It was shipped just this way. The crackers are mounted to a piece of cardboard and inserted into a plastic Ziploc bag. The stamps are pasted to the cardboard but are cancelled by the postal service on the outside of the plastic bag.

I can’t believe I received it intact. The amount of atrophy and damage that you see here is from my handling it after receiving.

I emailed her this week to report on the state of the crackers upon receipt. From her rely, it seems that this was an edition of cracker cards, the card shipping to the furthest destination is going to Germany. How will that one will fair? I wonder what all the postal employees along the way will think when they see it. Will anyone be compelled to eat it?

It seems my New Years, both Gregorian and Lunar, are starting off at a snail’s pace. You would think the mail would be slow, but rather, *I’m* the slow one in this relationship. So I’m still in the weeds. I just can’t seem to get it together.

The postcard collage above is from Stewart Charlebois of Langley, British Columbia, Canada. So great! I love the mix going on of colors and textures.

Jennie Hinchcliff, author of the Red Letter Day WordPress blog, mailed out an edition of cards in celebration/honor/fear of Friday the 13th… I enjoyed reading her post, which was a suggestion towards preparation and planning. (These are two things I think I have clearly demonstrated are not my strong points…)

The following print was received in an envelope of documentation from I’m a Superhero of Iowa City, Iowa:

This digital print was also received in an envelope of documentation from the Iowa Superdude but is attributed to Jessica Teng:

A while ago, I participated in a mail art call that was about the collecting of souls. I received documentation of my submission from “E”, Ambassade d’Utopia of Guivry, France:

(It’s embossed and everything! So official!)

“E” also included a nice print:

*and* the envelope it came in was fabulous! What a great mail day that was!

Guido Vermeulen, the Dispatcher of Signs and Stones from Brussels, Belgium, sent “Howdy!”:

and inside “Howdy!” was this black and white collage of vintage advertisements:

Fleur Helsingor of Oakland, California, sent me this really smart postcard, “Random Words #6″ (1/2), using, well, random words:

I really love seeing random processes used in art and writing. The serendipitous intersection of the right elements can really open up the meaning of work on many more levels than was originally intended or anticipated. I love the surprise I’ve had of seeing seemingly incongruous ideas or elements juxtaposed together and seeing how they really can gel in a surprisingly natural way. The potential exists in these works to expose something that maybe would never have been brought your attention otherwise. Context can change meaning.

I do realize that if you’re not an artist or an abstract thinker, what I wrote sounds like complete horse shit. Meh. I don’t have to prove nuthin’ to no one.

Since when did I turn into a crotchety old lady?

Received from Alejandro Thornton of la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Cool stamps and chop! His URL: http://www.athornton.com.ar/

Here’s another super-fun postcard (“Star and Sushi Machine”) from Mark Hardy, of Chicago, Illinois:

Mark D. Hardy has a tumblr, and is also an author of the Irrelevant Podcast.

Because of the pills glued to the front of this postcard, he sent it enclosed in a manilla envelope. Then he added some really funny little details to that envelope:

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Mail received from Chevalier Daniel C. Boyer of Houghton, Michigan:

Received from Simon Warren of Tring, United Kingdom… I feel really emotionally invested in this person’s cards now. I think I need prescription meds just to be a voyeur of the roller coaster that must go on in his head:

Niklas Heed of Gothenburg, Sweden, previously sent in a submission that I responded to. He sent back this response, which tickled the shit out of me when I pulled it from my mailbox:

Enclosed was a photo of one of his sculptural works, titled Abstract Lion:

Received from Dorian Ribas Marinho of Florianópolis, Brazil:

Received from Ryosuke Cohen of Moriguchi City, Osaka, Japan:

Received from nadiaak.tumblr.com:

Received from Karen Wood of Big Bear Lake, California:

Received from Tofu in San Francisco, California. One year, 4” by 4” pieces of art made daily… check out 2011project.com:

Received from Joanna Arcieri of Los Angeles, California:

Technically this doesn’t really count as mail art, but she clearly has something to express, so I’m including it in the blog posts. Check out her tumblr blog, Deltiology.

I *think* this catches me up with documentation…

My holiday consisted of family festivities, some serious drinking, and even some serious family drinking. That’s over a month of brutality, from American Thanksgiving to the New Year. And it all ended this past weekend with three whole days celebrating David Bowie’s 65th birthday. That’s three nights of over a dozen local bands per night and a variety of genres, all covering various Bowie songs through the course of his career. Of course, more drinking was involved because, hell, it’s a birthday and I love Bowie.

