postcards from the trash

 Postcards from the Trash is a series inspired by a young person in my life who received her first world globe.  Her mother asked friends and family to send her postcards from where they lived or visited so she could mark them on her globe. So of course, I couldn't just go BBUUYYY a postcard for this fun project.  I wanted it to be a more memorable experience than that.  It made me think back to my childhood and what it would be like to receive all these postcards at once. I remembered that my Great Grandma used to send me handmade cards with hand penned portraits of ladies in large hats. Decorating their hats was glitter, beads and feathers, they had commanding lashes and ruby lips. I remember fondly getting them and feeling so special when I did. I still have most of them today.  But as adults, we seemingly only receive junk or bills in the mail, no fun. 

      The first postcard I made for this young person was made from a thick chip board I had in my studio.  I painted it as you would expect a postcard to look, so it was a safe zone project. Then I thought it would be fun to make her mom a postcard as well because she's a mom and moms are most often forgotten. Then I thought, "Well, little sister will feel left out ...." and so on until I had made 17 postcards for close friends. It had become a very freeing process for me.  They didn't take long to make and I wasn't expecting them to be perfect, because they were likely to get damaged in the mail anyways.  I wasn’t selling these so I wasn’t obsessed with the details or with getting it “right”.  So I made more, and I asked followers if they wanted one, and of course who doesn't want free art?  Using any thin cardboard I could find, like cereal boxes, fruit snack boxes, packing inserts, I just kept making them. It had been such a long time that I had these types of low stakes pieces that allowed me to play and experiment with my art. I now use these small works of art to experiment with techniques, to test new supplies I've bought, try different compositions, color palettes, mark making and more.  They're a great way to track my artistic progress and to collect my influences. By mailing them away I don't let them sit long enough for me to harshly critique them.  I just take a picture and mail it away.