Hand ᔓtamp

Finished Hand Stamps

_As I work through my ongoing Hand ᔓtamp project, I go back and forth on their nature. Sometimes they seem to be a commodity but more often they seem to have an art nature. I suppose this does come down to my intent and I do tend to intellectualize things that may just as well fall into the realm of practicality. I've explained how I simply started with a single hand that I carved initials into the bottom of to act as a personal signature for work. This led to the idea of making other chops as symbol for addenda to drawings. a second thought, more information, the tangent created in the origin.

Yet they are simply nice compact art objects in themselves. I probably will offer some up for sale and post those in my blog side bar. Alternately, I have a feeling that there is more I want to develop in this. As I've researched chops and seals, I've been overwhelmed by the number of rubber stamp companies offering complex and relatively inexpensive stamps. Many of these seem to target a craft audience. They seem widely available in shops and online.

In contrast I've also been humbled by the intricacy of many oriental stamps. I've also been humbled by the complexity of stamps produced by mail artists for use in their work.

TAM Rubber Stamp Archive is a blog curated by Rudd Janssen in the Netherlands and documents this art form from the early 1980's on. While Rudd archives and offers publications many of these personal stamps are rarely seen except by other mail artists.

Lancillotto Bellini is another artist whose work in rubber stamps is quite extrodinary. the following video is a brief overview of Lancillotto's work; a worthwhile side trip to see his very personal stamp portraits.

I wrote last post about free association in letting design manifest and how it ran in series, yet this past week my carvings have been along the line of opposites and dualities. While I'm not exactly carving the ubiquitous yin yang yet I did do order and chaos and a sun and moon. I may need some non-duality carvings for a while as they seem somehow more profound or internalized in groupings.

CHAOS/ORDER stamps - ©evertson 09

As I work on the plaster miniatures, they are becoming more like art objects rather than a commercial or utilitarian product. I can start to envision them evolving a bit from my original thoughts. I think of my own hands. Once a child's; untested and unblemished; now middle aged, calloused and scarred. Alternately strong and fragile; having physical memories of all the things they have touched. The memories that have shaped my hands... their own patina somehow beyond my mental construct of how they got this way.

Hand ᔓtamps after hardener and wax - experiments with paper and cloth visible to left - ©09

The hand stamps began formless, as simple white powder - plaster. Mixed with water and placed in a mold. Yet somehow they come out unique. I use a petroleum jelly for a mold release; even thinly applied they give each hand a unique accidental skin. an ultimately uncontrollable series of swirls and fingerprints and tiny air pockets that despite any pretense I have at uniformity they become as individual as you and I. A mix of play and chance. Their skin needs protection and I apply a resin hardener to toughen the fine grain of the plaster underneath. (The dust we come from?) I mix and apply pigmented waxes and they come out aged - different - reflections of their symbol and the beginning of their journeys.

IN THE POST:

My Belgian friend Ria has been busy with mail art and I've received a new picture from her. This time an original drawing that she requests I "do something with it". Her drawing "Samsara" concerns itself with the Buddhist concept of suffering through our continuous grabbing, reaching and futile holding onto what we think will make us happy. She also knows that for months I've included hands in my work. perhaps by my next post I'll have my "additions" ready to show her.

Ria Vanden Eynde - "Samsara" - pencil on paper

Jennifer Zoellner sent a large package that completely baffled me when I picked it up. What a delight!! Jennifer painted a wooden paddle with her intricate and iconic doll imagery to produce this fascinating piece. The 16" x 10" paddle has found a place of honor on our mantle. Thank you Jennifer for this major piece of work.

Jennifer Zoellner - Paddle - 2009

New and Improved

New stamp designs - all ©09 Evertson

Signs, symbols, letters, numbers, pictographs, glyphs, runes, hieroglyphics, etc; I spent the past week primarily on my Hand ᔓtamp project. there are possibilities in this work that goes beyond my original thought of a seal or chop. As shorthand picture or idea stamps, I see that they form tiny addenda or tangents somewhat similar to the way a traditional oriental chop may work to express an ideogram that completes a subject. In the sketchbook they seem to run in series of word or picture associations. Three letter words: WOW, HOW, NOW. Four letter words: VERSO, EXIT. Magic squares to tic tack toe to checkerboards to see saws. CHAOS to ARTIFACT to moon with clouds. Free association on a small scale, similar to the way I deal with collage whether on the computer or cut and paste.

