How to Draw A Bunny

My best friend lives on the opposite side of the country, but was home for a visit almost the entire month of August. For some reason we did a lot of Olympics-watching together, and filled in the gaps between events with movies he rented from Netflix.

One of these was the documentary How To Draw A Bunny. It's about the life of artist Ray Johnson. We might be a little behind the times since the documentary was released in 2002 and we're just getting around to watching it now. So, if this film is old news to you - you can just skip this entire blog. (Or at least scroll down to the end!)

Ray Johnson was a collage artist in the Pop Art movement. He hung around with the likes of Warhol, Christo, Chuck Close, etc. I won't get into details of his life since you really should see the documentary for yourself. But I will say my favorite thing about him is that he was the founding father of Mail Art - which I think is just brilliant.

When I first got to college, my best friends and I (the above mentioned pal included) would send each other the most crazy items of snail mail. I once opened a envelope and what looked like nearly 4 ounces of glitter poured out onto my floor. I received letters that had been cut up into puzzle pieces that I had to put back together in order to read. In return, I would rip funny fliers down from posts around town, photocopy photos and draw on them, or illustrate comic strips about my day and mail them off.

Of course, we were no Ray Johnson...

The documentary made me simultaneously sad and inspired. Sad because I feel like I don't have time to work on my own creative projects anymore. Not even the small ones like sending your friend a collage through the mail. In fact, e-mail has taken over any fun correspondence at all. I was inspired because Ray Johnson lived his art. It seemed like everything he did had an artistic purpose...even his death. The Mail Art thing was just one amazing piece of it.

After my best friend went back home to the West Coast, I started putting a fun little envelope together for him. I hope I can get it into the mail soon. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with it...especially once school starts up again tomorrow, but it's certainly worth a shot. Kind of like the 21 Day Challenge I did this summer.

If you're looking for a little inspiration, I would recommend this documentary. But be forewarned - there's a lot of very brief jazz drumming interludes between interviews with artists. For no good reason. It's fun and artsy for about 25 minutes. After that, I was ready to poke out my own eyes. If you enjoy incessant jazz drumming, you'll love it! (o:

Anyway, I'm looking for recommendations for other inspirational artsy documentaries. (Just so you know, I've already seen Helvetica). (o;