4th Annual |
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“THE WORLD BEFORE US IS A POSTCARD, AND I IMAGINE THE STORY WE ARE WRITING ON IT.” ― MARY E. PEARSON
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EDITORIAL NOTE
from Allissa
A postcard is a hope to be heard, a hand-held call to a friend, to a lover, to a mom, to an opposition, a loss, a loved one.
The Art of the Postcard series is a call to everyone. It is a chance to share what stirs you, those open-heart moments that beg to be breathed out into the world in paint, in words, in tape, ink, photos, string, paper. These postcards represent unfiltered art. This art is not audited, not hand selected or panel picked. We are, once again, honored to receive your art and to share it with our readers. Whoever it is that you wanted to reach, I hope this postcards finds them. |
Featured Postcard
About the featured postcard:
Churnage
Churnage
Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have appeared in Steam Ticket, Aji Magazine, Topology, Change Seven Magazine, and Beatnik Cowboy, among others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart prize, as well as for Best of the Net, and was a finalist for 2013 Poet Laureate of the city of Houston, Texas. She is currently a staff editor for Mojave River Review, and a poetry editor for VoiceCatcher. Having relocated from Houston, she lives in Beaverton, Oregon.
Carolyn writes,
For the 1st postcard,
"The postcard is a collage of pictures of roses and other flowers surrounding a the head and shoulders view of a female figure that is looking upward to the left. The colors are predominately pinks and reds. I have sent the postcard from Beaverton, Oregon in the USA."
2nd postcard"The postcard has a picture of a hand upheld with the palm showing, bearing a blue stylized star that has a treble clef in its center. Behind the hand picture are torn pages from books in other languages, including Braille. The cut out words "to learn" are in the upper right of the card."
3rd postcard"The postcard is a swirled blue, black, and white background in acrylic paint, with a picture of a pair of entwined brown tree limbs in the foreground, crossing from lower right to the top and upper left. Blue and purple circles cross the upper right corner of the image."
4th postcard"The postcard is predominately shades of purple, with a reclining female figure (seen from the back) on a purple couch. Flowers and other curved and swirling shapes surround the figure."
Carolyn writes,
For the 1st postcard,
"The postcard is a collage of pictures of roses and other flowers surrounding a the head and shoulders view of a female figure that is looking upward to the left. The colors are predominately pinks and reds. I have sent the postcard from Beaverton, Oregon in the USA."
2nd postcard"The postcard has a picture of a hand upheld with the palm showing, bearing a blue stylized star that has a treble clef in its center. Behind the hand picture are torn pages from books in other languages, including Braille. The cut out words "to learn" are in the upper right of the card."
3rd postcard"The postcard is a swirled blue, black, and white background in acrylic paint, with a picture of a pair of entwined brown tree limbs in the foreground, crossing from lower right to the top and upper left. Blue and purple circles cross the upper right corner of the image."
4th postcard"The postcard is predominately shades of purple, with a reclining female figure (seen from the back) on a purple couch. Flowers and other curved and swirling shapes surround the figure."
Ginny Short
About the postcard Ginny writes, "
About the postcard Ginny writes, "
Allissa Hertz
Imelda Hinojosa
Stephanie Beechem
Bill Wolak
CM Sears
Adria Bernardi
Grace Desmarais self-publishes auto-bio and middle-grade comics. Grace enjoys exploring a variety of genres including memoir, historical narrative and fantasy with her playful style.
Grace's work has been featured in a variety of anthologies including the Votes for Women Anthology (to be published Fall 2020) and Why Faith Anthology (Spring 2019). Her editorial work has been featured in magazines, including Bright Lite Magazine and Hazel Magazine. Grace's in graphic medicine has also been recognized by the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities with a Pen 2 Paper Nomination in Graphic Literature.
Her goal is to be a published graphic novelist with a committed comics publisher where she hopes to make comics about life and witches.
You can also find Grace Desmarais in the Women Who Draw archive.
Grace writes, "In 2017, my best friend and ex-boyfriend took his own life. In 2020, his father took his own life. I have been struggling personally with mental health my whole life. So this was a postcard about grief. The ephemeral quality of postcards offered an opportunity for me to feel safe sharing my grief with stranger in a way that I often struggle with my writing and illustration work. This postcard is a Vermeer Painting that I had been saving from a trip to Paris.The text on the front says "I'll never forget to say 'I love you' ever again." This postcard was sent from Brooklyn NY, USA."
Grace's work has been featured in a variety of anthologies including the Votes for Women Anthology (to be published Fall 2020) and Why Faith Anthology (Spring 2019). Her editorial work has been featured in magazines, including Bright Lite Magazine and Hazel Magazine. Grace's in graphic medicine has also been recognized by the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities with a Pen 2 Paper Nomination in Graphic Literature.
