6 Post Card

Post Card

I didn’t care to read them, but I liked copying comic books. I liked the drawings. I liked the drawings but more specifically the drawings on the covers. The drawings on the covers were heavily detailed and at a young age I pined for the ability to replicate their style of bulging veins, blood spatter, chromed metal, beard stubble, cleavage, sweat. I was never sure that I could. You ever see a Vampirella® cover? This is nothing like Picasso or Manet or those other artists that dad would love for me to admire, I thought, I think. I would lay down, the comic and a sheet of paper (scrap or the corrugated printer paper with little holes on the side that I would steal from school by the stack) next to me, and attempt to recreate the comic with a No. 2 pencil. I usually did this on the floor: a fern-colored, stained carpet. I would lay on my stomach on the carpeted floor and copy these things but was rarely satisfied with the result. I couldn’t assess whether what I had done was good or not. I’m copying these covers, I can’t come up with my own characters or ideas or poses, I don’t know what the actual story is inside and can’t tell if these copies are any good, I thought, I think. I needed a distance from being accustomed to my drawing style. Not style, as we now know these were copies, but a distance from being able to recognize the markings as made by my hand. My own touch didn’t interest me. I wanted the subjectivity to see what I had done as if I was a stranger. To trigger a forgetting to my making; a self-inflicted amnesia so I wouldn’t remember that it was me who drew these things. My solution to the dilemma was duplicate copied drawings. After finishing my original copy, I would draw the cover but this time hurriedly, I would incorporate my left hand, make more expressive ‘incorrect’ strokes and would (due to the time constraint and the use of my non-dominant hand) do away with any semblance of the baroque detail in the original. The hastily rendered duplicate copied drawing would sit to the right of my original copy. The order on my work surface of matted and stained fern-colored carpet would be: original comic (cover), original copy (my best attempt at recreating the original) and duplicate copied drawing. It worked. I say worked because it allowed for the desired memory loss if only for an instant. I would study this duplicate copied drawing for a few minutes, then quickly glance at my original copy. I could now see the merit in my work, albeit briefly. In the end, I was more interested in these duplicate copies than the original covers or my original copy. The process of forgetting was more exciting for me than being able to mimic these comic books and I soon stopped drawing them. I’m reminded of these duplicate copies by the work below: Post Card. In these drawings done en plein air, I try to remove my touch altogether while unofficially collaborating with the US Postal Service. Like Poussin, I found that there’s a terrible difficulty in objectively capturing the sky—it moves too much. These drawings are done on already-existing postcards. A layer of Golden® Pastel Ground is applied to the image area on the card and then a pristine rendering of a portion of the sky is drawn atop in soft pastel. I take notes on my surroundings and mood as I draw these skies. Unfixed, I mail the postcard from the nearest USPS collection box to myself. The drawing becomes a boomerang. Once (if) it makes its way back to me, the postcard has been through the agency’s apparatus. What were once sunsets, clouds or gradients of sky are now roughened color blocks with barcodes and scuffs. I wonder where or onto what the loose pastel rubbed off? did the postcard continue drawing while in transit? I may ask myself. In some of these drawings a portion of the image or artwork on the original postcard is violently revealed. The drawing no longer represents a portion of the sky at a certain date or time; not that it necessarily ever did. Similarly the blind letterpressing onto the mat of each postcard once framed is only legible under the right lighting conditions or time of day. This hazy experience is similar in the attempt to capture the sky, but also a day. The sky in these things at best becomes “a sky,” the day “a day.” Rough duplicates of copies where I’ve nearly lost all memory of the original—an amnesia.

[SENT, RECEIVED]

Thursday, August 25, 2022
84° F, mostly sunny
2:58 – 3:12 PM
Los Angeles, CA

Facing south from a balcony on 14th Street, between Normandie and S Ardmore Avenues.

Postcard rear:
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Roy Lichtenstein, Standing Rib, 1962, oil on canvas, frame (light wood strips): 21 5/8 x 25 5/8 x 1 3/8 in. (54.93 x 65.09 x 3.49 cm), image: 21 x 25 1/16 in. (53.34 x 63.66 cm), The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Panza Collection,
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

[SENT, RECEIVED]

Friday, September 26, 2022
81° F, clear
6:39 – 6:55 PM
Los Angeles, CA

Facing west from a balcony on 14th Street between Normandie and S Ardmore Avenues. Palm trees just below eye line.

