Marie Marchant
Mail Art
After watching “How to Draw A Bunny”, I was very much inspired by Ray Johnson’s mail art and quite excited to participate in the act of mail art. Ray Johnson is an American Artist, he was known mostly for his collage work and his mail art. He was a primary figure in early pop art, however he was one of the most influential artists gone un-noticed. Mail art began in the 1960’s, when artists began to send mail or postcards with art and sometimes poems or personal notes to each other. Mail art allowed artists to exchange and collect art disregarding the conventional and commercial art world. Mail art can take on many forms, such as letters, packages, email, fax, and blogs.
Ray Johnson was a pivotal artist in the Mail art movement because of his exclusivity to Mail art as well as the interactiveness of his work. Sometimes he would add instructions to his work, requesting the receiver to add to the piece and mail it back. Many artists responded to his call and pushed the Mail art movement forward, creating a large web of artist connection around the world. Due to the fact that creating mail art is inexpensive and fast to produce, it allowed for creative room and flexibility.
In Alexxa Gotthardt’s article, “A Brief History of Mail Art, from Cleopatra to Miranda July”, I learned that Ray Johnson’s colleague Ed Plunkett gave the Mail art community a name. He named it the New York Correspondence School. The group stopped officially operating in 1973, however Ray Johnson kept creating and sending mail art until his death in 1995. Other artists today like Miranda July continue Ray Johnson’s legacy. Miranda saw how Ray Johnson’s art created such a community, she was inspired and used it to create a feminist community to network and spread word about a project she was working on. She soon received many responses back including videos that she pieced together to create the final piece. She then sent the 19 chain letter videos back to the participants. Another artist Frank Warren started a blog, PostSecret, where he asks people to illustrate their secrets on a post card and send them to a singular address and he posts the collaborative project on the blog everyday.
These artists I found all very inspirational when looking at how to create art on a budget and in conversation with other artists. For this project however, I was more inspired by other pop artists and other movements happening during the same time as mail art. I was particularly inspired by Andy Warhol and his use of silk screening. For this project I wanted to utilize some of these silk screens I’ve made in the past with designs of my own. Seeing as we were required to make 14 separate pieces of mail art for each individual in class, using screen printing as a tool would allow me to create multiples easily and accurately. I then decided to add additional details to differentiate each piece of mail art. They were all relatively simple in design, I had an image of a graphic severed hand that was printed onto each post card. Then I added color using marker or paint to each post card, some were filled in entirely with color, others had halos of color or stripes.
Links to research:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-history-mail-art-cleopatra-miranda-july
https://sofiakofodimos.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/the-open-curriculum-of-the-new-york-correspondence-school-ray-johnsons-pedagogical-mail-art/
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/nyregion/art-conceptual-art-in-the-days-before-e-mail.html
Mail Art
After watching “How to Draw A Bunny”, I was very much inspired by Ray Johnson’s mail art and quite excited to participate in the act of mail art. Ray Johnson is an American Artist, he was known mostly for his collage work and his mail art. He was a primary figure in early pop art, however he was one of the most influential artists gone un-noticed. Mail art began in the 1960’s, when artists began to send mail or postcards with art and sometimes poems or personal notes to each other. Mail art allowed artists to exchange and collect art disregarding the conventional and commercial art world. Mail art can take on many forms, such as letters, packages, email, fax, and blogs.
Ray Johnson was a pivotal artist in the Mail art movement because of his exclusivity to Mail art as well as the interactiveness of his work. Sometimes he would add instructions to his work, requesting the receiver to add to the piece and mail it back. Many artists responded to his call and pushed the Mail art movement forward, creating a large web of artist connection around the world. Due to the fact that creating mail art is inexpensive and fast to produce, it allowed for creative room and flexibility.
In Alexxa Gotthardt’s article, “A Brief History of Mail Art, from Cleopatra to Miranda July”, I learned that Ray Johnson’s colleague Ed Plunkett gave the Mail art community a name. He named it the New York Correspondence School. The group stopped officially operating in 1973, however Ray Johnson kept creating and sending mail art until his death in 1995. Other artists today like Miranda July continue Ray Johnson’s legacy. Miranda saw how Ray Johnson’s art created such a community, she was inspired and used it to create a feminist community to network and spread word about a project she was working on. She soon received many responses back including videos that she pieced together to create the final piece. She then sent the 19 chain letter videos back to the participants. Another artist Frank Warren started a blog, PostSecret, where he asks people to illustrate their secrets on a post card and send them to a singular address and he posts the collaborative project on the blog everyday.
These artists I found all very inspirational when looking at how to create art on a budget and in conversation with other artists. For this project however, I was more inspired by other pop artists and other movements happening during the same time as mail art. I was particularly inspired by Andy Warhol and his use of silk screening. For this project I wanted to utilize some of these silk screens I’ve made in the past with designs of my own. Seeing as we were required to make 14 separate pieces of mail art for each individual in class, using screen printing as a tool would allow me to create multiples easily and accurately. I then decided to add additional details to differentiate each piece of mail art. They were all relatively simple in design, I had an image of a graphic severed hand that was printed onto each post card. Then I added color using marker or paint to each post card, some were filled in entirely with color, others had halos of color or stripes.
Links to research:
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-history-mail-art-cleopatra-miranda-july
https://sofiakofodimos.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/the-open-curriculum-of-the-new-york-correspondence-school-ray-johnsons-pedagogical-mail-art/
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/25/nyregion/art-conceptual-art-in-the-days-before-e-mail.html
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