"Unfinished Business" - Postcard Collective Summer 2016

Keys to previous places called "home" are on my mind. I searched the archives and found an image for a set that stares me down from a plastic bag day after day.

This is leading somewhere ... I promise.

Soaked in the Great Salt Lake Redux

Last year nearly to the day, Kyla Tighe photographed me dipping paper in the Great Salt Lake for the Postcard Collective. [image above courtesy of Kyla].

I sent one to Mail Artist Ernst Richter from Berlin and something started happening (and continues to this day). My postcard has traveled all over the world and the documentation appeared in my mailbox for the first 44 days and in my inbox everyday thereafter. Ernst also paid very close attention to my influences and references to them are also present. Below are some of the highlights followed by one more action in the name of art that occurred at Spiral Jetty on 1st May.

"A Fake Cake and a Fake Cake" [Ernst Richter]

"Two Berliners and Newspaper" [Ernst Richter]

"With Sleeping Cat Henry, Berlin-Ruhleban" [Ernst Richter]

"With wrapped bathing trunks. Forumbad Olympiastadion, Berlin-Charlottenburg" [Ernst Richter]

"With the hands of 3 Berlin-born brothers. Berlin-Spandau" [Ernst Richter]

"Inside Richard Serra, Berlin Junction. Philharmonie, Berlin-Tiergarten" [Ernst Richter]

"Salt-Spiral, Water and Card. Berlin-Ruhleben" [Ernst Richter]

"Yellow Friday in Berlin" (After Sophie Calle's Chromatic Diet) [Ernst Richter]

"Riezler Alpsee, Austria" [Ernst Richter]

"A well in Hittisau, Austria" [Ernst Richter]

"Berlin Wall" [Ernst Richter]

"In the river bed of  the Bregenzerache, Austria" [Ernst Richter]

"Waldfriedhof Heerstrasse, Berlin-Charlottenburg" [Ernst Richter]

"Fence post 82. Murellenteich, Berlin" [Ernst Richter]

"Fence post 53. Murellenteich, Berlin" [Ernst Richter]

"Fence post 9. Murellenteich, Berlin" [Ernst Richter]

The Berlin Born Brothers' father then took the postcard to Thailand (and later it visited Spain). The above three photographs are from the first trip.

I then took Ernst and the Berlin Born Brothers back to Spiral Jetty...

... this year's place where circles are closed. Thanks, Ernst and the Berlin Born Brothers (and their father), for keeping my love of Mail Art alive.

If A Then B: Postcard Collective Spring 2016

Because Stalking Artists: In Pursuit of Home never dies...

With a behind the scenes photograph by Amelia Morris (and special thanks for watching my back during this ridiculous affair).

Postcard Collective Interview with Maria Daniela Quirós

At last (many months later!), my interview with Maria is on the Postcard Collective Blog. She is involved in the next exchange and I am looking forward to seeing what mail she will send next (me too for that matter).

I Have a Stamp

At last! With the help of Claire Thomas, I have a couple stamps (ode to Weegee). I am excited to use the vertical one as Claire designed it specifically for me to use for the Postcard Collective. Maybe I should sign up for the next round of submissions....

Iceland Day 13: Reykjavik

The last day walking the streets of Reykjavik included a trip to the Museum of Photography and Hafnarhús. It was very difficult to reconcile the city experience versus the Ring Road and I failed miserably in my desire to see contemporary art. Next time, I would start with Reykjavik, returning to the US fresh from the road. I valued the landscape over the city and wanted to appreciate Europe's northernmost capital more than I did.

The water, however, continued to taste delicious and I filled a plastic bottle from this restaurant, packed it in my bag and drank it two months later on the first day of school.

The light continued to creep through the blinds while we slept. Two weeks in Iceland and the thought of the night sky turning black was suddenly a strange phenomenon. I had grown used to this and could not imagine what the world would look like dark.

There are circumstances in my life where I refuse to conform and visiting the most popular tourist destination in the country proved to be one. I had no interest in spending my time in a pool filled with a geothermal plant's waste water (especially after visiting Mývatn) even though I was in Iceland to collect documentation for a project with the central theme of water. I bought a postcard and photographed it in the hotel room while packing. This is the closest I got to the Blue Lagoon and I left the country on good terms with that decision.

 [Photograph by Hannah Barnes upon the arrival of the postcard in her mailbox.]

In the months since my return, I have delved into the subject of the Drowning Pool (producing a submission for the Postcard Collective as a "thinking piece" as seen above and below).

I have visited numerous hardware stores where I spend time "reading paint samples", collecting the names that coincide with Scandinavia and will soon produce my own. I have nearly finalized the meltwater diptych featuring a comparison study between Lake Louise and the glacial lagoons.

Iceland will remain a vivid memory for quite some time and the moment it starts to fade will be marked with the return trip purchase of an airline ticket. I will not be so quick to let it go.

Postcard Collective Spring 2015: "A Great Distance"

[Excuse the fact that my laptop was a problematic beast and prevented blogging in a timely manner during most of the Earthworks Road Trip Volume 2. I will make up for it in the coming weeks.]

I knew that I wanted to create a postcard focusing on one of my multiple trips to Spiral Jetty this month, long before the 5th anniversary theme "A Great Distance" was announced. Fortunately, the concept of soaking paper in the Great Salt Lake was a relevant topic. I also knew that I was unable to adhere to the deadline, something that I try hard to follow (and have only failed at once). They were sent 24 days late (sorry everyone).

The night before leaving for Amarillo, I spent 2.5 hours on the old fashioned typewriter, trying not to make too many mistakes but eventually tossing five. I had every intention to send them in the plastic envelope seen below, but the object after the soaking was too fragile and I opted for encasing them in another envelope. Yes, I, too, am skeptical that this is the equivalent of a postcard.

Spiral Jetty can be seen in this photograph along the shore on the left. This was the clearest water not counting the murky puddles in the background.

The "postcard" is the evidence of a performative action that occurred on 19th May 2015. Salt and sand encrust some of the pages as they took two days to dry on a motel radiator and the floor of a car.

It may also be one of my first contributions that did not feature a photograph.

All images were taken by Kyla Tighe on my iPhone 6. I couldn't be happier with her results despite the overcast day.

Winter 2015 Postcard Collective Submission

Photograph by Hannah Barnes (once received in the mail)

Three firsts: attempted shorthand (the scrawl says "I am at a loss"), did not print the back (purchased index cards with grids and glued them = no Avery labels!), and I wrote everything 44 times (over and over again).

The term "mulligan" has many definitions but had I not created this card, I may have produced something that fit with "a man who has a mullet and wears a large cardigan" (thanks Laurie and the Urban Dictionary).

Postcard Collective Fall 2014

The last three Postcard Collective entries have featured photographs taken on my phone (What does that mean? Hope I am not getting lazy.). This one is also unusual since I used an envelope which goes against most things I believe in when thinking about postcards. There were too many components and I ran into the problem of not being able to say everything using only two sides.

Hopefully Ernst thinks this is an adequate reinterpretation of his postcard.

R.I.P. On Kawara

I learn that everyone dies on Twitter. Yesterday I retweeted MOCA's "I Got Up At..." and created an homage of my own (I haven't woken up at 6:15 AM since I drove West and was operating on a different time zone = a very rare occurrence that I am up before the sunrise).

The next Postcard Collective round is fast approaching. The theme is "you are here" and it may be time for another tribute.