Take-Aways!

Delving into the pile of items I have long ignored, here are my new professionally designed take-aways for the Art Department and Autobiography in Water series. Thanks to Claire Thomas for transforming my boring text backgrounds into something more visually pleasing.

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.

Promo Postcards!

At long last, I listened to my friends, my colleagues, my former professors, professional portfolio reviewers, authors, etc. A year and a half after promising myself that I would design blank promotional postcards to send as thank you notes, they arrived in the mail today. Two look great and one is more saturated that I would like but they are done!

Now to find some people to thank .... (don't worry, that shouldn't be a problem).

"The Postman's Choice" on the Postcard Collective Blog

In an effort to keep the Postcard Collective Blog updated before our panel discussion at the Society for Photographic Education next month, I posted the story of this card here.

Promo Cards Ordered

I am raising the bar at the Society for Photographic Education this year. I am not printing my own promotional cards but ordered two sided ones (A Tale of Two Obsessions is the obvious choice for this format). Here's to hoping they arrive on time and look close to the colors below.

Next up: apply for exhibitions to show this series together at long last.

Postcard Collective - Fall 2013 Submission

In October, I wrote about inventorying books and the forgotten discovery that would turn into the next Postcard Collective entry. Here it is. I regret the spelling error I didn't find on the back of the card until all 50 pieces were printed and adhered. Here's to discovering a green colored pencil in the Photo Crypt that matched the color of the text.

I purchased Gregory Crewdson's Twilight at Half Price Books in Houston in 2002. I left Texas for Oregon then Washington and Indiana. I opened the monograph for the first time in years last month and discovered a Polaroid of the photographer that my ex placed inside the front cover. I carried around the visage of a man so changed in a book nearly forgotten for over a decade without realizing it. I printed 50 postcards with the hope that one makes it inside a Crewdson publication to be overlooked and remembered again and again.

Response to "There are Precedents"

Sixteen months ago, I received this in the mail from James Luckett. I pinned it to the studio wall, vowing to answer it, knowing full well I could never do it with as much justice as the original.

Front of There are Precedents by James Luckett

Back of There are Precedents by James Luckett

My response is nowhere near as compelling as James's but it is done. I wrote the text at Ucross and printed it this week. I am looking forward to seeing what Jennifer Hall does with it next.

In the meantime, I have since received the artwork, postcards, book, and typewriter ribbon above from James. Too many things to like. Too many things to do.

On another note, we are participating in a panel discussion at the next Society for Photographic Education conference in Baltimore in March on the Postcard Collective. We will be spreading the love of Mail Art. Hope to see you there.

Tacita Dean, Robert Smithson & Postcards

Tacita Dean, Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah, 1997/1999


Sheila tweeted this link to a Tate interview of Tacita Dean discussing JG Ballard, Robert Smithson and Spiral Jetty last week. Dean discusses how different times are from 1997 when she first searched for Smithson's earthwork in the Great Salt Lake. In addition, she elaborates on her interest in the connection between the author and the artist and their relationship with Spiral Jetty. Also of note is her discussion of overpainted postcards.


  

Tacita Dean, c/o Jolyan, 2012-2013
100 found postcards of pre-war Kassel, hand-painted with gouache

Thodoris Tzalavras' "Fall"

Last fall, this postcard helped me get through the dreary months of winter. Read my interview with Thodoris on the Postcard Collective blog. 

Ben Huntley and the Nine Fake Cakes Promo Postcard

Meta!

Postcards as Promotion

Once upon a time on a visit to Springfield, Ohio to visit James and Tanya last year, I fell in love with the idea of using postcards as promotion. Here are nine of his that he gave me:




I made a promo card for the self-published book Nine Fake Cakes and Nine Bodies of Water last month (arrival = today) and I'm very happy with it. I have James to thank for this!

I wanted to maintain the element of "postcard" since that was an very important facet in the creation of the project (hence the lower opacity image on the back).

Next up, I'm researching places that will make half a dozen images made from a variety of series cheaply so I will have postcards of my own work available to send to people.

Postcards

I've been on a postcard buying kick this year (mainly because I've been to museums that sell good ones!). Here are a few I wanted to document before I send them off into the mail. Perhaps you will be receiving one of these someday soon.

Maurizio Cattelan, Daddy Daddy, 2008 installed at the Guggenheim (Purchased here).

