Postcards and commissioned work.

Working on this quote. 

 It's an ugly jumble of words right now.  I will likely have to call my sister to get some composition ideas.

Postcards and Barista Powers

Nick and Hannah transferred to far & away, so I am mailing them Barista Powers in installments.

Postcards. Sometimes I get them.

This was unexpected.  This postcard looks like it traveled thru time to get to me.

Postcards: Learning Collage

This makes me happy.

Postcards. Bubbles.

Obviously, I have postcards on my brain.  Sending and receiving post is itself pretty magical.  Postcard exchanges allow me to send and receive art; how freaking cool is that?  Pretty freaking cool is the answer.  Answering my call for postcard pals, my buddy Scott sent me this:

I like it!  I was inspired to place with this pebbly texture.

Didn't quite make it, did I?  Pretty common for me.  I haven't understood that technique well enough to make it dance to my tune.  I have no doubt bubbles will be revisited.

Whoops. Postcards.

Sorry!  I have been working on Christmas cards instead of postcards.  I am also sitting on some cards; I tend not to scan them until I am ready to mail them, and a number of my friends have not written back.  I think I am waiting on replies from Westen, Ross, Jen, and Melanie.  So that will be four more posts once I am ready to send those cards.  I sent this one to Fred, a real cool dude.

Experimental vs Conceptual: my work on postcards

While I was deep in my podcast phase, I listened to the Revisionist History episode Hallelujah. The moment of greatest interest to me was when the host, Malcolm Gladwell, talked about David W. Galenson's book Old Masters and Young Geniuses.  Galenson posits that there are two fundamentally different approaches to creation; experimental creators that work by trial and error, and conceptual creators that make sudden breakthroughs.  That's not quite what either of them say, but if you're really interested you'll look into it.

What did happen, was that I looked at how I make art, and once again arrived at the conclusion I can't create things very well in my head.  I can manipulate things pretty well, but they need a start.  I fundamentally work through trial and error, to the point that I need to create something, even if I end up not keeping a single piece of it, just to have a starting place for manipulation.

A friend of mine, artist and sage Maggie Gosselar, said

The folks in the "middle ages" didn't think of themselves as living in the middle of history.

Who would?  Every era has tried to use variations of "new" and "modern" to describe their

culture, clung to them even after they ceased to be relevant.  We are in the middle of history.

We don't end here.  Oh my babies, there is so much more yet to come.

I knew I had to do something with it.  But what?  I am still in the infancy of word art.  I am an art student.  What do I do?

Trial and error.

I start pretty rough sometimes.

I thought maybe having lines would help, but it was too soon.  I didn't like it, so I tried again with different pens.

You can see me trying to figure out what emphasize and how.

One of my goals is always to reduce white space.  I started playing with repeating text as a background wash.

I am pretty frustrated by this point.  Nothing is sticking from draft to draft.  It feels like no progress has been made.  Failure is always an option.

This isn't terrible.  Overall.  My cursive is terrible.  So is the spacing.  But I sort of like the first two lines.

Still playing with backgrounds.

When in doubt, dazzle and distract with a good ink.

Closer.

Closer.

Finally committing ink to postcard.  Wobbly but legible.

Then I looked at two of my favorites of my own hand.

I realized I was not done.  My dissatisfaction had a new direction.

That one was pretty good.  I thought I'd go straight to making a postcard.  Apparently, I had some other things to work out.

Once again, I think I have hit an end point with this one.  How long will it last?

Postcards with Plum and Tumeric

Postcards and tea stains

I will admit it; I used another wrench guide.  What can I say?  It looks cool.  Coffee and tea stains just make it look more like vintage ephemera. The thumb in the first panel was painted with the latest batch of tea ink.

Postcards and coffee stains

I know it is just the instructions for a wrench, but I love this design.  Clearly.  I took this home and considered framing it.  Instead, I trimmed it down to the size of a postcard and painted a portrait of myself with coffee.  Like ya do.

Postcards and collage

My collages look like they were made by a drunk.  Or a child.  Or a drunk child.  This is what I really mean when I say I am looking for a style.  I am making a mess.  Cut out ads glued to postcards, smeared with ink and clear nail polish.  You know, art.

Postcards and tea!

Make your own ink some day!  Or paper!  Or dye!  Make a thing from stuff.  My father is trying inks made from hibiscus and inks made from walnuts.  I may have convinced a friend to try making ink from beets.  I love the experimentation and comparing notes.

Stamps and tattoos!

I am still trying to find my style, but I think I like stamps.  Or want to use them.  Or want you to think that I used one.  Or type as a stamp.  Ornamentation.  Working towards more complexity.  Or something.

