back of the old penny postcard:

Dear Ruthie and Willis,

Sent the folks one (a postcard) of the dust storm.  Thought this would be good for you.  Never did see so many grasshoppers.  Julia and I slept out in the yard most of the night under the stars.  You should try it.

Love,

Esther

Oddly enough the book I plan to read after I get home at the end of the month is Tim Eagan's nonfiction account of the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.

Oh, the computers are working fine once more.  I can relax.

Re-imagining Local Landmarks

Here's a vintage linen postcard of Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.  The back says, Williams Bay on the west shore of Lake Geneva is a recreational center with an excellent beach.  Nearby is the famous Yerkes Observatory, home of a large refracting telescope.  The Observatory is open to the public Saturday afternoons.  The observatory, created in 1897, was the largest refracting telescope used for scientific research.  It was owned by the University of Chicago, but I believe it has been sold, and I am not sure if the public can tour it anymore.  THe large dome is visible for miles around.

I had an idea to use vintage postcards of places that mean something to me to design simple collages.  I've seen this done as quilt patterns, and thought that I could simplify the shapes enough to do a postcard size miniature collage.  This was my plan.

Here is the collage so far,  not so interesting as I hoped, but a start.  It is the same size as the original postcard, three and a half by five and a half inches.  The hardest part of the project was the small size.  It's time consuming and tricky to cut such tiny pieces and glue them down accurately.  A friend recently gave me a large bag of magazines to replenish my stock of colors and textures, so finding paper was not difficult, but the detail on the telescopes was harder than I thought it would be.  I had an idea to do several Wisconsin collages like this of landscapes or landmarks, but I'm not sure how interesting the result so far is.  Maybe it's too soon to tell.  If any of you have reactions, I'd be interested in hearing them.

I'll be away for a week, and look forward to seeing the landscapes and landmarks of Peru.  I'm taking my sketchbook and camera, so I hope to share some of our adventure here.

Random Acts of Kindness

Vintage postcard from Rock City, with collage elements from a school science text and National Geographic.  I visited the Fairyland Gardens with my grandparents in about 1961.

Part of a larger collage cut into postcard size, including maps, vintage ad, wallpaper, text and personal photos from long-ago summer vacations to New York and Tarpon Springs.

Recently several friends have given me gifts of old magazines, calendars, and printed material from foreign countries, all because I've been fascinated with cutting and pasting.  I have fashion catalogs, travel brochures, golf calendars, vintage Post, Life, and National Geographic magazines, and a couple of French newspapers.    This is in addition to the old postcards and children's books I've bought for pennies from my friendly consignment shop.  The challenge is starting to be how to organize, store, and easily access the material.  I have oversized manilla envelopes in hanging files stored in a plastic milk crate, but it will soon be too heavy to lift easily.  

These two little postcards are examples of different ways I've been experimenting.  The top card adds completely unrelated elements to an old linen postcard.  This one is of a place I've actually visited, though often I choose old black and white cards whose subjects, such a relatively empty street scenes, have room to add other elements.  This time I added a figure from a Mexican mural and the painter.  The bottom card is very different, and perhaps not so effective.  I did a larger random sort of collage for a workshop last fall, and while the large collage didn't appeal to me, when I cut it into postcard or bookmark sized pieces, I liked the challenge of working with the little bits.  It doesn't show very well, but after I glaze over the whole image with either diluted burnt sienna or burnt umber acrylic to tie the elements together and age the image, I add touches of gold leaf.  The sparkle of the gold draws the eye immediately.

At any rate, I'll send these cards as thank you notes.  I just wish the postal service had postcard stamps with something beside tropical fruit.

Godzilla! and The 64-65 World's Fair

Unisphere, New York World's Fair, 1964

Here's a postcard of the same event

I was thirteen when I took this snapshot at Sinclair Dinoland at the World's Fair

Here's what I did with a scanned copy of the old photo and a vintage German postcard.

Pretty soon this mania I seem to have acquired should play itself out.  Besides vintage line art from old textbooks, I have thousands of personal snapshots I have scanned.  The image of a vengeful lizard taking out a city isn't new, but I have a story about this one.  When I was thirteen my grandparents took me by Amtrak to New York City.  I was thrilled.  We rode the subway, saw Barefoot in the Park with Robert Redford, ate cheesecake at Sardis, and spent a couple of days at the World's Fair.  I particularly remember the Wisconsin exhibit (the world's largest cheese), a Disney animated display that sang It's a Small World After All, and the Michelangelo's Pieta, viewed from a moving walkway, and an ultramodern Kodak pavilion with a huge movie screen that foreshadowed Imax.  We also went to the Sinclair Dinoland. That area featured life-sized fiberglass dinosaurs and had sidewalks edged with lava rocks. I backed up with my Brownie camera to take a photo of the T-Rex.  I didn't feel anything at first, but then a woman tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I knew I was bleeding. Sure enough, I had lacerated my ankle on the sharp rock, and my canvas flat was soaked.  Dinosaurs can be dangerous.