There were rock covers, country covers, bluegrass covers, indie covers, ukulele covers, funk and r&b covers, and even some fairly experimental covers. I’m probably forgetting something in that list; this weekend is kind of a smear. And although “Starman” was probably *the* most overplayed tune, some less obvious stuff got played which made me a very happy girl. It was interesting to see what songs were picked by what bands, according to their general sound and collection of instruments or noise-making devices.

I was still wiped out, exhausted and peering through half-closed blood-shot eyes when I went to studio last night. So worth it! A local Tampa-area band reunited to do the entire Ziggy Stardust album – and they didn’t suck!

Pose times are the same as always: 2, 5, 10, and 20 minute poses.
Materials are the same: a 14″x17″ spiral-bound Strathmore sketchbook, vine and compressed charcoal and charcoal pencils.

Diane Keys of Elgin, Illinois sent me cracker mail! Best holiday greeting I’ve received all season:

Brian was with me when I went to the post office. I was driving, so I handed him my mail to hold in the car. He got really excited about cracker mail and said, “There’s something in it, I wonder if it’s a cracker!” I said, well, probably not. I didn’t think much more about it…

Until I get home and I started to open my mail. I noticed that one was already open. I think my husband opened it in the car, seriously thinking it might contain crackers. I wonder if he was disappointed. He never mentioned anything about it. I haven’t asked.

He’s so funny sometimes. He must not have been able to contain his curiosity. Maybe he was hungry?

The contents of the cracker mail envelope was a book:

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Did I say best holiday greeting? I take it back. Guido Vermeulen of Brussels, Belgium sent me some pretty damn good holiday mail:

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I am so in love with this photo. It is so sweet and so very funny. It completely reminds me of my mom; I remember seeing a similar situation go on at my house when I lived with her… except my mom was Korean and the cat was an orange tabby. The crazy exercise doo-dad is the same.

Sarah Carter of Sarasota, Florida sent me a hand-made postcard before she left to visit her family in Indiana:

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And lastly, and probably very belatedly on my part, I received a nice postcard from Pamela Gerard of San Francisco, California:

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I also received a hand-made card from Hester Wright of Boston, but it was damaged in the mail. It was probably a lovely Christmas scene of trees and snow, all cut out of wallpaper…

I need to get crackin’ on some reply mail now.

The first week that I didn’t draw, I started working on my first engraving on plexiglas. I carved a cursory image into a plexi scrap and then proofed it by hand, just to see how the material behaves since I haven’t used it for relief printing before. Then I started a second plate, a better plate, with a more interesting drawing and better attention given to carving.

I pulled eight 4 inch by 6 inch proofs on newsprint. They’re now dry enough to handle. Here’s one that I’m sending in the mail to Michalis in Greece:

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You can see the detail pretty well on it. It was one of the last printed.

Now, here is an altered proof that I’m sending to Daniel in Michigan. This was one of the first few that were printed, and you can see that the ink coverage is uneven with most details lost. The plate hadn’t been run out enough yet:

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I think I have a decent grasp on what tweaks I need to make to this plate before I run another set of proofs. Always with an eye toward recycling, I’m going to elaborate on them by hand and send them in the mail, pretty much the same as I did with the prints on the old books I’ve done the last few months. I hate throwing stuff in the garbage that has potential.

This plexi was printed by hand using oil-based relief inks.

I think acquiring a proper engraving stylus is in my future. In the meantime I’m using a Dremel to carve out these images; that’s been going pretty well so far, but it sure kicks up some dust. Any printing I do at home is relief and by hand, the old-fashioned way. I did recently have some access to a letterpress (which is also a relief printer), I’m just waiting for my prints to dry so I can pick them up. Running plates on the letterpress meant using lithographic printing ink, which is much denser and slow-drying than the oil-based inks I use at home. I’m waiting patiently to see if I managed to print a few consistently enough to number an edition.

This image is a portrait of one of my cats, Jada. She’s an evil cat. You’d think she was raised by wolverines. She was probably a feral kitten when we got her a few years ago. Her childhood years in this house were… rough. But now it’s all good. She sits at my feet while I make work, or alternately sits on my drawing desk so I *can’t* make work. Now there’s a daily morning routine of silent kitten cries and finger-chewing for attention. I know, it sounds kinda disgusting, but it means she thinks I’m mother, so I can appreciate it for what it is. She’s really come a long way from the biting, scratching, spitefully behaving, rabbit-kicking little demon spawn she once was.

