Continuing my POSTCARD ART blogs with another post profiling the design and production of my art postcards. I have been creating and printing these for more than a decade. This post looks back to cards I back when I started in 2006 and 2007. There are also cards from subsequent years. My art postcard project was inspired by a study trip to Japan. I looked at Modernist printmaking approaches that had taken place there. My cards were produced by hand in limited edition batches. Each card produced was unique…similar but not identical, part of a batch with an approximate match.
This is one of the earliest examples, from the series of Abstract Art Postcards made in 2007.
(Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
…and this one, also made in 2007, a different design but from the same series of Abstract Art Postcards.
(Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
…and the third one, also 2007, also from a different design but from the same series of Abstract Art Postcards. (Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
Abstract Nos. 1-11 was an exhibition of my art postcards. It displayed cards from 11 different series. It was exhibited in the DAB LAB GALLERY of the University Technology, Sydney in 2007. (Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
Opening night of the exhibition…me with Cosmo Arai and her Mexican colleague from the Japan Foundation in Sydney. I had been involved with researching and profiling Japanese cultural projects in Australia and Japan with them. (Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
A closer shot of the gallery window display. It was illuminated on a 24 hours/7 days a week basis. Note that despite the postcards being displayed in groupings, the cards in each group are not identical. They are basically similar but not part of an identical set, as mentioned above. Variations came in the printmaking stage when some elements were printed separately…or not in the exact same position on each card. These cards were not printed from a single block but cumulatively from several separate blocks and single elements. The result is that they all look similar and part of a set…however, in terms of the positioning, the graphic elements and the intensity of colour and texture no two are identical…although they may not seem to be mono prints they are! (Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
Nine of my art postcards…from the first and subsequent batches, on sale a few years later at Gauge Gallery in Glebe. (Photo and artwork-©2012 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
Subsequent batches, up to a decade later, show an increased diversity in design. Once I started making art postcards it became part of my graphic art and design expression…and I am still making them in 2023! (Photo and artwork-©2018 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics).
Front and rear view of the invitation to my exhibition at the DAB LAB GALLERY. (Photo and artwork-©2007 Dr. Michael Hill a.k.a. Doctor Comics)
(All text, photos and artwork-©2023 Dr. Michael Hill).