After 10 Years of Collecting Postcards

In 2011 I often used postcards in the individual pieces I made each day.  And then I started collecting more and more vintage postcards for future projects including the work shown in my 2012 installation Imagining Val Travel.  

Ten years later I find myself in an effort to use up what I have saved for decades — including the postcards.  Much of the material has ended up in artist books.  The latest one, Collage Dreams, incudes 20 handmade collages.   Each is 10.5” wide x 11” high and made entirely from the contents of postcard booklets dating from 1910 to 1950.

A book is now available that includes all the collages.   Some of the images are also available as prints.  

2011 Project — 10th Anniversary

Ten years have already passed since the 2011 Project.  Whenever I look back at those 365 pieces, I always notice the seeds of what would be future work that I have been working on since then.

Before San Francisco went into pandemic lockdown, my last museum visited was to the Asian Art Museum.   A few months later I was inspired by a video they posted.  I started painting books for my Chaekgeori-inspired series.  This latest one (see below), completed as the new year began, even has a 4x4 inch piece I did for the 2011 Project.   It is tucked right behind the remote control.  That piece was inspired by a visit to the Asian Art Museum back in 2011.

Tennessee Valley 16 - Back to the 4x4 format

Earlier this winter friends and I enjoyed a hike in Marin County’s Tennessee Valley.  That day it rained on and off but we managed to stay fairly dry.  Yesterday was a day of late season rains that kept me in the house.  The results are a series of 16 4”x4” paintings based on that afternoon on the trail.  I deliberately forced myself to work quickly.  Any painter knows the trap of going too far and overworking a painting.  It’s frustrating when you get a work done and then keep going and, well, ruin it.

Inspiring Postcards

Various pieces from the 2011 Project incorporating vintage postcards, (4’x4” each)

Four years later, as I look back at the 2011 Project, I can see what significant role postcards continue to play in my artwork.  There have been many new pieces since 2011 that have used postcards.  And now, as I reach the halfway point in 2015, my new book Helen’s Postcards is now available.  Be sure to check it out.

2011 to 2014

Three years ago now, I was in the middle of the 2011 Project and making a 4”x4” piece of mixed media art on each day of the year.  By this point in 2011, I realized I was also working on a series that was akin to a sketchbook for future work.  My subsequent new work and shows in 2012 and 2013 proved that.  Now it’s time to exhibit the latest series of work called Collagescapes.  Some of the new work is shown above as well as the 2011 pieces that influenced them.

Collage + Landscape = Collagescape will be on view at San Francisco’s Glama-Rama Salon and Gallery.  The show runs from July 29 to September 28, 2014.  The opening reception is on the evening of Friday, August 1 (7pm to 10 pm).

Three Years Later

Three years ago, at this point during the 2011 Project, it became clear to me that one of things I was creating was a series that was like a sketchbook for future work and ideas. It was when I began talking about the theory that, at some point in the future, we artists would see a demise of source material four our collage work.  The electronic, world we live in is diminishing the amount of ephemera we are creating for future art projects.  For example, we generate less and less ticket stubs, postcards, colorful luggage tags, non-digital photographs, etc. 

Three years ago my response began with the piece shown above.  It’s time for artists to start making their own material for the purpose of collage.  We have a long way until we really run out, but it is good to think ahead. Since then I have been exploring the idea of making my own material.  This year I am getting ready for a new show opening in July.  It’s a series of work I call Collagescapes — where painting meets collage (see below).  Instead of cutting up finished paintings, I am painting fields of color for the various places I wish to depict.  I then cut up those colors and reconfigure them into new work. Collage + Landscape = Collagescape.  It’s come a long way since that one piece back in 2011.  

365 Nails

This is what 365 nails look like after they have been removed from the wall.  The wall has been spackled, touched-up and some new art has been hung.  More than half of the 365 pieces have been shipped to project supporters.  If you’re interested in getting one of the remaining pieces and becoming a curator, see 2011project.com for details.

25 Months Later

During 2011 as I was creating a piece for the 2011 Project every day, I kept adding them to the wall.  Some have been shown during this time, but basically I’ve been looking at them all for the past two years.  But, I haven’t given much thought to many of the individual pieces and the stories I was writing about them every day on the project blog.  This past weekend I was preparing the pieces for distribution by adding an individual label to the back of each one.  As I was going through the pieces from the first months of 2011, it became an unexpected trip back in time to just two years ago.

Just looking at the pieces was like reading a journal – a journal I do not keep.  It took me back to events as the project was getting started.  The time when I had just nine completed and could begin to see what it might look like.  And then when themes started to emerge.  The revolutions brewing in Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East which are still playing out.  There was the horror of massive earthquake in Japan.  The memories of the first time I took my nephew to the desert.  And, there was the beginning of going through my archives of collage fodder and creating the piece shown above that mentions a 25-month subscription.  Here we are 25 months on, imagine what it will be like to look back 25 years later….

