…what you do is glue them all on a postcard-sized background, quick, fast as you can, and then sweep some turquoise ink over it all,and some black splots, and for good measure print on it with bubble wrap. Voila! you have a postcard.
Made in March 2021.
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.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 