Eleanor Kent

In 1978 I discovered Mail Art and Artistamps as ways of distributing my art. I sent my work through the mail to people who wanted to see it. I got wonderful art back and made friends in many countries. I met artists who also lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we traded ideas and techniques. It was a time of rich exchanges.

I had been painting and drawing for many years, but in the 1970's was doing experiments with copiers. I leased a color xerox 6500 machine in my studio, and many artists came to work on the system or sent me jobs by mail. Together we made discoveries about putting objects or liquids on the platen that were rarely possible in the newly expanding world of copy shops. With Mail Art we could share information about shows and techniques and bypass the conservatism of conventional museums and the strictures of commercial galleries to reach other artists in the same field. We were grateful to the postal systems of the world.

My next step in the 1980's was creating art with computers, because of my belief that artists should use the best and most amazing tools of their era to make what they need to make. I went to computer conventions to try out the new and evolving systems, hung out at the electronics department of the Exploratorium, helped to found Ylem: Artists Using Science and Technology in 1981, and bought my own Apple lle computer with impact printer in 1984. I made and printed my own stamps and found that other Mailartists were doing the same.

And then we found the Internet.

I went online in 1988 and traded ideas in text until the graphical user interface was developed. Then I got a PowerMac with a monitor with finer resolution than the earlier ones whose large pixels that had inspired my return to knitting. I drew images or scanned in photos for stamps.

In the 1990's I knitted fractals and other geometric figures to have something to touch beside the keyboard or tablet as I worked. Yarn gave way to wire in the late 90's, and then electro-luminescent wire for jewelry that lets people walk around wearing light. I use images of these pieces in my stamps that I send to new and continuing Mailart friends. We keep learning and passing information back and forth around the world. Join us.