First post = About
I’m Mr. Random, and I make space money. Space money is made of paper and paint, and there is a specific multi-step process involving six painting/drying stages, and three stages of folding/cutting. Space money is double sided, just like time money. But unlike time money, every piece of space money is different and abstract. (But then again, like time money, every piece of space money is the same shape and size and manufactured in a pre-set assembly-line process.) After final painting stages, when the metallics have been applied, then the pieces are space money. Initial paper size is standard 8.5 by 11 inches. After first fold/cut: 5.5 x 8.5″. After second: 4.25×5.5. After third: 2.75×4.25. One initial sheet yields eight completed space monies. All folding is done by hand; all cutting is done with a small pair of pink-handled scissors.
Further notes: Before the first and second fold/cuts, both sides of the paper are painted with non-pearl tempera colors (mostly mixing from primaries, white, and black, occasionally including custom and flouro colors)– random abstract expressionisticalish style including some drippy jacksonpollacking. The second and third fold/cuts have no painting stage intervening. After the third fold/cut, I apply pearl tempera and metallic acrylic paints, again random/abstract as is my custom. So there are three layers of paint finalized by metal, which makes this space money.
Those are the technical details. I discovered the space money fabrication process while Mrs. Random and I were vacationing on Orcas Island in October of 2007. I’m a painter, and I love to paint abstracts, and I love to paint a lot. So I had recently started focusing on painting plain standard sheets of paper rather than build up a large collection of canvases, which I’ve done in the past and which I still have a large collection of. So I was painting paper sheets and actually both sides, thinking I might make zines with these abstract expressionist painted pages. At some point I folded a painted sheet in half and then cut it, and I liked that newer smaller (”digest”) size. But I did it again and like the even smaller piece but didn’t know what it would be used for, and then something *sparked* and I folded cut in half again, and yielded this obviously hold-in-your-hand or put-in-your-wallet little two-sided color and metallic paper painting. What is it? Obviously: SPACE MONEY. The first other thought that came to mind was “why space money?” “because it’s not time money” There are the seeds of this ART EXPERIMENT if you will. But a simple art experiment has turned into something bigger for me. This blog is for documenting and speculating and communicating about space money and whatever it sparks.
