Thursday, February 28, 2013

I Don't Like These

One of the fun things about sending out items you hate is they go away. This seems obvious, but it’s also a nice freedom about mailing everything you make. Currently I have a stockpile of about 12-15 larger items and that’s all I have of my work. At this point I’ve probably sent 500 or 600 smaller postcards. Sometimes I get images of that work back, and other times they just disappear. This is just part of the process. I’m sure many of the things I’ve received from far greater artists were hard to put in the mail. In the case of these two larger cards, I’m completely happy to see them go. I don’t like them. I even wrote on the back that I didn’t like them. Don’t remember who I sent them to at this point…just the next in the list. I used a nice layer of ripped stickers to my usual routine, which felt like a good idea but ended up being a pretty bad one. From there I ripped a few more things and added to the top, but what’s made them terrible is the bright tape I put over the front. At first I was like, “Sure, why not…let’s add some tape…let’s be adventurous.” I did it and immediately regretted the decision. It was easy to drop these in the mailbox. I was happy to see them go. Maybe the two folks that receive these will enjoy them or at least find something like they about them. Oh well, next time!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Sent to Carmela Rizzuto (Sunnyvale CA)

It seems that I've sent three cards to Carmela in the past few weeks. Not sure how that's happend, but totally ok. We must have lost ourselves in a nice feedback loop that moves mail directly from my house to hers and then back again. I'm happy that she scans everything and posts it since I've only seen one other card that had all the stickers on it. Today I have some time, maybe I shall make a few things and mail them out tomorrow? That's gonna happen, new mail goes out to everyone, especially to those that I owe something to. I've gotten a little far behind with mailing of late so it'll be my job to catch back up both today and this coming weekend. New things shall arise! Maybe I'll send another one to Carmela?

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sent To Stephanie Blake in Alabama

Been making bigger items on the backs of old video store cards. This one came out pretty well.

Friday, February 22, 2013

From Vizma Bruns in Australia

Vizma Bruns from Australia is one of my favorite mail-artists. Whenever she sends me something I know it’s going to be great. Strangely enough, Australia has been on my brain a lot lately. Just went to see Tame Impala, going to see Nick Cave in a few weeks…strange. Anyway, her work is just amazing so I wanted to post the images from her recent work. American’s will enjoy the Hungry Jack’s stand in for Burger King. We always love that sort of thing. Thanks to Vizma!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Sent to Mom Kat in Greece

So a little bird told me that one of my favorite mail-artists Mom Kat, was having a special birthday. Considering that I’ve sent things to Mom Kat and she’s sent things to me, great things, and consistently for about three years, I had the capital idea…birthday present! It’s not that capital of an idea, but it’s one nonetheless. Instead of making a tape collage for her, I decided to do something a little different. Over a period of a couple weeks, I searched for “smalls” at thrift shops and junk stores. I collected all of these little things into a German reel to reel box, and sent them out to Greece right before the postal rate increase. I was sure to send out before the rate increase. I think it all came out pretty well. Mom Kat took at the pictures and here they are. I hope she had a great birthday. The hot guy was the card.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Sent to...And Explained

It seems that a lot of my items have hit their mark lately. Maybe I’ve been sending a lot of things to people who scan them consistently, I’m not sure, but either way, they’re showing up in great numbers. Two cards that have appeared online I remember making very vividly. Often I make six or seven or eight cards at a time, so they look a little alike, have the same source material etc. They also get scanned right around the same time as each other. This card I sent to the lovely Amy Irwen in Rosemount Minnesota. No images on this one, which is kinds of odd for me, but every once in a while I like to mix it up. This cards construction relates back to another post I did about a Thomasville library sale. At that sale, I bought the images that make up this card. It was a book, a German book with a ridiculous amount of highlighting and notes in the margins. The book contained so many marks that I felt I had to buy it, otherwise I would have left it on the table. I’ve never seen a book so marked up. It was a simple premise, overlap the images and let the dissolves in rips create a blurry illusion. You can see a few pen marks in there as well. I kind of like this one. I sent this card to Lindsay Stewart in Halifax Nova Scotia. I like sending things to Lindsay. On my last trip to SCRAP in Durham, I bought a lot of large decals that just read American. I guess it had something to do with the airline, I don’t know. Basically I cut them up into smaller pieces and arrange them on too small of cardboard. I thought the confusion would make an interesting composition of bits of letters-that was not the case. I really hated the final product. Instead of abandoning the whole endeavor, I took out a couple 1940’s Time Magazines, made some transfers and slapped them on top. Not sure if the end product was much better, but it was slightly better.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Sent To...

Lots of my small creations have landed in faraway places lately. I think I've been sending way too much stuff out so far this year. It’s now the twelfth day of February and I’ve sent forty-eight things just this year. I’m not doing the whole mail 365 thing, but at least I’m keeping pace. Not only have I sent forty-eight things, I have another six cards waiting to be mailed out, all of which are much larger than the ones I’ve been making. With the change in postal rates, I’m a little worried about sending out the new and improved and larger cards. Domestic prices would hover around a dollar maybe, but sending out internationally is going to kill me with these. Oh well, I work for the state and I’m rich so I’m going to send them out either way. Been kind of quite on the long wordy blog posts, but that will return. Just building up a few entries before I find something unique that I need to do a little writing about.
The above two landed in New York and in the hands of the great DeVillo Sloan. Auburn New York, that is! I have no idea where Auburn New York is but it sounds really nice.
Above sent to Kim JungYoun in Korea. Every time she posts something of mine, it reminds me how much I want to make it to Korea. Once I looked up rates right after I saw one of my cards on her facebook timeline. Hopefully soon!
Above sent to Michael Orr in Georgia. I worked in a little Georgia joke in there...see it? Yes, that's Otis Redding. Not really a joke but a reference to one of the only musicians that can easily make me cry like a little baby.
Above sent to Nikla Heed in Sweden. Like South Korea, I want to go to Sweden. I made fun of myself in this card and I think he got the joke. I hope he didn't take me seriously?

Thursday, February 7, 2013

New This Week

Above from The Blessed Father San Diego California Above from Mom Cat Greece (Sorry I couldn't get the thing positioned correctly)
Above both from Richard Canard Illinoise