Probably the fundamental skill of artists in general is this associative ability and translation of the idea via the artist's media. Poets and musicians come to mind as well. In science there is the famous example of August Kekule discovering the structure of benzine after a dream of an ouroboros.

New stamp designs - all ©09 Evertson

Ouroboros: bottom middle

So for the time being I am continuing on the association path and letting the tangents travel as they will. Free association, automatic writing or chance. Perhaps a pattern will appear; or at least the appearance of pattern.

I tend to wake up with a few ideas and sketch them for later workup on the computer. I work the designs at 2x scale as the stamp bottom I'm working with is small, about an inch (2.5cm). The carving time depends on the design; from 30 minutes to over an hour. After the hand is carved I paint on a resin hardener before testing the design. When I'm satisfied with the design I apply more hardener to the hand's surface as well as coloring with pigmented wax and paint.

construction of box - clasp in foreground

Completed cork box for "initial" stamp - Evertson©09

I worked up a small box for one of my initial stamps (WᴹE)

using binders board covered with cork. I carved the small wooden clasp that is attached to the box with fine braided copper wire. The box is lined with felt. The box took so much longer to make than the handstamp contents it makes me wonder how the boxes that hold my traditional stamps are made. People working for pennies a day? The small clasp boxes are sometimes quite the works of art in themselves. I'm still working on the overall concept of where this project is going but after working on the box I've decided they could only be offered on a limited basis. (if..if..if)

Around the World Mail Art

Artist and photographer Ginny Lloyd sent a postcard based on a selection from her book GINA LOTTA POST. Ginny is involved with mail art, visual poetry, artist books and artistamps among a host of other activities. Plus she's about to move to Jupiter. (Florida)

Ginny Lloyd - "Homage to Poland"

From Luxembourg, artist Branka Djordjevic′ sent a small painting from her "Little Pieces" series. The series was begun in 2000; this example is painted on paper and mounted to mat board. Very lush and textured.

Branka Djordjevic′ - "Little Pieces"

Many thanks for the art surprises in my mail!!

Slippery

Life was Very Slippery - Bill Evertson 09

For Queens Museum of Art Dia de los Muertos Celebration

The Queens Museum of Art is exhibiting the A Book About Death from November 1st. through the 15th. Artists from the original project as well as the public at large are invited to make additional contributions in response to the subject of death. The QMA's exhibit is part of a larger Day of the Dead/ Dia de los Muertos Celebration. My piece for this exhibit reinvents the original imagery I used for ABAD's initial installation at the Emily Harvey Foundation in September. I am using the wire mesh hands I constructed for the original photo shoot. This time I have combined the "hands" photo with a churning school of Koi. The postcard is similar to the first in that it forms a jacket or envelope that contains my poem, Dia de los Muertos,

on handmade paper. Many thanks to ABAD artist Louise Weinberg for organizing this; as well as continued thanks to Matthew Rose for the project's creation.

Poem enclosed in "image jacket" Dia de los Muertos

Bill Evertson 09 for Queens Museum of Art

Artists wishing to create postcard sized art can mail their contribution to Louise Weinberg, Queens Museum of Art, new York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NY 11368 USA.

Since the initial NYC showing in early September the ABAD project continues to have legs with additional re-installations at the Mobius Gallery in Boston, the River Mill Art Gallery in New Jersey and the Otis College of Art and Design in LA. Copies of this unbound book have become part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the LA County Museum of Art Research Library. Currently there are plans for installations in Brazil, Belgium, Canada and Mexico.

I believe the interest in the continuing installations of the project is partly due to the large number of international contributing artists. Our world seems so fragmented politically and culturally, yet the poignancy of the imagery and words contained within the exhibit establishes a universal bond of shared destiny.

