Art from the Heart Mail Art Call - in support of Hurricane Katrina survivors

Art from the Heart

Mail Artist Carla Cryptic would like to invite you to participate in an art lottery to help speed the recovery of a small community devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi is 50 miles east of New Orleans,Louisiana and 90 miles west of Mobile, Alabama, right in the middle of the hurricane’s wind and storm surge. It’s population of 8000 is a close knit community which has always placed a high value on its artistic and environmental heritage. Along with all of the practical items lost in the aftermath of Katrina went the more esoteric, but equally important, items such as art. Bay Saint Louis was listed as one of the top ten small art communities in the US by USA Today before events overtook the town. It is hard to measure the impact of the loss of art in anyone’s life but as an artist myself, I know how much of a boost it would be for me to receive new art as a random act of kindness from another artist somewhere around the world or even just a city or state away.

The documentation for this show will be unusual in that there will be a lottery held to distribute the art received randomly throughout the community. Both 2D and 3D art are welcome and there is no size limit other than your being able to get it there via mail or hand delivery. The lottery will not involve money but people have to show that they live in Bay Saint Louis to enter and receive art. The art will be displayed at the city’s one remaining, little damaged, historic depot. After the lottery, the art will be photographed with the person who receives it and a copy of that photograph, and a letter of thanks from the city’s director of cultural affairs, will be sent to the artist. I will also create an online version of the documentation, if possible with photos but, at the bare minimum, with a list of participants. (Please note: if you sell your work, you may set a value for the art you send in and the city will provide you with a letter of donation you can use with your tax return.) The most important thing is to send something which you would like to receive in a similar situation. There is no theme other than that intent.

For this particular mail art event, it is okay to send your work inside of other packaging if you like. On the other hand, if the process of mailing is part of how you envision your piece, please feel free to send it unwrapped.

The target date for the exhibit and lottery is October 1, 2006. All art may be mailed or shipped to:

City of Bay Saint Louis Art Lottery,
Attention: Mike Cuevas,
P.O. Box 2550,
Bay Saint Louis, MS 39520

-or-

hand delivered to:

1928 Depot Way,
Bay Saint Louis, MS 39520
(Monday-Friday, 8-5).

Carla Cryptic
carlacryptic@yahoo.com

Too many online options! :)

I am going nuts with all the cool places there are online to participate. It was bad enough when there were only a handful - the time spent online conferencing and sending/answering email could make things difficult IRL. Now, there are ten times the number of places to hang out, share ideas, and view photos - I feel we will soon need to clone ourselves in order to pursue even 1/100th of the things we are interested in.

Still, I am loving the time I CAN afford to devote to such things. Blogger, DeviantArt, The New Café (formerly Café Utne), DP Challenge, Fotolog, Fotki, Flickr, ATCards, Yahoo Groups, MSN Groups, Google browsing in general, MySpace, iCompositions - those are just the places where I already spend a lot of time. There are tons of others which I don't have time to even get started with. Then there are all the user groups for software and hardware I'm into... that's a whole other kettle of fish. (!)

Squidoo is very cool and interesting but I haven't had time to more than stick my toe in the water there. I am trying to start up a soft block carving lens there. Somehow, I've got to make it easier to consolidate all of the places and activities I'm involved with so that I can stop spreading myself too thin. Lol... (you'd have to know me to fully appreciate that laugh!).

My biggest problem is certainly my own voracious appetite for knowledge, experience, and interaction. Somehow, I never cease to find interesting new challenges to get excited about WITHOUT always losing intereest in my old obsessions. I still want to speak 10 languages fluently, not just 6 - I still want to sing and compose music as well as paint/draw/sculpt on top of writing poetry and short fiction along with making my own videos and short films and that's not even mentioning what I do for a living, which is take photographs! And then there's the fact that I am married to my best friend and that we need time to play TOGETHER not just separately, just the two of us as well as the whole extended family of relatives and friends. I keep meeting new people I like, too... where do I fit them in!?

I definitely need another hundred years or so to just get started. :)