Behind the Scene

New Book Release - Photobooth Performances

2012-01-25T22:41:00.001-05:00

What happens when more than 55 international artists perform within the confines of a photobooth? The results: Fluxus, humor, Dada, statements, jokes, and performance photos some dialog with b and w plus color imagery. 68 pages; 6x9 inches; paperback; includes A Brief Photobooth History by Mark Bloch.

@$21.60 reduced from $24 through Feb 7th and free ground shipping using code WHOASHIPPING through Jan 31st. Downloadable available too. Buy as many at this price that you want. Don't forget to rate for better exposure!

Go to TropiChaCha Press Store

Review of Asemics by De Villo Sloan

2012-01-24T10:40:00.000-05:00

ASEMICS 16 GREATEST HITS (Vol. 3) Lloyd (USA), Nikoltsou (Greece), Pesetskaya (Russian Federation), Jones (USA)

January 24, 2012 - My retrospective series of articles on the Asemics 16 collaborative book project that was headquartered here at the IUOMA will end with this third volume of selections; otherwise, I risk becoming lost in incredible work by the nearly 70 artists who participated. We have an exciting new visual poetry book in production that also deserves close attention.

Ginny Lloyd is a well-known Fluxus artist. Project Co-coordinator Cheryl Penn (South Africa) and I were thrilled when she signed on to contribute a chapter to Edition #3. Ginny Lloyd's finely produced and digitally composed chapter has been blogged and documented by others. Personally, I am not sure it has received as much attention as it deserves. These are beautiful and provocative asemics.

While the means of production she used expresses the digital age in comparison to earlier visual and concrete poetry that was an expression of the industrial era, I think Ginny Lloyd's work fulfills the vision of organic structures (literally) in asemic writing and explores the concept of biopoetry, avoiding well "exercises in formalism." For instance, I think it is wonderfully creative, and it might strike some as a bit of humor, that teeth are used for asemic characters (top scan, right side). And teeth do have an undeniable and key role in spoken language. Here is another two-page spread from Ginny Llloyd's chapter:

For me, each page of the chapter holds new wonder, an unexpected possibility for asemics. While some of the pages evoke scientific or medical images (an anti-art aesthetic?) the organic qualities are very pronounced. The melding symbols (above left) are a prime example - it is not hard to see why so many visual poets are also making videos; these forms want to move. These next pages, far more subtle, are my personal favorites:

These are pages that will please the Symbolist School of Subtle Aesthetic Obscurity. The right-hand page is particularly subtle and complex; indeed, the amazing use of color is hard to capture in a scan. I believe these pages would satisfy even the most "asemically correct" purist.

Many, many thanks to Ginny Lloyd for this incredible chapter and for her involvement in Asemics 16. Check out her artistamps blog and other projects.

(To read the full review go to the link provided at the top of the article.)

Ex Libris Show at Davidson Galleries in Seattle

2012-01-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

SNAP TO GRID December 2011 Exhibit

2012-01-02T16:35:00.002-05:00

Los Angeles Center For Digital Art (LACDA) is located in the Gallery Row area of downtown Los Angeles, CA

The show represents a snapshot of a current moment in art history when digital imaging has reached the hands of the many, an age where culture belongs to the "mobblogers" around the globe. From Thailand to Texas, amateur to academic, beautiful to banal and beyond the monumental quantity and variety of "Snap to Grid" becomes an aesthetic experience where each individual piece adds to an agglomerative effect that has a life of its own.

Chicago Billboard Show - October 2011 on I-90 Near Oakton

2011-11-02T23:38:00.002-04:00

Screw Head Performed by Melissa McCarthy w/Reed Altemus - Kaunas, Lithuania

2011-11-02T10:17:00.005-04:00

Другая Почта/ Иные Марки_выставка в in St Petersburg Russia

2011-11-02T10:09:00.000-04:00

Artistamp Show by Konstantin Kalendaroff

My stamps on exhibit.

Billboard Art Show in New Orleans

2011-10-25T10:24:00.000-04:00

I have a series of billboards in the Billboard Art Project now showing in New Orleans, LA Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 12 a.m. to Friday, November 18th at 11:59 p.m. Four weeks (now extended to later) of art interspersed among advertising at Pontchartrain Expressway, east bound, just after South Claiborne Avenue.

This is taking place during the largest biennial of international contemporary art in the United States. ... Prospect.2 New Orleans. A few of the images are below:

Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum Blog-in-Print

2011-10-21T14:15:00.001-04:00

This offer ends December 1, 2011.

A downloadable color PDF catalog is now available of the Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum blog. It consists of all standard posts (excluding videos and Pages) of entries to the blog in the order posted made into book format. You can download, then print, and/or keep your copy electronically. This is an easy way to document your participation, and show family and friends all the wonderful artistamps from around the world.

For more details see the blog http://artistampmuseum.blogspot.com/

Fluxus Scores - put together by Matt Taggart

2011-10-19T23:18:00.002-04:00

Kaunas Biennale is happening in Lithuania - October 2011

2011-10-19T23:14:00.004-04:00

Jack in the box by Allen Bukoff, Box hanging to left by Lisa Iversen, Cut pants by DeVillo Sloan, next piece by Nula Horo, Rubberstamps on window by Picasso Gaglione, Patchwork by Marianne Middelburg, Fluxweb Lacemaking bat & shuttles by Jorge Artajo, Mailart hanging bag by Neosho, Fluxus Good Eyes banners by Bibiana Padilla Maltos, Fluxbox on Seat (Fluxpuzzle) by Kyle White, Poets clothes by Jim Leftwich, Red circle by Alan Revich, Fluxus Ritual Kit by Ginny Lloyd, Brotkatzen (above door) by Kommisar Hjular; Mama Baer.

Visual Poetry Show in Chicago...curated by Keith Buchholz

2011-10-08T23:07:00.002-04:00

MOMA / Museum of Mail Art at Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen, Warth, Switzerland

2011-09-30T14:21:00.001-04:00

Part of the HRFricker's- show at Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Warth Switzerland

Ginny Lloyd / Giovanni Strada at MOMA-Museum of Mail Art. Part of the HRFricker's- show at Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Warth Switzerland.

Stempel / rubber stamps of HRF ca. 1975-1995 Im Kunstmuseum Thurgau. Warth TG

Behind The Monthly Scene

2011-09-30T14:04:00.001-04:00

The Monthly was banned by the San Francisco print companies in the early ‘80s. Yes, liberal, accepting of all things unusual San Francisco was not so hip in the print industry. I could not find anyone to offset print the first two issues because, “We don’t print content like this.”

Upon questioning what in the publication’s content these guys did not publish, it came down to the politics that was not agreeable. The Monthly was perceived to be a radical feminist and/or lesbian publication by the printer trade. Whereas, neither of the contributors thought it was political at all!

Becoming more determined to get the issues out into the art public, the Xerox copier was used to print the first two issues. Finally when the third issue was ready a friend referred me to a print company owner who was a Grateful Dead fan who would accept it for print…but there was a condition. I would have to understand that the pressman might be opposed to the job and the owner would not be able to control him.

So what did that mean exactly?

I asked to meet with the pressman to ask him personally if he found the content offensive. Upon his inspection of the galleys he agreed to run the job.

A week later I went back to pick up the completed zines and was surprised to receive a pile of layout boards with the waxed on text and finely tuned originals showing visible footprints. Also they were falling apart as if they’d been thrown across the room. The artwork was generally an overall mess. Plus I could only get the artwork returned when the printed copies were paid for, regardless of whether I liked the resulting job with the messy lines and paste-up marks.

So the third issue of The Monthly is a testament to those early zine days, before the print profession had to change its ways in more than attitude.

50 Year Jubilee box

2011-09-15T14:27:00.000-04:00

This Assembling is a small extract from the network, but in a slightly larger format, which not all the participants kept – that is mail art as well. It includes a postcard in an envelope, perforated artist stamp sheets, works of different reproduction techniques and contributions of a diverse nature. That suited the idea that first gave rise to this assembling, namely to collect material for a mail art exhibition in Berlin in 2012.
More information can be found at: http://wohlrab-verlag.de/editionen_jubilee.php

New Catalog is Available

2011-09-15T14:17:00.001-04:00

This 8 page catalog is available upon request

Fluxfest NYC - 2011

2011-08-28T16:36:00.000-04:00

Again I was unable to attend a Fluxfest due to health and family. My mom died during this time so my energies and attention were not focused entirely on art. I was however able to participate in absentia via a new poster design and Catherine Bennett acted as my stand in for the Fluxus West induction. Don Boyd presided while the following were inducted:
Revich, Wood, Vassar, Kusina, Maltos, Campbell, Bennett (both John and Mehrl), Kinsey, Altemus, Wyndham, Touchon, Rutherford (Joshua and Jessica), Kosharek, Courtney, Sass, Sass-Hake, Gaglione (Picasso and Darlene Domel)

Induction Ceremony via Phone

Certificate of Induction

Visual Poetry on Billboards in Duluth, MN

2011-08-23T11:53:00.002-04:00

The show was held over the weekend of August 20-21. Take a look. If you want to see more images of other artists works visit Facebook; Billboard Art Project page.

JUST RELEASED - Make Your Own Stamps

2011-07-21T12:10:00.000-04:00

Purchase a piece of artistamp and mail art history! In 1986 artist Ginny Lloyd asked several artists to complete and return a page of artist made stamps (artistamps). The results are compiled into this fun book, demonstrating how artists use clever approaches to stamp making. This project was rediscovered in her archives during 2010. Includes Banana, Baroni, Bidner, Blurr, Pittore, Stetser, Cavellini, Dogfish, Dudek-Durer, LeClair, Fricker, Gaglione, Galantai, Held, Higgins, JES Archives, Hoffberg, Olbrich, Kantor, Lake, Lloyd, Spiegelman, Maurer, Johnson, Scott, Alter, and Worrell. Go to http://stores.lulu.com/ginnylloyd

NEW Mail Art Coffee Table BOOK - Tour '81 SketchBOOK - BUY NOW with added discount through August15th

2011-07-13T11:21:00.002-04:00

When artist Ginny Lloyd traveled throughout Europe in 1981, she took along a blank sketchbook that quickly filled with artwork created by the numerous artists she visited. The artists were involved in the mail art network, a worldwide community that existed years before Internet social networking became a social phenomenon. A copy of this one-of-a-kind book is now available in print. 86 pages, 9"x7"

Included is a first hand report previously published in Umbrella magazine. In this book: Aart van Barneveldt, Angelika Schmidt, Bern Boyle, Cavellini, Christine Vanderborght, EF Higgins III, Emilio Morandi, Guy Bleus, Guy Schraenen, Harley, Henk Fakkeldy, Johan van Geluwe, Jurgen Olbrich, Michael Scott, Pawel Petasz, Pier Van Dijk, Robert Joseph, Robert Rehfeldt, Rod Summers, Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Tomasz Schulz, Ulises Carrion, Vittore Baroni, Wulle Konsumkunst and many more.

Retails at $30 but with the 15% publisher's discount cost is $25.50 available through August. But there is more - another printer's 15% off which brings the price down even further when using code MYBOOK305 at checkout

Go to http://stores.lulu.com/ginnylloyd for more details about this and other recent TropiChaCha Press titles.