Around the Studio - While last week was mostly spent on the image for the Queens Museum, I was able to spend a bit of time on my humble little hand stamp project and a few others.

Several prototypes of my hand carved stamps ©evertson 09

I started with one hand that was simply inscribed, "hand stamp" Being a bit rusty on carving letters in reverse, the letter S came out ᔓ, but the head of quality assurance, Яia, thought it looked fine to her. The other prototypes came out fine. Now where to go from here? I plan on glazing them and building protective boxes; but beyond that I haven't decided whether to simply offer them through this blog, set up an Esty or decide on an option that hasn't occurred to me. Plus I'm distracted by coming up with new designs to try.

I worked on a visual poem that I submitted to Reed Altemus' blog in response to his call to add to his poem. Reed's original consisted of combinations of the words, mail - art - net - work. Reed asked artists to circle their favorite combination. A check of Reed's blog link will show some great variations on his original poem.

Mail Art Net Work Circles - Bill Evertson 09

I've received some very nice mail art lately. Melissa McCarthy makes art and blogs from her studio in Laconia, NH. Her card features a makeover for Lady Liberty. Melissa was a contributor to ABAD as well as a participant in the performance art during the opening exhibition at Emily Harvey Foundation.

Art by Melissa McCarthy

Realizing that I've been fascinated by hands and they are often featured in my work (actually going on quite a while now) my Belgian artist friend Яia Vanden Eynde sent me a postcard featuring one of her paintings. Sans hands. Ria has two interesting blogs at present: Art on the Road chronicles Яia's mail art projects, while her painting2cancers blog is an illustrated journal of her art since her cancer diagnosis.

Art by Ria Vanden Eynde

Handstamp

80 Hands

I've got plenty of hands; no arms, shoulder or a head... just hands. The picture above shows off my output of about 80 plaster hands that I want to work into stamps. A couple of years ago I started with a few that I carved initials and dates into for "signing" work. Either a stamp of approval or simply... I better not screw around any more stamp. A few more were cast, painted, glazed or used in mixed media pieces and some given as gifts.

Personal stamps I use for initialing and dating

I had a bit of a fortuitous start on this project as the mold is actually a flea market find. I'm not even sure of the original purpose of the approx. 7.5 cm long hands. The two piece mold is cast iron that I simply coat with vaseline as a mold release and pour in plaster of Paris. They come out needing a bit of refining and I scrape them with a blade to bring out the definition of the fingers.

Cast iron mold for hands

I've long been fascinated with the seal stamps that adorn East Asian Art. The stamp can function as signature, a proof of ownership or an addendum to the work and its' strategic placement is highly considered. Many seals are rightly considered a work of art in themselves.

My "collection" of seals

Over the years I've collected several and received some as gifts. A typical Chinese seal is carved stone although other material including wood, metal even plastics can be found. The plaster hands I've been casting are soaked in a resin hardener to produce a more durable stamping surface.

Samples of seal prints

So while I'm working out some designs for the 2.5 cm oval bottom surfaces to the hands, I can use the tests to do some hand stamping on the mail art I owe. So, no major heroic artworks here, just little tiny artistic footnotes. (handprints?) (handnotes?)

Some Art I've Received By Mail ( ♡ ✍ ing )

"IPE AMARELO" Angela Ferrara

Mail Art from Angela Ferrara of Brazil; one of my new ABAD friends. Angela currently is exhibiting work in Biennale del Librio d'artistta.

"Alligators on the Prowl" mailart from Jennifer Zoellner

Mail Art from Jennifer Zoellner: Jennifer curated the Chromatophore Mail Art Show that ran from August 27th through Sept. 5th in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is, among other projects, compiling the first AbalCabal zine which I have submitted a page to. AbalCabal contains several of the artists who participated in ABAD. More info as it becomes available later this month.

"I Am Someone Else" Bibiana Padilla Maltos

Mail Art from Bibiana Padilla Maltos: Bibiana sent me a small limited edition book containing highlights of her works from this year. The 20 page book contains instructions for events, scores, illustration and more! Bibiana also helped our fellow ABAD artist Mara Thompson install the Otis College of Art and Design exhibition of A Book About Death; running through October 31st in LA.

