I’ve noticed something
about my usual mail-art routine. The amount of my mail-art clerical work is
insane. Often I feel like I spend as much time documenting things than I do
actually creating, which is a problem. The creating is way more rewarding. When
I first started making mail-art I probably made 80 percent of the time and did
about 20 percent clerical work. Let me back up, when I mean clerical work I
mean basic documentation, scanning, and organizing of my many projects. Now
that number is closer to 50/50.
The shift in this has
come from being involved in more and more projects and corresponding with more
people. At this exact point, I have about three projects going. I have the 9 x
9 blocks, the Trump project (slowly going away), and the marriage Add and
Passes. While it doesn’t seem like those would take up a lot of time, they kind
of do. Not only did I design the layout for the images, but I printed them,
advertised that the projects existed over and over to willing participants,
packaged the images, mailed them, but I scanned all of them and then posted the
images when they came back to me. If people are willing to participate I feel
inclined to show their work to others, just part of the deal.
If they’re going to send
me something I feel like I have to send them something back and make sure I
don’t cheat them. This means that I take diligent notes on how much each
mail-artist has sent me and how many I’ve sent them in return. Mostly I have a
one in and one out relationship with most of my correspondence, although they’re
a couple I need to do a little catching up with. Folks outside of the US
(because of price) tend to see longer lag times. Thinking about all of this
means I take time away from creating to the simple process of documenting,
filing, and scanning. Although it came be time consuming, I think it’s worth it
to share as much as I can and try and find as many new correspondents as I can,
1 comment:
Oh my, please don't feel you have to do the "one in, one out" after receiving the package I sent you a few weeks ago. That was a gift from me to you in exchange for all the pieces you have sent me in the past. I don't keep track of the number as you do but I like the idea. I am envious of your great record keeping! In any event, please don't keep track of the number of pieces in the one I just sent you...unless, of course, I still owe YOU! :-)
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