I’ve drawn Rolando before. I thought it was a year ago, but after thinking on it a bit, I realized it was two years ago. I’m surprised he remembered me, it’s been so long. (You can see the older drawings of Rolando here and here.)

I’ve whined about needing to practice drawings hands, so I took out ten minutes to do it last night. I drew them using a direct drawing method, which is when you start at one tip of the image and work across to the other side without going back; it’s an easy way to make mistakes and get things wrong since you’re not plotting out the entire drawing in advance. The fingers look mangled to me, but considering the method, I don’t think it’s bad start to a long future practice.

Anyway, same drill: same sketchbook, same pose times (2, 5 10, and 20 minutes), and the same materials (compressed charcoal, charcoal pencil) plus vine charcoal this time around.

There’s one difference between this and every other time I’ve drawn. There’s a book I’ve coveted that I just bought and read, Henry Yan’s Figure Drawing Tips and Techniques. (If you haven’t seen his drawings, you must! They are quite amazing. His website is here.) I requested it for my library, and in the short time it has been cataloged, they’ve acquired a second copy because this book is *always* checked out. Some people hoard their library materials. I refuse to, so I just bought my own.

I know I potentially sound like I’m trying to sell you the book. I’m not. Consider it more like a book review.

The book is divided into two halves, for poses less than 30 minutes and poses longer than 30 minutes. The book is a step-by-step explanation of his drawing techniques for different types of life drawings, from gestures to fully realized portraits. I’ve seen other step-by-step types of books before, and none compare to this one, with their so-so meh illustrations. With his method, he is able to capture a lot of visual information in a very short time, which is a skill I’ve tried to develop in my figure drawing. One of the things he does differently from me is that in his short poses, he uses vine charcoal to mass out the shadows before then going back in with a harder charcoal to articulate more detail in the figures. I’m so concerned with getting the proportions and foreshortening correct with line that shadow becomes a detail I work on after the figure is in place. So, I opted to try to start using his method this time. It will take me some time to get used to working this way.

I love this book. Although maybe not for an absolute beginner, I think it would be great for a student or artist who already has some life drawing experience. Anyway, who cares if it’s not helpful, his drawings are gorgeous!

The second thing that happened that week was my checking out a new book from the library: Mail Me Art: Going Postal with the World’s Best Illustrators and Designers. This book contains 2D and 3D mail art. The book’s photography is very good and the work is diverse and interesting, for the most part. I became pretty interested in the empty boxes that made it into the book. So I decided to send someone an empty.

It’s my first empty. I enjoyed making it but I think as I continue to explore the box, I will hopefully progress into making something more compelling.

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The empty box disclaimer:

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The flat box before final folding:

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I certainly have motivation to explore the box. I received more mail this week; responding demands attention.

Diane Keys, the Trashpo Master of Elgin, Illinois, sent me a new postcard:

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Jennie Hinchcliff, the author of Red Letter Day, sent me this postcard in recognition of an Add and Pass that I had sent a few weeks ago:

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For the USPS project, I received a double-whammy of two over-sized postcards from Simon Warren of Tring, United Kingdom:

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Lastly, and this is *so* precious, I received a postcard from Niklas Heed of Gothenburg, Sweden. The back of card reads: “Good luck from a fellow Swedish ex-postman. ‘Stand down or deliver.’”

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As always, click any image for a larger view, if you care to see. I’m such a lazy shit, I can’t be bothered to caption that everywhere.

I’ve had this guy as a model before. He looks like David. For some reason, I thought he was annoyed all evening; his brow furrowed a lot. I asked but he said he was fine.

Before the last drawing, I decided to do a portrait instead of a full figure, because when I draw figures, I tend to ignore parts of the body that draw me in for a lot of detail, like faces. For such short poses, I’d never get anything done if I focused on details. But looking at the drawings later, doesn’t it seem a little creepy that they don’t have faces? I think I’ve made that observation before. Anyway, I’m pretty pleased with the portrait; it’s actually a pretty good likeness of the model. I had to make myself stop early or else I would have overworked it. That’s hard to do sometimes; you either don’t know when to stop or don’t have to power to walk away.