Postcard rear:

Republica Dominicana
Tarjeta Postal
Made in U.S.A.

[SENT, LOST]

Sunday, September 28, 2022
90° F, sunny
1:35 – 1:44 PM
Los Angeles, CA

Facing north inside parking lot of Gagosian at Marciano Art Foundation. Inside, Urs Fischer’s CHAOS #1–#500 is installed. Trees just below
eye line. A large AC unit hums nearby. Drawn sitting on back of car, a Volkswagen Taos.

Postcard rear:
ALCAZAR DE COLON
COLUMBU’S [sic] HOME
LIBRERIA GARCIA
JACINTO DE LA CONCHA NO. 34
(PROHIBIDA LA REPRODUCCIÓN)

[SENT, RECEIVED]

Friday, September 30, 2022
74° F, mostly cloudy
10:34 -10:50 AM
Los Angeles, CA

Facing south on W Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard between Normandie and Western Avenues. Below eye line and across the street is the Los Angeles Police Department Southwest Community Police Station. Constant traffic between us. To my back, Your Way Out Bail Bonds - the sign uses the font from the video game Grand Theft Auto. Drawn on the hood of car, a Volkswagen Taos.

Postcard rear:

Francis Bacon
Three Studies for a Self-Portrait, 1980 Triptychon,
je 35,5 x 30 cm Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf Dauerleihgabe Jurgen Hall
Foto: Achim Kukulies
© The Estate of Francis Bacon.
All Rights reserved/VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2015 Best.Nr.: KSNRW 038 GEBR. KONIG POSTKARTENVERLAG • BREITE STR. 93 • D-50667
KOLN • PRINTED IN GERMANY

[SENT, RECEIVED]

Sunday, October 20, 2022
80° F, clear
5:56 – 6:12 PM
Tucson, AZ

Looking northeast during sunset in Saguaro National Park. A wind chime tinkles now and then. Trees, bushes rustle. To the right of eye line is Mt Kimball; it’s pink now. Inside, mom recovers from knee replacement surgery.

Postcard rear:
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART
Donald Judd (United States, 1928–1994) Untitled (for Leo Castelli), 1977
Concrete, 84 x 84 x 89 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by the Modern and Contemporary Art Council
and Robert H. Halff (M.78.26a)
Art © Judd Foundation/ Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Photo
©2012 Museum Associates/LACMA

[SENT, RECEIVED]

Tuesday, March 12, 2024
61° F, partly cloudy
11:58 AM – 12:12 PM
Los Angeles, CA

Facing south in alleyway behind Western Avenue and between W 89th and W 91st Streets. Focus on clear, blue sky between clouds. A generator is on nearby and a blue tarp flaps. Birdsong. Planes constantly fly above. Head hurts slightly and mom is texting.

Postcard rear:
Andy Warhol (United States, 1928 – 1987) Campbell’s Soup Can, 1964 Oil on canvas, canvas:
36 x 24 in.;
framed: 37 x 25 x 1/2 in.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Robert H. Halff trough the Modern and Contemporary Art Council (M.2005.38.12)
© 2018 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Campbell Trademarks used with permission of Campbell Soup Company Photo © 2018 Museum Associates/LACMA
LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART

Standing Rib
2022/24
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions: 5 x 7in
Framed: 8 5/8 x 16 7/8 in

Standing Rib (detail)

Citadel Door
2022/24
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions:
3 5/8 x 5 5/8in
Framed: 7 1/4 x 16 7/8 in

Citadel Door (detail)

Columbu’s [sic] Home
2022/24
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions:
6 x 4 in
Framed: 9 3/4 x 16 7/8 in

Three Studies for a Self-Portrait
2022/24
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions:
3 5/8 x 5 5/8in
Framed: 9 1/3 x 16 7/8 in

Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (detail)

Untitled (for Leo Castelli)
2022/24
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions:
5 3/4 x 4 1/8 in
Framed: 9 3/8 x 16 7/8 in

Untitled (for Leo Castelli)
(detail)

Campbell’s Soup Can
2024
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions:
4 1/4 x 6 in
Framed:
7 1/4 x 16 7/8 in

Campbell’s Soup Can (detail)
2022/24
Pastel on postcard, mailed, blind letterpressed mat board
Postcard dimensions:
3 5/8 x 5 5/8in
Framed: 7 1/4 x 16 7/8 in

←

Looney . . .

→