The last day together for a long time....

This photo was taken this morning.  Today is the last day the 365 pieces from the 2011 Project will all be together for a long time.  They are ready to be distributed and tomorrow they start going to the post office.

The Last Step

The last (and tedious) step before the pieces for the 2011 Project can be distributed.  Each one needs an individual label.  I can’t trust self-stick labels to stay on, so each one is glued by hand.

Reflecting on 2011

Now that 2012 is a few weeks old and 2011 is behind us, I am beginning to miss making a 4”x4” piece of art every day. Last year the 2011 Project became the focus of my artistic life. There were a few days when it felt like a chore, but overall, I truly enjoyed working on it. Gradually my wall kept filling with the grid of piece after piece. But it really wasn’t until near the end of the year that the impact of the project began to feel “real” to me. Around November I was reaching the point where I had that I did it feeling. I’ll never forget the final moment when I put the last coat of varnish on the last piece on the evening of December 31^st. I was sad that the long journey was over but also had a sense of accomplishment with having actually made it.

When I conceived the idea for the 2011 Project, I was experienced enough to understand that I could not really predict how the project would unfold. I had the basic concept of a piece of art every day. Having spent years exploring pattern and making grid like collages, the idea of using 4”x4” canvases and laying them out in a big grid was natural to me.

Starting with the commitment to making a piece of art every day, I quickly realized I also wanted to explore a different idea every day. There are reoccurring themes and styles throughout the project, but I really did strive to make each individual piece about an individual idea. There were many themes and materials I was well versed in and they started to appear in the project. As I began looking for new ideas it also lead to new styles, materials and subject matter. There are so many things I painted for the first time ever in 2011, everything from magnolias, to a goat to a quahog shell. Maps appear in plenty of the pieces and I also used other materials that I had used previously like old photos, vintage postcards and stamps. But the list of new materials grew to include: naugahyde, MUNI passes, dice, jigsaw puzzle pieces, Eucalyptus leaves, candy wrappers, wax and incense boxes to name just a few.

One advantage of working small was that each piece took me about 1-3 hours to make. There was some additional prep time and scouring around for materials. But basically, as an artist, each piece was a small commitment. This brief amount of time opened me up to experimenting. Unexpectedly, many pieces have become studies for future projects. The 2011 Project is also a vast personal sketchbook of ideas I will be expanding on for months and years to come.

Each artists needs to develop their own rules. And, I do not want to be one of those artists that tell other artists what they should do. But I will suggest that by imposing a disciplined structure for yourself, if even for a month, you will likely have a similar experience of positive and unexpected results.

The year 2011 is over, but the 2011 Project is far from finished. There is the need to show as an installation(s) in 2012. Then the separate pieces will be distributed to supporters so they can curate them for the future. And some point 10 years, 20 years or even further into the future, it will be even more interesting to revisit the project.

Archive Pieces

Early on in the 2011 Project I started to save some of the cut outs and various scraps generated while making the pieces. It was the beginning of an archive box that I often used as a source for subsequent pieces. Here are just some of the scraps from the archive.

December 16, 2011 – Paint by Numbers

This stage of the 2011 Project is almost at the end of the road, or to use a paint-by-numbers metaphor, nearly all of the 365 pieces have been filled in. And no, I never did paint-by-numbers as a kid. In more recent years, I received a few kits as gag gifts. There are some people who collect paint-by-numbers paintings, and I get it. There is something post-kitsch cool about them. But I resist the urge to start collecting another thing, so I only own one. I have a horse head, paint-by-numbers portrait hanging in the bathroom. I bought it at my favorite antique mall in Bakersfield – they always have a good selection.

November 25, 2011 – Leftovers

Today is the day to figure out what to do with the leftovers. During the course of the 2011 Project I have been saving unused scarps from the various mixed media pieces. The intent is to have them for a project archive. In the meantime some of those scraps have been used in other pieces for the project. Today’s casserole contains all scraps from some of the pieces made during the past 11 months.

November 19, 2011 – Art in 30 Minutes or Less

As a general rule, most of my work could qualify as “slow” art. When I work it’s usually a slow, labor-intensive process. But this morning I decided to give myself the 30-minute collage challenge. A kitchen timer was used as part of the process.

1. 10 minutes to go through my various collage fodder and find some pieces that would work together.
2. 10 minutes for cutting and configuring.
3. 10 final minutes for assembling, gluing and finishing.

And yes, the collage was completed in just under 30 minutes. At times it is good to have a bit of discipline and control over one’s work. But in some ways, there was more time involved. The 4”x4” canvases are prepped in advance and the accumulation of collage material is an ongoing process. A photo was used that I picked up at SCRAP in the late 1990’s and some Basquiat bits from an old Art in America that I clipped almost 20 years ago. My alternate title for this piece would be The Conquest of Basquiat.