posted by: Kevin McFadden

Use it or lose it? Postal systems are under attack. Many countries have never quite gotten one really off the ground. In the United States the USPS is a centuries-old institution…long revered and trusted since its creation by the Continental Congress in 1775 with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster. Now snail mail seems to be merely a servant of American commercialism, bringing print advertising to our homes everyday but Sunday.
The VABC will join a long line of artists in investigating the intricacies and mechanisms of a postal system with their next collaborative project. In the project entitled “Postmark,” artist-members will create handmade editions of postcards which consider the mystery of distance, place, communication, memory, and nostalgia. (Among other topics!) All participants will receive a complete set of the postcards produced by the group for their personal archives.
THE PAPER IS IN. Artists can pick up enough paper to make their 65 cards. It’s cut to double size, for work-and-turn, or full bleed to trim to the 4 x 6.5 size. You must be a member of VABC to join the project.
Sets of cards will be auctioned off to the public at this year’s Raucous Auction on 11/11/11 which will also feature a show of all of the pieces.
Join a long line of amazing postal artists: Saul Steinberg, Ray Johnson of the New York Correspondence School, Bruce Licher of Independent Project Press, Charles Peale, Henrik Drescher, and most famously in the world of trade books, Nick Bantock author of the Griffin and Sabine series. You can participate by contacting Garrett Queen at gsqueen@comcast.net.
There will be a brainstorming and informational meeting at the VABC on Wednesday night, August 31, (Block Night) from 6:00 until 7:00 PM. If you’re curious about membership, come that night to see what we’re all about.
Josef Beery will also host a display and discussion of postal art and its possibilities at Block Night on September 7; and a tiny workshop on carving rubber stamps suitable for use for cancelling your mail at Block Night on September 21.

Filed under: Announcements on August 18th, 2011