Wednesday, November 21, 2018

30 Collages Made in 2018 Book



I was listening to a podcast when one of the guests said something about Chat Books. They said they print off all of their Instagram pics into a book that way they have a record of taking the pictures. While this isn’t a new idea, I decided to check it out. Only this year have I started to scan all of the collages I send to folks. I scan and then add them to a folder on my computer. From there I make them into all types of other things, most notably Xeroxed broadsides. I reused the images over and over, put them into different contexts, and mail them out again. It’s a practical process. For the first book I made I put a bunch of these collages for about forty dollars. I accidently made two of these. I got the book back and was immediately impressed. Like an idiot I begin thinking about how I could use this to make other stuff besides simply keeping a record of old work. 
The front cover my visage and a light Richard C. reference. 
The first thought was to make a book of collages, just some of my favorites, and see if people were interested. Thankfully the site is order as you go which helps to keep down cost. Buying a bunch at once that no one is ever going to buy doesn’t make a lot of sense.

I put together a book of 30 collages I thought were interesting. These 30 were out of about 200 I’d made throughout the year. The total for each book was around $15.00. I ended up getting 12 people through Facebook that said they were interested in buying one. Honestly I thought I’d put it out there and no one would care. Normally this is how things work, get excited about something you’ve made and then watch no one give a shit. Unless it’s stickers or some decorative piece there’s generally little interest.

I directly asked the first people that said they were interested in a copy about the price. Most thought that $25.00 was too little especially considering it would cost about $5 to ship. Before I ordered 12 books at almost $200.00 no one had paid. Once I ordered them I contacted everyone and thankfully some of them sent me money through PayPal almost immediately. I was honestly nervous. Asking people to give you money is even harder than asking them to give you a little attention. Nine people came through in the first couple of days with cash. The three people that didn’t pay are folks that I know well and see every week. I know where they live, I can steal things form their porches if they don’t pay. While I’m only going to make about $40.00 on the whole print, I’m not going to lose money which means it’s a total success. Breaking even was the only goal. Someone even contacted me about a copy after I’d sent in the order, second press!  


Some of the pages...so much red.
Seconds before I clicked “order” I had second thoughts. In my head I expected to lose so much money. A little voice appeared and said, “Don’t worry about it…go for it” and then I clicked “order.” I’m cheap, I don’t take big swings, so it was nice to make an effort and have folks to respond positively.
I had to mail out seven of them and then I dropped off the other five. One of my favorite things is to drop off packages to people’s houses without them seeing me do it. I hate when people come out of the house to see me scurrying away. I left one of them on someone’s front door that lives on a somewhat busy road. When I pulled away I immediately thought someone was going to steal it as they walked by. I could imagine their disappointed faces as they opened the package and saw a bunch of random bits of paper and a wrapped 6x6 book of random collages. Getting an add and pass from a robber would be my greatest achievement. 
I wrapped all of them in this old wrapping paper. 
The second book is already planned. I doubt anyone will have interest in this idea, which is to compile my favorite circular reflector pictures. You know the ones you often see in basements of parking decks, yeah those. I take a lot of them and from all around the world. Putting them together would be interesting visually…I think. If no one else is interested in the book at least I’ll have a copy for myself. I might have to wait until the New Year until I offer it to folks, considering that the people who bought the first one, would be the people probably be the ones to buy the second one.


Thursday, November 15, 2018

Give It Up, Turn It Loose

Instagram screen-grab of the sweet gesture that sparked this post.