Kaunas Biennial - Lithuania and preview show in Chicago, IL

2011-07-09T08:57:00.003-04:00

Work made for TEXTILE 11 / KAUNAS BIENNIAL , LITHUANIA
GEORGE MACIUNAS AND BEYOND : FLUXUS NEVER STOPS OPENS OCTOBER 2011

Sample of a Photobooth Book Submission by Buz

2011-06-23T19:02:00.004-04:00

More info about the call is further back in this blog.

Steps for submission:
1. Take/make 4 photos of your photobooth performance.
2. Put this in an envelop - do not email
3. On a piece of paper draw dialogue bubbles for talk, think and/or holler (or you can collage from the ones provided at http://ginnylloyd.blogspot.com and also in this FB group). Make sure you indicate which bubble goes with each photo.
4. Clearly print your text in the bubble(s).
5. Add the paper to the envelop.
6. Mail envelop to PO Box 1424, Jupiter, Florida 33468 USA

Visual Poetry on Billboards

2011-06-23T18:48:00.000-04:00

Billboard Art Project in Savannah, Georgia See more upcoming locations and documentation at:
Billboard Art Project

Photobooth Book from TropiChaCha Press and call for photobooth performances

2011-05-24T14:55:00.023-04:00

a day at the races is a photo book showcasing artists' performances (Lloyd, Banana, Cleveland, Gaglione and more) taking place in a photobooth. Images were taken from 1980 to 2010. Includes humorous dialog.6" x 9", saddle-stitch binding, 24 pages

URL: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/a-day-at-the-races/10256119 Or click You can buy this book on Lulu, download it, write a positive review and/or give a 5 star rating! Discount is now available for a limited time. For a complete list of books see: Store at Lulu

Call for Photobooth Performances
If you want to participate in the next photobooth book, mail in four photobooth style photos with dialogue bubbles documenting a photobooth performance by November 30thm 2011 to: PhotoBooth Book, PO Box 1424, Jupiter, FL 33468 For quality control, no electronic submissions please - original photobooth or photobooth like photos only - no copies! No returns. Future exhibitions to be announced to participants. Be sure to use the prescribed format - photobooth style image size and include dialog bubbles..

Steps for submission:
1. Take/make 4 photos of your photobooth performance.
2. Put this in an envelop - do not email
3. On a piece of paper draw dialogue bubbles for talk, think and/or holler (or you can collage from the ones provided here and also in the FB group). Make sure you indicate which bubble goes with each photo.
4. Clearly print your text in the bubble(s).
5. Add the paper to the envelop.
6. Mail envelop to PO Box 1424, Jupiter, Florida 33468 USA

To understand the format fully see a preview of book pages at the Lulu link given above allowing slight delay time in preview. (The prescribed format files are below and downloadable from here. If you do not have access to a photobooth you can use clear photos of quality in the format.) You can send in as many performances as you want but I can only guarantee space for one submission at this time.

Participants will be able to get a copy of the next book as a free PDF download or print copies at wholesale. Updates and announcements will be made on this blog.

Use this as a gauge for adding photos.

Add dialogue to bubbles either by hand print or type - just be very clear! You can use the below images pasted or hand drawn so I know which mood you intend, I will be adding text electronically during prepress work.

thought

shout

talk

THE LAST BOOK, a project by Luis Camnitzer

2011-05-12T12:10:00.000-04:00

My page (1 per person)

Russian Review of Artistamps - 2010

2011-05-12T11:08:00.000-04:00

This article is posted in full at the Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Museum blog - linked from this site in right hand column.
Image featured in the review.

1982 Article - 5 Cents A Page

2011-04-21T10:38:00.001-04:00

Lloyd, Ginny. "5 Cents a Page."
Women Artists News 7 (6):11-12 (Summer 1982)

Thanks to Reed Altemus for tracking this copy down for me!

Pairings - New Release from Redfoxpress

2011-04-10T08:26:00.003-04:00

I have to admit my visits at the Sackner Archive and the Printed Matter Book Fair were inspiring. This manifested into a new visual poetry book. All of the works included are new and are derived from copy art, photographs, and computer graphics - sometimes collaged with text or just about the visual beauty of text. I wanted to achieve a modern look for these images as compared to classical visual poetry. I had a great time putting this together as the theme emerged with each piece having a relationship with another - pairs or pairings.

Redfoxpress hand prints and hand binds their suite of collectible books and I'm proud to be part of their editions. To order a copy you can purchase directly from them (see link), on Amazon, or I can sell you a signed copy. Prints of images from the book are also available directly from me. http://www.redfoxpress.com/dada-lloyd.html

After the Sackner Visit - Panel on Visual Poetry in Miami

2011-03-11T19:33:00.000-05:00

Marvin Sackner discusses his collection with Richard Kostelanetz and Carlos Luis at Books & Books in Miami, Florida. The press info on the talk stated:

Richard Kostelanetz is a prolific author, critic, editor, and artist. Since the 1960's he has written and edited close to one hundred books, including Imaged Words and Worded Images (1970), Breakthrough Fictioneers (1973), Text-Sound Texts (1980), Wordworks (1993), and the monumental Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes (2nd ed., 1999). His essays, poems, fictions, and experimental prose explore the limits of language. He has also worked with various other media, including audio recordings, holograms, photographs, video and film, prints, and high-tech installations. Tonight, in a conversation with collector/physician Marvin Sackner and critic/gallerist Carlos M. Luis, RK will initially defend his continuing commitment to Visual Poetry as Words, mostly Words visually enhanced, and praise booksellers who also exhibit literary art. He will recall his publishing in media other than printed pages – not only prints and drawings but book-art, audio, video, film, and holography. Ranging as they will, they will respond to one another and to questions from the audience. RK will gladly sign any books of his presented to him.

Visit to Sackner Archive in Miami, Florida - November 2010

2011-03-11T19:06:00.003-05:00

Last November I had a very hospitable visit with Ruth and Marvin at the archive of visual and concrete poetry. For many years they have held some of my work in their collection but this was my first in-person visit and meeting. I took photos to share. So far in my experience this is the largest archive I have ever seen (I have visited many) - worthy of a museum in of itself.

See more about the Archive on the Web: http://ww2.rediscov.com/sacknerarchives/Welcome.aspx

Artists Participate in Discovery Ride

2011-02-25T09:40:00.049-05:00

Yesterday was an important milestone in art and in my own participation in NASA’s space program with the launch of the last manned shuttle Discovery heading to the Space Station. A reproduction of my work is included with a group of international artists aboard Space Mission STS-133 which departed the NASA Kennedy Space Centre at 4:50 pm EST.

A recent project was created by Gary A. Bibb, in collaboration with Cecil Touchon. Fluxface in Space documents the entries by 127 artists from 26 nations to NASA’s public program whereas you could submit a photo and your name to be added to a microchip going along for the ride to the Space Station.

This wasn't my first participation with art in space but one of many "performances" on the theme - go to June 2010 entries in this blog to see more about past activities.

Last September I arranged for a group of Fluxus artists to visit Kennedy Space Center, performing throughout the day. See the blog Inter-Florida FLUXUS Tour for full documentation of the tour. During this tour we exhibited (and almost lost in weightlessness) a copy of the Fluxface in Space project.

Click here to see more about Fluxface in Space.

Chicago Fluxfest - My Participation Was in Abstentia

2011-02-21T20:29:00.005-05:00

The "official" poster design.

Melissa McCarthy did "Bundle Up" performance score dedicated to me - wrapping up in layers of clothes to keep warm because of my thin Florida blood.

This actually looks pretty close to what I look like when the temps dip down into the 40s here.

Troyart Show in Brazil

2010-12-17T10:33:00.000-05:00

What a fun show! The Museu Brasileiro da Escultura in São Paulo, Brasil sent 500 artists one of several pre-punched robotic designs to assemble and decorate as they saw fit. The artists then returned them to the museum for an exhibition opening on Friday, January 14, 2011 and runs through to January 30th. The show will then be part of the permanent sculpture collection.

To see the show online go to http://toymube.blogspot.com/ Below is my contribution:

Carbon Alternative Show Review

2010-12-02T08:52:00.002-05:00

This is an article that ran in several local news outlets in South Florida.

NYC Artists Book Fair

2010-11-27T11:20:00.002-05:00

Anticham and Francis of Redfox Press, Ginny, Sticker Dude aka Joel Cohen.

Here we are again with Mark Bloch (Panman) added to the crew.


Ginny and Francis with his silkscreens on the wall.

I love books! I have since I was a kid, before I could read I loved to look at books. I read anything and everything in the house. I came to believe I could learn to do anything if I could find something in print on the topic. I also believe you can become anything, as long as you can find the instruction manual.

I have written a sizable number of instruction manuals for corporate clients and their employees/customers and developed training programs for the same. But I digress into a different "blog". I went up to NYC for this fair for several reasons. When I heard about it I knew I had to....see the books (what is happening now in artists books?), look for publisher leads for a planned artistamp book, meet Anticham and Francis, get to see their books first hand, and go tot he MOMA for a good modern art fix.

I was not disappointed. After getting my room squared away - unbelievably the hotel was sold out and did not have my reservation!! Adding to the stress of this, their internet access was down so I could not quickly find another. But that ended up with them putting me into a suite, reserved for this type of issue, the manager said. (Does this happen often?)

I spent my first afternoon at MOMA and dinner, then over to see Bill Wilson, the Ray Johnson and May Wilson art collector. Bill and I have only met in person once before but it is as though I've known him for years. Well I could have, since we grew up across the river from each other on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. A long way from international artists book art, mail art, FLUXUS, artistamps and more. It's a rural, small town Southern culture we're from and we share a few historical connections that is for another story. Southerners like to talk about family history when they get together.

Kitchen Fluxkit by George Maciunas

Yoko Ono Fluxus Score

Wonder photo of Potatoes Flying by (don't remember)


Bill and Ginny

Bill Wilson

The book fair was huge - 3 stories of a former school filled with books; their makers and publishers ready to answer questions and sell you copies. It took 2 days for me to take it all in. The crowd Saturday afternoon was so thick you could barely move. Nevertheless it was wonderful to see how much artists books as an art form has grown. I recall my first book fair in Frankfurt where artists books were the rarity put in one corner. No longer.

On the third floor I discovered the zines and alternative books. And to my surprise, several booths of artists from San Francisco. We had lots to talk about and I shared my own zine history with several of these folks. One requested an interview for the SFMOMA which I gladly granted. I met a couple zine artists who looked younger than my grown grandchildren. I laughed as they did a double-take when I admired their zine art while I told them I used to make zines. I guess their grandmother doesn't make zines? I also saw works by Ulises Carrión and a $1,000 artistamp sheet by General Idea for sale.

Mark and Ginny

Antic and Francis

The Redfox Press booth was very popular. The output by Francis and Anticham has both quality and consistency, enough for them to make a living and do their international travel for the fair circuit. The suit of books by both of them and the guest artists were wonderful to see spread out amongst two long tables. Joel Cohen (Sticker Dude) was on hand to sign books, and played the guitar for the crowd. See the books in the video below.

