Fully Psyched

A conglomeration of things

A conglomeration of things

  • Original Content
    • Art / writing / everything
    • Postcards and letters
    • Collages and drawings
    • Writing
    • Sketchbook
    • Project index
  • Projects
    • Project index
    • Greetings from the Back of My Van
    • Star Wars Camping Adventures
    • Great Big Letter
    • Public comments on NPS DO-21
    • Interviews at the Charles M. Schulz Museum
    • Iowa Field Recordings, June 2010
    • View all projects
  • View all posts
  • Request a postcard
  • About

Art by mail: The importance of being prepared

November 8, 2012 by campbell Leave a Comment

Collage: A community of mammals in space.

Message on postcard:
Hello Patrick! This postcard is all about the importance of being prepared. I drove probably thirty thousand million billion miles this year, and by the time I set off on this last leg of travel I felt like I had everything down to a fine art: Throw all your stuff in the van and drive until you make it somewhere nice. Pretty simple formula.

But for this last bit of travel across Oregon I decided to build upon the lessons I’d already learned. I invested in a guidebook — by which I mean I threw all my stuff in the van, camped out in Oregon’s Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness my first night out, and then decided to stop in the tiny town of Welches to see what I might be able to learn at their public library.

And I learned two things. One, that they have guidebooks, and two, that they have a copy machine. And so I found the guidebook pages that described my planned destinations, and I xeroxed those pages. Boom.

The Welches library isn’t much bigger than a dentist’s waiting room. But it would be the waiting room for a very large dental practice. Where the patients are librarians and books. And also grungy travelers. And the work they do results in healthy smiles. Does that metaphor work? I think it works.

 

Filed Under: Collage, Drawing, Greetings from the Back of My Van, Postcards, Writing Tagged With: art, collage, GFTBOMV giant-sized postcards, Oregon, postcards, travel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Project updates!

Want to get updates on new projects posted here? Sign up below. I won't share your email address, and I won't spam your inbox with junk.

Make your mailbox fabulous

Be the envy of your friends. Request a postcard.

Latest sketchbook

A postcard collage of an old woman wearing sunglasses and saying "lentils lentils lentils lentils lentils"

Lentils lentils lentils lentils lentils lentils

Latest photo

A photo of the Grand Canon on a sunny day, with a tilt-shift effect applied in post-processing.

Some desktop-wallpaper-sized photos from my last trip to Grand Canyon.

Recent projects

Illustration of Jar Jar sitting in front of a gas station.

Star Wars Camping Adventures: Episode One

photo of Grand Canyon

Public comments on proposed revisions to NPS Director’s Order 21

Photograph of blue VW Vanagon in the desert, with the phrase Greetings from the Back of My Van overlaid above it

Greetings from the Back of My Van

Categories

  • Everything except sketchbook and photography
  • Art
    • Collage
    • Drawing
  • Correspondence
    • Letters
    • Postcards
  • Great Big Letter
  • Greetings from the Back of My Van
  • Projects
  • Technical
  • Writing
  • Sketchbook
  • Photography
  • Projects

    • Project index
    • Star Wars Camping Adventures
    • Public comments on NPS DO-21
    • Greetings from the Back of My Van
    • Great big letter
    • Interviews at the Charles M. Schulz Museum
    • Iowa Field Recordings, June 2010

    Absolute basics

    • About
    • Contact
    • Request a postcard

    Elsewhere

    • Someday I'll be on Instagram
    • Right now I'm on Facebook
    • In 2006 I was on Flickr

    Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in