William Eggleston, Las Vegas, c. 1965-68 (from one of the best postcard sources and location of the following three images)

Consumer Reports Tests Shampoos, 1955

Neil Winokur, Glass of Water, 1990

Tom Wesselmann, Still Life #30, 1963 (bought here)

Postcard Collective Submission Spring 2012

Here is this season's submission. Hopefully the Post Office accepts it! I received a one page magazine in the mail encased in a plastic bag with the above "We Care" message within a couple weeks of Camden Hardy posting this.  I have been very curious about producing something that may or may not make it through the mail especially if it initially looks like only a piece of the original arrived.

Below are some postcards that arrived early in my mailbox.

Jeremy Moore

Cat Lynch

Taking care of business

Hotel reserved, airplane tickets purchased, and conference registration paid for SPE in San Francisco in March! Looking forward to the magenta colored Best Western experience at the Embarcadero (obviously).

The Postcard Collective Prompt That I've Been Considering for Two Months

On 10 November 2011, Chris Toalson sent the above postcard for the Fall 2011 Postcard Collective submission. My first response was "Crap! When am I going to find time to do this?" That was followed by several thoughts on how good it would be for me to do it which resulted in how depressing it would be to think about Muncie, Indiana as an art project. I knew I had to complete the prompts though for reasons that I can only describe as personal obligation plus it was a fun tangent to whatever "serious" thing I was working on that week.

I set certain rules for myself before starting: 1) I could only take brand new photographs not recycle ones I already had as enticing as the latter sounded due to finishing it quickly. 2) I must follow his prompts verbatim without radically reinterpreting them (though I would fail on one account). 3) I would do it to the best of my capabilities even if it took two months, hopefully without over thinking every aspect of the process (yeah right - failed partially there too). 4) No iPhone camera photographs or use of Instagram - only high quality resolution depictions.

Some of them would be very easy tasks yet others were surprisingly difficult. The images follow with commentary below.



1. Take one self-portrait at home. I knew this image had to be composed in my newly arranged living room (though the new bookshelves are hardly noticeable on the far left). It is also the only room in the house that resembles "me" without the popcorn ceilings and 1970s duplex architecture taking over. It's impossible to take a photograph in this house without a cat appearing. The trace of Oatmeal's tail is on the far left blue square only to be hopped on by Button Omelet on the couch all within the span of the 20 second exposure.


2. Create one photograph from around Muncie, Indiana. This address on North Aspen Lane is where my first cousin lives who I have never met and probably never will. I've often wondered where he and his family reside. He has no interest in meeting me because he doesn't care to explain to his wife's family and their mutual friends how we are related (1930s illegitimacy is still a problem with some deeply conservative and religious Midwestern viewpoints). This was a very difficult photograph to take because it meant hunting down someone who refuses to acknowledge my existence. It also moderately reflects my interest in the Artist Stalking series and some curiosity was satiated in finding this location.


3. Record an item of personal significance that is reminiscent of another time or place. Like I said to Drew and Amelia last week: "You mean like nearly every single photograph I've ever taken for artistic purposes in my life ever?" My 39 year old teddy bear photographed especially for this project.


4. Take a portrait of someone close to you. This was clearly the most difficult prompt of them all. Questions that were running through my head: What does close mean? Is it okay to photograph someone I approach on the track at the gym from behind as I gradually overtake them or is that too creepy (i.e. getting closer)? Can I photograph someone standing too close to me at a line in a department store three days before Christmas and will that suffice? How does one photograph "close" when one is so far from those they love? If I chose to photograph one person for this series, what will all the others think who I could have photographed and am just as close to? UG!!!

When I first moved to Muncie, my friend Kelli photographed me as part of a series she was working on with people who live alone. I wanted to sit by myself eating at the kitchen table because that was (and remains) the time I feel most distant from those that I am close to. I reinterpreted this prompt in this manner because I had to. I'm hoping the absence of the person represented only by the overturned photograph is indication enough of "portraiture."


5. Photograph Muncie, Indiana's historical significance. I was convinced that my portrait of a Muncie native would result in her answering the obvious - the Ball Family, the Ball Jar, etc. for the next two requests. Rather than photographing the same topic, I chose the Middletown Studies (perhaps the second most important thing Muncie is famous for). I obtained access to the archives at the Ball State University Library and photographed what is officially known as the "Middletown Documentary Films Outtakes." I felt very fortunate to get access and was also thrilled to see two areas of the library that are off limits to the general public. The whole process of taking this photograph forces me to get in gear and start Part 3 of the Library of Loss series (once I finish half a dozen other things).