Copy Art Workshop at the Jaffe Center for the Book Arts

2010-11-03T11:34:00.000-04:00

I have been teaching a copy art workshop at the Florida Atlantic University's Jaffe Center for the Book Arts. The enrollment has been huge so I have taught a second one and a third is planned in November, also sold out.

The photos posted here are some of the participants' works made during the second class. The first class produced equally wonderful works. I'm proud of them all.

Opening of A Book About Death @ Belknap Mi

2010-11-03T11:19:00.000-04:00

Melissa McCarthy is wrapped performing my Futurists Meet Fluxus as the "grand finale" score at the opening of the A Book About Death show at the Belknap Mill, 25 Beacon Street East in Laconia NH, Friday October 29th, 2010. On loan from The Studio.

Melissa wrote, "The audience thought it was a riot!" For more information see her blog at: Belknap Mill

Participate in this Historical Mail Art Show

2010-08-17T11:47:00.000-04:00

Please mail something, anything, for the following before October 1, 2010. I will be at Asheville, north Carolina, to install the exhibition. Thanks in Advance, John

BMC to DiY:

The Continuing Influence of Black Mountain College Artists

(Josef & Anni Albers, Ruth Asawa, Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, Ray Johnson, Karen Karnes, Albert Lanier, M. C. Richards, Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Snelson, Norman Solomon [Mr. Postcards], Marie Tavroges Stilkind, David Tudor, Cy Twombly, Peter Voulkos, et al.)

Mail Art Show Curated with Lecture by John Held, Jr.

Re-Viewing Black Mountain College 2

A Conference Co-hosted by

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center and

The University of North Carolina at Asheville

October 8-10, 2010

Keynote Speaker: Kenneth Snelson

Send Mail Art to:

BMC to DiY

Black Mountain College Museum

56 Broadway

Asheville, NC 28801

Exhibition deadline October 1, 2010

Exhibition to remain in BMC Museum archive

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2496677%3ABlogPost%3A158118&commentId=2496677%3AComment%3A158345&xg_source=activity
http://www.blackmountaincollege.org

Attached Photo: Hazel Larsen Archer, Untitled (Ray in Josef Albers' Class), ca. 1945-1948. Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and BMC Museum + Arts Center
Ray Johnson font by Keith Bates (England)

A few photos of the Carbon Alternative installation

2010-08-09T11:08:00.000-04:00

Ginny Lloyd

Harley

Ginny Lloyd

Roc cover on StampArt by Picasso Gaglione

Ryouski Cohen

Leland Fletcher

Ginny Lloyd

Not sure

Write Your Own Score

2010-08-02T14:23:00.002-04:00

Keith A. Buchholz
Performing Ginny Lloyd's Score "Write Your Own Score"... and performing
the score that he wrote .......... Stampland in Chicago, Saturday Afternoon July 31, 2010.

Artibook - Travel Book

2010-07-31T10:15:00.000-04:00

Sample pages. Would you buy this book? Considering publishing it "print on demand".

Artibooks - Plastic and multimedia

2010-07-31T10:10:00.000-04:00

A sample of several books made in this style:

Artibooks Two - Letterpress

2010-07-31T09:47:00.002-04:00

Keypunch cards and letterpress

Rag paper, satin and beading

Artibooks One - Letterpress

2010-07-31T09:38:00.001-04:00


Letterpress on canvas and acrylic paint.

Show of 80s Works and Collection - 2010

2010-07-29T20:36:00.010-04:00

Lecture and workshop Exploring Copier Art: August 28th and Sept 25th

Fluxus Performance on as part of the Inter-Florida Fluxus Tour on Sept 14th including: Keith Buchholz, Reid Wood, Reed Altemus, Bibiana Padilla Maltos and myself.

Works in the show are my books Blitzkunst, The Storefront, Copy Art Exhibition discussed previously in this blog. Included are several one-of-a-kind books I made using plastic sleeves with found objects. Also a few letterpress books from experiments I did using unconventional methods/materials, rubberstamp books I made in Europe, assemblings and mail art catalogs. Lots of artistamp works showing the use of the copiers to make stamps - from my Gina Lotta Artistamp Museum collection (see the blog). My computer copier pieces, and fruit series are amongst the prints selected by the curator. A whole case shows videophone prints made with students in my 80s computer graphics classes.

Included are selections of works from other artists from my archives. This is just part of many more items in my Mail Art and book collection:

96 Tears

Andrew Hayes
Art Hakim
Barbara Cushman’s Color Xerox Calendars
Barbara Wyeth
Bill Wilson
Buster Cleveland
Buz Blurr
Cavellini
Daniel Cabanis
Emilio Morandi - Arte Studio
Eva Lake
Julia and György Galántai - Artpool
Harley
Henryk Gaweski
HR Fricker
Ian Teuty
John Udvardy
Jurgen Olbrich
Leland Fletcher
Liza Jane Norman
Madam X
Mario Lara
Michael Mintz
Pawel Petasz
Polly Esther Nation
Ray Johnson
Reed Altemus
Richard Kostelanetz
Rockola
Ryouski Cohen
SAS Colby
Scarlatina Lust
Ulises Carrión
Vigo Marx
Vittore Baroni
William Gaglione

Also from the Jaffe's permanent collection:
Eugenia Balcells
John Armleder
Tom Ockerse
Judith A. Hoffberg
Lilian Bell
Michael Gibbs
Robert C. Morgan
Plages

A Book About Death - project created by Matthew Rose 2009 (not 80s but they really like this concept) has a whole case filled with the book.

Rockola'd Image

2010-07-17T14:01:00.000-04:00

Inter-Florida Fluxus Tour

2010-07-17T13:59:00.003-04:00

Performance and events have held a large space in my personal art history and now is the time for a new venture.

You are invited to participate in a 4-day performance tour held in September throughout parts of Florida. Both new and original Fluxus scores will be performed and documented in this fun tour, starting north in St Petersburg and then heading east and south. Keith Buchholz, Reid Wood, Bibiana Maltos and Reed Altemus have enthusiastically signed on already. The itinerary:

9/11 - Artpool Gallery, Toy Storey mail art show opening organized by Jennifer K formerly Jennifer Z - 9:29 pm St Petersburg – contact her for details at jenniferzoe@juno.com

9/12 –Dali Museum St Petersburg and head to East Coast

9/13 –Kennedy Space Center – head down to Jupiter

9/14 –Burt Reynolds Museum - Jupiter

9/14 – Florida Atlantic University - Boca Raton Campus

And planning a DADA night venue - tba

Exit 9/15

FAU is very enthusiastic about the performance event there and it coincides with an exhibition of my 80’s work and a series of guest lectures (see more recent post) If you would like to participate in this tour or part of it, please contact Ginny Lloyd at ginnylloyd@ginnyonline.com to sign on and for more info. If you want to check out past events I’ve organized see InterDADA84.blogspot.com and ginnylloyd.blogspot.com

JES Archives

2010-07-03T11:34:00.004-04:00

I met Jesse Edwards at the Copy Art Exhibition when he purchased several pieces that were in the show (see info at Copy Art Exhibition). He was not what you would think of as far as art collectors go in that he was young, hip and knew a lot about local art in what many collectors and critics would consider "marginal" arts. He was a dead ringer for a Dennis Hopper look alike. Jesse knew what he liked and was a prolific buyer. A couple of his local favorites were S Clay Wilson (previous post Poetry - Comix - Comics ) and stencil artist Scott Williams. Before I left for Europe he asked me to call him when I returned.

I began working for a few hours a week as a consultant for Jesse, first setting up a database of artists and artworks and second introducing him to the artists I knew locally and internationally. He introduced me to a few artists he had been collecting. I think Clay and I surprised him when he found out we knew each other since we weren't in what Jesse knew as the same art circles. When Clay said he's been to my house several times I think Jesse thought we were kidding. I advised Jesse on archival storage methods I had learned through photography. I encouraged him to give his collection a name and to have a business card at the minimal for giving out to the artists I was bringing in to meet him. Georgina designed a card and I suggested the list of names of who was included in the collection to be added to the back.

Later, for mailing purposes, Jesse wanted a postcard to send out. After seeing a set of postcards I had made using computerized photo booth images, Jesse selected the image in this well known card to go with his JES Archives information.

Because Jesse loves to know how things are made - the card was made from a photobooth image taken in Europe run through a video camera attached to a computer and dot matrix printer printout. Then resized on a copier, overlayed with Rubylith for the color separations made by hand, and printed full color. The background was Letrapress film screening and the text was a computer printout. This is a process made virtually obsolete by current computer graphic design capabilities. In its day it was an unusual image.

Jesse supported many Bay Area artists and promoted much of the art scene in the 80s. He helped InterDADA 84 artists by sponsoring the hostel. He and Georgina moved to southern California and opened a successful store on the Venice Beach boardwalk, selling Asian imported jewelry and wearable items. Years later they sold the store and now travel extensively.

I was always treated like a member of the extended family by Jesse and Georgina. We stay in touch today via the Internet. As far as where the collection is now I think Jesse is weighing several options. I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to make a contribution to the arts and helping many artists by introducing them in the early years to JES Archives.

Correspondence ART

2010-07-03T10:06:00.000-04:00

This is a book I had the privilege of working on as a consultant to Carl Loeffler (publisher). This book was written by Michael Crane and Mary Stofflet. To begin with this was an amazing undertaking Mary and Michael took on and accomplished. In any book on Mail Art there is a mass of people and minimal documentation of some of the works and artists making it more time consuming than most books.

Blitzkunst

2010-07-03T09:43:00.001-04:00

During the 80s I was working with making my own photo paper by painting emulsion onto rag paper for large prints (16 X 20 inches). From this I created a series of images of artists I would meet in my travels or who would come to San Francisco. I decided to supplement these with a questionnaire I would ask artists to fill out and found a publisher in Germany very interested in what had become a book. Below are excerpts from Blitzkunst:

Creative Camera

2010-07-03T09:03:00.000-04:00

A book on creative useage of cameras wriiten by Nancy Howell-Koehler included the use of copiers as a camera. Included were pieces of my work as shown below:

Space Center Performance - 1984

2010-06-20T12:01:00.000-04:00

In 1984 I was granted a residency at the Space Center in Alamagordo, NM near White Sands. My project was to create a multi-media performance in the planetarium dome using lasers, videos in a bank, a talking computer, and an electronic keyboard. The theme was space or related to manned space exploration, as interpreted by an artist. In these photos you see components of the performance and this first image shows the heavens projected on the dome as I (in the white light area) work with the computer speech while a video of a shuttle plays in the background. The following image shows me at the keyboard followed by images of the video. The technical script is included.

Look how old the computer equipment looks!

Space Center Residency Press

2010-06-20T11:42:00.001-04:00

Art in Space Launch Press

2010-06-20T11:00:00.001-04:00

Art in Space Launch - 1984

2010-06-20T10:48:00.004-04:00

Art in Space Launch was a live performance event held outside of San Francisco with Sam Samore, Aron Ranen, Mike Mages and some help from Walter Alter. Our purpose was to send art into space for the first time.

