From 2013-2015 I did volunteer photography for pediatric hospice services, and in those challenging, life-changing moments, I discovered that photography is about taking and giving. This is another exploration of that idea, and hope, in the climate of 2020.
I was inspired to start printing postcards in my darkroom to raise funds for different non-profits, COVID-19 relief funds, and to support the USPS when I watched John Lewis, in a flag-draped casket, cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time in late July.
The commentators mentioned we were 100 days from the election and the idea/action appeared. Each postcard says when it was mailed with the days left until the election, and is a symbol of connection in a time where everything is so distant from what it was once. This is in itself a wonderful thing, but also two-thirds of each sale goes to something important that is worth supporting and standing behind, as we understand this new world. If you purchase a postcard print you can:
1. Have it sent to you with a message typed on the back by the artist
2. Send it to someone you select with your own personal message typed by the artist
3. Have a blank postcard print sent to you in an envelope
This is also an anti-loneliness project for anyone wanting to support a cause and receive art in the mail (or to send art to someone special we can’t see in person right now). I have a friend who works for Zoom in Europe and he sent mail to his 96 year old Grandmother in California.
This will be an on-going project through next year. It will help support important causes like the United Farm Workers Union, and The Black Hills Legal Defense Fund.
Series collaborators include Christine Wood, Eve-Lauryn LaFountain, Jonathan Takahashi and Heather O’Brien (forthcoming). This project is produced in collaboration with my partner Christine Wood.
