Postcards from anywhere...

Advert for Sleep (Haruki Murakami), illustrated by K. Menschik

Well I told myself I would eventually get round to putting together some displays of my postcard collection, AND I also promised I would put up some more pics so this brief post is going to do just that.

I've collected these postcards from a variety of places, but mostly during trips around Europe - France, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, etc. Sometimes, I've bought them from tourist places, sometimes I've picked them up from exhibitions like the Tate Modern in London, or the Reina Sofia in Madrid, some I just picked up for free in bars and cafes. I like all of them for different reasons, some because they're funny or clever, some because they remind me of something or someone, some simply because of the colours - in fact some of the free ones I didn't even know what they were supposed to be until a while after picking them up. Most of the time the free ones are adverts for new music, bars, artists, or even therapists!

Postcard bought in France, either St Malo or Dinan

Some of the postcards are ones I've been sent by others. Quite a few are from my Dad (you can always rely on him to send a postcard even if he's only away for a very short space of time), but I've also got a handful from uni friends and friends I used to live with in France.

Star no. 1, on the theme of love and relationships (caption of bottom card reads 'Love Rat')

I really love the idea of using postcards as a means of decorating your house, though I have to confess I didn't come up with it myself, although this particular format is my own. Back when I was living in France, I went to dinner at a mutual friend's house, and her and her husband had kept loads of postcards and hung them from wire (as if they were on a clothes line) in their downstairs bathroom. Some people might not like the idea of having pictures of your travels on display like that, I suppose in some situations it might come across as pretentious, or showing off about how well travelled or worldly you are, but I find it motivating and thought provoking, and, at least from my perspective, aesthetically pleasing. As I mentioned in my previous post, it reminds me of fun times, but also it reminds me not to forget the bigger picture. No matter what problems I might be having at work, or at home, it reminds me that there is always something bigger going on in the world. It also reminds me not to get too comfortable and complacent - I definitely want to do more travelling, so this will be a constant reminder of what else there is to see out there.

Star no. 2, on theme of people

Clockwise from top: 'Hello' by Per Jose Karlen, 'Woman with Matches' by Francis Picabia, 'Nude Descending a Staircase, no 2' by Marcel Duchamp, 'Masque de Greta Garbo a la meche' by Pablo Gargallo, album design for 'Ein Geschenkte Tag' by Max Herre, 'L.H.O.O.Q.' by Marcel Duchamp  Centre: 'Guernica' by Pablo Picasso

Some of the more artistic ones by Duchamp (the artist, not the poncy men's fashion label), or Picasso remind me of how much the world has changed since their time, but also to appreciate the things that we now take for granted, but that were revolutionary back then, like moving pictures and modern art. One of the things I particularly like a postcards, is that it's a fun and relatively cheap way of saying hi and touching base with someone, of letting them know you're thinking of them, without picking up the phone, or sending an e-mail, or going on Facebook. They're a lot quicker than writing a whole letter, and you certainly don't have the space to update your intended receiver on your entire life, but I think it retains some of the charm of letters in a world where we're so used to instantaneous communication, and an interesting or attractive design adds to the appeal. I absolutely love receiving letters and postcards from friends and family in the post, and I want to be better at sending them too (it's so hard to fight the temptation to keep them for myself!).

I've still got loads of cards to sort through and and work out how best to display them, but I think I'm actually going to run out of spare hooks on our walls before I get through all of them. I may well have to lend them to friends and family so that they don't just sit gathering dust in a box under the bed. Anyway, I didn't want to write too much on this one (a picture's worth a thousand words don't you know?), so hope you enjoy the pictures (please excuse the camera-phone quality) and look forward to posting some more soon.

Bye for now x