We knew it was controversial and probably illegal but we decided as a group to move forward. We devised a plan to put out posters and news to gain an audience. To get the city off of our backs if they got upset when they saw the news, we would designate a location and apply for a permit, going through the proper channels. Of course we expected a decline and arranged to send people to a construction site outside city limits. At the last minute the "very nice" city permit department called to say we couldn't do the launch and wanted to hear what we were going to do about it.

I responded with something like, " Oh no! We'll have to just do it anyway." The police arrived at the park with paddy wagons ready for a surly group (as reported by our map and shuttle crew) but we were gone by then.

Sam continues his visual art works, Aron teaches documentary video and is best known for Did We Go? claiming the moon landing was a hoax, Mike is an engineering manager at Apple Computer and Walter is a experimental artist (you can see more about Walter on my InterDADA 84 blog).

Photos are by Steve Caravello except for the close cropped ones are by Catz Robmaw, and the last image is by Judy Dater.

If your art was on this first launch and you didn't get your certificate let me know where to email it.

Wanna Be An Astronaut?

2010-06-20T10:07:00.001-04:00

Performed at the Victoria Theater during the Inter DADA 84 festival is the song, Wanna Be An Astronaut, with a back-up band.

Retrogrades Perform at La Mamelle

2010-06-20T09:18:00.000-04:00

The Retrogrades was 3 person electronic and multi-media group that was part of a series of performances I call my "Space Series" that existed for a short period in 1983-4.

Umbrella Art - 1984

2010-06-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

Poetry - Comix - Comics

2010-06-20T08:59:00.001-04:00

This is a cover for Steve Abbot's book with my photos..

In my very early years in San Francisco, Steve and I were roommates in a house located on a hill in Noe Valley. Steve was editor of Poetry Flash at the time and it was through him I met many of the Beat poets and neo-Beats as well. He (not me - I didn't know anyone yet) would have weekend parties at the house and the group would have impromptu "open mike" sessions in the kitchen or try out new works for feedback. Also on a regular basis S Clay Wilson (he grew up with Steve) and other comix artists would be there. Several stand-up comics, like Sinbad and Robin Williams, would show up as the parties progressed - you can imagine what a great time they wold become.

Photography Press - 1979 to 1983

2010-06-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

the Future Is Now at Nine Art Motel - 1985

2010-06-19T19:17:00.000-04:00

In the Realm of the Psyche

The Discreet Universe

Wall of Time

Urban Jungle in Decay 1

Urban Jungle in Decay 2

More Shows

2010-06-19T18:21:00.001-04:00

Artistamps in Frank Magazine #9 - 1986

2010-06-11T14:47:00.001-04:00

The Farm

2010-06-11T14:29:00.002-04:00

In 1974 Bonnie Ora Sherk launched "The Farm", a 7 acre eco garden/art space, replete with animals, on the traffic meridians and underused spaces under a freeway overpass. It was/is a remaining farm house and warehouses of a real farm surrounded by the urban spraw of San Francisco, on the edge of the Mission District and Potrero Hill. It was owned by the Goode family. The Goodes are a family living on a ranch in northern California and three of the siblings Eric, Chris and Jenny moved to New York City. Eric formed the nightclub Area with his brother, Chris. Area was known for its constantly changing themes and collaboration with artists of the time (Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hockney, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, and others). Jenny was Jean-Michel Basquiat's girlfriend.

I rented a space there with Hal Fischer and we turned it into a darkroom and studio space. Neighbors included Mark Pauline and his Survival Research Lab (premier practitioner of "industrial performing arts") in a separate warehouse, Kusch a street poet, and a mixture of musicians and artists. It was after I moved into the studio temporarily that I started taking part in caring for the animals and getting to know the other artists.

Kush (Steven Kushner), a San Francisco street poet runs Cloud House and is publisher of Blake Times. Cloud House ranks as one of the most comprehensive collections of materials related to American poetry in existence. Every inch of space in his studio that wasn't devoted to walking was filled with poetry mementos and beat-inspired ephemera: a wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman's voice; the ashes of beloved local poets Jack Micheline (Kushner's godfather) and Bob Kaufman; autographs and first-edition works by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and others; and even videos slam poetry revue (in the '90s alone, Kushner taped about a thousand poetry events). When looking for recordings of San Francisco beat poets its at Cloud House. William Burroughs was frequent visitor to parties. It was warehouse living conditions but a lot of fun.

It was through my friendship with Kush and Steve Abbott that I met these beat poets in San Francisco. As a teenager I'd loved the Mods and Beats for their style and unconventional writing. Needless to say I was a fan.

3 Fashion Moda Stores Documenta 7 - Stephan Eins and Jenny Holzer

2010-06-11T13:48:00.001-04:00

Northern California Art Scene Explained - 1981

2010-06-11T13:19:00.000-04:00

Copy Art Billboard in Ohio - 1981

2010-06-11T12:45:00.005-04:00

After making two billboards in San Francisco using copy machines I was invited to be an artist-in-residence at the Image Resource Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The challenge was to make a color billboard this time using the color Xerox 6500.

I taught workshops in copy art, artibooks and making billboards; made a new edition of artistamps and other works in addition to the billboard. This was on the way across the US on my 81 World Tour to Europe. I met Harley during this stop.

World Tour - 81

2010-05-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

Music Calendar Cover - 1984

2010-05-28T12:08:00.004-04:00

Digitized Carl Loeffler with sax.

Copy Art Shows - 80's

2010-05-28T12:05:00.002-04:00

Copy Art in Italy - 1984

2010-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Nine Art Motel Show - 1986

2010-05-26T05:58:00.050-04:00

Another article appeared in a new Penthouse Magazine (New Look) issue:

Neoists at NYC's Pyramid Club - 1981

2010-05-26T05:57:00.000-04:00

Artist Book Show - 1982

2010-05-26T05:55:00.000-04:00

Artist Book Show - 1981 or 82

2010-05-26T05:53:00.001-04:00

Copy Art Show - 1981

2010-05-26T05:51:00.000-04:00

Copy Art Show and Lecture - 1982

2010-05-26T05:49:00.000-04:00

Computer Graphic Show - 1984

2010-05-26T05:48:00.000-04:00

Copy Art Exhibition Invite and Artweek Review - 1980

2010-05-26T05:47:00.003-04:00

React Show in Germany - 1981

2010-05-26T05:46:00.000-04:00

Xeroxed Rubberstamp Art Billboard - 1981

2010-05-21T10:44:00.004-04:00

The Sentinel Vol9, No 5 January 21, 1982

Mail Art in November 1985 Music Calendar

2010-05-21T10:38:00.000-04:00

Like this Comix

2010-05-21T10:35:00.000-04:00

More Photos

2010-05-20T12:11:00.003-04:00

Photo by Lorene Warwick.

Opening mail

HR Fricker and I discuss art at Gaglione's home in San Francisco - 1985.

Phone In Your Art Show 1986

2010-05-20T12:07:00.000-04:00

ArtCom Article - 1982?

2010-05-18T19:38:00.004-04:00

UC Berkeley Lecture

2010-05-18T19:33:00.000-04:00

Union Gallery Show

2010-05-18T19:27:00.000-04:00

City Art Review of Copy Art at Studio 718

2010-05-18T19:23:00.001-04:00

Umbrella Review of Copy Art Exhibition

2010-05-18T19:20:00.000-04:00

Flash - Copy Art Show Review - Click to enlarge

2010-05-17T13:54:00.001-04:00

Artweek, June 19, 1982/Volume 13, Number 22

Early Computer Graphic Art & Artistamps

2010-05-17T11:58:00.002-04:00

In the earlier post “Copy Art Exhibition” I wrote:

I used to spend hours late into the night working on Fortran programs for a class, using teletype and keypunch cards. The computer geeks – the ones working night shift running the mainframe so large it was housed in a separate building - would invite me into the inner sanctum to show me early computer graphics capabilities, enthusiastically discussing little known developments and inventions in the works such as the Cray super computer. They told me of the day when everyone would have their own computer and we would be able to create art on computer systems. I believed them!

This was back in the 70s before computers were on every desk and computer graphics became commonplace. The word processors with small (minute according to today’s standards) memory chips were the closest thing to desktop computers. I’m sure this sounds like the stone age to kids today.

Having access to anything computer related was limited to very few university researchers and large corporate employees. One such researcher was Dr. Wolfgang Bauer, a physicist at UC Berkeley, who had left the university and had started a business developing a high end graphical system he called Gravitronics.

When I met Dr. Bauer in 1980 he was looking for an artist who could use computers or at least understood what computers could do to help him by testing the graphical possibilities, to try to find the limits. He’d had been running into walls just trying to find an artist not afraid of nor timid with computers. I described my limited background, including some of the things I wanted to try to accomplish in my art work. I sounded like a match to him.

I would meet with him at his place of business and we would test the computer. From that work I was able to create three issues of artistamps, called my Gravitronics Series, and postcards. To give you a perspective each of the manipulations of the stamp imagery was created from the same one image per issue. Sometimes entering in numbers on the image's axis was a shot in the dark but eventually I started to be able to predict an outcome.

Wolf as a person was a very interesting man in that he was friendly and open minded about art. Plus we would discuss what is now known as quantum physics at our meetings. I was invited to his home a few times to visit his large family and wife.

The system eventually went on to become the real-time meteorological graphic systems we see on the weather channel.

I’m grateful for having had the opportunity to work with Wolf for this led to larger opportunities such as: a space residency (to be written about), teaching computer graphics at a college (CAD, PC paint, and Macintosh desktop publishing) and training many of the company employees of the numerous startups and corporations in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area.

Today using the computer to make artistamps is commonplace. In the history of computer graphics you may find early artists using computers but in the history of artistamps I’m recognized as the first artist to use computer graphics to make artistamps (per Artpool Research Center).

Character in Dark Secrets 1: Legacy of Lies/Don't Tell (Dark Secrets Series) by Elizabeth Chandler

2010-05-15T10:51:00.007-04:00

Read an Excerpt
(As you read take note that I'm from an old line Eastern Shore of Maryland family, and had a storefront in SF, CA. I've become a character in this novel.)
one

Last night I visited the house again. It looked as it did ten years ago, when I dreamed about it often. I've never seen the house in real life, at least not that I can remember. It is tall, three stories of paned windows, all brick with a shingle roof. The part I remember most clearly is the covered porch. No wider than the front steps, it has facing benches that I like to sit on. I guess I was never shy, not even at six; in the dream I always opened the door, walked inside, and played with the toys.

Last night the door was locked. That's how I awoke, trying with all my strength to open it, desperate to get inside. Something was wrong, but now I can't say what. Was there something dangerous outside the house from which I was fleeing? Was there a person in the house who needed my help? It was as if the first part of my dream was missing. But one thing I knew for sure: Someone on the other side of the door was trying hard to keep me out.

"I'm not going," I had told my father back in June. "She's a mean old lady. She disowned Mom and won't speak to you. She has never had anything to do with Pete, Dave, or me. Why should I have anything to do with her?"

"For your mother's sake," he'd said.

Several months later I was on a flight from Arizona to Maryland, still resisting my grandmother's royal command to visit. I took out her invitation, the first message I'd received from her in my life, and reread it — two sentences, sounding as stiff as a textbook exercise.

