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Monday, May 14, 2007

2 Red & Black ATCs



Title: Into The Dance Laughing




Title: Feathers Of Life

Two ATCs for a Red & Black theme Mail Art Swap.

Ink and Watercolor on 140# (300gsm) Watercolor Paper

2 comments:

  1. aloha V.K.

    1- yup. they are different, yes. fun. one of the things about Mail Art and working within the limits others set (altho this is actually a swap that i am hosting! - the theme was chosen with others involved) - so one of the things about working within limitations that i do not necessarily set myself does challenge me to explore beyond the ways i often work. cool on that, imo yes. i too like the way these feel as a whole. it takes a little effort to explore them but to me it feels good.

    2 - i like symbols and symbolism because i think it is one of the things that helps to define human beings. i dont know that there is another creature on this planet that utilizes symbols as extensively as human beings do - if at all - or at least in quite the same ways. so i like the connections you've made using red as a symbol. cool.

    3 - yup, i think there is the kind of spacial play i like to play with in these. integrating foreground and background so that one becomes the other. i like giving the entire surface of a work an important role in the work, close to equal roles with a little variation of course - space and what i call shallow depth, but i want both (or all) areas to have an important value to the work. some shifting of priorities so that the surface is not static but can be viewed with different values being assigned to different areas depending on how a viewer is looking is cool too. imo, it engages the viewer.

    essentially with most art a viewer will get out of it a value which is about the same as the effort they put into it - at least related to some degree. i like having enough going on that if a little more than typical time and effort is invested in exploring the work, there is a little something more there to discover and explore and to intrigue the viewer. i like multifaceted aspects that can relate to the whole but also remain individually important too. may be it's simple complexity i am after along those lines. as well as the idea that there is something there for the initial look, but there is something more for the longer look and repeated lookings. i like the idea that each time a viewer looks there is something more that they can find. i like it when a viewer has looked at a work repeatedly and suddenly makes another little discovery that reveals more insight into the work.

    you are very much on the mark with my figures and creatures like this. i think of these more as a spirit - or an essence of a being. spirit and essence is something we all have. universality is very much a part of it. these beings could be almost any age, gender, race - that part of humanity that we all possess - a part that links us all. i can think of them as me, and i can think of them as you and anyone else as well. i like going after that - and this is one of my ways to do that. even with animals - the spiritness of the animal is more important than the individual animal - (same with human beings) - so i want it to read "human" or "dog" or "cat" but not necessarily individualize them to a great degree. i want to get at those things that all dogs or cats or human beings have in them. spiritness and essense are fluid to me in many ways - and may be boneless too - it's like an aura around a being but throughout the being too - that's how i think of beings when i create them in this way. it makes us all very equal. i like that too.

    i like that essentially you are seeing and gathering this information from looking at the work. that kind of communication is great when it connects like this through the work.

    way cool and thanks for taking that kind of time to look and explore and follow your own thinking - and then to write it down here. yup, way cool on that.

    i hope it's fun to do that kind of exploring in our mind - i like that thought a lot too.

    have fun - aloha - Wrick.

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  2. no you didnt miss out V.K. it was/is a small defined and limited swap.

    i think i've been remiss in taking a turn at hosting swaps. when i didnt know much about how things worked now in Mail Art i could get away with that a little. i think it's time i do a little more along those lines.

    this being my first hosting i thought i'd see it all the way through so i'd have a better idea of how to do a reasonable job when i do host a swap with larger groups that might play.

    when i do, you certainly are invited to play.

    as far as i can see there is no reason you should not do your own ATCs how ever you want to do them. following the guidelines of a swap even if you are not in the swap is something i have done, and i suspect you have too. go for it. Red and Black on!

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