Her goal is to be a published graphic novelist with a committed comics publisher where she hopes to make comics about life and witches.
You can also find Grace Desmarais in the Women Who Draw archive.
Grace writes, "In 2017, my best friend and ex-boyfriend took his own life. In 2020, his father took his own life. I have been struggling personally with mental health my whole life. So this was a postcard about grief. The ephemeral quality of postcards offered an opportunity for me to feel safe sharing my grief with stranger in a way that I often struggle with my writing and illustration work. This postcard is a Vermeer Painting that I had been saving from a trip to Paris.The text on the front says "I'll never forget to say 'I love you' ever again." This postcard was sent from Brooklyn NY, USA."
Bill Smith
Michael Thompson writes, "I am a Chicago-based artist who makes decorative kites for a living and who has been making and mailing fake postage stamps since 1991 in the hopes of having them returned with a cancellation. I sometimes attempt to combine my interest in collage with my philatelic activity and postcards offer the greatest opportunity to do that. I have made and mailed stamps from dozens of countries throughout the world and usually attempt to mask my activity by using blasé envelopes, but my favorite pieces are those that allow me create, what I consider, a genuine piece of mail art." https://michaelthompsonart.com/home.html
(This is Michael's 2nd postcard to us mailed with his own created stamps that made it through USPS)
(This is Michael's 2nd postcard to us mailed with his own created stamps that made it through USPS)
Claire Lawrence is a storyteller and visual artist living in British Columbia, Canada. She has been published in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and India. Her work has been performed on BBC radio. Claire’s stories have appeared in numerous publications including: Geist, Litro, Ravensperch, Brilliant Flash Fiction. She has a number of prize winning stories, and was nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. Claire’s artwork has appeared in Black Lion Journal, Esthetic Apostle, Haunted, Sunspot Literary, A3 Review and Fractured Nuance. Her goal is to write and publish in all genres, and not inhale too many fumes from alcohol ink.
Amy-Sarah Marshall, who graduated with an MFA in Poetry from George Mason University, has published poems in the Wisconsin Review, So to Speak, and other journals. She has worked as a web writer and editor, content strategist, and founding president of the Charlottesville Pride Community Network, an LGBTQ+ community nonprofit. A Los Angeles native, Amy-Sarah grew up in a religious theater cult and now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her wife, 2 children, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.
Amy-Sarah writes, " I drew an abstract pinkish design on the front (you can maybe see koi or aliens in it). The postcard is signed by Manny and comes from Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. It's a letter-poem that takes place in an autoshop and is meant to express the exposure one can feel when estranged and longing for someone who truly knows you."
Amy-Sarah writes, " I drew an abstract pinkish design on the front (you can maybe see koi or aliens in it). The postcard is signed by Manny and comes from Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. It's a letter-poem that takes place in an autoshop and is meant to express the exposure one can feel when estranged and longing for someone who truly knows you."
Jo Goren is a writer who has illustrated, raised two children, dairy goats, and honeybees. A nominee for Best of Net 2019 and Best Small Fiction 2019, her writing has appeared in Blink-Ink, Toasted Cheese, Literary Mama ,and Inverted Syntax, 2nd Art of the Postcard. @drawing4dollars email: jmgoren@gmail.com.
Jo writes, "I've sent you four postcards this fall. Chairs have always been dear to me. I collect abandoned ones from lawns. The Stakmore chair with sharks around it in the ocean is from a nightmare. Dear Mom is my continued conversation from my novella in process."
Jo writes, "I've sent you four postcards this fall. Chairs have always been dear to me. I collect abandoned ones from lawns. The Stakmore chair with sharks around it in the ocean is from a nightmare. Dear Mom is my continued conversation from my novella in process."
Deborah LeFalle is a former college educator who started writing in her retirement. Besides writing she enjoys being involved in the arts and humanities, digging into her family's past, and spending time outdoors communing with nature. Poetry is the genre of writing she is drawn to most, with inspiration for her poems often stemming from personal experiences. Her work has appeared in various journals and magazines, and she has authored two chapbooks, Worthy (2017) and Little Suites (2019). Ms. LeFalle lives a simple, gratitude-filled life in California's Bay Area.
Deborah writes, "The postcard is a colorful print of a purple-striped tiger (artist unknown) that came as part of an art activity kit I purchased for my granddaughter years ago. Continuing the theme on the backside of the card, I wrote my greeting in purple ink."
Deborah writes, "The postcard is a colorful print of a purple-striped tiger (artist unknown) that came as part of an art activity kit I purchased for my granddaughter years ago. Continuing the theme on the backside of the card, I wrote my greeting in purple ink."