I perused the stamps available at a craft, and could not find anything inspiring.  Even when I first found the camera, I was not going to buy it.  But then I saw the crown, and held it above the camera.  I felt I need them as a pair.  I keep playing with them as a pair.

I think of them as a tattoo.  Or a signature.  I am not sure.  But I am not done with them. 

Another Postcard!

I love the J. Herbin 1670 line of inks.  I have been talking about inks and pens and postcards with anyone who will listen lately.  My father said he wanted ink with gold flakes in it, thinking it a humorously absurd request.  But no!  Check it out.  These inks are best shown off with a video rather than a scan, but I still like how this card turned out.

Cards cards cards

Oh man, do I love making postcards.  If I could only do just to the whole process.  I love making postcards.

But first, an aside.

Have you listened to Hamilton?  Nothing makes me feel unaccomplished like listening to Hamilton.  Particularly Non-Stop.

"How do you write like you’re

Running out of time?

Write day and night like you’re

Running out of time?

Ev’ry day you fight like you’re running out of time 

Like you’re running out of time

Are you running out of time?"

My goodness!  Surely a goal of a postcard a week is not out of reach.  But what do I write?  On what?  To whom?

Luckily I have a pretty clever community.

This was for my friend, Emily!  Between school and work, she seems to meet a lot of office minded folk, so I thought she would appreciate this Terry Pratchett quote.  I struggle with layout, especially once text is involved, so I confer frequently with my sister, who is quite a talented designer.  I must have drawn this between ten and twenty times, trying to get the words to be a tie.

These poor scratchings were for Westen.  I actually began another design for her, but when she revealed that her favorite color was red and not, in fact, whatever I had thought it was, I knew it was time to start again.  I have a red ink that I am absolutely in love with, so it's appearance was guarantied.  Ross then sent me the characters for "shinketsu wo sosogu - pour your hearts blood into it" and "mizu no kokoro - mind like water."  As far as I know, Westen does not read Japanese and will not object to any mistakes I have made.  One of the least typical of my designs.  Ross has been a driving force on a number of artistic endeavors, and recently sent ME a postcard.

Jen and I had a conversation about redesigning the Hydra logo, so I went full octopus with this design.

Someone gave me a watercolor pencil set with no brown or black, which means someone out there designed a watercolor pencil set with no brown or black.  What.  The.  Hell.  I recently purchased some brown and black pencils to complete my collection.  This portrait emerged from a test of one of the browns.  I then struggled to find words that felt deliberate, eventually happening upon this quote from Shelley.  Too bad my eyes are all wonky.  Once I had successfully blended my janky portrait with a quote, it was time to choose a recipient.  Nothing says Geoff Vining like the concept of something being terrible and worth defending.  Boom!

This is an earlier one!  A perfect quote for the absolutely enchanting green I have, but I was not yet brave enough to merge imagery and text.

The Jim Butcher quote was a Jen request, and then it was on me to show my designer sister that I could make something that is not a square.  In my preparatory sketches, I did a better job of filling out a diamond shape.

Check that out!  Three colors!  Multiple font sizes!

Who's my buddy?  It's Skeletor!  Look at that awkward fusion of text and context!  I do not remember who received this gem.

Still a great line.  Skeletor, you my guy.
We thought it would be funny to send this one to Ken, because he is easily alarmed and confused, but recovers quickly.

Maggie's card!  This one also took some doing.  She initially requested "tenderness is in the hands" from 

"The heart is the toughest part of the body. 

Tenderness is in the hands.” - Carolyn Forche

Which is just ridiculously outside my mental image library.  Luckily she later said "any hands that make art have tenderness in them" and I had my out.  Maggie then went on to say nice things about me on the internet and I cried.  Feelings make me uncomfortable.


See?  A community makes these cards.  Sometimes art first.  Sometimes quote first.  Sometimes recipient first.  But we cobble it all together.  Carley has been my go-to for who I should write to or where I should hunt for quotes.  Ross answers my questions about kanji and reviews designs.  Jen and I text images back forth while I am working.  A few people have given me prompts (or challenges, as I think of them).  Laura and I talk about watercolors.  My aunt sent me pens.  My parents sent me pens.  Westen sent me rebuttals.  Lin-Manuel Miranda sent me a sense of overwhelming under-accomplishment. Will and Alyska have given me food and a pen and ink and paper.

I am confident I am forgetting the many others of you who have contributed.  Thank you, you!  Well done.  Teamwork is making the dream work.

More Phineas & Ferb

What can I say?  It is a good show.

My dreams are many and strange

Quoting Phineas & Ferb

Occasionally, while watching a show or listening to a podcast, I hear a line that instantly makes me think of a friend, and this was such as case.  I knew that I had to send this to a friend of mine.  And now I will.

I Am Mysterious