Postcard Project
PRAXIS
2012
I took a spontaneous selfie while getting ready to go out one evening. At the night’s end, alone in the stillness, I took another look at the photo. The amount of effort and know-how to look a certain way on the outside compared with the helpless emptiness I was feeling on the inside felt so stupid. The stupid inside that was so sad and alone. The stupid outside that was continuing with the pretenses of life: working, hanging out, laughing at some dumb joke. I kept looking at the photo and a phrase came into my brain: “She felt good about herself. In a bad way.”
I discovered a desire to eject all my internal self-doubt and dissatisfaction out into the world. I thought this would be a liberating and cathartic exercise. I created a series of five postcards, all of them an image fo me with accompanying text. I didn’t spent too much time tinkering or perfecting, keeping the process quick, easy and spontaneous, just the way it began.
The address was my parents’ medical supply store.
With the help of friends and acquaintances, I in postcard from was dispersed far and wide:
Chad: Lexington, Orlando
Beth: Atlanta, Paris, Stockholm
Cindy: Denver, Orlando
April: Fresno
Ramsey: Hartford
Michelle: Houston
Shannon and Gary: Indianapolis
Kyler: Jacksonville, Arequipa
Ernae: Milan, Paris
David: New Orleans
Young Mi: Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Delhi
Cristina: New York, Seattle
Simon and Kelly: Portland
Vicki: Philadelphia
Sarah: Sacramento
Callista: San Francisco
Warren: San Francisco
Brande: Seal Beach
I in postcard form may get lost and forgotten or discarded. Or maybe I in postcard form would get returned to me.