Did I show this one before? I apologize if I did. I don’t mind it coming up again, as I really like it – the muted colors and the inscrutable expression of the bird appeal to me.
Postcard, September 2020. Collage and acrylics and India ink.
In August, 2020, I tried out stitching on paper – I had never done it before. Here is one result.
I took random offcuts and scraps of fabric and laid them on a piece of watercolor paper cut to postcard size. Then I stitched around them. That’s pretty much it.
I left the thread tails hanging from the card rather than clipping them. I liked the way it looked.
Here’s another postcard from the past now made into a new version.
Here is the 2016 version, a print with the Gelli plate:
And here is the current (and I hope the last) version.
I say I made this postcard in April 2020, but really, it started off life as a print made with the Gelli plate in 2016.
It wandered around the studio, never feeling quite finished. Then one day I turned it the long direction and got right to work on it. Here is where it is now, and where it (I think) will stay.
That’s what he says. I am not so sure. In fact, I would rather not, please.
Postcard made in April 2020. And if you are thinking you’ve seen this guy before, you have – or something very similar on a recent Minuscule illustration. When I did the pictures for those stories, I often made several versions before I was happy with one for the story. Not being one to throw anything away, I cut out the part of the non-chosen illustrations and saved them, with many of them appearing as mail art or ATC’s. As is this one right here.
As you know I often provide illustrations for Fictive Dream, an online short story magazine. I enjoy working with editor Laura Black and each story presents me with an interesting challenge: find or create an image that complements the author’s words and intentions.
Recently we’ve sometimes used images I had already on hand. This was the case for today’s story. Laura asked me for an image along these lines: For this story I was thinking of your postcards with text that’s obfuscated. Specifically poetry, or if you only have prose, then text that is not too obvious.
So I got to work and found some images for her. I choose a variety of things, even ones that don’t really fit, because she may see something there that works, or that I could use as a basis to amend or alter the original work using digital techniques.
Here are the ones I sent her. This group consists of postcards just as they were made, no alterations:
Here it is. Take a look and then read the story it illustrates, Poetry Reading by Louis Gallo, at Fictive Dream.
…and there always is, isn’t there? Postcard, April 2020.
I made almost no postcard art in 2019. I guess I was busy with other things. I hope to change that in 2020. Anyway, here is a lonely fellow from 11/19. I threw together a lot of scraps of projects on my worktable, that is all I remember.
This image is another postcard from a pad of watercolor paper postcards I bought some time ago. I used India ink and white acrylic ink. The sky was made by first coloring it in in black, letting it dry, and going over it with the white in a thin layer.
Even though it looks wintery in the picture, there are seeds in the earth and spring is present, though hidden at the moment.
Made in April 2019.
I guess the post title says it all.
India ink, acrylic inks, on watercolor paper, April 2019.
