CIRCLE

ATTENTION FAITHFUL CIRCLE followers and participants.
 I apologize for my long absence, I was involved in moving first, finding a job, a gallery and trying to settle in etc. I am sorry to have neglected you.
 I still want to do the CIRCLE Snail Mail Installation and hope I can beg your forgiveness for my neglect and nudge you back into interest in participating!!
Since moving from the Keys to St. Augustine, I have become affiliated with the Gallery, Butterfield Too  at 137 King St. in St. Augustine. It is a great place with a lot of exciting artwork and shows going on.
I brought all your work into a meeting ( this is a co-op) and asked for a date we could do a show.
I have been slotted into November 2010 to do a CIRCLE Snail Mail show.
All who already sent work will be contacted with an exhibition agreement to sign and send back in if you are interested in showing your work.
 Butterfield may impose an entry or sales fee but it will be small and you will be asked if you wish to participate or not.
For anyone who did not finish your mail art project there is plenty of time. There are a couple of ways to start
.
I. 1. Make a piece of mail art ( a postcard or anything the post office will mail UNWRAPPED) and with postage.
  2. Send it to someone who has agreed to collaborate with you through the mail.
  3. That person receives the mail art and then collaborates on the piece however they choose, draw on it, paint on it, glue something wonderful on it, use rubber stamps, write poetry, prose or a line of whatever, alter it in anyway you choose. Remember we want this to be an interesting Art show so keep that in mind.
  4. Send it back to the originator , again UNWRAPPED, stamped, postmarked and mailed through the postal service. No envelopes, boxes or brown wrapping paper please.
  5. When the finished piece comes back to the originator send it on to me, it can now be put in an envelope or appropriate wrapping. I will send you all the details and entry form with request for entry fee etc.
  6. As long as it has been artisitically collaborated on by two artists/writers or poets it will be displayed. Please abstain from trashy commercial advertising .. I look forward to receiving your work.
II. If  you cannot find anyone who wants to collaborate with you send your address and either  Robin Miller, myself or several other "starters"  will originate a piece and send it to you for collaboration. Follow the above rules when working on the piece.

Above piece by Kate P. Miller and Robin Miller

THE TWO QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
A. What is collaboration?

col·lab·o·rate (k-lb-rt)

intr.v. col·lab·o·rat·ed, col·lab·o·rat·ing, col·lab·o·rates
1. To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort.
 
B.What is Juxtaposition?
 
the act of positioning close together (or side by side); "it is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors"

wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
A placing or being placed in nearness or contiguity, or side by side, often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or ...
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/juxtaposition

and What do you think????????????????

