Oscar Holden - Seattle Jazz Legend - PFF#50

In March of this year while I was frantically preparing for the Western Heritage Artists show, I had to obtain the American Jazz stamps and get them canceled. I knew what I wanted to do for the art work, and it was pretty much settled by the time I had arrived back home. However - other art projects got in the way.

Three weeks ago I started putting it together. Since every one of my covers is hand-drawn and "painted", I had to do a template I could slip into the twenty-three blank envelopes that already had stamps and cancels. I use that template on my light table, using a pencil to produce the design on the envelope. I then move to my drawing board and using colored pencils and a Rapidiograph pen, I produce the cover.

I began that exercise with a design for a cover I'd done some years ago, and it is the same basic as the one I posted in February of 2009. That cover was an Event cover which I'd franked with a pair of Duke Ellington stamps. I did not use gold leaf on these covers, as I wanted to stick with the color scheme of the Jazz Forever stamps. The black piano keys were a what I wanted to highlight on this one.

Although I knew nothing of Oscar Holden until late January of this year, after reading the fabulous book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, I was pretty much looking for anything I could find about him. It didn't take me long to find out he played the piano. I included his name and the title of Jazz Legend, although he is known as the Patriarch of the Seattle Jazz scene.

Make certain that you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendly Friday, hosted by Beth Niquette for more colorful Mail Art from around the world.

What They Received

Christmas is now in the past. This year I did art work for my brother, sisters and wife. A couple of pieces of mail art, two that went through the mail (under cover), and one that moved across the room.

My wife of thirty-nine years received a Parrot Confectionery box, and the Parrots (similar to a Turtle) came in a separate box because I made a shadow box of the original. I couldn't scan the box since all that I could see that wasn't in deep shadow was the top. My son, who bought himself a new Blackberry, took the photograph for me.

Judy, my youngest sister, is the quilter. She received a pattern for a tea cozy that looks like the cat on the envelope, besides the envelope that she can hang on the wall if she wants to do that.

Jenny likes Carousel Horses, so she got a piece of mail art she can put on the wall. Oh yes, and her favorite color is blue.

Dan, my brother, is the drummer and long-time collector of Drummer Boys. He also reads a lot, so he got three bookmarks that I made, laminated and added gold threaded tassels.

Penny, my oldest sister, acquired FIVE pieces of Cline Piano Company paper for me from our good friend Mary Patterson in Seattle. Since she found the paper for me, I thought I should make certain that the piano player in the family got a piece of piano paper to hang over her Wurlitzer.

I didn't get a stocking this year. ;o( But what I did get from sisters Penny and Judy was a book that contains Charley Russell's illustrated letters from the Museum collection, called Your Friend, Charley Russell. I have most of the books by or about him, but this one is special, because my folks took me to see this collection in 1953, and started me on the path of mail art that I'm still doing, even today.

Gold Chase for Pony #2

I finished this piece and posted it a couple of months back. I was initially happy after discovering I could still gild, but I was using size meant for imitation gold, and a metal base coat which was designed to help you see where you were putting the size. For the weekend artist I suppose the stuff is acceptable and the only reason I purchased it was because it was the only thing I could get locally. Not only that, but the base coat required a solvent cleanup, and it ruined an expensive sable sword brush of the tiny variety - about a dozen hairs - that I'd had for well over 40 years. I was disgusted. That was about the time I met up with Abraham Lincoln on the web, and I asked if he was the very same person I'd purchased a gold size product from at least twenty years ago.

My renewed interest in gilding and calligraphy to incorporate in my old paper art has also led to his revelation of past mail art which he has shared over time with me via his blog. Abe and his family had made a business of selling useful products for the calligrapher, but had moved on to other pursuits including some great photography which he now pursues with a passion.

I recently purchased a product called PVA - it is an all-in-one adhesive that accepts gild using the old method of illumination without the drawbacks of LEAD-based gesso products. Once the PVA is dry (it dries clear) you activate it by breathing on it. I use a paper straw, as the paper absorbs some of the inherent moisture that might otherwise fall on your paper (bad) if you used a plastic straw. I'm really happy with the 'pillow' I'm getting with it. I regilded the A. B. Chase portion of this, and I can tell distinctly that I'm not only getting a good raise, but luster from the burnish is also brighter.

For anyone interested in pursuing the use of REAL gold leaf in their art work, and they want a high luster and raised images, the product name is PVA, and it's sold on the web by a company called LINECO, Books By Hand You might find other useful products if you're into journalling, or scrapbooking, or anything paper related.

"Come and Touch the Wing"

Talk about a forward thinking school! Some time early in July of 1902, the Florida Institute for the Deaf & Blind purchased an upright piano (similar to the piano in the vignette that's second from the right) from Wing & Son in New York. This is the first of two pages of a letter to the Superintendent of the School with instructions on how to deal with the piano in the Florida climate.

Michael Stinnett of The Antique Piano Shop in Atlanta, Georgia, graciously allowed me to use the image that you see on this piece. It comes from an advertising brochure which Wing & Son published around the turn of the Century. I had been looking on the web for some information about Wing & Son after seeing a piece of this letterhead come up for bid on eBay earlier this year, and I stumbled upon the Antique Piano Shop web site and online Museum. I have used it as a resource for several months now. If you have an interest in pianos and their history in this country, this is a site you don't want to pass up.

How does someone hear a piano when they are hearing impaired? As a matter of fact, Kim left a comment asking that very question, so in a reply to her via eMail I also sent the following link: Do the deaf love music?

Come and touch the Wing.

My Little Pony Piano

On April 26th,1905, the Pony, MT, School District makes another payment on a piano of unnamed origin. They must be buying it a few keys at a time from the looks of this statement.