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