SFO or MILK?

As San Francisco plans to vote on renaming our airport to honor Harvey Milk, I have to wonder, if we will still put SFO on the luggage tags or MILK?

I Had the Craziest Dream

I Had the Craziest Dream, mixed media on canvas, 10”x10”

As I continue to expand on ideas and materials used in the 2011 Project, it’s time to works some more with old sheet music.  I repeated a pattern I started using with old maps in 2009.  The pattern is inspired by the yosegi pattern in Japanese textiles.  I then used the pattern in postcard pieces in 2012.  This time, using vintage, 1940’s sheet music I also captured the distinct color palette used in printed material in that era.  Much of my collage work is textile-inspired.  I did not plan for it, but I couldn’t help noticing that this piece has the feel of 1940’s fabric. This is the first small experiment, more to come….

In the meantime, a clip of Helen Forrest singing I Had the Craziest Dream from the move Springtime in the Rockies can be found here.  

Hoppering into the New Year

Edward Hopper is one of my favorite artists and it’s time to send out some Hopper postcards for the Geo Graphic Mail Project.  The Cape Cod one is obvious, but why not sailing somewhere off of Nova Scotia or deciding that the rooms by the sea are in Brazil.  And as we move south the western motel finds itself somewhere in Argentina.

2013 – The First Piece

The year begins with this little piece (4.5 x6”) being sent back to Canada.  Marie-Claude LeClerc sent me this nice card plus additional bits of material to be repurposed into a new piece and mailed back for a project.  The instructions in French were a bit enigmatic, so hopefully my card with my own work and other repurposed bits of postcards is what she had in mind.

2012 - A Year of Mail

Back in November 2011 I put out a call for postcards.  I wanted to use everything I received to make the first piece for 2012.  The only problem was that some were too good to cut up.  I used them by making color copies and cutting them up.  But that was the not the end of it.  I continued to get more mail art.  I kept sending pieces out, and more came back.  Then I started the Millennia Mail Art Project.  About 200 starter pieces were sent out with one completed layer, each piece needed an additional 4-5 layers added.  They are still in circulation and so far 34 completed pieced have made it back.  Another on going series is the Geo Graphic Mail Art Project – art postcards modified with maps, stamps and more.  There are more projects on the horizon for 2013.  The image above just shows some of the amazing work I received in 2012.   Unfortunately I have not efficiently scanned and posted each individual piece, put some of the contributing artists shown above include:

• David Stanley Aponte
• Ana Marta Austin
• Angela Behrendt
• Guy Beining
• Pedro Bericat
• Stephanie Blake
• Torma Cauli
• A Cope
• Daniel de Culle
• Chris Day
• Stephanie Dodson
• Erin Fae
• Jill French
• Douglas Galloway
• Fleur Helsingor
• Jennie Hinchcliff
• Amy Irwen
• Andrea Jay
• Susanna Laknet
• Sanda Lefever
• Serse Luigetti
• Roberto Rios
• C. Rizzuto
• Marina Salmaso
• Trick Sensei
• D. Singh
• Nico Van Hoorn
• Katinka van Ingen
• Gina Visione
• Jim Winters
• Karen Wood
• Carroll Woods

If you want to get on my list for future mail art, send me something cool to:

Tofu

P.O. Box 170681

San Francisco, CA 94117 USA

Happy Holidays 2012!

There is a reason you save all those old Christmas cards and the stamps off the envelopes.  Below is one of the pieces for the 2011 Project made with old Christmas cards from when I was very little.  And this year’s card (shown above) includes stamps that I have been saving for years.   

Dutch Treats

What to do on a cold, gray December day. How about Round 2 for the Geo Graphic Mail Project? This time a series of modified Vermeer postcards with stamps, maps, and happy little pets.  There are Vermeerhares, Vermeerdogs and, of course,  Vermeerkats.