Color Memory and the 1970s

1974 Kitchen, mixed media on board, 6”x12”

My mixed media art continues to explore color and memory. This latest piece is an homage to the bright, orange 1970s kitchen.

30,000 Miles

When I added up the mileage for just six wonderful pieces of mail art I have recently received I realized the tally was over 30,000 miles (48,000 km).  That’s a lot of postal frequent flyer miles in these six pieces:

1. William Mellott sent a new postcard and ATC using some of his amazing rubber stamps from Taiwan.
2. Connie Jean sent a modified postcard from Florida.
3. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene) sent a new ATC and a skeleton zine form across the continent in Québec.
4. Three new modified vintage postcards came from Anna Hollings in New Zealand.
5. Fun envelope and a great collage inside from Virgo in Russia.
6. And finally, a lovely, small folio of prints of Rebecca Guyver’s pastel work arrived from Britain.

Art Inspired by Childhood Favorites

I grew up in a home surrounded by books and spent countless hours in libraries.  One of many childhood favorites was Dan Greenburg’s Porno-Graphics (1969).  It’s a tongue-in-cheek art book where the nudes have been covered up.  Readers can remove the layers of acetate with painted on clothing or manipulate the pop-up pages to reveal the original, well-known works of art.  As a little kid who was taken to art museums, this was hilarious.  Many of the books I grew up with have ended up on my shelves in San Francisco decades later.  Alas, our family’s copy of Porno-Graphics was lost (I believe it was a casualty of a burst pipe incident that flooded a bookshelf). Recently a friend generously gave me his copy – I have my replacement heirloom.

Revisiting the book sheds new light on the Geo Graphic Mail Art Series I started in 2012.  My desire to “censor” art with maps is starting to make a little more sense.