"Emerge" digital collage ©evertson

The 50/50/50 Exhibition continues at the Eclipse Gallery. This exhibit features works from 50 artists from 50 states in 50 media. My piece "Emerge" is a digitally produced collage produced in an edition of 50.

Art To Do List

I'm so happy that Moma put my card on her refrigerator that I may never come down from my tree.

In the continuing incarnation of the A Book About Death, fellow artist Mara Thompson is organizing the LA version of the exhibit for Otis College of Art and Design.

With the fall frenzy of openings, exhibits and exhibits of fellow artists to attend calming down a bit, it is time to return to the studio for some introspection. The last month was a blur of inspiration that should come in handy as this falls studio work progresses. An added plus is the fact for the next several weeks I have a very valuable commodity on hand; actual time set aside for art.

While I still have the mundane "to do" list that seems the bane of every existence; I've worked up my art to do's and am excited about a few projects.

While looking over the work of artists in the 50/50/50 exhibition at the Eclipse Gallery I found that fellow exhibitor Jennifer Marsh has a very interesting collaborative project underway. Jennifer, founder of the International Fiber Collaborative is assembling artwork to be wrapped around a Saturn V Rocket in Huntsville, Alabama next spring. I've reserved a spot and have a 2 foot by 4 foot area to design, sew? and deliver by February.

Educators, groups and various individuals are invited by Jennifer to submit art the Dream Rocket project, which will be on Display at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center during May and June of 2010. the 30,467 square foot quilt to be fabricated from participants in the project will cover the entire 36 story Saturn V.

I've reserved the space under the auspices of Nightball International. From the darkness of beer halls and dance halls into the light of day, this eclectic, fluxable group whose uncommon passion for croquet played in the dark, with no discernible rules, intends to fabric(cate) a theme of international peace on their little patch of aerospace real estate.

While more widely known for absurdest and situational dynamics of game theory, Nightball International is committed to the role of art in education. So with the actual prospects for world peace at apogee, I'll design with the hope that the international scope of this project will reflect well on the tradition of uniting people through art.

Mr. Wicket Juggling Peace (Mr. Wicket is the Nightball International logo)

Just doodling today and thought perhaps the Nightball logo (logo design by Teri Prestash) could juggle peace signs. Well, probably not... too obvious and there's no color. Stay tuned as I work out this and other art conundrums over the next month or so.

Some of my other Art To Do's include:

A Submission to Fluxhibition 4. An artist call for Fluxus amusements, diversions, games, tricks and puzzles. Perhaps a home version of Nightball. Prepackaged with safety tips of course.

A page submission to ABAL Cabal - and I can't say anything more about this top secret zine.

An edition of cast hand stamps. More pix and info soon.

Prototype for handstamp ©09 evertson

Six 24 x36 blank canvas's ready for some non-computer work. ⌷⌷⌷⌷⌷⌷

Eeeeeiiii - plus I think I signed up for the Art House sketch ✍ book project.

All will be thoroughly vetted here over the course of this fall: now if I can just back away from the computer.

50/50/50 Exhibit Opens

Emerge digital collage Bill Evertson

The Eclipse Gallery 50/50/50 exhibition opens Saturday 26th. The exhibit's theme features fifty artists from fifty states working in fifty different mediums. The show highlights the moving and often hard to define differences and intersections of fine art, craft and indie design.

50/50/50 Exhibition Opening Announcement

The show is curated by Sarah Elizabeth Condon who states, "I am interested in the intersection between art, craft and design. This exhibition will not only highlight the importance of all art disciplines but will also stress the importance of all working artists regardless of their location."

My work for this exhibit is a digital collage. "Emerge" was created both on paper and in Photoshop. I combined a series of photographic, scanned and drawn works to produce the piece. A deep sea divers suit I photographed at a maritime museum in Kingston, Ontario, sparked the original idea. I worked with a few other photographs of water and sky to obtain a setting for the divers encounter with the lotus. This is one of my occasional forays into Buddhist inspired art. My friend Ria commented, "love how the lotus flower (?) is reflecting in the man's (woman's ?) visor-wait maybe that's even the other way around,...mmm...from a Buddhist standpoint that 'll get me going on interpreting...;) Emerge...excellent title!"

