Deeply Superficial People

Finally ..... I completed my mail art piece for Deeply Superficial People yesterday.  Hopefully the post office won't have any problems accepting it.  I was hoping to get it to the post office yesterday before the HUGE storm moved in ... but that didn't happen.  I had to wait for the last coat of gel medium to dry then added a coat of Crystal Clear for extra protection. The can says it "dries in minutes".  What it neglects to tell you is that it stinks for a long time after that!  I'm worried my little, local post office is going to scoff at my masterpiece as is .. I don't need major stink thrown into the equation!  Hopefully the stink will go away by the time I'm able to make it out of my driveway.  A couple feet of snow already and still coming down!

When I signed up for the mail art project, I received a random page from an old photo book ... the challenge was to create a work of art that either uses or was inspired by the page.  At first, I thought the page I received was completely uninspiring ... I put it aside and ignored it for a long time as I worked on my sketchbook and other projects.  Eventually, the ideas started coming together. However, I had put the page aside for so long that I forgot it was a mail art project!  I had one idea in my head then had to revise it when I re-read the project material!

Part of the story on the page was about Erich Salomon and how he had to convince political leaders in 1928 to allow him to photograph their meetings.  They were afraid the cameras of the day would be too intrusive and the flash bulbs too smoky.  Salomon convinced them by taking photos while they were unaware with his Photo-Jumelle camera.  They were amazed when they saw the photos.  They had no idea he was even taking the pictures.  After that, Salomon went on to photograph many important political leaders of the day.

My piece may not look like much from the outside.  The top and bottom of the box were covered with antique bronze painted foil.  The middle was covered with darkened wood-grained scrapbooking paper.  The lens is a tape transfer painted from behind with more antique bronze paint.  A few embellishments were added.

But the best part is that the 'camera' is interactive!  When you press the button on the top and look in the view finder, the inside is illuminated and you're able to see the picture from the page I received.  Too bad I can't capture that with my camera!

As with most projects, this was an evolutionary process that started with the acquisition of an empty Christmas light display from my local K-mart!  It was one of those displays where you press the button and the sample lights on the front of the display illuminate.  Of course the display is battery powered, so I removed the light pack from the display and transferred it into my 'camera'. After dissecting an old McDonalds happy meal toy to extract a small magnifying glass for the view finder, the basic camera guts were assembled.  I buffered the button on the top of my box with some rubber molding so that my batteries won't run out should the button be held down by other mail during transit.  My vision had actually come together!      

The fun part about this project is that the pieces will be part of an exhibit to be held at the Bodytribe in Sacramento in March, 2010 ... well .. that's if my piece is deemed to have artistic merit!  Guess I'm going to find out if anyone else thinks I'm an artist or not.  I won't take it personally if they don't.  I'll be disappointed because I put a lot of work into my project, but this is the first time I've ever submitted anything like this, so I'll be very excited if it is included.

Check back for both mailing and judging updates!