Penguins and Lily Pads, 1938

Penguins and Lily Pads, Big Room, 1938. Front. Mixed media. 2014

I had a blast altering two postcards recently for a show called Signed, Sealed and Delivered at Fuller Lodge Art Center. In my somewhat largish collection of "stuff to someday use in art" I had two postcards that had been mailed to my grandparents' address, but before they lived in the house I remember them growing old in. My grandma had apparently found the postcards and put them into a stack of others she had picked up on travels around the southwest, and lucky me, there they were! 

Penguins and Lily Pads, Big Room, 1938. Back. Mixed media. 2014

This first one is a hand-colored black and white photo of Lily Pads in the Big Room at Carlsbad, here in New Mexico. I wanted to make it a little more quirky and eye-catching, so I added the penguins inhabiting the ancient geologic formations as if they were enjoying the usual icebergs. The back has a doodly quality, and I added a pen and ink drawing of a snail because I could imaging a snail slowly traversing the postcard, leaving a trail behind it.

This card is postmarked July 1938, and there is no zip code for the Colorado address, which makes it pretty interesting. Also, the author, Evelyn, wrote it to her friend "Mrs. King," a sure sign of the different era. The note is a rather benign one about how marvelous is all was, and Evelyn will tell Mrs. King more when she arrives home.

The opening reception for the show is this Friday, January 31st, from 5-7.