Fort Collins Museum of Art celebrates a Mask Exhibition each year. I have been selected as a mask artist for next year’s 2018 Masks event. Artists receive a blank 3-dimensional mask in the autumn and have several months for inspiration to decorate their individual masks. Inspired by my love for words and books, I have begun decorating this mask with engaging words from a vintage dictionary. It will be exciting to see how the mask evolves the next couple of months! This past year, I was pleased to volunteer at Wolverine Farm Letterpress and Publick House, working with Jes, their expert in letterpress art and works. For every item to be printed, you must select and lay out the letters in a certain form for each letterpress. This time-consuming and deliberate process reminded me of the huge challenges to print newspapers and documents many years ago. What a contrast to our current form of instant electronic communication! To honor old forms of arranging letters and words, I intend to adorn the mask form with selected bits from old books. Stay tuned for updates during the autumn! Meanwhile, this is the busiest season for Wabi-Ware Custom Cards. Handmade, one-of-a-kind cards are special ways to send unique messages and love during Thanksgiving and the holiday season. Already, we are making cards featuring fields and pumpkins, autumn leaves and sunflowers as well as preparing packs of holiday cards for shops and fairs. The shifting colors of the autumn tree canopies coincide with shortening days, and I find that those shifting colors make their way onto the cards we’re making now. Autumn is definitely here.
