Mary Zimany is a student of mine who has taken quite a few classes from me in person here in CT. I have not taught a lot locally over the past year or two -- some of the local stores have closed and I have moved (twice!!) but Mary has kept in touch with me and I consider her not only a student, but a friend. My husband Steven & I always wait with anticipation to see what Mary will do with my swap themes! Steven is quite partial to Mary's art because she has created a number of personal pieces for us . . . I will add some photos of a pocket tag book she made for us below. ANYWAY, Mary never ceases to amaze me with her creativity! I waited for Steven to get home from work last night & we opened Mary's package of ATCs for the Mother Goose Swap together, and ooohed and ahhh'd! Click on the scans for more details . . . these ATCs are so different. I love the way they are put together a little 'off-kilter'. They are stained (tea-dyed??) and layered, with perfectly wonderful messy edges and Mary has used netting to hold shrink plastic pieces in place! wow, Mary!!!
Below (blue, with stars!) is Mary's Book she made for us. It was an extra book she included when sending in her swaps for a Book Swap I hosted in 2005... right before Steven & I got married! I remember her enclosing a note explaining she had copied the photos off of my website - ONLY for the purpose of creating the pocket book for us - it was a surprise!! This is one of Steven's Favorites! I should explain that the cover of the book is a copy of a small canvas collage I had quickly made and gave to Steven the first week of our courtship. Looking back, we both marvel that the rubber stamp I used "What If?" was more appropriate than we knew at the time! Thank you, Mary.
