Thank you for looking at this artist statement 💖 I included some context, or you can tl;dr and skip to the FAQs section if you prefer.

tl;dr
The thesis is: Pieces of paper are still valuable in a progressively digital society, and making Postcard Project postcards is an artistic way to produce valuable pieces of paper.

Paper is compelling because humans used to rely on it for a lot of things we now do digitally. People still read paper books, get advertisements in the mail, and (maybe most beguiling of all) pay for things with money—but now humans can do all those things and more on a screen. Would it be less wasteful if paper was removed from society entirely? … idk climate and capitalism and consumerism are complicated and anyway that’s beside the point. 

The point is: I do think that it is valuable for humanity to hold art, and that paper art is one of the most endangered artforms of our time.

The thesis is: Pieces of paper are still valuable in a progressively digital society, and making Postcard Project postcards is an artistic way to produce valuable pieces of paper.

Images from the Postcard Project are researched from a really big (like the-project-will-never-run-out-of-photos-to-choose-from big) library of my personal photography. I curate them in groups of 12 around my birthday each September. 

The photographs are processed digitally and printed on cardstock with art labels and a QR code.

The QR code links to a Digital Journal website that describes when and where the picture was taken, includes a personal anecdote, incorporates a form to write back, and provides digital-wallpaper versions of the postcard’s image.

After the stationary is printed, the postcards are mailed individually to subscribers at a cadence of one each month of the following year; the general agreement is to supply at least one postcard per month.

The postcards will look good and feel nice and the writing will be lighthearted 🙂 Trust the process.

Indubitably, the Postcard Project is a performance art piece made of paper: a new performance is sent to subscribers every month until the artist gives up or dies unexpectedly or something.

The postcards’ value comes from the money put into printing and mailing them, any general feeling—besides indifference and maybe some other things—that they may inspire, and interestingly each performance’s value should come in ways that we can’t expect to know yet.

The project begins in my 30th year; every additional year of performance results in a batch of 12 new postcards 😎

All proceeds go toward proving the project’s thesis 😁 $5 covers the printing and postage costs. Most of the money goes toward sourcing super-premium paper, and any leftover money gets put back into the project.

The QR code on each postcard links to a Digital Journal entry with information about the photo’s date & location, and a form where a note can be written back to the artist. It also includes digital-wallpaper versions of the postcard’s image.

You can view a Digital Journal entry by clicking here.

Yes, but only one more around the holidays. Sign up for a test print by clicking here. Sign up for monthly postcards by clicking any of the big buttons.

The payment processor takes 1% of each transaction and donates it to offsetting carbon emissions. You can learn more about that by clicking here.

Not yet, but hopefully soon. (Please contact me if you have experience applying for grant funding!)

Yes! International addresses are affixed with a USPS Global Forever Stamp.

Postcard Project uses a third-party payment processor; you can edit your subscription details with your email address by clicking here.

Write back if you’re missing any postcards (you should have at least one for every month since you signed up) and I’ll send replacements in the mail.

As of Number 30 (Sep ‘24):
Postcards are printed on 5 × 7 in (12.7 × 17.8 cm), uncoated, 32pt Mohawk Superfine paper.

Postage is applied via USPS Forever stamp. Stamps may vary in design.

Rust-oleum matte-finish, aerosol spray is applied to the frontside (address side) of each postcard to protect against moisture.

The address-side of each postcard is considered the frontside; the frontside is printed in two stages. In the first stage of printing, a vendor prints three elements with a commercial-quality printer:

• guideline areas for USPS mailing regulations (barcode, address, stamp)

• the majority of the artwork label (artist details, project name, artwork medium, dimensions, website)

• four address lines

The remaining elements are considered the second stage of printing. Currently, the second-stage print is executed by the artist on a home-office-quality inkjet printer:

• return address

• printed note written by the artist

• three-digit account number (assigned chronologically in the order a new name was submitted to the project, including test prints & holiday cards)

• QR code linked to a “Digital Journal Entry”

• dividing line

• art labels, including the postcard number, year it was printed, and print edition

• mailing address

Art labels are printed in Times New Roman font. Notes and addresses use a custom font created using handwriting samples.

For subscribers, Postcard Project prints include a serialized postcard number and a print edition. A new edition is created each time an image is sent to the printer. For example, First Edition Prints are the result of the first order sent to the printer. Second Edition, Third Edition, etc. prints occur when a postcard is reordered from the vendor to accommodate revisions to a postcard’s content, an increase in demand, or a lack of supply typically due to errors during the second stage of the printing process.

AP (Artist Proof) prints occur when circumstances during the second stage of printing result in variations that occur within an arbitrary margin of error, and may be applied by hand after the printing process is completed.

An unlimited Open Edition (OE) is produced for complimentary postcards (Test Prints & Holiday Cards) that are mailed before a subscription has been activated.

Once printing is complete, the postcard is affixed with a USPS Forever stamp, and the second-stage print elements are sealed with a finishing spray to attenuate ink runs if the frontside encounters moisture.

The image-side of each postcard is considered the backside.

Each image is serialized with a four-digit number. The first two digits of the Postcard Number correspond to the age of the artist at the time of mailing. The last two digits correspond to one of 12 months in the year.

Currently, printing on the backside is outsourced to a vendor. The backside is considered a giclée art print executed in CMYK using a high-resolution inkjet printer.

A corresponding digital journal entry is linked to each postcard via QR code. Journal entries show the Postcard’s four-digit number and include information about the photo’s date and location.

Each QR code includes a form where a note can be sent back to the artist, and it includes a cropped Digital Wallpaper of the image that is sized for phone and computer backgrounds.

You can view a Digital Journal entry by clicking here.