I was pleased to learn that two artists who's work I follow via their blogs are exhibiting in this show. Jennifer Zoellner, representing Flordia and Corrine Bayraktaroglu from Ohio.

Rag Dolls Mixed media by Jennifer Zoellner

Jennifer Zoellner, who I recently met at the A Book About Death opening in NYC, curated the Chromatophore exhibition of mail art I submitted a piece to. Jennifer's unique rag doll creations for 50/50/50 seem to go beyond simple toys/keepsakes due to their idiosyncratic juxtapositions of textures, fabric and facial expressions. I'm a bit reminded of ritual objects from natural history museums in the way they address a particular culture. In this case our fascination with a folk art icon seen through a pop art lens. (Jennifer - feel free to correct my impressions)

The Prick Who Came to Dinner Embroidery by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

Corrine Bayraktaroglu, self described on her blog as a Jafa (just another #%!@&*% artist), works in a variety of media including embroidery, painting, knit graffiti and mixed media. Corrine's most recent work is embroidery based. Her piece for this show "The Prick Who Came to Dinner" is Corrine's commentary in thread on a rather rude dinner guest. She has a way with words and there is more to the story. Lately her blog has shared several embroidery translations from her sketchbooks. (the sketchbooks being works of art in their own right)

Part of the Eclipse Gallery's vision is to provide artists working out of the mainstream art hubs a venue for exhibition. One of the ways artists and curators like Sarah Elizabeth are able to connect is because of social networking via blogs and Facebook. Sarah's ability to seek out and curate for Eclipse exhibits via the social media outlets is a continuation of the historically recent advent of alternative artist spaces. Many artists (for a variety of reasons) are not exhibiting in the larger art markets, yet their styles of work lends itself to the more experimental nature of those spaces. Congratulations to Sarah for her hard work launching her gallery and for the courage to take chances on artists working in often hard to define and experimental modes.

Best wishes for the opening of 50/50/50 at the Eclipse Gallery. Reception, September 26 at the gallery located in Algoma, WI and running through Dec. 31st.

MoMA has obtained A Book About Death

In other news: I learned that MoMA has obtained a complete set of the A Book About Death pages. I am completely amazed that somewhere in the depths of that giant establishment of the art world there is room for such an egalitarian project that sprang and grew from the world of artists networking artists. Again, thanks to Matthew Rose for his organization and to Deven Marriner for compiling the pages for MoMA. What would Ray Johnson make of this development? Further reincarnations of the project are already springing up. Bookmark http://abookaboutdeatharchive.blogspot.com for further developments.

One More Word

Ok - One more word on A Book About Death. Just because this is too precious not to share ;)

You Can Take It With You!

Bill at the A Book About Death Opening

** My “final” word on the A Book About Death exhibition – I am happy to be a page! The opening September 10^th was huge! It was crowded beyond belief plus a 400-person line to get in the gallery covered the sidewalk between Spring and Prince Street here in NYC. An inconvenience to those waiting, but a testament to the global, viral and ultimately egalitarian nature of the project.

Missed the show or the line was too much? Emily Harvey (537 Broadway, NYC) is open 1- 7pm Tue-Sat and the shows runs through Sept. 22nd; but plan to attend before the pages "expire."

Not in NYC - visit the blog or web wall.

Matthew Rose comments on A Book About Death

Before the opening of the exhibition I shot video of a few words by the very busy Matthew Rose who organized and shepherded the project to completion. “The only exhibition that you take with you” sums up a key point to the exhibit. All the artists involved in the project produced 500 postcards to the project. Gallery visitors are encouraged to take “pages’ with them to form their personal "Book About Death”

Scene from the opening of A Book About Death

As a tribute to the Ray Johnson the exhibit is purposely ephemeral. Best said by Christian Xatrec, NYC director of the Emily Harvey Foundation, “The developing mission of the Foundation, and Rose’s show, refuse the notion of hierarchy and the buttressing of institutional framings.” Indeed, many artists aided the development of the project in a 21^st century continuation of Johnson’s fascination with the distribution of art by correspondence.

