royal mail

A former student sent this link to me, about Harriet Russell's 130 letters to herself. The article is accompanied by a half-dozen great images/examples.

a fourth and final semester of AFE

I am way behind on updating this blog. A new (and final) semester of this class began about a month ago! I've concluded that my attempts to use this blog as a teaching tool in the past have been mostly unsuccessful, so I'm not at all requiring my current students to regularly update it. But I wanted to post a quick update in order to call your attention to a new batch of potential contributors who will hopefully, at a minimum, use this space to post links to their ongoing projects, which include "handmade" elements displayed or distributed via the Web.

bite size

The third group of AFEers is getting ready to install an exhibition of work that addresses the emerging art form of Artist Trading Cards. Here are the details:

Bite Size: an exhibition of Artist Trading Cards made by students in SMFA's Text & Image Arts class Art from Ephemera: Mail Art and the Internet.

Students in this intermediate level multi-media studio class investigate the emerging art form of Artist Trading Cards, one example of the many ways Mail Artists exchange ephemera using the postal system and the Internet. Artist Trading Cards are individual art miniatures that are traditionally traded, not sold, and are created as unique works or small limited editions. The only restriction is that they measure 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches.

Artists whose work will be on display include: Alexis Avedisian, Keina Davis Elswick, Omer Elad, Eric Erdman, Max Falkowitz, Maryn Leigh Kaplan, Jessica Scott-Dutcher, and Roxy Sperber.

Bite Size will be on display in the Mission Hill Foyer Gallery at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, November 11 to 23, 2008.

Workshop & Swap!
A reception for the artists will be held on Monday, November 17th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. There will also be a workshop and swap held at this time where you can make and trade your own Artist Trading Cards. Cardstock and other materials will be provided; bring your own materials and supplies to share.

SMFA's Mission Hill Gallery is located at 160 St. Alphonsus Street in Boston.

Spread the word!

Henrik Drescher @ UMass Dartmouth

One of the artists we looked at in class, thanks to Jess's presentation, Henrik Drescher, has a show up at the University Art Gallery at UMass Dartmouth. The show is open until October 26th. New Bedford is probably a bit of a commute for most of you, I'm guessing, car-less college students, so maybe we can discuss an optional field trip in class on Monday. Here's a link with more info.

By the way, the discussion threads so far have been great - keep it coming and I'll share my bit as well over the next couple of days...

3191 ~ a year of mornings

This project, originally in blog format, has now been published in book format. I think it's a great idea (and who wouldn't want their web-based communication art project to be published?), but doing the same thing with photos taken in the evening (here's the blog for that project, currently in progress) borders on gimmicky. Still an interesting idea, though, and the few photos I've seen look lovely.

gettin' crafty

We've talked a bit about how a lot of mail art genres have flirted with the fringes of the more mainstream art world but recently, at least, have seemed to find their audience among folks who would be more likely to identify as crafters, not necessarily artists. I think this is particularly true of the short history of Artist Trading Cards. What is the role of craft in the niche genre of ATCs in particular? How do you feel about working with (or on) ATCs in art school, where you're expected to have something of a conceptual framework for just about everything you do?

Discuss!

Online Drawing Trading

This is the site that I mentioned in class last week. You create a drawing and then swap it with a stranger; it was based off of sketchswap, but I like garyc's version better because unlike sketchswap you are actually trading with another person (in sketchswap your drawing goes into a database and the drawing you get comes from the database) and also garyc's version is unmoderated.

Jess