Snail Mail Collaging

SNAIL MAIL ART is by nature collage. Even if it starts as a straight painting, drawing or piece of writing it becomes a collage when addresses, postmarks and stamps are added. Many of the CIRCLE participants are professional artists and writers and  need no instruction, I have however had several people ask for advice. This is a list of ideas on making collage that you might find helpful in making your snail mail.
GROUNDS - A ground is the surface you work on. It canbe a piece of paper, cardboard or a piece of wood (It can be paper, heavy is better, watercolor or printmaking quality is good, or wood or metal or some object you find that you can glue and paint on.
MAKING EFFECTIVE COLLAGES
Chose images, text or textures that appeal to you and work together visually.
Try having a limited color pallette, a theme or repeating images that relate to one another in a visual way.
Find patterns or textures that go with images or text. What you do can look random but still carry a message or idea.
JUXTAPOSITION A great collage is a juxtaposition of images, ideas, and formal elements of art (color, shape, line,texture, space and arrangement) A great juxtaposition occurs when two images or textures or surfaces that have had nothing to do with each other are pushed up against each other to create a new and surprising (hopefully pleasing ) relationship. Collaborations encourage great juxtaposition. Allow room and possiblity for your collaborator.
EXPERIMENT  Collage provides great opportunity for experimentation. Try arrangements of  color, space, texture,ahapes and text .
Remember Design 2-D 101-think about repitition, texture, contrast, unity and unity. Make a piece that is visually appealing. Advertising text and images can sometimes be very effective in a  funky or irreverent way but use in moderation and discrimination as you would use on any other image. Do the colors and shapes work together, is there an interesting juxtaposition of text and image, texture and color etc? What makes this different from looking at a regular ad?
Too many advertisements or labels thrown together with cliches and worn out symbols can be a disaster.  Lay out your elements first and try to avoid visual clutter and text made up of cliches.  
 ELECTRONIC IMAGING If you enjoy image editing and have the technical know-how, try your layout on a computer You have the ability to change scale, transparency, clarity, tone color, and many other qualities of images you manipulate electronically. You can also combine digital and paper image editing by printing edited images to include in a paper collage.
 GELS AND GLUES I almost always use Acrylic gel as my gluing agent. You can use it straight from the jar or you can dilute it, apply with a clean brush to your ground, water color paper is my ground of choice. After applying gel to the paper then attach your cut or torn collage elements to it. Use the brush again and go over the top of the adhered image. If the paper begins to buckle use your fingers to smooth it out. Fabric, wallpaper, rice paper, origami and craft papers and scraps of texture such as sandpaper or pieces of straw or leaves all make good collage pieces.
If you do not have Acrylic Gel you can use regular white glue such as Elmers. Dilute the glue so it is brushable and use as described above. If the materials on your collage do not stick perfectly after gluing, you can brush a diluted glue mixture (about 3 parts water to 1 part glue) over the whole collage once it is finished. You can also use this technique to seal the collage.
The glue you use depends on the materials you're gluing. Some glues simply won’t hold certain materials, and some very strong glues may quickly damage your collage pieces. Rubber cement is great for some types of paper, super glue may be necessary for non absorbent pieces such as plastics or vynils. To determine the correct glue read the containers.
The rule of thumb for adhesives is that anything absorbent will stick with PVA glue (Elmers) or wood glue. Anything slick such as plastic or glass will require another type glue. Acrylic gel will work for all paper and for many other materials and it is easy to tint with acrylic paint to make a glaze.
GLAZING Covering your entire collage with an acrylic glaze can be an effective way to give your piece continuity. If you find that the images just do not relate or you have too much variety  try mixing a small amount of paint  with a larger amount of Acrylic gel. Paint it ove r the entire collage and allow to dry.
SELF CRITIQUE After experimentation take time to assess the piece for balance and coherence. Does it hold together as a piece? Are the images related in some way? Is there an interesting juxtapostition of texture, shape, color or line?
CONSIDER YOUR COLLABORATOR Maybe m ost of all because this piece is meant to be collaborative you need to remember not to "FINISH" it, This is a very tricky thing to  do especially for artists who are used to trying to achieve a finished complete look. Leave some breathing room ,s omethng not quite done, something for your collaborator to work with. Not doing so may leave the collaborator with no other choice than to obliterate some of your work. 
REMEMBER THE STAMPS After  you finish your collage you will have to afix an address, return address and stamps. Consider these spaces for these elements as you work.

 ENJOY  the process and result and most of all finding your returned piece of snail mail art in your mailbox.

Tips on Mail Art

Tips on Mailing Snail Mail Art!
 
To all of you asking about returning mail art here are a couple of tips..

1. Dont be intimidated but do be sensitive It is ok to cover or paint or otherwise change what you get, thats the idea, do however remember that this is a collaboration. If you are the originator, try to leave the piece a little "unfinished" (a problem I have). If you are the collaborator, look at the work that was started and try to work with what has been started and consider the idea that two of you are working together.

2. Make sure the return address is easy to see, either cover the first one or put it on the other side,should be easy for them because the first stamps will be cancelled.If you choose to you can cover the previous name and address with blue painters tape. it can be easily removed when it reaches its final destination.

3. Request what you want.When you go to the P.O. BE SURE to request stamps so that they dont stick an ugly barcoded meter stamp on there, (unless that is the look youre going for of course, I have used a couple)

4. Buy stamps online to ensure choice. I have gotten to where I buy many denominations of stamps online, then I take the piece down to the P.O. and get it weighed and write down what the pieces will cost, then I come back and put them on myself so that the postal workers and people in line dont get impatient. It isnt much when you have just one, but Im doing piles of them.

5. Do be concerned with quality, the idea is to give your collaborating artist something interesting to work with, a bunch of pieces of stuff, advertising and uninteresting labels stuck in a pile isnt interesting to anyone. Im not saying that commercial stuff and even advertising isnt interesting but use it with caution, go for some sort of visual continuity like  a color , a line that connects, or a shape that repeats itself, to pull the eye through the images.

6.Make art out of your collected stuff( some might say trash). If you're using "ordinary" materials like cardboard or aluminum foil try to make it look extraordinary and work into your design. It can be difficult to portray stuff everyone commonly throws in the trash as art. Look at the lettering, the shapes the colors, try to put things together that cause an interesting combination or contrast.

7. Enjoy the process and dont worry about the product but try to make it interesting .

8. Be original and thoughtful but dont forget spontanaety!!

9. Remember do not wrap or put any mail art in envelopes!!

10. Take your time but HURRY UP!! Understandably we all have lives, families, jobs and our own work so take the time you need but dont put your piece under a pile where you may forget about it for months, work on it while its fresh in your mind