Dear Megan,

This summer I will see you at Scarborough House. I have enclosed a check to cover airfare.

Regards,
Helen Scarborough Barnes

Well, I hadn't expected "love and kisses" from a woman who cut off her only daughter when she had decided to marry someone of a different race. My mother, coming from a deeprooted Eastern Shore family, has more English blood in her than Prince Charles. My father, also from an old Maryland family, is African-American. After trying to have children of their own, they adopted me, then my two brothers. It would be naive to expect warmth from a person who refused to consider adopted kids her grandchildren.

Now that I thought about it, the meaning of my dream the night before was pretty obvious, even the feeling that something was wrong. The door to my mother's family had always been closed to me; when a door kept locked for sixteen years suddenly, without explanation, opens, you can't help but wonder what you're walking into.

"Megan? You made it!" the woman said, crumpling up the sign with my name on it, then giving me a big hug. "I'm Ginny Lloyd, your mother's best old friend." She laughed. "I guess you figured that out."

When Ginny heard I was coming, she'd insisted on meeting me at the airport close to Baltimore. That October day we loaded my luggage into the back of her ancient green station wagon, pushing aside bags of old sweaters, skirts, shoes, and purses — items she had picked up to sell in her vintage clothes shop.

"I hope you don't mind the smell of mothballs," Ginny said.

"No problem," I replied.

"How about the smell of a car burning oil?"

"That's okay, too."

"We can open the windows," she told me. "Of course, the muffler's near gone."

I laughed. Blond and freckled, she had the same southernish accent as my mother. I felt comfortable with her right away.

When I was buckled in, Ginny handed me a map so I could follow our progress toward Wisteria, which is on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

"It's about a two-hour drive," she said. "I told Mrs. Barnes I'd have you at Scarborough House well before dark."

"I'm getting curious," I told her. "When Mom left Maryland, she didn't bring any pictures with her. I've seen a few photos that my uncle Paul sent, showing him and Mom playing when they were little, but you can't see the house in them. What's it like?"

"What has your mother told you about it?" Ginny asked.

"Not much. There's a main house with a back wing. It's old."

"That's about it," Ginny said.

It was a short answer from a person who had spent a lot of time there as a child and teenager — nearly as short as my mother's answers about the place.

"Oh, and it's haunted," I added.

"People say that," Ginny replied.

I looked at her, surprised. I had been joking.

"Of course, every old house on the Shore has its ghost stories," she added quickly. "Just keep the lights on if it feels spooky."

This trip might turn out to be more interesting than I thought.

Ginny turned on the radio, punching in a country station. I opened the map she had given me and studied it. The Sycamore River cut into the Eastern Shore at an angle. If you were traveling up the Chesapeake Bay, you'd enter the wide river mouth of the Sycamore and head in a northeasterly direction. On the right, close to the mouth, you'd see a large creek named Wist. The next creek up is Oyster. The town of Wisteria sits between them, nearly surrounded by water, the Sycamore River on one side and the creeks on the other two. As for my grandmother's property, it was the large point of land below the town, washed on one side by Wist Creek and on the other side by the Sycamore.

We crossed two sets of railroad tracks. I watched the scenery change from outlet stores to fields of corn and soy and low horizons of trees. The sky was half the world on the Eastern Shore. Ginny asked a lot of questions and seemed more interested in talking about life in Tucson than life in Wisteria.

"What's my grandmother like?" I asked at last.

For a full minute the only response was the roar of the car engine.

"She's, uh, different," Ginny said. "We're coming up on Oyster Creek. Wisteria's just on the other side."

"Different how?" I persisted.

"She has her own way of seeing things. She can be fierce at times."

"Do people like her?"

Ginny hesitated. "Have you spent much time in a small town?" she asked.

"No."

"Small-town folks are like a big family living in one house. They can be real friendly and helpful, but they can also say nasty things about each other and squabble a lot."

She hadn't answered my question about how others saw my grandmother, but I could figure it out. She wasn't the town favorite.

We rumbled over the metal grating of the drawbridge. I hung my head out the window for a moment. In Tucson, creeks were often just trickles. This one was the width of a river.

"We're on Scarborough Street now," Ginny said. "The streets off to our right lead down to the commercial docks, where the oyster and crab boats are. The streets to the left border the college. In a few blocks we'll be crossing over High Street, which is Main Street for us. Want to drive down it?"

"Sure."

We passed a school, went a block farther, then took a right onto High. The street had a mix of houses, churches, and small shops, all of the buildings made of brick or wood. Some of the houses edged right up to the sidewalk; a few had tiny plots of grass in front of them. Pots of bright chrysanthemums perched on windowsills and steps. The sidewalks on both sides of High Street were brick and ripply, especially around the roots of the sycamore trees that lined the street. But even where there weren't roots, the brick looked softened, as if the footprints of two and a half centuries had been worn into it.

"It's pretty," I said. "Are there a lot of wisteria vines around here?"

"People grow it," she said, "but actually, the parcel of land that became the town was won in a card game called whist. That was the town's original name. Some upright folks in the 1800s, who didn't approve of gambling, added to it. I guess we're lucky they weren't playing Crazy Eights."

I laughed.

"There's my shop, Yesterdaze." Ginny slowed down and pointed to a storefront with a large, paned window that bowed out over the sidewalk. "Next door is Tea Leaves. Jamie, the owner, makes pastries to die for.

"The town harbor is ahead of us," she went on. "Only pleasure boats dock there now. I'm going to swing around to Bayview Avenue and show you where I live. You know you're welcome to stay with me if things get difficult."

"Difficult how?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I find it isolated out there on the other side of the Wist. And Scarborough House seems awfully big without a family to fill it up."

"Is that why my grandmother invited me? She can't get anybody else to come?"

"I doubt that's the reason. Mrs. Barnes has never liked company — whoa!" Ginny exclaimed, hitting her brakes hard, sending shoe boxes tumbling over the seat from the back of the station wagon.

A guy in an open-topped Jeep, impatient to get around a car making a turn, had suddenly cut in front of us. The backseat passengers of the red Jeep, two girls and a guy, held on to one another and hooted. The girl in the front seat turned briefly to look at us, laughing and tossing her long hair. The driver didn't acknowledge his near miss.

"Jerk," I said aloud.

Ginny looked amused. "That was your cousin."

"My cousin?" I twisted in my seat, to look down the side street where the Jeep had made another sudden turn.

"Matt Barnes," she replied.

"I thought he was in Chicago."

"Your uncle moved there, and Matt's mother is somewhere in the North, I believe."

"Boston," I told her. It had been an ugly divorce, I knew that much.

"Matt has spent nearly every summer in Wisteria. He transferred to the high school here last winter and is living full-time with your grandmother. You didn't know that?"

I shook my head.

"She bought him the Jeep this past summer. Rumor has it he's getting his own boat. Matt's usually carting around jocks or girls."

Spoiled and wild, I thought. But things were looking up. No matter what he was like, spending two weeks with a guy my own age was better than being alone with a fierce seventy-six-year-old. I'd just fasten my seat belt and go along for the ride.

"Does my grandmother drive?" I asked.

"Pretty much like Matt," Ginny replied, laughing.

When we got to Bayview, she pointed out her house, a soft yellow cottage with gray shutters, then returned to Scarborough Road.

We crossed the Wist, rumbling over an old bridge, drove about a quarter mile more, then turned right between two brick pillars. The private road that led to my grandmother's started out paved, but crumbled into gravel and dirt. Tall, conical cedar trees lined both sides. They did not bend gracefully over the drive, as trees do in pictures of southern mansions, but stood upright, like giant green game pieces. At the end of the double row of trees I saw sections of sloping gray roof and brick chimneys, four of them.

"We're coming up behind the house," Ginny said. "The driveway loops around to the front. You're seeing the back wing. That picket fence runs along the herb garden by the kitchen."

"The house is huge."

"Remember that you are welcome to stay with me," she said.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine."

Now that I was here, I was looking forward to the next two weeks. I mean, how much of a terror could one little old woman be? It'd be fun to explore the old house and its land, especially with a cousin my age. Four hundred acres of fields and woods and waterfront — it seemed unbelievable that I didn't have to share them with other hikers in a state park. A wave of excitement and confidence washed over me. Then Ginny circled the house and parked in front.

"Megan," she said, after a moment of silence, "Megan, are you all right?"

I nodded.

"I'll help you with your luggage."

"Thanks."

I climbed out of the car slowly, staring up at Grandmother's house. Three stories of paned windows, brick with a shingled roof, a small covered porch with facing benches — it was the house in my dreams.

I took my luggage from Ginny, feeling a little shaky. For the second time in twenty-four hours, I walked up the steps of the house. This time the door swung open.

Simon Pulse edition August 2009

Early Artistamps Show

2010-05-10T12:04:00.000-04:00

My Early Artistamp History

2010-05-05T12:56:00.006-04:00

Like many people who get into making artistamps my first encounter with the wonderful world of stamps started as a kid reading the ads in the comics I would buy. I ordered some with my allowance and used to enjoy looking at them. I even traded with the other neighborhood kids at times. I didn’t know what to do with them though and no one in my family knew either so it seemed.

Later in the 60’s as an adult I married the son of Frederick William Doolittle, Jr. who did know about stamps. An ardent stamp collector, specializing in U.S. Parcel Post and Tobago collections, my past father in-law won numerous medals in international competitions. He published many articles and lectured on the subject. He served as president and librarian of the Baltimore Philatelic Society, one of the oldest in the United States and host to many annual conventions and meetings for United States and international organizations.

He thought I was humoring him when I showed an interest in his collection. The one thing I wondered about was who made the stamps and how. He thought it was a bit of a fantasy when I said I would one day make some of my own.

“What could you use them for?” he asked one day.

“I didn’t know, perhaps showing them as framed art.”

So these were the seeds that would sprout into a full blown obsession, at times it seems, to make my own artistamps. One day in the 70’s I encountered an ad in a catalog that offered, for a small fee, to turn a photograph into stamps. They had gummed backs and could be used to decorate gift wrapping, envelops, stationary, scrapbook pages or anything you could imagine. They came in sheets of multiples. So it went to the photobooth and sent in a photo from the strip. I used the resulting stamps in one-of-a-kind pieces and for my mail art.

Then in 79 I began to organize the Copy Art Exhibition. Artists from all over the world sent in art made with copy machines including sheets of artistamps, mostly using the color copier but some in black and white, with fictitious countries, made up names and elaborate stories to go with them. This is when I started using Gina Lotta Post with my artistamps.

At that time there were only two other women I knew of who were making artistamps. However with the men there were many more participants. With some of the men there was a lot of jockeying for power based on unwritten rules of who did what, when, including elaborations on or even out rate inventions of dates. Stories ran rampant, and generally operated upon what I call the rule of firsts was commonplace. The rule of firsts was a game of who left the starting gate first or who had the most issues or who did something first, much like guys returning from a fishing trip. This determined the pecking order in a small circle for quite awhile.

