I'm Ready For My Close Up



A picture of my face taken in my office, monochromed, and then printed off in various contexts.

Periodically I make printed copies of random images. I print these off in groups of ten or fifteen. Often these are modified analog collages, things that I have scanned myself or been posted online by a fellow mail-artist. If it looks interesting I’ll add it to a folder on my thumb drive and then play around with it later. So often I end up putting them in monochrome and then mixing them with other collages to make a super collage. Sometimes I put them in monochrome and then add tons of clashing colors in Microsoft Paint. Sometimes I print them off on peculiar paper I find at thrift stores, anything that isn’t the standard white. The more color the better. I really like using children’s instruction books to print on. Often these are the same size as a standard piece of paper so they’re easily ran through a regular printer. I also like old paper with stains on them, pieces I find laying around school in hallways or pulled from the trash, and the exotic. Transfer sheets are great and so is carbon copy paper. Odd and out of context are ideal.

If I have a few minutes here and there, I’ll print something out. I’ll then take those copies home and organize them into categories. There’s the add and passes, the random bits I cut up and put into envelopes, and the purely psychotic. While looking through my digital files that I print from and what gets printed off, I notice a pattern. I have a lot of printed images of my head floating out there. It seems that I might have to explore this subject matter at great length.

A few images of my face stuck together with other collages. I then print these off and mail them.

Honestly, I don’t use my face in mail-art because I’m that self-involved. I don’t do it because I think I’m particularly attractive. I’m not really here to promote myself or my artwork since I’m not that ambitious about it. I’ve always made the things I’ve made, and if someone gives a shit, then I’m happy with it. If they don’t care then they throw it away. At best, putting my face into this equation might change how they interact with the object. I can only imagine someone looking at one of these prints off, my face staring right back them, and then they throw it away. Do they chuckle right before it goes into the recycling?



I made an ADD AND PASS out of my face. This one is completely done by Roberto Scala. He lives in Italy.  

Using me as my main model (that is a weird sentence to write) takes away any potential victim. So many of the things I make have a comical tone to them. No one can get but-hurt if I use my face in a context that is silly or satirical. Since I don’t mind being made fun and no problems being put into a social context, then the sky is the limit. It’s nice to be able to control the quality of the image and the pose. At some point in the future I’m going to have a long modeling session with a photographer friend. I’m going to pose in a variety of positions so I have more to work with and it’ll be of better quality.

A bunch of me with a "sexy" message. I made these into "sexy" stickers.

It’s normally just my head that I use. Almost all of the pictures have been taken in my office at work, against my door. I’ll find a few minutes and have an idea for something. I’ll take the picture on my I-phone. I then save the image, monochrome it, and then wait for an opportunity to put it into another context. So often I mail these images of my head printed on to strange people to my friends with absolutely no context. I have no idea what my close friends (I send these sorts of things to about twenty people on a regular basis) think about this. Maybe they expect it? I don’t know what my mail-art friends think about it either, but they’re used to more craziness, so I doubt they think much at all. It makes me laugh so I send it off.

Recently I’ve stepped up the sending of my face to a whole new level. I had a bunch of 16x20 canvas prints made with a crude image of my face, and a word on top. I’m going to paint thrift store frames and hand them out to friends. My goal is to see who will actually keep the image up in their house and where. I’m daring them to put the thing up.

My face, old monochromed collage mixed in, digital letters, hand painted, and stickers glued on a bingo card.