Saturday, January 21, 2017
Thursday, January 5, 2017
"Eat At Slappy's" Collage
Its former resting spot out front. |
Right in the middle of
barrage of images I went upstairs to work on some things. Without much
direction I made a couple larger collages with a couple karate dudes right up
front. Thinking of what to put with the karate dudes I went with a phrase I’d
seen one too many times that week, “Eat at Slappy’s.” It was silly and done
quickly but I thought it looked pretty interested.
I sent a message to one
of the guys that works at the place and asked if he wanted the thing. Not only
did he want it but he said they’d put it up in the restaurant. Since it was
going up in the restaurant I decided to go and get a decent frame for the
thing. I dropped it off to my friend and he sent me the following picture.
Honestly, I can’t think
of a better honor than having my work up in a chicken restaurant in
Winston-Salem North Carolina. Some might want their stuff in a nice gallery, or
art space of some kind, but I’d rather have mine hanging in a place where the
glass collects small flecks of airborne chicken deliciousness. It feels
appropriate to have it in such a setting.
A few weeks ago I
dropped in to pick up a gift from the guys at the shop and noticed that it had
moved from the wall (t-shirts rested there now) to against the window frame
looking into the kitchen. It’s moving around, it has a life, and people are
seeing it. Hopefully it stays there for a while before they end up tossing it
out, or breaking the glass and then sitting in some unused spot in the
restaurant. I hope that glass collects a lot of chicken particles. This is the menu. You should go there if you're in Winston-Salem NC. I'll take you. |
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Address Books
At the end of this year
I realized that I was running out of room in my current mail-art book. This book
keeps all of the addresses for my correspondence. It also keeps a tally of how
many pieces I send each year and how much I have received. Beside each person’s
name that I correspond with I have the amount of work they’ve sent me and the
amount I’ve sent them. I try and keep this as accurate as possible to ensure
that I don’t cheat anyone. I try and stay equal with each person I send to, don’t
want too much of a disparity. Unfortunately, I’ve fallen behind with some
folks, those that are just too prolific. I’m sure that I miss something every
once in a while.
I’m now starting on my
third mail-art book. The first book I decommissioned about three years ago.
Through the first two I have other types of lists. I have a world list where I tried
to mark off the countries I’ve sent to, I have since abandoned that effort. I’ve
also had lists for zines as well as CD’s and even as somewhat comprehensive
list to mail-art shows I’ve sent to. Not going to try and keep this up with the
new book, too much work, and it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
When I was typing up
the new master address list to go in the new book, I omitted a lot of names. I
kept addresses of people that I consistently send to, people that respond, and
folks that I find truly inspiring. In other words, I was looking to trim the
fat a bit, too many people to send to causes me a bit of anxiety. Sure I want
to send to folks I’ve never talked with, but over a period of a few years you
send a lot to these people and never get anything back. So, I trimmed the list
down to 98 names. The book must have had at least three times that amount in it;
lots were folks that stopped sending or some that had passed on. Two folks that
I’ve mailed things to since the very beginning have died within the last year
and another I had just started to correspond with died.
So the new book is nice
and sleek, awaiting my marks and impromptu lists (I’m sure I’ll start new ones
up) and of course, collages. So many stickers, so many stickers.
Looking over the list, I
noticed that most of my correspondence and I have gone back and forth at least
ten times, many others around the twenty time mark. There’s definitely a
disparity between my domestic correspondence and my international ones. The price
of a postcard rises by almost sixty cents once it goes over the border. I need
to try and rectify this moving forward. The person I’ve sent the most to is
Richard Canard. He was the third person I ever corresponded with! I think I’m
going to send out awards for the top three. Either way, here is gold, silver,
and bronze.
First Place - Richard
Canard – 82 – IL-USA
Second Place - K.S.
Chambers – 37- CA-USA
Third Place - Amy Irwen
– 35 – MN –USA
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