Talia sewing the postcards to the organza

Our Easelstan group show at the Phinney Neighborhood Center is fast approaching. I’m going to be showing a mixture of old and new pieces. One piece I knew I wanted to show was the postcard series I did in 2006. Each week of the year I made a mixed media 4 x 6 inch postcard including a playing card and mailed it to the studio. At the end of the year, 52 weeks, I had made a full deck of 52 cards. One reason I love this series are that it gave me a chance to try a lot of different techniques and media in a small size. It also became a journal of a very intense and busy year during which we remodeled our house. A lot of those weeks when we were out of our house and trying to keep up with remodel decision making, it was all I could do to make a small piece of art and get it in the mail. It was good to have a commitment to myself during those busy times. And I know that Anna and Paul enjoyed getting the cards each week in the mail. All the cards arrived, some a little tattered and with missing postage, and I’ve often wondered what the mailman thought about my project.

I’ve shown them a couple times and it’s a challenge to figure out how to show 52 small pieces. For the Phinney show the studio mates and I decided to hang them in a way that people could see the back of the cards as well as the front. I stitched them (with help from my new intern, Talia) to a piece of silk organza that I’m hanging from a bamboo pole. It works great! Come on by the Phinney Neighborhood Center between February 2-25th, 2011 and see them for yourself. Better yet, come on February 11th for the Artist’s Reception and say “Hello.”

all 52 cards, front

and back