Being a woman, unless I had made artistamps back when women still suckled children in the cave, there was very little respect nor mention of my work and accomplishments in the field. When I asked one artist why he never mentioned me in his writings about the history of artistamps, his answer was - I needed him more than he needed me. This was after we had traded several full sheets and he’d made three different portraits of me for his own editions.

I’m not claiming here that women artists are any better or rise above the put downs. One went so far as to create an elaborate scheme of placing a book into a box of mine so she could later claim I had her book. This went on for years behind the scenes, some people believed her. I didn’t know about it until one day I was told the story by a woman defending her friend. When I asked how I got it or to describe the book, the perpetrator gave no answer in return.

People ask why I stopped for about 18 years from participating in the mail art and artistamp networks. By the end of the 80s I’d observed more elaborate kill the competition behaviors on my trips to Europe as well. I didn’t want to be around this anymore. Only a handful of people were spoiling my fun in a very competitive environment so I retired from the scene. I continued to make artistamps and did photography during this time, traveling when possible, running a consulting firm and most importantly getting my spiritual life on track. This was all before the artistamp museums, Artistamp Mailing List and IUOMA existed.

Now I sell my work to collectors and institutions while actively trade with other artistampers.

If you want to know more about artistamps check the Wikipedia page or Google the other resources mentioned here.

Gina Lotta Post Artistamp Slideshow

2010-04-22T08:38:00.013-04:00

The Mail Art Community in Europe: a first hand view (written for Umbrella Magazine - 1982)

2010-04-16T20:02:00.011-04:00

UMBRELLA MAGAZINE

JANUARY 1982

VOLUME 5, NUMBER 1

Editor's note: GInny Lloyd last July began a trek through
the United States and Europe. First in Cleveland, she produced
artwork and lectured on copy art, under the auspices
of the Image Resource Center. Then in New York City, she
met other mail artists and collaborated with them on some
film and audio works, but the goal was Europe, which she
visited for the next three months. The following is her report
for Umbrella.

ENGLAND

I stayed with Bill and Dorothy Wells in London. Dorothy
had organized and shown a mail art exhibit in 1981 and had
also spent several months in Los Angeles. She is best known
in the mail art network for her color Xerox postcards, either
sewn or pinned and collaged. Bill was working on pieces for
his next paper show and inspired me to make several of my
own, something 1 had not done for several years.

I then bussed up to Leeds to visit Michael Scott, whose
wit, information on the network, art and sense of play were
a non-stop delight. He even went on a jog with me one
evening. His inventiveness with words, rubber stamps and
images are always welcome in his mail art. Just seeing his
bathroom door decorated with Players cards is worth the
long bus ride.

Heading west, I then visited Hay-on-Wye, Wales, the town
with the largest bookstore in the world. In fact, the whole
town is one big bookstore. If you are a collector of books
and like to pour over stacks and stacks, this is the place for
you. This also happened to be the area my father's ancestors
lived, making my presence here doubly important.

HOLLAND

I had been advised that I would love Amsterdam and my informant was on target. Ullses Carrion of Other Books and So Archive and , Aart van Barneveld of the now closed Stempelplaats were my gracious hosts, while I worked on various projects at both spaces. During my evening breaks, I met with Claudio Goulart, Flavio, Maya and Ronald Wegman, all participants in the mail art network.

The collection at Stempelplaats was unbelievable to see:

rubber stamps from all over the world, some carved by artists
whose names I recognized, the artists' rubber stamp
books and the published catalogues of the exhibitions held
in the gallery made the October closing of this space a great
loss. At the Other Books & So Archive, I was able to pour
over files and files of catalogued documentation of artists'
activities, artists' books, mail art, sound tapes and magazines.
After days of visual overload, I realized it would be impossible for me to see everything. I did more research on my return to Amsterdam, but did not completely go through every file
that interested me.

Amsterdam is full of artists who are respected workers, making
valuable contributions to society. I found the Dutch
very responsive and interested in the lectures, demonstrations
and information I was presenting. They wanted to know
about art in the United States, especially on the West Coast.
Most had been exposed to artwork from New York (I found
this to be generally true throughout Europe) and were
very curious about me as well.

While in Maastricht, I visited V.E.C. headquarters and Rod
Summers. Rod has compiled an extensive audio art exchange
project, working closely with Tom Winter. The audio exchange
archives provided much to listen to and his creative
management of the material was exciting to share. The archives
on mail art and years of correspondence with artists
all over the world was well cataloged. His record keeping is
impeccable. I was able to work on some audio with Rod,
Tom, Bass (another VEC assistant) and Lizbett (Rod's wife).
Their approach to audio was both educational and certainly
stretched my audio perceptions. Rod is also an excellent
writer and shared with me several of his published pieces.
His ability to weave a story is fascinating and will hold your
attention for hours.

GERMANY

Off to Kassel, West Germany, the second country where the native language was not English. Not speaking any other language fluently other than my own version of English, knowing only rudimentary French and Spanish, I was beginning to experience culture shock more than ever. It started In England built up in Amsterdam, where the average Dutch citizen speaks several languages fluently.

Throughout my tour, l used my wits, intuition and nose to get around. I became adept at being able to spot someone who would be able to understand at least a little English, from a distance.

In Kassel, I lived and worked on projects at Kunoldstrasse
34, run by Jurgen Olbrich. Kunoldstrasse 34 Is a unique
space In that many projects utilizing the building and surrounding
area are installations that artists actually live with.
Jurgen seems to have never-ending energy, creating the most
wonderful experimental Xerox books I have ever seen, many
one-of-a-kind. He has an extensive archive and collection
documenting projects held in the art/living space, as well as
archives of mail art and correspondence projects.

Travelling from Kassel to Berlin through East Germany was
very interesting. I have never been so close to the Communism
I had been taught to fear and loathe. You can see where
capitalism ends at the border, feeling the tension level rise
among the passengers on the train. Basic tourist behavior
is certainly not tolerated here. And you are promptly reminded
by your compartment companions not to pull out the
camera for snapshots. I know I could never live there. The
restrictions on movement would not work well with my basic
nature. I was very glad to arrive in Berlin.

Berlin seemed, upon first impression, like the European
New York. The American influence is everywhere with a
curious mixture of buildings that have never been restored
after the war, traffic rushing through the streets and an
overall gloom and dismal grayness that is ever-present. The
city is throbbing with excitement every moment of the day
and night. A continual center of political activity, Berlin
on the same day had a demonstration against the Haig visit
and a demonstration in support of the squatters.

My introduction to Berlin was with a friend, Doris "Boris"
Berman, whose "photo actions'* should not be missed If you
ever have the opportunity to participate or attend one. She
acted as an excellent and invaluable translator for my excursions
and adventures in this exciting city. It was here in Berlin
that the phrase "it is a small world'* came to life when I
ran into a good friend from San Francisco on the U-bahn
one evening.

Political activists are serious here. The front line between the Russian and U.S. military might is personified in the existence of the Berlin Wall. The best graffiti in the world can be seen on the Wall. Artists are continually transforming the messages and slogans, while many original works of art are painted directly onto the wall. Some of the most curious
train rides I have ever had on a subway system were on the S-bahn, the East Berlin subway system. Taking the train to the East Berlin sector and transferring back to the West Berlin
sector can provide a peek into the life across the wall
For me, the direction in my artwork and the German aesthetic values overlap quite frequently. There is a very healthy interest in correspondence art, performance art, Xerox, video, bookworks, and anything that is new and American. The best music in the world can be heard everywhere here. It was with relief that I heard the newest German rock musk and tasted their fine beer.

In Frankfurt, I had the best experience in any bar in Europe.
Here, there was a cave lit by candles, in a huge communal
room with long wooden tables. Everyone sat together at
the tables enjoying an experience much like a Viking tribe.
I happened to be in Frankfurt for the Buchmesse, the annual
book and publishing fair that is impeccably organized and
managed.

The fair is primarily a trade fare wjth publishers from all
over the world represented. The most exciting part for me
was the section that housed the artists' books and publications.
Business was the primary activity of the week, and
artists' publishers and artists' presses had an opportunity to
meet with each other and view each others' wares. There
were many social activities and lectures on artists' books
held during that week at the university. Richard Kostelanetz
was on hand to present the works he has developed during
a German government-sponsored grant, the DAAD. Annabelle
Levitt (Tod Jorgensen's store is located at her store
front on Mott Street), was asssistlng John Armleder of Ecart
Books. I later visited them and the Von Furstenbergs briefly
in Geneva, Switzerland. Ecart Books have many hard-to-find
publications. The artist or collector searching for a particular
issue or title should write to them.

While in Frankfurt, I had the opportunity to visit the
studio of artists working with copy art. Hermann Hess and
Bernard Maurer collaborate on paintings derived from originals
made on a copy machine. I also saw the best Polaroid
works I have ever seen at their studio.

In Stuttgart, Angelika Schmidt was collecting the artwork
for her upcoming photobooth issue of Common Press. I had
the opportunity to get a sneak preview when I visited her.
It should be another excellent book by Angelika. She has
been a participant in the mail art network for several years
now, and she has a very organized archive and record of this
activity. All during my tour I was impressed by the collections
and care the artists shared in keeping their archives.
Hans Sohm and I had a chance to meet briefly, and he provided
many insights from the perspective of a collector. He
has what is considered to be the most extensive collection of
Fluxus materials.

A great surprise was meeting up with Henryk Gajewski of
Warsaw. We had tried to connect in three countries and had
missed each other. Neither of us knew we would be in
Stuttgart during this time. Henryk was lecturing and presenting
his film of Polish Punk Rock and his tapes of Chinese
Punk Rock music. A warm and fun-loving man, I pray he
is all right after the recent political unrest in Poland.

I did visit East Berlin briefly with Ruth and Robert Rehfeldt.
They too have an extensive archive and pulled out
works and names that were new for me. They were very gracious
hosts and were glad to have news about friends and
events in the West. While I was there, we did a short performance
together and documented this event while making lots
of laughter and noise. It was quite an ordeal getting into East
Berlin and fortunately it was smooth sailing coming out.
Ruth and Robert appreciate the correspondence they receive
from their friends in the West. It is a vital link between them
and the rest of the world. It was with this meeting that I saw
in action how powerful this network is and can be in all of
our lives. Mail art can make a difference.

FRANCE

With regret I left Berlin for Paris. Paris seems like the largest
outdoor museum in the world. Now I can understand why
during World War II everyone who had experienced Paris
wanted to save Paris from the effects of the war. The French
have an elegance and style that is not matched anywhere.
The food is a sensual treat for your taste-buds.

I did have a chance to attend the opening of the FIACS the
French contemporary art exhibition that is an annual event.
I was generally disappointed in what I saw. All over Europe
it was known that the best contemporary art is being made
in the United States. The consensus of opinion was that our
artwork in progress is the most innovative and most advanced
in the world.

Lillian Vlncy of the Lara Vincy Gallery was extremely
supportive and helpful while I was in Paris, Her gallery is the
most interesting of all of the galleries I visited there. She is
very interested and knowledgeable about what is taking place
in the French mail art network, as well as in correspondence
art in general.

