Mail Art

Elizabeth O’Toole

Professor Rehm

Advanced Drawing

5 May 2020

Mail Art: Connectivity Despite Distance

         The concept of creating and delivering mail art seems more exciting to me now than ever. While the thought of sending small works of art in the mail prior to the start of remote learning still seemed an engaging activity, now living and working away from classmates and professors makes it all the more meaningful. It feels personal. It feels intimate. While my days seem to flow quite easily into the next and my so-called daily routine becomes less of a routine at all, I am excited by the smallest things. While waiting for something in the mail might have previously seemed like a burden or simply a relatively mundane occurrence, it has now become an exciting new shift of routine. I appreciate the mail art I have received as well as created now more than I had previously.

         When thinking of the kind of mail art I wanted to send out, I thought of it in terms of two themes. As we are stuck in quarantine and I know that I, personally, have struggled finding inspiration and motivation to create, my first question was, what would I like to create and communicate? And secondly, with the realization so many of us are stuck inside and likely dealing with a similar state of mind, I thought what might I like to see if I was receiving mail art?And upon asking those questions, I generally arrived at the same answer; positivity, colors, happiness, a reminder of the good and/or a distraction from the chaos of our current state of affairs. This notion is what prompted me to create the works I did. 

In my work, I created and sent out 10 different cards all with a similar concept. I started with creating colorful, wavy, striped cards with a variety of tools I had around the house like markers, pencils, colored construction paper, and more. On each of these unique backgrounds, I then pasted black and white images of people in motion; running, jumping, laughing, etc. I wanted to create little bursts of energy and sunshine. I didn’t include text and there is no concrete agenda other than to send a fun little colorful burst of emotion. These are all entirely unique and open to interpretation by each individual viewer, but they are all meant to be fun and lighthearted with the intention of bringing a burst of fun into the everyday routine.

Symbolic Self Project

Symbolic Self Project

For my symbolic self project, I took inspiration from my childhood. I did ballet starting when I was 4, and up until 10th grade, and it formed a major part of my self-identity throughout growing up. Ballet classes required a lot of concentration and discipline, and helped me gain confidence and a sense of accomplishment in my talents. It also allowed me a creative outlet to express my emotions through movement, and make friendships outside of school. Because of this, I decided to draw ballet slippers as my symbol of self. After watching the How to Draw a Bunny documentary, I was inspired by Ray Johnson's collages, and how he repeated certain images throughout an entire collage. I re-created this through mono-print techniques, stamping with textured objects, collage, and glitter.

The Process

The background:

First, I took an 18 x 24 piece of drawing paper, and began drawing squiggly lines with a black drawing pen, to form various squares and rectangles on the paper. Next, I took black India ink, and mixed it with water to form a washed gray background in some of the sections of the piece. I directly poured this mixture onto the paper, and moved the paper around to cause the ink to drip off the paper in certain directions. After that, I dripped more pigmented black ink to the damp paper, to add more value to the grey washed background. After this, I repeated the same process with magenta, purple, red, green, and yellow India ink. I mixed various colors together to add more texture and pattern to the paper. After this, I blotted the pools of ink with a paper towel, and stamped this pattern onto the two colored rectangles to add more texture. I then went back with my black ink and painted over the squiggly lines in the paper, as well as splattered it onto certain parts of the piece. 

The ballet slippers:

First, I began creating the mono print images of the ballet papers by rolling printmaking paint onto a plastic slab and then drawing various positions of ballet slippers with a q-tip. Then, I transferred these images onto different colored construction paper, and added glitter to the wet paint. 

Next, I cut out these images with an X-acto knife to exaggerate the shape of the slippers, and pasted them onto the piece with a glue stick.

My final piece looked like this:

Inspiration:

I took inspiration from Ray Johnson and his collages, as well as Ellen Gallagher. I liked how Ray Johnson repeated certain images or objects throughout his collages, and how Ellen Gallagher utilized mono-print techniques in many of her pieces, as well as added many different textures as an element of her art. The two images below are specific works from these artists that especially inspired my piece. 

Ellen Gallagher. Hare. 2013.

Ray Johnson. Wake Up. 1973

Symbolic Self

Symbolic Self

Niki Ravari

For this project, I knew I wanted to create a piece with oil pastels because it’s a new medium I really enjoy working with. I also wanted to relate this project to the current situation and portray myself in a way that is consistent with how I feel now. Since I have been spending the majority of my time focused on creating art, I drew myself using vivid colors as a way to embody my creativity and how I feel rather than using a realistic skin color. I drew my body in poses that are withdrawn, in a way that the figures seem isolated, even though they are in the same piece. This theme of isolation also prompted my decision to make the background completely black. I wanted to go over the piece with a thin white paint pen to create highlights and outline the figures. I am hoping to still add this line-work once the materials arrive!

An artist that we learned about in the lecture that inspired me for this project is Juno Calypso. Juno Calypso is a photographer whose self-portraits speak to similar themes of isolation and loneliness. Her self-portraits are what sparked my initial idea to go in this direction with my drawing.

Symbolic Self - Zane

I've always had issues with representing myself in any artistic medium, and I rarely even show my own face in a photo on social media. This is extreme to the point where all of my profile images on any platform is at most an outline of my features. Typically when I draw people I exaggerate features, change their skin color, add objects onto their head or face, that may say may more about them, or just completely abstracts their image. This is partly because it interests me, it teaches me more about oddly shaped forms, and I don't like drawing face or normal things. When approaching this assignment, I definitely wanted to use symbols and alternative imagery to suggest what my interests are. I also wanted to use the techniques and style to describe who I am. In my portrait, I mainly utilized the artwork from two different album artworks; one being from Van Halen's, "Dive Down" and Pink Floyd's, "The Division Bell".

