Determine the Distance
I'm currently in week 2 of my Coursera course, Introduction to Art, and thought I'd share this week's assignment which was 'Mail Art.' The videos introduced mail artists and their techniques --- Ray Johnson, Eleanor Antin, Ryosuke Cohen --- and the task was to create an envelope and insert focused on the theme of 'Correspondence with Memory.'
My 'memory' was of my dad which fits in nicely considering Sunday is Father's Day. :-)
I utilized my own photos, various ephemera such as book pages, images, fabric, etc, acrylic paint and inks. The envelope is about 5x5 inches and the unfolded insert is about 6x6 inches. The paper airplane is about 5 inches long.
There's several parts...
Here's the front of the envelope:
The photo image was printed on a vintage dictionary page--it's of my dad wearing a pair of aviator goggles. From little on he loved airplanes and dreamed of being a pilot. Life had other plans however.
Back of the envelope:
Continues with the 'flight' theme and that of 'calculations' (images & text from vintage school books).
The main insert of the envelope, folded up:
This starts off with a portion of a photo of my dad. The dictionary entry for patience seemed appropriate for him.
(There's a scrap of German text---I don't know German so if this says anything really stupid please let me know!)
Insert, unfolded:
The rest of the photo is revealed. One of the very few photos I have of my dad and I together. Once he got sick we didn't take any pictures of him.
Close up of the paper airplane insert:
A fond memory of my dad is of him teaching me how to fold paper airplanes. We would then launch them from the kitchen (where he sat in a recliner) into the living room. One winter day in particular we kept launching them into the burning fireplace. :-)
I titled my project, 'Determine the Distance' which was wording that kept cropping up in the ephemera I was using (math book). 'Distance' struck a chord with me since I've always felt separated from my dad due to him getting sick when I was fairly young. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease when I was about 8 and died the year I was 19. Because of the illness we didn't have the normal father/daughter relationship. I greatly regret not spending more time with him. On the plus side, it's because of him and how he dealt with what life gave him that made me who I am.
patience, 1. willingness to put up with waiting, pain, trouble, etc;
calm endurance without complaining or losing self-control.
2. long, hard work; steady effort.
My 'memory' was of my dad which fits in nicely considering Sunday is Father's Day. :-)
I utilized my own photos, various ephemera such as book pages, images, fabric, etc, acrylic paint and inks. The envelope is about 5x5 inches and the unfolded insert is about 6x6 inches. The paper airplane is about 5 inches long.
There's several parts...
Here's the front of the envelope:
The photo image was printed on a vintage dictionary page--it's of my dad wearing a pair of aviator goggles. From little on he loved airplanes and dreamed of being a pilot. Life had other plans however.
Back of the envelope:
Continues with the 'flight' theme and that of 'calculations' (images & text from vintage school books).
The main insert of the envelope, folded up:
This starts off with a portion of a photo of my dad. The dictionary entry for patience seemed appropriate for him.
(There's a scrap of German text---I don't know German so if this says anything really stupid please let me know!)
Insert, unfolded:
The rest of the photo is revealed. One of the very few photos I have of my dad and I together. Once he got sick we didn't take any pictures of him.
Close up of the paper airplane insert:
A fond memory of my dad is of him teaching me how to fold paper airplanes. We would then launch them from the kitchen (where he sat in a recliner) into the living room. One winter day in particular we kept launching them into the burning fireplace. :-)
I titled my project, 'Determine the Distance' which was wording that kept cropping up in the ephemera I was using (math book). 'Distance' struck a chord with me since I've always felt separated from my dad due to him getting sick when I was fairly young. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease when I was about 8 and died the year I was 19. Because of the illness we didn't have the normal father/daughter relationship. I greatly regret not spending more time with him. On the plus side, it's because of him and how he dealt with what life gave him that made me who I am.
patience, 1. willingness to put up with waiting, pain, trouble, etc;
calm endurance without complaining or losing self-control.
2. long, hard work; steady effort.