Seeking and Finding Vintage Images

vintage postcard of Holyrood, with collaged elements

two owls

owl 

Fieldfare and Ringed Ousel

two songbirds

I'm still cutting and pasting in the studio, but I've also been scanning illustrations from a children's book I bought at my favorite consignment shop for about the same money as a small vanilla latte.  The book is entitled Young Folks Jungle Stories, Aunt Virginia Series, published by Hurst and Company in New York, about 1903.  The cover, though damaged, features a rhino with a bloody tiger speared on its horn, not the sort of thing children's books feature today. The binding is completely destroyed, the paper yellowed and crumbling, but the illustrations are delightful.  I just have to find a way to store them in such a way they don't crumble even more until I can find a way to use them.  I plan to post a few more in the next days, and if you want to use them, feel free.

And Now For Something Completely Different

vintage postcard of Berlin, with collage

Lately I haven't been in a mood to paint or draw much, but rather have been having way too much fun cutting and pasting.  It probably started when I read a book this winter on altered art, which led to other books about collage artists, and then on to the Griffin and Sabine trilogy.  It isn't only all the reading; I'm also a life-long collector of odds and ends.  When I was a child I was interested in the stamps and coins Mother collected, and I had my own collections of shells and rocks and minerals.  At other times in my life I have collected other things: milk glass plates, marbles, dolls, pottery, old photos and even vintage post cards.  My some of my favorite shopping has always been in thrift shops and antique stores.  One of my favorite ways to spend an hour or so is at a local consignment shop called Carousel Consignment, where I can have a cup of black coffee, catch up on local news, and forage for old postcards or paper ephemera.  If I'm lucky I my finds are paid for by household goods I've sold at the shop.

I've been playing around with recycled materials too.  I have  a series of framed pieces made with recycled styrofoam trays melted with spray fixative, and I've been making collages with recycled magazine and vintage book images on scraps of recycled mat board.  All of this combined has led to my experimenting with some postcard collages.  Many of the things I like come together with these, foraging, vintage imagery, words, recycling and the element of chance.   I'd like to mail some out, but I'm not sure what people would make of the strange and dreamlike juxtapositions of images that are appearing on my work table lately.  

1924 Violet Postcard and Poem

1924 postcard

Today we had a thaw, and most of the snow banks disappeared for the first time since Thanksgiving.  I went out without a coat, and nearly shouted with happiness.  This little poem was probably written for children, but just thinking about colors after all the gray and white around here made me smile.

Color

by Christina Rossetti

What is pink? a rose is pink

By a fountain's brink.

What is red? a poppy's red

In its barley bed.

What is blue? the sky is blue

Where the clouds float thro'

What is white? a swan is white

Sailing in the light.

What is yellow? pears are yellow,

Rich and ripe and mellow.

What is green? the grass is green,

With small flowers between.

What is violet? clouds are violet

In the summer twilight.

What is orange? Why an orange,

Just an orange!

One Hundred Songs for Valentines

Valentine postcard from my local consignment shop, postmarked 1910

I like to make playlists for upcoming holidays, so here are 100 eclectic songs currently on my Valentines playlist.  I'd love to know what else you would include.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Marvin Gaye