Pages of the Book About Death waiting for a home

I personally became aware of the project through the social networking of blogging. ABAD gained a steady global following through Facebook, Twitter and bloggers. As the press release notes, artist from Spain, Belgium, Australia, Asia, South America; indeed across the globe contributed a kaleidoscope of works. Caterina Verde, artist and website designer of the “wall site” for ABAD commented that “to see the images submitted from around the world and cultural permutations of the subject, the variations of temperament, thoughts, aesthetics - is as we observe ourselves walking through life; Ordinary and Extraordinary.

I capture Charlotte Soehner as she greets the opening crowd in English, French and Chinese

I arrived early afternoon of opening night and was able to lend a hand making sure all the artists who submitted work were represented on the wall. While I had been fairly diligent in viewing work as posted on the growing virtual wall, I gained a new perspective from handling the art of so many people I had become friends with because of the exhibit.

Many new friends lie in repose here at ABAD

Well done Matthew Rose! I think Ray Johnson was with you.

ABAD Opening

A Book About Death Exhibition poster by Matthew Rose

** The A Book about Death exhibition open this Thursday in NYC at the Emily Harvey gallery. The exhibit, organized by artist Matthew Rose, is part homage to the influential mail artist Ray Johnson and tribute to the late Emily Harvey. The exhibition is envisioned as an unbound book with the contributing artists providing the postcard size pages. All contributions concern the many faceted topic of death. The artists contributing to the show have drawn deeply to provide visual exemplars of their personal experiences with a difficult topic. The variety of thought and approach to the topic range from feelings of ones own mortality to examples of personal loss to heroic struggles to philosophical musing on purpose and value.

All artists have provided editions of 500 of their individual page. The pages may be collected to form the book. The pages are free for the taking to anyone attending the exhibition. In keeping with the theme the book will disappear during the course of the exhibition. (Although by the very nature of the distribution there are certainly reincarnation possibilities)

My contribution viewable here as a prior post or on the ABAD blog (artist #38 way back when) contains an enclosed short story entitled Text Messages from the Dead. The 400-word story is viewable for a limited time in the right margin of this blog.

The exhibition opens this Thursday, September 10th from 7:30 to 11pm at Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery at 537 Broadway in NYC.

The press release for the exhibit contains a full listing of the performances that accompany the opening as well as a wealth of background on the concept and innovative organization of this type of project. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the project is the viral nature and global reach that found roots in the correspondence work of Ray Johnson.

Everyone is also invited to freely download the ABAD poster art available as high resolution PDFs at http://abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com. Posters by Hoffman, Mars, Touchon, Verde, Rose, Rager and Hertz are featured.

Caterina Verde has also designed a companion website with the art visible as a mosaic wall or individually.

See you there!

By The Way

For those in the central Connecticut area, I'll be participating in an on the green show in Glastonbury, Ct. this weekend. The show (surprisingly titled On the Green) is this Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm.

Nightball

2009 Nightball T-Shirt

** Once again I have been chosen as the official T-shirt designer for the International Nightball Tournament. This year's design features a juxtaposition of a 1950's croquet rulebook with a brush wielding hand emerging from a serpent's mouth producing some graffiti. (blame my fascination with Mayan art for the latter)

Nightball, a lawn game using a standard croquet set is played during the night with balls and mallets on fire. The croquet set is usually consumed during play.

This years shirts are printed with pride by Curt Prestash of Curtcorp.

More on (de)clutter:

Ria's original mail art - awaiting collaboration

Additions to Ria's original

Last post I mentioned clutter and several comments were concerned whether I found any treasures. One major item was Ria's mail art (Ria of Painting2Cancers) which I had to finish my collaboration and mail off to a third party. My contribution was to add a bit of three dimensional fun to the piece and now it is safely in the hands of the postal service. On to a fellow mail artist for further modifications. When I spot it on FB or another blog I'll be sure to share.