|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
News Page: Keeping everyone updated on della Cartolina.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
| Tuesday, February 16, 2010 |
| Got Issue #17 to the post office. Will be fixing the PayPal subscription button shortly. |
| Saturday, January 16, 2010 |
| Dropped #15 off in the mail this morning. |
| Friday, January 1, 2010 |
| Mailed #14, which is a nengajo (Japanese New Year's Card). Welcome to the Year of the Tiger! |
| Tuesday, December 15, 2009 |
| Issue #13 is stamped and out he door (mailed from US soil). |
| Tuesday, December 1, 2009 |
| Subscribers should expect Issue #12 to arrive a bit later than usual, since I'm mailing it from overseas (on the plus side, you'll get a foreign stamp/postmark!) |
| Sunday, November 15, 2009 |
|
Issue #11, "Prosciutt", is stamped and out the door. After the somber tone of the last card, I thought something a bit lighthearted was worthwhile. American subscribers please note that the next card (#12, to be mailed December 1) might arrive a few days later than usual, since I will be mailing it from abroad. |
| Sunday, November 1, 2009 |
| Issue #10, "Drowning", is stamped and out the door. This is a very personal card for me; I've had people close to me struggle mightily with depression, some who succumbed to it, some who overcame it. This card is my interpretation of what that struggle is like. |
| Thursday, October 15, 2009 |
| Issue #9, "Silver Jazzy Night", is stamped and out the door. On the postcard front, I've been busy completing #12 (the December 1st card) and preparing for a big holiday advertising push (why not give art postcards for the holidays, rather than the typical last-minute gift card?) More coming soon. |
| Thursday, October 1, 2009 |
| Issue #8, "Business Lunch", is stamped and out the door. |
| Tuesday, September 15, 2009 |
| Issue #7 is stamped and in the USPS' capable hands. |
| Sunday, September 13, 2009 |
|
Completed issue #10 (November 1 mailing). Hard to believe, but there are only three cards left for me to create in 2009 (Nov 15, Dec 1, Dec 15). On a side note, this week I'll be starting a broader advertising push. The initial response to della Cartolina has been great, and it has encouraged me to further expand the reading audience (if you have friends into visual arts, why not get them a subscription?). Here's one of the ads:  The others are here and here. |
| Tuesday, September 8, 2009 |
Issue #6 seems to be pretty popular, and I keep getting the same question: what did the photo look like before you "tilt-shifted" it (see this Tutorial for an explanation of the technique). Here's a before-and-after look at the shot, which I took during a lazy July Saturday in Ocean Grove, New Jersey (about an hour south of New York City).
|
| Tuesday, September 1, 2009 |
| Issue #6 is stamped and out the door. |
| Saturday, August 29, 2009 |
|
I've gotten several e-mails asking about the photo of the elevator operator in Shanghai (Issue 005). I took photo during a week in Shanghai in June 2008. In the the West/Northwest part of the city, the government has converted a few clusters of old industrial warehouses into artist colonies, and visitors can walk through them visiting the various studios. I'd esttimate most of the buildings are at most 4 or 5 stories high, and stairs are the usual way of getting around. As I entered this one warehouse, I saw the door to an elevator and decided to take it. As I boarded it, I was struck by three things: First, that it was one of the oldest, darkest, and most cramped elevators I'd ridden in my life. Second, that it had a human operators (remember, this is in a building with maybe six floors) who from the look of it sat in there all day. And third, that he had a companion squatting behind him, fiddling with an electric teapot. Instinctively I raised my camera and took a quick shot, which seemed to draw the ire of the other inhabitants (I don't speak Chinese, but the tone and body languae between them suggested they were none too happy). I really like how the photo turned out (the version on the postcard is completely unedited), because the stark lighting gives it a dramatic, almost staged look, what with the shadow falling across the man's face and his companion almost invisble. My first thought when contemplating the scene is how horribly depressing a job that would be, but I tried thinking about it from his perspective, and that's where the story sprung to mind. Human beings have a remarkable psychological resilience when it comes to hardship, I believe, and that's the kernel underlying this story. |
| Friday, August 14, 2009 |
| Putting the final address labels and stamps on issue #5, which goes in the mail tomorrow. |
| Thursday, August 13, 2009 |
| I found an interesting website for the postcard fan amongst you: PostCrossing.com, which is an international postcard swapping community. |
| Wednesday, August 12, 2009 |
|
Pulled an all-nighter to wrap up work on issue #7 (September 15th mailing date). Two things gave me the energy to plow through this one: 1) Insomnia 2) PSPrint's 50% off sale on postcard printing this month. |
| Friday, August 7, 2009 |
| For issue #6 (September 1st's card) I was helped and inspired by this primer on "Tilt-Shift Photography": Tilt-Shift Photography Photoshop Tutorial. By far, this card is the one I'm most looking forward to getting back from the printers, since I'm curious whether it came out as good on paper as it looked on the screen. |
| Friday, July 31, 2009 |
| I've finished putting stamps on Issue #4 ("Third time to Paris"), which I'll drop off at the post office tomorrow. Look for this sad, but hopefully beautiful, little tale hitting your mailbox sometime next week. |
| Thursday, July 30, 2009 |
| NPR All Things Considered had an interesting story this afternoon about a writer, Michael Kimball, who writes biographies on postcards. Thought it would be of interest to my readers. NPR Story, Michael Kimball's blog. As always, I also highly recommend Abe's Penny, which is a fantastic, weekly postcard series that features different artists every four weeks. I'm a subscriber myself. |
| Wednesday, July 22, 2009 |
| Some of you have asked me who the photographer is on a few of the cards, and I just wanted to clarifty that all the photos, drawings, and text is my original work (quotations aside, naturally). The photos on #1, #2, #4, and #5 were taken by me with a digital camera. |
| Wednesday, July 15, 2009 |
| Issue #3 stamped and mailed on time. As always, if you're a subscriber and your card doesn't arrive within a week, shoot me an emai (contact infol and I'll make sure you get a new one. |
| Wednesday, July 1, 2009 |
1. Issue #2 is stamped and mailed. 2. Work on #5 has begun:
|
| Sunday, June 28, 2009 |
| Deciding on the contents of the August 15 and September 1 cards: Shanghai workplaces? Mojito recipe? Infographics? Other? I try to stay 4~6 weeks "ahead of schedule" in terms of getting finished artwork to the printers, just in case a card doesn't come out as I'd hoped. |
| Friday, June 26, 2009 |
| Status update: Issue 001 -- mailed. Issue 002--printed, ready to be mailed on Wednesday. Issues 003 and 004 -- at the printers/on a UPS truck shipping here. So both the July and the August 1st cards are covered. |
| Monday, June 15, 2009 |
| della Cartolina is now officially launched! Postcard 001 (Kabutomushi) was dropped off at the post office this morning, should be hitting subscribers' mailboxes this week, early next week, tops. Enjoy! |