6. Take a portrait of someone who grew up in Muncie, Indiana. This was the very first photograph in the series (rather shocking since I'm not one to take portraits). Braydee Euliss was also the first person I thought to ask and fortunately she was born in the Ball Memorial Hospital right down the street from me. It was photographed on 4th December on a dreary day in her studio at home.


7. Ask them what Muncie, Indiana is famous for, then make one photograph of their suggestion. I took lots of notes in my conversation with Braydee. The first thing she mentioned was the reality TV show "Armed and Famous" starring LaToya Jackson and Erik Estrada. It was filmed seven months before I moved to Muncie and clearly left Braydee unimpressed. Mock responses to underage drinking at parties were filmed for more footage. She was "disappointed as an intellectual person who grew up in Muncie who wanted more for her community than it seemed to want for itself."

I, too, wanted more for Braydee than to photograph this so my first attempt was her second choice which unfortunately ended in failure. Braydee's mom worked for the Ball Corporation where Muncie was the headquarters. The buillding where the Muncie Star Press is located downtown was their former head of operation. Braydee told me they used to have a room inside the building devoted to the Ball Corporation as a small museum. That was my first choice to photograph. When I ventured into the building, I quickly learned that it had moved to the Minnetrista Cultural Center. Since I was following Chris's list verbatim and Braydee and I hadn't discussed this change in location and presentation, I reverted back to "Armed and Dangerous."

The above image was taken on Monroe Street where prostitutes wearing sweat pants often congregate on bicycles with child seats. It is where LaToya Jackson dressed up as a hooker (not with Muncie in mind - only Hollywood) to simulate a prostitution sting for a reality TV show.


8. Travel for 10 minutes in the direction of Carmel, Indiana. Stop and make one photograph how this momentary journey made you feel. I took this photograph en route to completing #2. "The end of the road" is the most apt description.


9. Take one photograph looking toward Carmel, Indiana's geographic location. This local scenery generated from this project was really getting depressing so I resolved to complete this task elsewhere. This was photographed at the top of the Hyatt in Bellevue, Washington looking toward Carmel, Indiana.


10. Show me something that I've never seen before. (!!!!) It wasn't until Amelia showed me her Christmas present that I knew this could possibly be the item Chris hadn't ever seen before. If I had never beheld an old school Gangsta Rap Coloring Book, maybe he hadn't as well? Thank you to Amelia for allowing me to photograph it and borrow her camera in my attempt not to use a cellphone photograph for documenting any of these images.

Please respond by sending these 10 photographs to me along with a prompt of 10 images which I will create and send your way. And now the moment I have been waiting for...

• Photograph the place furthest from home.

• How would you visually interpret the title of Wim Wenders' book Places, Strange and Quiet?

• Photograph Carmel, California with Carmel, Indiana in mind.

• Make one artwork inspired by On Kawara's "I Got Up At..." postcards (see below).



• My brother wants "an island" for his 36th birthday. What should I take a picture of that conveys this?

• Geotag something on the Southside of Indianapolis and document what you find.

• Describe monotony and repetition in the landscape in an aesthetically pleasing way.

• In 100 words or less, tell me about the image you most recently missed the opportunity to capture with your camera.

• Attempt to recreate that photograph.

• I've always been interested in this Umberto Eco quote: "Two clichés make us laugh but a hundred clichés move us, because we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, celebrating a reunion." In response to your prompt of showing something you've never seen before, photograph something I've seen hundreds of times before in a brand new way.

I can't thank Chris enough for instigating this project in addition to coming up with an usual theme for "newness" while forcing me to consider my surroundings for the first time in a long while.

Cheryl Shurtleff: A Collection of Cat Hair and Real Fur Postcards

Cheryl Shurtleff: "I have collected cat hair for years. The hair comes from my own pets and from cats owned by my friends. The texture of cat hair varies from one animal to another, but overall the hair's fineness and softness is attractive to me as an art medium. I use specific brushes to collect the hair so that it can be hand shaped into interesting forms that when combined with other found elements, produce anthropomorphic structures such as the ones seen here. As an advocate for the humane treatment of animals, I have proposed a project which will involve brushing (and petting) cats at a local animal shelter. The result of this project will be an archive of cat hair structures lovingly harvested from incarcerated cats, together with additional documentation explaining the eventual fate of each animal."



Cat Hair Doll, 2011 from the series Cat Hair


Twist


Cat Hair Pendant, 2011



Also on Cheryl's blog, check out this link to "real fur postcards" from her collection. It includes the above image of "Bear Going to Church."