Charles J. March III is an asexual, neurodivergent Navy hospital corpsman veteran who is currently trying to live an eclectic life with an interesting array of recovering creatures in Orange County, CA. His various works have appeared in or are forthcoming from Evergreen Review, Atlas Obscura, Litro, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, Lalitamba, 3:AM Magazine, Ink Sweat & Tears, Fleas on the Dog, Dink Press/Problématique, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, The Recusant, Taco Bell Quarterly, Storm Cellar, Terror House Press, Horror Sleaze Trash, Harbinger Asylum, Young Mag, Madness Muse Press, Maudlin House, Misery Tourism, BlazeVOX, Blood Tree Literature (prize), The Babel Tower Notice Board, Bareknuckle Poet, Anti-Heroin Chic, Synchronized Chaos, The Beatnik Cowboy, Points in Case, Expat Press, Stinkwaves, Young Ravens Literary Review, The Writing Disorder, Literary Orphans, Centre for Experimental Ontology, Otoliths, Oddball Magazine, et al. Links to his pieces can be found on LinkedIn and SoundCloud.
Charles writes, "This shark postcard should be coming from San Juan Capistrano, California, which is of course in the USA.
I’d been getting into mail art recently, and am myself a fan of the lost art of letter writing, so when I saw this postcard submission call, I knew I had to participate. I then almost immediately drove to the grocery store specifically to purchase a postcard.
Upon arriving, they weren’t where I’d normally seen them before, so I searched for about 20 minutes before finding them boxed up in the back along with other obscure, miscellaneous ephemera and such.
None of the postcards were catching my eye, until I saw the eye of the shark. Then once I read the dark humor caption on the front, I was hooked.
Pun intended.
I tried to match the “art” on the back with the spirit and colors of the front, and I thought the upside down tourists falling into the water was very fitting for a publication called Inverted Syntax.
And I kind of just went with some other sinister stream of consciousness embellishments to further the semi-humorous, cathartic man eating vibe."
Charles writes, "This shark postcard should be coming from San Juan Capistrano, California, which is of course in the USA.
I’d been getting into mail art recently, and am myself a fan of the lost art of letter writing, so when I saw this postcard submission call, I knew I had to participate. I then almost immediately drove to the grocery store specifically to purchase a postcard.
Upon arriving, they weren’t where I’d normally seen them before, so I searched for about 20 minutes before finding them boxed up in the back along with other obscure, miscellaneous ephemera and such.
None of the postcards were catching my eye, until I saw the eye of the shark. Then once I read the dark humor caption on the front, I was hooked.
Pun intended.
I tried to match the “art” on the back with the spirit and colors of the front, and I thought the upside down tourists falling into the water was very fitting for a publication called Inverted Syntax.
And I kind of just went with some other sinister stream of consciousness embellishments to further the semi-humorous, cathartic man eating vibe."
Rikki Santer's work has appeared in various publications including Ms. Magazine, Poetry East, Slab, Slipstream, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO, Grimm, Hotel Amerika and The Main Street Rag. Santer's work has received many honors including five Pushcart and three Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her eighth collection, Drop Jaw, inspired by the art of ventriloquism, was published this spring by NightBallet Press.
Rikki writes, This card comes from the bakery of imagination where my Home Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker machine resides with me in Columbus, Ohio.
Rikki writes, This card comes from the bakery of imagination where my Home Virtuoso Plus Breadmaker machine resides with me in Columbus, Ohio.
Ailbhe Pascal is a writer based in occupied Coaquanock (“Philadelphia”). Their storytelling is in the tradition of queer witchcraft and political poetry. Find them writing about crip healing, cackling about their latest mistake-success, or sharing moon meals with friends.
Ailbhe writes about each postcard
"1. A postcard made in a fundraising series for the Standing Rock Sioux Water Defenders Camp back in 2018 now has my words of celebration as the Dakota Access Pipeline, resisted by the Standing Rock Camp, has finally been halted. Postcards used to be a way of getting out the news, and I like the idea of sharing good news in this time of struggle and plague.
2. A postcard from an independent bookshop I have actually never been to--what better way to address Stranger? I bring Stranger into relationship with me through a desperate request.
3. A postcard I made by hand as part of a local art exchange. We were encouraged to make stamps with household materials, so I used boiled beets and then mailed 20 versions out to neighbors. The writing here is in also a sample of what I sent out to these different strangers."
Ailbhe writes about each postcard
"1. A postcard made in a fundraising series for the Standing Rock Sioux Water Defenders Camp back in 2018 now has my words of celebration as the Dakota Access Pipeline, resisted by the Standing Rock Camp, has finally been halted. Postcards used to be a way of getting out the news, and I like the idea of sharing good news in this time of struggle and plague.
2. A postcard from an independent bookshop I have actually never been to--what better way to address Stranger? I bring Stranger into relationship with me through a desperate request.
3. A postcard I made by hand as part of a local art exchange. We were encouraged to make stamps with household materials, so I used boiled beets and then mailed 20 versions out to neighbors. The writing here is in also a sample of what I sent out to these different strangers."
