Transformed by Circles of Color

I have been altering old postcards for art projects for a long time.  They have been used in everything from large-scale works to mail art.  This latest series is relatively simple, yet the effects are somewhat complex.  I start by painting paper, and then using some punches to cut out circles of color.  I then apply a set of the circles or dots to a vintage postcard — just a simple constellation of colored circles are all it takes to alter the image.

In this latest series of mail art, each recipient also receives a small set of colored circles with instructions to apply them to an old postcard and return the new, altered postcard to me.  If you do not receive one of these, feel free to make your own altered postcard and send one to me.

A Great Mail Day!

It is always a good mail day, no, actually, a great mail day, when an envelope arrives from Cuan Miles in South Africa.  Here is the latest one.

Little Books and ATCs

This past month mail art was going out and coming in, including some great ATCs and some little, handmade books.  The incoming mail includes:

1. A new set of ATCs from Fleur Helsingor
2. Layered vintage from Jennifer Utter
3. Two handmade, 3D ATCs from Amy Irwen
4. Jennie Hinchliff is recycling every part of the book.
5. I showed Barbara Stasiowski this vintage postcard I have where the person in the picture holds a book you can open up.  This is what she sent back to me.  Love it.
6. Pamela Gerard is repurposing old postcards and photos.
7. e. coles sends a new treasure.
8. Monica Lee is making handmade books with postage stamp portraits.

Up next, Geoscapes....

Are they collages?  Are the paintings?  Are they landscapes? Working on some new 5”x7” prototypes for future large pieces.

time + color + memory

Memory is a funny thing — when hearing a piece of music or getting the whiff of a smell can instantly transport you to back to another time and place in your life.  We have all experienced it – and as we get older, the opportunities for these moments of sensory recall increase.  What about color?  Can a certain color, or more precisely a shade of a certain color, take you back?  It happens to me – these moments of color recall.  When I see a 1970s blue – you know, that true blue that is not so common today. I never drove black or silver cars.  My vehicles were shades of orange and even purple.  The modern architecture we now call brutalist is the cold gray of formed concrete associated with my formal education.  Whenever I see that sad salmon color, I think of subway stations in Stockholm or wallpaper in Poland.  I landed in San Francisco in 1990 – a city full of cafés with sponge painted walls (I confess even my kitchen succumbed to the trend for a few years).  My local café never repainted for over 20 years.  Bean There’s walls felt historic, though sadly the café was recently brought to end by a greedy landlord.  The nightclub black, was it what we wore or the matte black paint that covered every surface back then?  And when you end up working for an interior designer you learn they only have one color in the box.  At least it wasn’t beige or taupe — I worked in a world of tasteful brown — just lots and lots of brown.

This week I have expressed those colors in a new series of ATCs that also, unintentionally, are a little color autobiography.  They are now off in the mail.