An Invitation to Joint the Mail Piece Project

How would you like to help me with a new art project?

Over the course of 2011, I plan to create a 5-part, limited-edition work—with your help, I hope. I call it the Mail Piece Project (MPP).

I have been thinking about what I get in my mailbox: how impersonal the mass mailings are, compared with “old-fashioned” hand-written letters. The MPP is a conceptual art project that combines elements from both. It is a limited-edition multiple original (fine art print), neither “mass” in nature, nor a singular object.

There will be five designs, for different parts of the year: New Year, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Mailings will start on the Lunar New Year, at the end of January, and continue seasonally, after that.

Each design will be a two-sided, tri-folded self-mailer, and each will be coordinated with a particular commemorative stamp issue.*

I think of it as a three-part "collaboration."  The work will start with me, of course. I’ve included scans of a sketch and a finished panel in this post.

The U.S. Postal Service will continue, working on my beginning via postmarks, bar codes, or other marks added during processing. **

You can be the third part of the process, if you want to—by helping finance it, and also by viewing it, for I believe no art is a “finished product” until someone new sees it.  I mainly want to cover expenses, so I've set the price at $6.  To sign up, email me at jsg4edu@gmail.com.

When you sign up, you will be given a print number. Throughout the year, all your prints will have that number. By the end of the year you should have a complete set, personalized for you.

Before you pay me anything, I need a head count of who is interested in this venture. It is my hope to reach around 50 people, to keep the cost low. My sign-up deadline is January 22, 2011.  Send a check to me at Artdog Studio, 4318 Rainbow Blvd. Suite #143, Kansas City, KS 66103, or use the PayPal button below.

As you can see, I’m already at work on the first design. Sign up now, before all the art is gone! Depending on how hard this is, I might not do another project next year.

*Note: if you are not located in the United States, you still can participate. Email me at jsg4edu@gmail.com, and we’ll work special pricing out for you. As a bonus, so you won’t miss out on the commemorative stamps, I’ll mail the MPP to myself first, and then repackage it to send to you.

**Further note: people who know the work of the United States Postal Service know that it is not always kind to mailed pieces! I have a remedy planned, if your art arrives in a “body bag,” so please don’t throw it away.

Here are the other commemorative stamps I plan to use, for (L-R) Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

Here is a PayPal option for a $6 (USD) subscription for "Mail Piece Project 2011":