The graphic style that I used is also indicative of how I am attempting to represent myself. I've been developing a more, graphic, graffiti-esq, style that I creates a more pleasing image when combined with elements that display precision, such as using a border, or having dynamic, sharp lines that indicate pre-planning. I have an OCD personality type and I like to be in control of the worlds I create in my art work. I was trying to treat this project as not only a representation of myself, but a representation of myself through process and the final product. I hope this all makes sense.

Here is my artwork. I really like planning what I make to work on the medium that I'm working on. The 18x24" paper made me think of making a poster, and I believe that my graphic style really lends itself to this medium.

Symbolic Self - Olivia Collins

Olivia Collins
Cindy Rehm
Advanced Drawing
April 27, 2020
Symbolic Self

My symbolic self portrait is a series of three. Something I find symbolic in my life is what I wear. I wanted my portraits to be full body but very simple. I was most inspired by fashion sketches however I did not want myself in any particular poses. I wanted to showcase how with different clothes I take on a new persona. My first piece I wanted to focus on what I look like at home while I work. This is a version of myself that not many see. I spend most time working in my older brother’s big hoodie and glasses. These are two crucial items that I wear almost daily but no one would know. My second piece is to emphasize my collection of band tee shirts. Similar to when talking about the collection project, I have many band tee shirts that are very important to me. I decided to have myself wearing my dad’s My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult shirt from 30 years ago which is my personal favorite. My most worn shoes are over the knee boots so I am seen with this in the painting. I wanted to show how I often wear my family’s clothes and how they are representative of me. My last piece was to showcase my love of dresses. I own several all black dresses and different dresses in general so this is another aspect of what I look like that still represents me. I needed one of the portraits to also showcase my long straight hair, since it is hidden in the first and in a ponytail in the second. It was important to me to not have my face in any of the pieces because I wanted the clothes alone to represent me as a whole. I also predominantly wear black so I wanted the series to portray that.





Inspiration: 
   
Jean-Paul Gaultier                              Tom Ford 

Symbolic Self

Self-Portrait Blog Post

I’ve never liked self portraits. No matter what class I’m in, I’m asked to draw myself in some way, and I never find it enjoyable. I can render faces well, they just never look like the people who I drew, so you can imagine what a poor job I did with myself, especially when staring at yourself in the mirror or in a picture for a prolonged period of time isn’t natural. When it comes to creativity, it’s a lot easier for me to cast it onto figures other than myself.

I decided as a self portrait that I would depict my hands burning a photo of myself as a child. When I was younger, I loved my childhood because I had nothing to worry about, but as I got older, I started to grow more bitter about the way that I grew up. I lived in a single parent household, I was constantly being bullied by my older brother, and I felt that no one understood me. As an adult, I’ve gotten over those feelings very easily, but as a teenager, especially in middle school, I just wanted to erase my childhood. I chose to depict both forms of my past self in graphite because they’re very solid parts in my life. The toddler in the photo lived her life very happily, and the teenager with the lighter in her hand felt very real and devastating emotions, which was a very difficult stage of my life to move past. The fire was drawn in colored pencil because it’s the only theoretical part of the drawing, even though fire is a very physical and damaging element.

When looking for inspiration, I found Robert Pruitt’s work very interesting. He was a very controlled aspect of shading and negative space. His use of color as well is very restrained and adds to his pieces rather than taking away from the whole image.

Symbolic Self (Josie)

The artist that I was inspired was through the assigned movie, Ghada Amer.  Her work was truly inspirational through her use of needlework as a feminist message to patriarchal society that women are reclaiming back their identity.  While I could extend to a lengthy paragraph on how her feminist approach through art has been transcending, what I found more inspirational was her use of threading and her technique to convey these messages.  As can be seen down below, her use of colorful or black threading can be visualized as rain as they drip down from the canvas.  This form of weight adds a new message to my mind as if the subjects are being oppressed down, but are still completely fine as they are all sewn up.  Sewing is a powerful tool as it is a representative of traditional customs that were assigned to women as a hobby, craft, or a mending project.  While Amer was using sewing as a way of reclaiming back her womanhood and using it for a higher meaning purpose, I wanted to use sewing to evoke "mending to completion" and "fixing" my identity.



In my own personal dialogue, I've always been a little hesitant when it comes to projects that ask to expose and express your true identity.  The reasoning behind my resistance is due to the fact that I greatly do not like to confide in people about my true feelings or showing that side of me.  In my head, I believe that revealing that side of vulnerability demonstrates weakness.  While I am a very boisterous and energetic individual who anyone can read like an open book, I seldom let people truly understand my own personal troubles.  Therefore I have created a very happy and neat facade behind the untidy and unruly side of me, and I find happiness through it!  Through my entire life, my cultural background has always forced me to be more beyond than perfect and to strive for a path of prosperity in all aspects of life.  However for the project, I wanted to let that arrogant and haughty side of me slip and create a piece that shows how "un-put together" I truly am.

The message that I want to convey is instability through the visual appearance of loose threads.  Through inspiration by Ghada Amer, I was anxious to use sewing materials to demonstrate how "un-put together" I am.  I wanted to use the sewing materials as a symbolism for "mending" as the medium is typically used to sew together pieces that were broken and make them brand new.  Thus, I wanted loose ends to drip out to visually demonstrate how I am still a work in progress in the need of being sewn up to completion.  This piece acts in deviance to my cultural/familial background that always explains to me that I must be "put-together", however in truth, I am still on the path of finding content in myself and figuring my identity.

While many may regard this piece to have a simple message and not be as revealing as one may have hoped, its a large milestone for me to affirm my messy and un-manageable side when I have kept up with trying to put my life together.