Saturday's ATC workshop at The Wayward Elf in Mountainair was well attended by a mixture of experienced ATC makers and newcomers. Last years most active ATC boosters were. for the most part, conspicuous by their absence, as were locals not part of the local arts community. Still, workshop participants had a good time, learned a lot, shared tips - and ATCs do seem to be making a resurgence. Arts council support, notably conspicuous by its previous absence, is a plus (or mixed blessing as some might have it) and likely a contributing factor.
Attending: Ruth Ballen; Meg Chobanian; Wana Beth Fox; Amanda Hopping; Pamela Armas; Celeste Simon; Teresa Stoa (visiting Pamela from Albuquerque; newcomer Mandy Imlay; Vanessa Vaile (reporting for Mountainair Arts); and another newcomer (apologies for forgetting your name...)
Demos by Pamela Armas (Treasures of the Gypsy) and Teresa Stoa (Ancient Earth Echoes Design) on collage techniques and materials; by Meg Chobanian (QExpeditions) on layering and affixing transparent fabrics.
Pamela, Ruth and Vanessa brought abundant and varied examples of ATC to pass around. Counterbalancing workshop focus on paper & fiber collage and mixed media techniques, Vanessa's cards by Megan Lemcke (watercolor) and Geree McDermott (acrylic) showcased painting in creating ATCs. All in all, the workshop bodes well for Meg Chobanian's project to continue and expand ATCs at Sunflower Folk Art Day. Admittedly, with only the mildest and indubitably insignificant hints otherwise.
ATC FYI...ATC & CMA: CMA or Correspondence/MailArt [see previous blogs on mail art and calls for mail art] is an international postal network ("papernet") of artists and non-artists in existence since the late fifties. Participants exchange art freely and hold ongoing exhibitions. Some consider ATCs a subset of CMA, which is VERY well represented on the web. Michael Lumb's essay, "Mail Art, 1955 to 1995: Democratic art as social sculpture," is excellent - informative, very interesting, but also long - available only on the web From interview about ATC with Don Mabie, aka Chuck Stake.
Artists have used the concept and format of collectible cards, that is the 2.5 by 3.5 inch size/format, a number of times in the past thirty or forty years for a number of different purposes. They have been used by artists to promote their work; for commercial purposes; as catalogues; etc. Particularly in North America, collectible cards are ubiquitous and were part of almost everyone¹s childhood, be they Hockey Cards, Barbie Cards, or whatever variation....Vänçi¹s [Stirnemann, originator of ATC] unique contribution was the idea that the cards be made to be traded --- the Trading Session, and, of equal importance, that the cards could be handmade, they did not have to be manufactured. It was these two simple, but brilliant, ideas that created the concept of ATCs.
(More about the trading vs selling debate at another time. It is socioculturally significant and not as simplistic as either side would have it.) Display tips
Mat and frame cards to hang on the wall, individually or as a montage of multiple ACEO/ATC. Loose in a pot or a box or a basket for people to look through, or in a small folder as a unique coffee table book. Use an empty CD box & mat board to make a frame that fits the box and frames the card.
SWAP... WHEN? WHERE?MMAChas scheduled a swap for Sunflower Folk Art Day. Although Mountainair Arts Tour ATC activity is supposed more demo oriented, presumably trading is possible if card makers show up with cards to trade and the inclination to do so. After all, it's not exactly the stock market where trading is a strictly regulated activity. There are ATC forums online and swaps listed at meetup.com. Indeed, a whole ATC subculture out there. Forums and calendars get word out - and not just to invite area card makers. Traveling atc makers like to drop in on counterparts in other parts of the country - visit, swap, share ideas, see what they are up to. An Alaskan artist vacationing in NM visited Judy Mowris last year largely due to learning that they shared atc interest.
If Mountainair ATC artists expect abqq ATC artists to come to Mountainair or hold a swap here, they should attend abqq ATC swaps. The river of quid pro quo flows both directions. Check out the Albuquerque Artist Trading Cards Meetup Group.
It was a very ATC weekend without my having intended it as such. Workshop Saturday and going away party for Jim & Geree Sunday. Interestingly (fascinating, as Spock would have it), guests were also last year's core atc makers and boosters (Geree, Linda Johnson, Judy Mowris, Joan C, Robin DesJardins, myself). Joan's ATC poster is coming along impressively. The finished poster, chock a block with atc images by local artists, will be available for order from cafepress. Additionally, she promised me the poster jpeg in case anyone wants to take on printing posters locally to sell at tour and sunflower. I guess that makes me and the blog her local poster agents. When completed, we'll run a smaller image on the blog, perhaps as a featured header, along with ordering information. The McDermotts did a yard un-sale (less to pack or haul off), sending guests home laden with gifts, art, edible and otherwise. I came home with a supply of brushes and acrylic (Geree's way of encouraging me), a bright floorcloth perfect for the kitchen, videos, condiments, buckets, plants and more.
alt.tour.arts @ mountainairNot all that is tour is inevitably, inexorably mmac. Every year, local vendors and establishments fly under the radar, forgoing paying mmac registration fees and reaping dubious benefits of uneven promotion & listings on mediocre tour map/ in cheesey brochure. This year the underground, although still informal (otherwise it would not be an under the radar underground, would it?) is taking more coherent shape, lists of unaffiliated participants, a name... who knows, perhaps even banners! Likewise, fear not undergrounders: ATC started out both historically and here as part outsider art with a democratizing bent. alt.tours.arts @ mountainair honors that spirit Stay tuned for developments...
Saturday was also a day of climate rallies across the country. In the spirit of National Poetry Month + Earth Day, here's an interview with Martin Strada, poet, environmentalist, activist and English professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, whose 8th book, The Republic of Poetry, appeared last October - and poems. Noted Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros calls him "the Pablo Neruda of North American authors." This combines and takes care of poetry and eco blogligations in a single fell swoop - and with more than a passing nod to social justice (enviro awareness sans social justice sucks - just more bourgeois nimby poncing about). More anon... "Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits" by Martin Espada
No one asks
where I am from,
I must be
from the country of janitors,
I have always mopped this floor.
Honduras, you are a squatter's camp
outside the city
of their understanding.
No one can speak
my name,
I host the fiesta
of the bathroom,
stirring the toilet
like a punchbowl.
The Spanish music of my name
is lost
when the guests complain
about toilet paper.
What they say
must be true:
I am smart,
but I have a bad attitude.
No one knows
that I quit tonight,
maybe the mop
will push on without me,
sniffing along the floor
like a crazy squid
with stringy gray tentacles.
They will call it Jorge.