All You Need is Love, The Beatles

Baby I Need Your Loving, Four Tops

Back Home to Me, Sophie Milman

Besame Mucho, Diana Krall

The Best is Yet to Come, Frank Sinatra

Calling You, Stanley Turrentine

Can't Help Falling in Love, Elvis Presley

Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Frankie Valli

Circlesong Three, Bobby McFerrin

Corazon, Asere

Crazy, Patsy Cline

Cupid, Sam Cooke

Dedicated to the One I Love, The Mamas and the Papas

Do I Love You? Jane Monhoit

Don't Know Why, Norah Jones

Dos Gardenias, Buena Vista Social Club

Dream, Brad Mehldau

Easy to Love, Charlie Parker

Embraceable You, Judy Garland

Everything I have is Yours, Rossana Casale

Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, Solomon Burke

Face of Love, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

February Sea, George Winston

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Roberta Flack

Fix You, Coldplay

Fly Me to the Moon, Frank Sinatra

For Your Precious Love, Jerry Butler

Goodnight My Love, Sarah Vaughn

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? The Chieftains

Heart Asks Pleasure First, Ahn Trio

Heart Full of Soul, The Yardbirds

Heart Like a Wheel, Anna McGarrigle

Here, There, and Everywhere, The Beatles

How Deep is Your Love?, The Bee Gees

I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby, Ella Fitzgerald

I Can't Stop Loving You, Ray Charles

I Got You Babe, Sonny and Cher

I Hear Music, Daniel Martin Moore

I Just Called to Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder

I Just Want to Make Love to You, Muddy Waters

I Never Loved a Man The Way That I Love You, Aretha Franklin 

I Only Have Eyes for You, The Flamingos

I'm Getting Sentimental Over You, Ella Fitzgerald

I've Been Loving You Too Long, Otis Redding

I've Got You Under My Skin, Diana Krall

In My Life, The Beatles

Julia, The Beatles

Killing the Blues, Robert Plant and Allison Krauss

La Valse d'Amelie, Yann Tierson

Let Me Be the One, Jaguar Wright

Let's Get It On, Marvin Gaye

Let's Get It Started, Black Eyed Peas

Let's Stay Together, Al Green

Light My Fire, Jose Feliciano

The Look of Love, Dusty Springfield

Love and Happiness, Al Green

Love Letter, Bonnie Raitt

Love Me Do, The Beatles

Love Train, The O'Jays

Lovefool, The Cardigans

Loves Me Like a Rock, Paul Simon

Lovetown, Peter Gabriel

Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac, Ahn Trio

Makin' Whoopee, Lucky Lucy Ann

A Man and a Woman, Charlie Byrd

My Funny Valentine, Chet Baker

My Romance, Carly Simon

Nick of Time, Bonnie Raitt

Night and Day, Frank Sinatra

Night Moves, Bob Seger

Old Love, Eric Clapton

One Love, Bob Marley

Please Send Me Someone To Love, Sade

Poinciana, Ahmad Jamal

Put a Little Love in Your Heart, Jackie DeShannon

Ritmo De La Noche, Al Di Meola

Round Midnight, Alex De Grassi

S'Wonderful, Diana Krall

Skinny Love, Bon Iver

Something, The Beatles

Squeeze Me, Lucky Lucy Ann

Stardust, Hoagy Carmichael

Sunday Kind of Love, Etta James

That's Amore, Dean Martin

This Could Be the Start of Something, Oscar Peterson Trio

Though I Live Not Where I Love, William Coulter

True Affection, The Blow

When a Man Loves a Woman, Percy Sledge

Why Should the Fire Die? Nickel Creek

Words of Love, The Mamas and the Papas

Yellow, Coldplay

You and Me, Lifehouse

You Are So Beautiful, Joe Cocker

You Are the Sunshine of My Life, Stevie Wonder

You Showed Me, The Turtles

You Took My Breath Away, Traveling Wilburys

You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You, Dean Martin

Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher, Jackie Wilson

Your Song, Elton John

Still More of a Murder Mystery

postcard image of a logging train

It's Christmas card time, and my most interesting mail came from Fairfield, Washington. One of my grandmother's cousins, who has been looking through microfilm of old Skagit River area newspapers, turned up two more articles about my great-grandfather's shooting in 1914. These clippings send me scurrying to the internet to search for more, and while I haven't found anything about Grandpa Adams, little by little a picture of the area at that time is emerging. I learned, for example, that two kinds of entertainment for men in the Hamilton, Sedro-Woolley area in 1914 were visiting the saloons (this is just six years before Prohibition), and attending the circus. Saloons in logging towns provided a place to socialize, play cards or shoot pool, drink, smoke, and often they were the location of the only public toilet in town. Evidentally the Al Barnes Circus visited the area yearly, complete with acrobats, a freak show, and a menagerie of wild elephants. In 1922 a huge elphant named Tusker escaped from the same circus and rampaged downtown Sedro-Woolley. That's another story. One writer, describing the logging town suggested that it resembled the town in the film McCabe and Mrs. Miller. These tid-bits are helping me form a mental picture of the time and place in which my great-grandfather lived and died.

Here is the first article.

The Mt. Vernon (Washington) Herald, Thursday, May 28, 1914.

Vol. 31, No. 14

MEN FIGHT; ONE KILLED

Matt Snyder, a logging engineer in the employ of the Hamilton Logging Company, shot L.E. Adams, also a logging engineer, to death about 1:30 o’clock Sunday morning following their return from a circus at Sedro-Wooley where both became intoxicated and started a quarrel. Both men are old in the service of the company and both are well known in the Hamilton district. Snyder has a wife and baby and the wife says she handed her husband a gun with which to kill Adams after Adams had thrown Snyder to the ground and was beating him with brass knuckles. The tragedy occurred in front of the Snyder home in Hamilton.

The two men had been on bad terms for some time, owing to a disagreement over their work, Adams thinking he was entitled to the train run which had been assigned to Snyder. When they met at saloons in Sedro-Wooley Saturday they had words and continued to quarrel until the tragedy occurred on their way home the next morning.

Mrs. Snyder and her baby accompanied Snyder to the county jail and spent a night in jail with him. She was held temporarily but later released, Prosecutor Beagle having no fear that she might try to escape.

The shooting was not reported to Superintendent Lyle McNeil, of the Hamilton company camp, until an hour and a half following the tragedy.

Snyder will be tried at the June term of court when 20 other criminal cases will be heard.