Friday, December 21, 2012

Sent to David Wainer (Winston Salem NC)

This past week I’ve been making a lot of things. I’ve been more than productive in my short time off from work. Not only have I sent things to IUOMA people, but I’ve mailed a lot of things to friends, which isn’t something I always think to do. Sure they end up getting postcards whenever I go on trips but I don’t always make mail-art like things to send to them. I don’t even count the ones I send to friends in my total mail-art tally, simply because I don’t expect them to send anything back. One of the cards I sent to a friend across town, maybe two miles away from where I live and he did something I’ve heard a couple of people doing before, he tried opening the card. He posted an image of the card and then I asked him to send an image of the destroyed card. I can only wonder how many people actually tear them up when they first receive them?

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

I Sent 253 Cards to IUOMA Folks in 2012

I sent 253 cards to IUOMA folks in 2012. This doesen't include all of the zines, CD's, and bigger pieces that I've made. I'm looking forward to making and sending more stuff in 2013.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Sent to Australia (Vizma Bruns) and Alabama (Stephanie Blake)

I sent this to a mail art friend in Australia. It's one of the "bigger pieces" that I've started to churn out lately. I have a stockpile of these now!
This was one of many card that I made at one time. I liked this one and intentionally sent it to Stephanie, assuming that she would like it. It was kind of liberating not using the whole space...there's some room for the images to breath, which is not something I always do.

Monday, December 10, 2012

A Bit About the Process

There’s a place in Thomasville with a wonderful selection of tape. Ever since I started making tape collages I never thought about the small differences in tape. I can tell you with strong conviction that Target brand packing tape is the strongest out there. Any time you encounter really cheap tape, it’s cheap for a reason because it will not pull an image off of a late 1960’s magazine for shit. Sometimes, I buy the cheap tape but I have to use it for certain purposes. I cannot put cheap tape down for the place and pull method; I have to use cheap tape to hold everything down after the process is finished. Back to the Thomasville store, so they have a lot of cheap colored tape for a dollar a roll, meaning I’ve purchased tons of the stuff. Here’s the shelf. It’s so beautiful.
The other aspect to my mail art equation are the images. Mostly I buy old magazines from thrift stores and general junk shops. When the library sales start to appear, I stock up with as much stuff as I can possibly find…good stuff that is. I like old images and old books, cheap paper and the ridiculous tome of antiquated medical manuals. Here’s the Thomasville book sale.
Here’s my haul. I meant to take a picture of one of the books. The book was entitled “How to Dress Rich.” The copyright was from the middle 80’s, what a surprise about that. I think I paid four dollars and some change for all of these beauties.
At the dollar store in Thomasville also bought a toilet plunger that works well for a tape holder. In the background is a portrait that Misty made of me a few years ago. I still want someone to paint me sitting on a horse all dignified…maybe before an epic battle. I need to get her on this.
And finally, the product, some actual work. I made a big pile of postcards and then a couple of the larger pieces that I don’t know what I’m going to do with. I’ll probably mail most of them but the rest I think I’m going to keep.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Received from Pamela Gerard (San Francisco USA)

I received both of these cards from the great Pamela Gerard in San Francisco. Pamela makes amazing cards and is super supportive. One of these cards she sent with ideas about how to properly do a mail-art show. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about a single idea that she presented here. Obviously I’ll be using more than a couple of her suggestions. Not only is Pamela a great artist and kind person, she runs my favorite blog on the interwebs. On her blog she details her travels, especially those travels that relate to receiving and sending mail. It doesn’t hurt that her blog serves as a nice advertisement for the San Francisco tourism authority. Her pictures of food make me miss the place every time I visit her blog.
http://cappuccinoandartjournal.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Sent to Amy Irwen (Minnesota USA)

At this point I’ve sent out close to a thousand cards and bits of what not. I realize that I have a style and have been struggling to go a little further with the things I create. At the same time I feel this; I also love the process and only want to elaborate on it. Since I came rather late to making stuff I feel that all of the things I’ve made so far, is just practice. I feel like a sophomore in high school, just discovering an ability to do something with their hands. Maybe it’s this reason that I haven’t really kept anything at all that I’ve made. Only in the past couple of months have a stockpiled a few things, even if those things are starting to leave. What I have here is more of the same, except with dogs. I’ve realized the whole process only changes based on the images I find. Good images equal interesting cards…sometimes. This card is limited in focus but I think it turned out pretty well. I think I did a bunch of cat ones like this too.