Student Mail Art Exchange

 I don't care what anyone says, I love the post office. But before I climb too high atop my public vs private enterprise soapbox I'll tell you the most recent reason for my love. You may remember some of my past forays in mail art- so, I was over the moon excited to participation in a mail art swap with my friend Michael's high school sculpture class. I don't actually know much about how he started the project- I would be curious, actually, to hear what prompts he gave to the students. We, the artists participating in the swap, were just told to respond to the piece we received in the mail.

Piece 1: Student work

The writing on the front of the wood block reads, "solid."

 The back reads,  "cracked."

The sides are labeled with the same two words.

Piece 2: My work

I decided to respond predominantly to the first piece's state of contradiction:  the wood block cannot be both solid and cracked, yet it is. Fibers is the language I speak, so fibers is the language I responded with.

(The miracle of water-soluble interfacing.)

The text was another element of the original piece that I was drawn to. Therefore, I labeled my own postcard with a similarly contradictory word.

My postcard is both solid and flexible.

My biggest regret is how long it took me to get back to my partner. (Shaaame.) It's so different working in the "real" world... with  job and another job and a life... without the structure of a class to keep me on my game. (I'd like to say that my second response was any more timely but, let's be honest. Nope.) At least I wasn't the only one!