Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Big Elvis

Been making more big shits lately. There’s no real reason to do this other than I want to. Instead of just churning out more and more postcards (I’m even doing bigger postcards now) I’m working with items not meant to be mailed. I’m doing this for no particular reason other than to make something a little larger. I have no avenue for these to be seen other than a scan posted here or through the IUOMA network. They’re just there, gathering dust. I make sure to put a completion date on the back of them as a reminder.
This little item, an Elvis item, took me a couple weeks…sort of. Instead of sitting down, putting things on the watercolor paper, taping it up, and then moving on, I spent a couple weeks adding little things to this one. It just said on the corner of my bed and every once in a while I’d add a tape transfer here, and a word there. It was a lot of fun. It’s an “active” collage with Elvis as the center piece. I wanted to overlay an old bluesman over the top to really make a statement, but I did away with that. Who needs more statements anyway?

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Thanks Claudia McGill - Evidence of Pittsburg

Out of the blue I received an email from the wonderful Claudia McGill in Pennsylvania, someone I’ve traded mail-art with for a while. It seems that she visited the zine library in Pittsburg and saw an item that I sent to them. I did this for a little while, sending out things to various zine libraries around the world. I know one of them ended up in Croatia, another in Ukraine, and now its official, Pittsburg. Here’s the message she sent me.
“Hi Jon, We were in Pittsburgh this last weekend visiting our son and stopped by the Carnegie Public Library to look at the zines, since I had sent mine there. We saw it. And – we saw yours, too! Right there in the travel section. I’m sending pictures so you can envision it – one of the one blog, didn’t photo the other one, in the basket, and then a picture of the location. Looked good!”
Not only is it a wonderful gesture from Claudia, but it’s amazing to see a zine I made in such a place. This was something I wrote in China, typed and proofread at home in Winston, and printed in Lexington. Maybe one hundred of these are out in the world, and still in print, if someone asks for it. The other two are out there as well, but I’m not sure if I sent those to the library?
More importantly, whatever I created is near a Cometbus, which is pretty much my gold standard for zines. I think I sent something to Aaron as well, but I can’t remember. It seems that I go to the post office too many times.

Friday, October 11, 2013

One Subject Notebooks

When I posted an image of my new work journal earlier in the week, I didn’t think about how many of these I’ve actually done and for what reason. When I was scanning the front and back of each journal I noticed I started doing this in 2005, the first time I drove cross-country. Not sure what it is about those books but I like doing them. My biggest revelation was how “decorated” they’d become. The first ones are just journals from driving a lot, and then slowly they morph into the mail-art address books and work journals.
Basically the more something is decorated the newer it is. The first one is my newest mail-art notebook, my China notebook, cross-country 2005, work journal #2, mail-art journal #1, work journal #1, Canada road journal 2006, and On Tour With Adair 2007.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Here Are Some Work Makings

Monday was a stressful day. I combated this stress by making some things at work on Tuesday. I found the images from a couple books I dug out of the trash months ago. They’re basically catalogues for ordering art supplies. Since our school really doesn’t have a lot of art classes, I think we only have an art history class; these go into the trash very quickly. So much color! Although I love my vintage images it was nice to work with some contemporary trash. The cardboard backing came from cutting up my Smart Ones (ala Mr. Canard) frozen lunch.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Sent to Hungary

I’m making bigger cards these days, not for any particular reason other than I keep finding a lot of interesting heavy cardboard out in the world. Recently I found (I buy these things all the time) these heavy duty flashcards with simple line drawings on them, exactly the sort of thing I like to mail about. Even further back, I got these great cards (I’ve sent a bunch but no images have shown up online) that were even bigger. Really heavy duty cards with one letter on them in the left corner. Beside the letter was a space for the student to practice making the letter. These have been really fun to send around. Hopefully someone will post an image so I can share with everyone.
Anyway, so I’m making bigger cards and I’m trying to do some different things, use more color and more resources. Often I get bogged down in just ripping up old Life Magazines one after another. It’s so much fun that I have to push myself to stop doing this constantly. Instead I’m using more stickers and mixing different types of images to get some trashy…for sure, but something that stands out a bit more. Sometimes I use too much color, and other times I think things come out pretty well.
To be honest, I think this card that I sent to Hungary is pretty cool. It’s got the old vintage ladies, Life Magazine images, but I’ve thrown in contemporary magazines as well as lot of found stickers, which are mostly dots and lines. I have no idea how to work in really specific stickers like the ones of Cinderella I’ve ended up finding and then purchasing some time ago. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the fall break coming up next week. I’m going to try some new things, push myself to mess up stuff. I’m thinking about stickers. I’m thinking about a mass mail like I’ve never done before. I can’t wait until next week!
I’m sure using the “fish” card here will illicit thoughts of that Dali joke I heard years ago.