Most of my “makings” happen upstairs. I make them after Misty goes to sleep or I make them on the weekends. I only have certain hours I can make things. I often feel like I’m stealing time in order to be up there. Often I have to tiptoe around. I leave moving things for the weekends when I can be loud. The best days are the ones where I have things going on all over the house. I’m putting things in envelopes upstairs, having stuff drying on the main floor, and I’m spray-painting outside. Throughout the week these items will filter through the next process of being packaged and then mailed. Sometimes I spend one of my productive days scanning. Sometimes I’m marking all of the pieces of mail I receive and then putting it in binders or in plastic containers. Things are constantly moving around.
At work I take many of these parts and make them into other things. Stuff that I scanned upstairs for hours ends up becoming add and passes. Many of my collages end up as broadsides that I print in a wealth of strange colors and on found thrift store paper. Doing this in my downtime at work allows me to be a little creative throughout the day and it makes me feel like I’m in charge of my life. I’m always stealing an hour here or there. Scanning becomes printing, printing becomes folding, folding becomes addressing, addressing becomes standing in line at the post office, standing in line at the post office means I get mail, getting mail means I have to document…scan…and post.

Only this last part is visible to people, the posting part. I scan every project that people respond to that originates from me and then post the images online. This comes in the form of collaborative books, add and passes, or out of this world art.
90% of what I do is invisible, never seen, hidden behind passwords and mailed off to a random corner of the world and placed into a box. Maybe it’s thrown away? Every once in a while some kind soul shares an image of one of my creations. Sometimes I share scans of things on my various social media platforms. Most of the time (back to that 90% figure) the work is invisible. There’s no storage house filled with unsold collages, they’re all gone! Only this year have I started to scan every single collage I make before sending it out. At least I have a picture of the ghost this way, proof that work was done.

Because there isn’t a clear audience for mail-art and no one is required to do anything with the work, you can feel isolated. I don’t know people that “make things” like I do in my town. I know a lot of musicians. Sometimes the quiet nature of correspondence art is frustrating. A decentralized community with no rules means it’s hard to see yourself as part of something and it can become easy to drift away.  “Here’s another card sent to the quiet void” one might think. Often this is fine, just part of the game, and other times it can be frustrating. If you make stuff you want people to appreciate it in some way. If you make something you’re supremely proud of and it’s never seen again, you can start to feel that nihilistic-annoyance. A simple scan from someone across the world can be all the inspiration I need to keep pushing through.  That feeling is especially nourishing when it comes from an artist that inspires me to create.
Somehow I have been sending mail-art to one of my greatest inspirations for years. It’s John Vanderslice. He’s a musician / studio wizard and not a mail-artist, but an artist of the highest degree nonetheless. I’ve been listening to his music since 2002. I’ve spread the word of his greatness as widely as I possibly can, being a promoting mouthpiece for his work for almost twenty years. I feel personally responsible for many of his fans. This is a fact. When someone makes something great I like to support it as much as I can. I don’t apologize for anything I love and I want to share those things with everyone.

Recently I’ve slightly slid into his personal orbit. I’ve sent him weird collages (of himself…strange, thinking back on it) as well as various pieces of randomness I’ve made. He even participated (through the efforts of my homie Mike B.) in Misty and I’s marriage add and return project. When I see him at shows he seems to know who I am. There’s no motivation behind this, I’m not expecting to be a friend he asks to take care of his plants when he’s out of town. He has Donny for that! I don’t want his secrets or lockets of his hair. He simply inspired me and I want to share some of that inspiration with him. If I can pull him into my correspondence, then that’s great, and that’s all I have an interest in.
After seeing him live in Washington DC a couple months back, we talked for a little bit after the show. We might have talked a little too long considering the long line waiting to say hello. I distinctly asked if it was cool that I continue to send him mail-art. Not only did he say to keep sending things, but he said he like what I sent. When I got home I made up a packet for him including a snapshot of the two of us that I mailed. Inside were a bunch of add and passes, broadsides, and a few weirdo things. I also added a printed picture of the two of us from that night to help jog his memory. A few weeks after I mailed the packet, he posted the image of the of two of us with a short sentence to a couple of his social media accounts. I couldn’t believe that someone I genuinely admired had taken the time to write such a sweet message. It made all of those moments of silent work upstairs worth the time I’d spent on them. All of the cards that had been pushed into a silent void feel like they had a purpose. Keep making the work…keep making the work.

And now I will continue to return likeminded gestures whenever I can.