Hello beautiful postal people!
The July 4th holiday has come and gone, and what do I have to show for it? A pile of completed work! I’ve been busy over here at the RLD HQ; it seems like the months of July and August are hustling and bustling by. There’s always alot of talk at this time of year about things like vacation and taking it easy; somehow or other, I managed to be out of the room when that conversation was taking place.
So what’s been up? Well, I’ve been hard at work on a project entitled “So Many Products, So Little Time: The Junk Mail Show”, which is opening in San Francisco this week (scroll down to the bottom for show info). The theme of the show is — wait for it! — junk mail. How brilliant is that?! Curators Sarah Smith and Andy Vogt are definitely My Kind Of People.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: every teeny tiny scrap of paper at your house gets saved, especially if it has some sort of unusal texture or printed design. You just can’t bear to part with a single piece of ephemera: coffee filters (unused. you gotta draw the line somewhere), candy wrappers, birthday cards, cake mix boxes…it’s all just raw material to create mail art. I understand completely, because your plight is my plight. In this age of shredding all incoming credit card offers and auto insurance fliers, I spend alot of time separating the wheat (security envelopes with cool inside lining patterns) from the chaff (all that other crap that comes inside the envelope), and have acquired quite a collection. So when I was invited to join in on the junk mail fun, gathering together my tools of action was not really a problem.
Once I had created my envelope-covered 5×7 panels, it was time to begin gocco printing! Armed with photocopies of 1920’s and 30’s junk mail slogans (“Growing!”, “My Secret”, and “SENSATIONAL!” to name just a few) as well as a fistful of screens, I began to print. Flourescent ink over the top of those security tints is pretty exciting, dont’cha think?
Gotta let the gocco ink dry, but that’s o.k. I’ll make some fauxstage to attach to each panel. I think it should tie in with the theme of the show…
Laid out on the table, the riot of color and texture on all 16 panels is a sight to behold. Looking at the panels as a group made me realize how much junk mail comes from specific types of companies, primarily credit card and insurance dealers of some kind. It was also liberating to realize I’ll never have a shortage of junk mail/security envelopes, and that, by extension, I’ll never have a lack in the “materials” department (as far as a project like this is concerned). I have a feeling that this group of 16 is the first of many such prints/panels…
If you’re in the bay area and interested in coming to see the show, here’s the info. Each of the panels that you see in the above photos is for sale; additional mail art will be created specifically for each purchaser on the back of sold panels. Once the show comes down, panels will be mailed to purchasers, thereby creating mail art out of junk mail! If you are unable to make it to the show or opening but want to see more, let me know — I’m sure we can work out a solution!
And it might interest you to know: the SF Weekly had a bundle of nice things to say in today’s (July 7th) edition of the paper. All that being said (written?), I hope to see all of YOU, my postal loving, junk mail hoarding friends, on Friday night!
In all things postal, I remain —
–JH
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Amazing as always. 🙂
Ooooh, you have been busy! Love them!
Miss MoMo — yay! I’m glad you have a minute to take a look! It’s been a fun project to work on, and the curators are both FANTASTIC to work with. I wish all shows could come together this easily…
–JH
Miss Wrangler: yay! Thank you so much! I couldn’t believe how quickly this project went together; I guess when you have as much stuff stored away as we do…well, you know. If you have a chance while you’re in town, you should definitely stop by the show: there’s some great stuff!
–JH
How long does it run?
I am loving the photos of the project, can’t wait to see it “live”. Good to see a blog update from you!
Well, things have been a wee bit busy… 😉
–JH
These are so freakin’ AWESOME! Man, I wish you weren’t on the wrong coast. 😉
I love the little “Your junk mail is my treasure” patch. (is it a patch?)
La Eggs — the “junk/treasure” thing-y is actually an artistamp that I designed and made. I have a few extra, so perhaps there will be one on a future piece of mail, heading in your general direction… 😉
–JH
Umm, I WOULD FREAK. In a good way, of course. 🙂
プリントゴッコ!いいね!
I was looking for it at Perl in San Francisco last year, but since the Japanese company don’t produce it anymore they don’t sell it. Now they sell T-shirts printer only. (I guess I can use that T-shirts printer for printing the paper, maybe?)
http://www.riso.co.jp/pg/index.html
They only have a customer support desk and sell only a parts and inks for ones who have it already.
On your note, I found your book in Amazon Japan, so I am thinking to buy it one day.
ともえーー
ゴッコは大好きですね。とてもかわいくて便利ですよ。去年,東京の美術の店で見つけました。店の名前は“せかいどう”です。”ゆざわや”の店を見ました。Again, this was last year when I saw both of these items in stock at the stores, so maybe they are no longer available in the stores. 悲しいと思ういます。。。
Let me know if you will be coming to the book fair; I can bring a copy of “Good Mail Day” over for you. That way you can save on shipping!
🙂
–JH
Hi, I don’t know if I can go, but I already got the copy of the Good Mail Day from Amazon Japan. (not Amazon US, so there is not much shipping.) I love it! I hope I can do more mail art…
ともえーー Wow! That was fast — I’m glad that the book came so quickly. Hopefully, it will provide plenty of inspiration for your mail art adventures. And remember: mail art is just like anything else — the more you send out, the more you’ll receive in return! がんばってね!
🙂
–JH
Well done! Your work is lovely!
For Marti —
Thanks very much! It’s been great fun to work on this project…
–JH
WOW ! Your work looks great!! I know you must have had a blast designing and working on each panel. Any chance one could be available for purchase for a mail artist wannabe on the east coast??? And the “your junk, my treasure” stamp is sooo cute…any of those for sale as well??? I’m one of your and Carolee’s fans since purchasing GOOD MAIL DAY four months ago :>
Miss Linda —
The little panels were a bundle of fun to work on; they went together pretty easily, which let me know I was on the “right track”, so to speak! There are a few more available; if interested, I can go down to the gallery, take some pics of the not-yet-sold pieces, and send them to you. Then you could contact the gallery directly for purchase — they’re very nice, wonderful, and accommodating folks…
–JH
PS: and yes, I could probably through in a couple of the “Junk/Treasure” fauxstage stamps… 😉
PPS: my email is located on the “About” page; you can get ahold of me directly that way…
This looks awesome! I wish I could go to the show and see everything in person. Hopefully you will blog about it with photos!
Jackie
http://www.lettersandjournals.com
Miss J. —
The opening was pretty fun, as constantly hoppin’! There are a few photos lurking around online; I’ll try and gather them together and write up a little something…
–JH