I visited several artists in Lyon, a very active
area for artists involved with contemporary art. I was treated
there, as everywhere, like royalty. A guest of the Art Adventure
space, Lieux de Relations, run by Aubanel and Christian
Van der Borght, I was introduced to the art community in
Lyon. Working in performance, video, copy art, photography
and installations, the artists had an excitement around them
that is not present in Paris. Lyon does not have the years of
tradition and art history that Paris has, making it easier to
break new ground.

While in France and Germany, I had the opportunity to spend time with one of the most prolific writers on contemporary art that is working in France today, Michel Giroud. He recently was involved with a new book
about French and German Dada movements in the 20s and
30s. A very knowledgeable man who is known by just about
everyone I met, he is a wealth of information on the subject
of contemporary art in Europe today.

ITALY

My first impression of Italy when I stepped off the train was

that Fellini was not so much a genius, as a documentarian of
the Italian way of life. I felt I was living in the "film" while
in Italy. I had hoped to meet Plinio Mesciulam and see the
Mohammed archive, but I was disappointed to hear he had to
go to Rome on business.

Vittore Baroni offered to be my translator during my visit
in Italy, and was absolutely charming. He invited me to travel
to Arte Studio in Ponte Nossa, Bergamo, to do a performance
and to stay with Emilio and Franca Morandi. Arte Studio is located in a village in the mountains and is home to some of the most friendly people I have ever met. Bass, of VEC in Maastricht, was there for a week as artist-in-residence and was presenting a project and performance with Baroni
We all trekked into Bergamo to view an exhibit of experimental
works in an old church. It was so refreshing to be able
to walk into an art show and be able to touch, walk on and
be a participant in the art exhibits, along with the fascination
of the building itself.

On the way back to Forte dei Marmi, Vittore and I stopped
to spend a few days with Cavellini, where we again did a performance.
Cavellini showed us his extensive archives of mail he has received from so many artists. I believe he has the largest mail art mailing list of anyone. He also has an extensive collection of Pop Art artists. And he let us pour over the immense collection of his original pieces. His books do not do justice to his own original works. They are fabulous! His home is beautiful and is a treasure for the lover of carved wood. He has become more serious since the last time I saw him in California, asking about specific artists he had met during Inter-Dada 80 and of their activities. Ken Damay showed the film Cavellini in California to me, and we reminisced
about old times.

POLAND

I entered Poland on a Leningrad-bound train, full of Polish
people who had been in the west and were returning. I was
the only American and became a bit of a sideshow for those
who had never seen a real live American before. Most were
returning because of the rising political tension and bringing
all of the items they could afford and carry. There were decreasing
amounts of food, laundry detergent, good tobacco, coffee, etc. You were considered rich if you had Western possessions and clothes. My friends had to rise in the morning in order to stand in line at 5 a.m. just to get a meager hunk of bread or radishes or apples.

What I could not understand was
the presence of a beautiful, rich land and the fat cows with
the meager diet provided by the government. The Russians
were apparently taking the best of the products for themselves.
Solidaridad was voting on the latest offer made by the
government and Gdansk was blocked in many sectors to prevent
sightseers and supporters from entering the union grounds.

The weather was warmer than I had expected, and
Pawel Petasz took me on an outing to see the Baltic Sea, enjoy Polish pizza and beer, and to photograph the downtown area of Gdansk. He predicted, as well as his comrades, that the opportunity for me to visit Poland was going to cease any day now, but I would have some valuable documentation of the city, lifestyle and political mood. Lack of money was not a problem for the average Pole. Having something
to spend it on was the problem. The rising political
tension was present everywhere. Talk of the Russian tanks moving into Gdansk and other key cities was common. Pawel's health and artwork were suffering under these stresses.

The Common Press Project, one of the best correspondence

projects directed by Pawel, was becoming more difficult for
him to continue. Censorship was delaying the mails. When I
prepared several pieces of mail art to send from Poland, he
easily edited out the ones that would be censored.

Leaving Poland was much more difficult than entering. The trains
had been cancelled to the West, and I was stuck as I transferred
in Poznan. Thanks to the help and assistance of a
Polish agricultural student who spoke English (the Polish
youth speak very good English), I was able to get to East
Berlin after much delay and a very frightening ordeal. My
visa had run out. The Polish officials could not understand why an American woman travelling alone, who neither spoke Polish or German or Russian would be coming from Gdansk during the Solidaridad unrest.

The Polish people are very special They are the warmest,

friendliest and most loving (on a basic human level) that I
have ever encountered. Everyone on the trains and in the
towns would go out of their way to assist me, many times
missing train connections they should have caught, etc. They
always did these kindnesses from the goodness of their
hearts, because they enjoy giving. No one wanted anything
in return. I feel tears running down my cheeks thinking
about the fate of the Poles right now. Poland and her people
touched me in a very special way that gave me hope for humanity.
We should all treat each other with such love.

Poland is like a fairy tale land to see. It is quaint and beautiful, as if time had stood still before World War II. Ask any Westerner that has been to Poland, and they will tell you the same about Poland and her people.

BELGIUM

Johan van Geluwe of the Museum of Museums was my host
upon my return from Poland. I was treated with luxurious
cooking, a beautiful, warm room and the delightful company
of his mother. Johan, an architect, has taken this interest in
architecture and combined it into a mail art project. His archive
is overwhelming to behold. He may have to build a
wing or a new home soon if it continues to expand.

We were to attend the Mail Artist Encounter held at the ICC in Antwerp, organized by Guy Schraenen. So soon after my arrival, we were off to Antwerp. Guy and Anne Schraenen had done a remarkable job putting together an extensive exhibition of many of the correspondence projects that have occurred over the past decade. They also displayed the works that had arrived for Guy's Libellus magazine project. Needless
to say there was so much work to be seen it took me
several days to see it all. And the work that went into the hanging, installations and organizing was phenomenal.

While viewing the works you were treated to slide presentations
and to audio projects. Everyone was madly trading
work and addresses, rubberstamping, presenting actions, photographing,
greeting each other, discussing projects, past, present
and future. Guy was filming the event for posterity. Tables
with the rubber stamps from Stempelplaats were available
for use. A black and white copier was in another corner
to make art works immediately and the atmosphere was very,
very festive.

Some of the peoplei who were there were Aart van Barneveld, Ulises Carrion, Niels Lomholt, Christian van der Borght, Tomasz Schulz, Guy Bleus, Bart Boumans, Michel Giroud, Rod Summers and Tom Winter (who together did a beautiful sound performance), Henk Fakkeldij, Pier Van Dijk, Robert Joseph, Ko de Jonge, Danny Devos, Gabrielle Donder-Langer, Clemens Jongma, Ka-Mail, Valcarcel Medina, Alburquerque Mendes, Hetty Huisman, Wulle Konsumkunst, Jonas
Wille, Sonia Van Der Burg, P.Nieuwenhuysen, Peter Paalvast, Ria Pacouee, Rolf Sehuber, Eric Van Der Wai, Anniemie Van Kerckhoven, Am Van Oosten, Kees, Jonas Wille, Metallic Avau, Christine Balmier, Luc DeLeu, Lucia Del Sasso, Ron Huiskamp and many others.

SUMMARY

The mail art network does work. I was received by artists everywhere who had heard of my tour. Many times they would be in touch with another artist I planned to see, and would send invitations for visits via the mail. Some of the artists I had corresponded with previously; some not. That made no difference, for each artist was eager to hear news about mail artists I knew in the U.S.A., about previous visits to artists in Europe, to meet me and to show me their archives/projects. I completed many projects in collaboration with each artist (either working together or by the inspiration we each shared). Baroni and I did the largest mailing of one-of-a-kind postcards that I had ever done in one day.

I found color copy machines all over Western Europe; Xerox
6500's and Canon. Color machines were treated like some
mysterious technological wonder that could only be touched
by a "trained" operator making this no artist's tool. Black
and white copiers were abundant everywhere—some of the
best I have ever seen. And the most innovative self-service
copy shops are located in Germany. If you are into photo-
booths, they are everywhere in Western Europe, with a lot
more choices of format and styles in the black and white
version than in the United States.

—Ginny Lloyd
P.O.Box 1343
San Francisco, CA 94101.

All the photos in this article have been taken by Ginny Lloyd.

UMBRELLA was a bimonthly newsletter of art news, reviews and art information concerning artists' publications and artists' books. UMBRELLA was published by Umbrella Associates, P.O. Box 3692, Giendale, CA 91201 USA issued in January, March, May, September and November.

The World's First Copy Art Billboard

2010-04-15T14:56:00.001-04:00

The Copy Art Exhibition held in 1980 was going up soon but an art billboard would be a great advertisement of both the show and the art medium.

I’d thought of the possibility of having a billboard of copier art for awhile and approached the Eyes and Ears Foundation, an arts foundation supporting public art, for funding and technical support of this project. I proposed installing a copy art billboard for the duration of the show on Market Street near Dolores Street, a main thoroughfare that attracted an estimated 25,000 viewers a day. That’s more than the total foot traffic attending the exhibit.

To create the billboard I called some of the local artists who were in the show to meet me at the LaMamelle gallery at an appointed day and time for a happening – the making of the first copy art billboard. Those that showed up were artists Dadaland (Picasso Gaglione), Tim Mancusi, Carioca and Nancy Frank. I demonstrated the use of the copier and gave basic direction on what I wanted the billboard to look like - life - size images of themselves. Basically it was an improvisation in the spirit of Fluxus creations. The aesthetic was drawn on what I knew most everyone did when told to create art on a copier – they make images of their face, hands, etc.at some point in their experiments. I felt that the viewer would be able to connect the dots faster if they saw people and the words Copy Art. Since this was a new form of art the billboard was basically selling the art form.

The previous day, I’d blocked out how many people could fit onto the billboard according to the measurements given by the Eyes and Ears Foundation on large rolls of blank white paper laid out on the floor assisted by Buster Cleveland and Carl Loeffler. Because of the amount of blank space in the background, I created a stack of dot patterned pages out of enlarged fabric swatches as fill-in designs.

We made the copies on a Canon black and white copier donated by Taylor Made for use during the show. The copier was installed at the gallery, LaMamelle in San Francisco.As we were copying ourselves, clothes and creating different images, whomever arrived later - Kazu Yanagi, Rockola, Germ and Michael Mintz - assisted with cutting out the forms, gluing, and blocking out the lettering.

After verifying that the glue was set, I then applied a protective coating to the finished product. The billboard strips were then rolled and numbered for application. Upon delivering the rolls they were hung by the billboard company owning the billboard.

Since making the billboard, I've met a couple of other artists who have used the medium in the same way - Paulo Brusky in Brazil did a show I participated in 81-82 upon invitation. We met a year later in Amsterdam. Another artist whose name I don't know from Cleveland also did one in '82.

Artists had been altering billboards for awhile, some even showing their paintings in billboard format but this was the first known use of creating one from copiers.

