Mail Art

For this project we went back a few years to a time when phones were not smart, when mail was slow but reliable, and when social media was nonexistent. This time we made artwork that could fit within the bounds of an envelope and handed into the possession of strangers in the hope that they would be sent to their respective destinations. It was a new and fun way for me to look at art, to look at it with a sense of purpose, with each one being made for a specific person; it had an audience.

One artist that I looked at was Ray Johnson who was known as a correspondence artist. He is among the founders of a mail art network. I watched the video, ‘How to Draw a Bunny’ which chronicles his life and the people with whom he worked. It includes interviews with various artists of his time. From what I gathered, he was a fascinating man, I dare say an enigma, because his way of working was both humorous and puzzling to those that received them. His work was mostly collage, with some drawings. Here is an example of his work. I would write an entire post about him, but for now I will focus on how he affected how I approached my work. I decided to mix the idea o collage with drawing, but adding my own twist. Instead of cutting and pasting papers on top of each other, I decided to weave together different types of paper with different textures and opacity. On top of the collage, I wanted to incorporate my drawings, in my usual linear and loose style.

I wanted to cut the papers into long strips of uniform width and length in order to create individual squares all of which make up a larger image. To the right is an example of weaving different papers and textures that i looked at. This was in part inspired by the work of Chuck close, a painter who makes portraits in a very unique way that I have tried to recreate many times. This time, however, I tried it with paper instead of paint, which I think has been the most successful one. He works by making his surface into a grid and painting each square individually. Up close, there is a world of its own, with seemingly random colors in each square, but when looked at from a far, you can see the image they make.

 

When thinking of the subject of my work, I came up with the idea of sending something beautiful, something that when I look at, I am overcome with happiness. I decided to send everyone a picture of my dog. Each image was specially chosen for each individual to add a little personalization to the work. I used reflective, iridescent paper that varied in transparency and hue, which gave my collage a playful almost random look to it.

Overall, this project made me think of the process of making art in a different way. To think about it as being made for a specific audience, personalizing it based on the person who would receive it while still maintain my style. It was a lot of fun, although I felt anxious leaving it at the mail, fearing that it would get lost or delayed. That, however, made it even more fun, and as discussed in class, it gave me a lesson on deadlines: work fast effectively, and especially take into account the lack of control in delivery.