Greetings, fellow Kollage Kitters! I am struggling a lot with my damaged legs, but I am walking around, very slowly, and basically doing fine. I can't get up the stairs and down the hallway to my studio very often, but I am in my studio right now, as I am typing these words. =smile=
I made this collage for a swap on swap-bot. The title of the swap was "Put a Fish on It." The challenge was to make a collage postcard with a fish on it, then write on the back, including your partner's postal address and appropriate stamp(s), and mail it to them. I like to get my postcards hand-cancelled, with that attractive round date stamp the clerk uses. In order to do that, Bob (my husband) has to drive me to the post office and then get my wheelchair out of the trunk of the car. I wheel myself into the post office, because I cannot stand up for that long of a time. I wait in line, then get my postcard hand-cancelled. It's fun! It's part of the performance that is mail art, because mail art is a performance art. The clerk and all the other postal employees who helped convey this postcard to my partner in Wisconsin, collaborated with me in this performance. Now I have heard back from my partner that she received it, so the performance is over, and I can show this collage to other people—like you, my friends—without spoiling the surprise.
I don't know if you guys know about swap-bot, but it is a wonderful place. Many tens of thousands of people participate in swap-bot. (Here it is, so you can check it out if you want to.) The way it works is that you sign up for a swap, then you are given two partners: one to whom you send your swap item (e.g., a collage postcard), and one who sends a swap item to you. (In some swaps, you have more than two partners.) When the woman in Wisconsin received this fish postcard, she posted a "rating" to my profile on swap-bot. I responded by thanking her for the rating. The rating can include a comment, feedback on the swap. Feedback feeds my soul!
Anyway, check it out and learn more about swap-bot, if you want to. It's a fabulous place for an artist to make mail art, because you have a deadline—a date by which you're supposed to mail the swap item—and then you get feedback... just like we do on the Kollage Kit. When I was first becoming a collage artist, in early 2010, I learned a whole lot, just by participating in swaps on swap-bot.
Best wishes, my friends! Please remember: feedback feeds my soul. =smile=
Interesting excuse about mail art, Fi. And a nice collage you send to your swap pal. You will get a good feedback!
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling us about your mail art. I still do a bit when the mood takes my but my 40 years old archive has taken over the house and don't need any more! I do miss finding those interesting things on the door mat but since the internet came along my focus is elsewhere these days. It's nice to know though that many others are discovering it for the first time and enjoying swapping stuff through the mailways.
ReplyDeleteGreat collage Fi and it's good to see you back online. We've missed your work and their descriptions and, as with the Swap-Bot info, links to other creative outlets we might want to make a collage for! Hang in there and all the best to you and Bob.
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