Copy Art Exhibition

2010-04-15T13:26:00.084-04:00

I came from a background in photography. I’d experimented with pinhole cameras, Dianas, infrared film, and various darkroom techniques during my years at university. I took traditional art classes, even made handmade paper one summer with my friend Judy Ivry who was an art major so had the equipment available to her, but the use of technology was where I knew I was headed. I used to spend hours late into the night working on Fortran programs for a class, using teletype and keypunch cards. The computer geeks – the ones working night shift running the mainframe so large it was housed in a separate building - would invite me into the inner sanctum to show me early computer graphics capabilities, enthusiastically discussing little known developments and inventions in the works such as the Cray. They told me of the day when everyone would have their own computer and we would be able to create art on computer systems. I believed them!

I wanted to know if anyone had ever created art from keypunch cards but they didn’t know of any. (I later figured out a way. See my future blog to be written on artibooks).

It was the second half of the 70s when the first color copier became available to customers at a local copy shop. I quickly became hooked. Starting with using the machines like huge cameras, I started making still lifes with objects placed directly on the platen glass. Later I was making collages to print. I got so involved with the print quality and color output adjustments I was offered a job running and maintaining the Xerox 6500. This made it possible for me to both do my own experiments at cost and to see the work of other artists starting to use copiers in creative ways. I printed for a lot of comic book artists, illustrators and graphic designers. I took note of who was working as artists using copiers.

At one point I taught workshops on techniques learned from experimenting with copier features, moving originals on the platen during the copy process, and making adjustments on both the Xerox and the black and white machines (also known as copy machine art). (Some of this is discussed in The Creative Camera by Nancy Howell-Koehler, 1989.) The Evening News on a local TV station had me demonstrate how to make copy art.

Noticing the wonderful artworks people were having me copy and doing themselves inspired the idea that a show would be important. The world should see this. At the time I was in the process of preparing for an exhibition of my own work at San Francisco’s Hot Flash of America. I discussed my ideas with them and later obtained support from the copy store owner. The Copy Art Exhibition held in 1980 was born.

As I was pulling together the work to be shown I realized that a more comprehensive exhibit would be possible by including artists as jurors who would give a more balanced view. I invited Stephanie Weber who worked in a fine arts aesthetic and Buster Cleveland who worked in a mail art genre.

As the invitations were sent out and word got around the art work poured in from all over the world. Before I knew it, the time to review the work for the final showing arrived.

But one big hitch occurred...Hot Flash the space for the exhibit was closing!

It was sudden and without warning. I had no space. With Buster’s help, we found that LaMamelle just happened to be available and a new agreement was formed.

I approached Xerox and Canon copier companies for sponsorship. Xerox wasn’t interested – they were launching their own show. Canon however loaned me a new large format copier with reduction capabilities, including paper and technical support if and when it was needed. People attending the show were allowed to make free art on the Canon. With this I made a billboard and the first issue of The Monthly.

Works not already framed were matted and framed by a shrink wrap process and hung by Stephanie with Nancy Frank’s help. I rushed to make a catalog for each artist using both black and white, and the 6500 machines. I did not want to use anything else other than a copier to produce this because I wanted the show to be completely copy art. It has since become a collectible.

Artweek and several other publications wrote positive reviews about the show, much to the surprise of some critics of the art medium. It was through this show I later met Jesse of JES Archive and was invited to the InterDADA 80 event.

All of this helped to make copy art spread quickly in San Francisco as venues to show and sell the artwork opened. A gallery on Columbus Ave in North Beach area named Electroarts moved into part of the Postcard Palace space where several copy artists sold postcard editions. It also housed a Xerox 6500. At around the same time calendars produced in multiple editions were made by Barbara Cushman of the store and gallery, A Fine Hand. Several artists submitted page designs and they were bound in unusual ways. I still have my copies.

Today I make a few copy art pieces but with the death of the 6500, the lush image quality is just not the same. Many of us who used copiers extensively now use personal computers and printers instead.

Copy art though is still used for chapbooks and small edition runs of art prints and books. The excitement of having an alternative to more expensive printing set in motion the making of a new movement toward ‘zines and postcards. More controversial work could easily get published. Little known but happening in the Bay Area printing industry was a censorship against what you could print. Presses either refused outright or quoted exorbitant rates to discourage anything being published that was seen as controversial. I had a difficult time trying to find a printer to run off a large offset edition of my The Monthly magazine, an all female mail art magazine. Not feminist but to some it was, threatening the pressmen. With issue three I received returned layout boards stepped on and torn apart. The quality of the printing was okay but work was sabotaged. You can see this preserved in some of the magazine's pages.

Nowadays artists can publish a lot on the new print on demand sites. But before this, there was copy art.

1 - See the article about the billboard.
2 - See the Inventory Reduction Sale page for more information about the catalog and The Monthly sales.

The Storefront - Part 2

2010-04-12T19:37:00.174-04:00

The Storefront became the name of the space in South of Market Area (SOMA) when no clever name was more readily available that identified the space’s purpose. It has since been described as a take off of The Store developed by Claus Oldenburg but his store had an economic purpose – a place to sell his work. No real sales were to be made or imagined at the Storefront (one exception where this did happen is explained later).

When it was established that the building was slated for a tear down by the city, negotiations with the landlord began and he in turn negotiated a time of approximately a year stay with the planning department before it was to happen. Funding scarcity was on my side it seemed. The adjacent lot was to be given a makeover as a park and my storefront was included in the makeover. I personally did not care about the politics for or against the plan. I just wanted to know how long I had to turn lemons into lemonade.

With a possible year’s occupancy, I decided I could call this a “living art project,” hold a show a month in the Storefront window and rotate a series of performances through the space. The idea of a window exhibition space was something I’d often toyed with when walking by Macy’s Christmas window displays. Now was the opportunity, so regardless of the less than ideal circumstances I wanted to give the concept a try. I could always move if it got to be too much.

It was no secret there were homeless in the city and some had gravitated to empty lots or covered doorways of unoccupied buildings. I have a master's degree in social work so I wasn't afraid of the down and out. Heck in the opinion of some family members, I was on the down and out. People were just homeless not heartless. Soon after I moved in I had a discussion with one man who was sleeping in my doorway which made me uncomfortable when I wanted to go in and out the door. He asked if I was there alone and when I evaded the question he was assured me I would be safe. I told him I didn't have a problem with him using the empty lot nearby but not the doorway. He was apologetic and offered to keep an eye out for me with a promise to spread the word that no one should sleep in the doorway. It never happened after that. If there was food left over from an opening, I would leave it at the lot.

The opening event was a performance held in December of 1982 with my friend Anna Banana who had been planning a visit to San Francisco. I painted and spruced up the place. It had a great open space with old brick walls giving it an ambiance that was urban loft goes storefront. Anna and I presented a live radio broadcast in the window space. Friends attended and word got around. This was different.

Next, an artistamp show in January with several artists participating who were in the forefront of this new art form. This was a forerunner of several artistamp shows to come but an important one in that it pulled together artists from around the globe working in the medium at the time. Today a show like this would have a larger magnitude.

In February, I installed the Daily Mail, a showing of the mail art that arrived daily at my mailbox shown in the window gallery. February also included a Valentine’s H’art Attack. The Storefront was the staging area for 50 balloons destined for release in downtown San Francisco. People of San Francisco are a tolerant breed and this “happening” created a ripple of amusement as pedestrians and motor traffic stopped to watch the balloons rise up into the sky.

Bill Gaglione and Rockola performed in March with a window installation titled Day Glos. Also Buster Cleveland hammed it up with a dayglo cross posing as a priest. Also in March Georgina of JES Archives held a Dare to Wear fashion show – models posed in the window. Both were popular openings. Foot traffic on the way to and from Rough Trade Records, in the next block, stopped by to ask what the space was about. Many were looking for club gigs and heard sometime was happening at the space.

April brought Gaglione’s First Rubber Stamp Store opening. Rubberstampmadness and Stampgraphics wrote about his store. Sales happened. He made the official rubberstamp from my design, and Roc helped with making and hanging the official sign in the window. Darlene Domel states, from her unpublished essay FROM GAGLIONE TO DADALAND TO PICASSO AND BEYOND, An odd-essay of art:

...Gaglione became proprietor of “The World’s First Rubber Stamp Store”. It was both a conceptual event and a business venture. It was located in the “Storefront” in the SOMA area, a unique performance and art space owned and operated by fellow mail artist Ginny Lloyd whose conceptual ideas complemented his own. San Francisco in the 80s was a center for performance art and Ms. Lloyd’s store was right in the middle of the action.

To celebrate the opening day of the conceptual rubber stamp store he gave away 500 rubber stamps. From that point, on the last Friday of every month over the next year the “store” was open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. It became a retail store, a meeting place and a performance space for many of Gaglione’s rebellious art friends. In the environment that Lloyd created Gaglione and his fellow artists gathered to create hand carved stamps, publications, found stamps and other artistic detritus.

Eva Lake performed as a medium in an installation and Dan Max followed with another performance using window shades and shadows. Busy month. With each performance or show there was an opening party and many attendees flocked to the sidewalk, creating a buzz in the art scene much like dance clubs would intentionally create later at their doors.

I showed my React/Reagieren project arriving back from Jurgen Olbrich in Germany in time for the May opening. The space also served as the rehearsal space for the Retrogrades, the Fluxus band - I played keyboards. We were getting ready for a performance at LaMamelle. Also that month the A Movie Star Mail Art Show showed at the Storefront from the James Dean Archive. Huge show and I personally loved the theme.

As word circulated more artists arrived visiting from out of town with ideas for events and exhibits. Monty Cantsin aka Istvan Kantor hosts his Neoist Blood Campaign during June. Curious late night opening party. Istvan stayed at the Storefront for a week and I later participated in his Neoist Campaign during the Apartment Festival while in NYC.

July. I Blast Off to do a residency at the Space Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico leaving a space age installation in the window. No live performances that month - only remotely.

Christy Rupp installed a Polytox Park in the lot next door during August and Bill Gaglione left his Rubber Stamp Footprints at the front door. Buster Cleveland created a Think Japanese show of 30 paintings in the window and wall space. Japanese kimono dress was seen on almost everyone at the opening.

September was Irwin Irwin. A very dramatic performance drawing a huge crowd of young people, most of whom I’d never met. But one of the locals didn’t like Irwin's burnt Bible in the installation I guess for I returned after shopping one day to a broken window. Jack came by looking shaved and cleaned up to let me know he was moving on to go back to his home state. He told me he had painted at one time in his life and he enjoyed being around all the unusual art. He said it helped him understand who he was and how the unusual can be appreciated. He also told me he knew who broke the window - the man had been arrested trying to break another one down the street and was in jail.

I had to pull out the lemonade maker - again!

The landlord and a friend boarded up the widow. It just so happened that the next artist was a painter friend from Los Angeles. So Jerry Wellmon painted the boards as a mural and there we have it – another show on the window during October. We took them down for Sandra Binion’s performance of body self painting – if you can imagine it – she painted herself!

Last shows were in November: a Traveling Suitcase show and Fotoaktion, a 12 hour event.

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It was a sad day leaving The Storefront but by the time I was to pack up and moved it’d been a productive year. It all ended with the writing of The Storefront book and getting it printed.

A few copies remain of the book The Storefront – A Living Art Project. It includes stories and a diary of activities with lots and lots of photos. Check my Web site’s Inventory Reduction Sale for the current price and list. As numbers dwindle the price rises. www.ginnyonline.com