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Artist Details
George Wittenberg
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"My postcard series grew out of two of my favorite activities—drawing and traveling," says watercolorist George Wittenberg. "I have always drawn, usually on vacation when I have the time and concentration. As a boy, I was fortunate enough to spend summers in New Orleans with my grandmother Lottie, who trusted me enough to let me take the ferry by myself across the river to the French
Quarter where I would wander and draw until the last dinnertime return ferry. What an experience! I guess the skills of observing a space along with its buildings and landscape, and recording them on paper came early.
"As an adult, I read about a graphic artist who drew and sent the images as
postcards back to himself. I liked the concept and decided to do the same
on my next trip. Trips to Mexico and New England hooked me. So when a
trip to Paris came up, I knew I had to begin taking this idea seriously.
All of these trips are recorded on postcards. Each image represents a
personal moment of experiencing a unique space - the view from the Mexico hotel room, the historic houses in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Le
Corbusier's Villa Sovoye, the forms of the castle, Chenonceau crossing the river. Nothing sears a place in your memory like sitting and drawing it for about an hour.
"I created the Italian series on a trip in September, 1998, which was about a month long. I made a pact with myself to do a postcard a day, and not to take too long on each one. I believe that in this format, the image should be captured quickly, like a sketch that captures the important idea of the place. Recently trips to northern California and Trenton, NJ have added to the series.
"The 24 California postcards almost met my goal of an image a day, but some days I cheated and did two or three. They were all done rather quickly, and all were mailed from the locale. The medium represents materials I like and are portable: water colors, ink and pencil. You would be surprised at all the places one can find water when you need it!
"The interaction that accompanies mailing postcard art, is almost the best part of the total experience. Buying the stamps, special stamps, in a foreign language and currency is always challenging. In Europe, one can still wait in long lines and have a personal experience with a postal official while purchasing stamps. In Florence, when the post office personnel and I were totally confused over the word, "commemorative," an elegant Italian lady interjected herself, translated for me, and told me her story of meeting an American during the war. A similar experience happened in Lucca, when I tried on the last day to interact with the official behind the glass, who was trying to leave early, another elegant lady, a Californian who lives part-time in Lucca, stepped up, told the Official off in fluent Italian, and handed me the very stamps I was lusting for. She later told me this "window" was known as the rudest in Tuscany. There was also the wonderful staff of the Barga post office who would gather around to see what I had produced "this time," converse among themselves about the local identity of each image, and exclaimed "bella, bella, architectura." As you can imagine, I almost cried when they sent me off after my last visit. Needless to say, I didn't want to leave!
"So, postcard art carries with it the interaction of many other persons before it reaches home. I like that about it. Think of the handling, the
stamping the cancellation in the correct place, the computerization of distribution, and finally the delivery! I have never lost one "in the mail,"
but had one damaged by the machine. I like to think when they show up on a conveyor belt or cross someone's desk my paintings offer postal workers an experience totally different from the usual mail."
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