time + color + memory = returns

 Last year I sent out a series of ATCs exploring ideas of time, color and memory.  You can read about the original mailing here.  The sets included a blank ATC to be filled in with each recipient’s’ color memories.  I have received ATCs back from nearby in San Francisco to all the way in South Africa. I learned that Jennifer Utter’s mother forbade her from wearing that lovely shade of red.  I was not so unfortunate.  Lil’ Tofu had a smart wool coat in that very color!

Mexican Mail Art – Part II

The first batch of mail art was mailed from Mexico a few weeks ago.  I am not sure if anyone has received the postcards yet.  I started working on a new series of ATCs when I was still in Puerto Vallarta.  Two explored the local palette, including the day of Tropical Storm Pilar (which was a humid, rainy day but not much of a storm where I was).  When I got home, I finished the series and used more of the play money and lotería cards I picked up at a 25 Pesos Store and a local bookstore.  Like so many San Francisco artists, I can’t resist using lotería cards and have been incorporating them into my mixed media work for 20+ years.  What is it that draws us to these cards?  A new batch of mail art was dropped at the post office yesterday and is on the way.

Polish Wallpaper

The Lewandowski’s Wallpaper, mixed media on board, 10”x10”x1.5”

Recently I have been exploring ideas about memory and color.  Pink Week will be coming up in Sacramento in just a few months, so it felt like the time to explore some pink memories.

When I was in my 20s, I spent a lot of time travelling and living in Europe.  Different countries, different cultures and some color palettes and home décor that was not what I was accustomed to.  There was a lot of wallpaper, including in the places I lived.  There was also a more liberal use of the color pink in all shades imaginable.  Go back to an Easter Monday (Śmigus-dyngus), over thirty years ago in Poland.  It was a visit to the home of my cousin’s in-laws to celebrate the holiday known for water fights and, of course, another big meal.  Poland is the sort of place where the most distant and long lost relative, like I was, can be made to feel incredibly welcome by everyone you meet.  That afternoon will always remain in my memories, made to feel so very welcomed in the Lewandowski’s home.  And, here is where the pink comes in.  I remember that every room I saw in their home had pink wallpaper — each room different from the next.

I would have never imagined, decades later that I would recreate that day and their home the way I have, in the summer of 2017.  But here it is.

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.