Postcard exhibit salutes every state with miniature art

Postcard salutation, standard sentiment:

"Hello from (somewhere). Wish you were here."

Somewhere is everywhere. And you are here.

"It could be abstract, it could be about the landscape, it could be social with a message," says Jeanne Voltura, coordinator and curator of the Bridge Gallery in Las Vegas City Hall, hosting the "National Invitational Postcard Exhibit" through July 2. On display are artists' impressions of their home states -- in miniature, on postcards -- from across America.

"Not everyone in Las Vegas is from here, so people can see things from their state."

That's our Honolulu-born chief exec, President Barack Obama, on Maria Lee's depiction from Hawaii, against a pastel background, sharing space with King Kamehemeha in a piece titled "Favorite Sons."

In "Renew Orleans," a sobering reference to devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana artist Jesse Royston is more abstract, using pencil and watercolor to create a dark, ominous brown backdrop over what appears to be random wreckage.

At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, AnChi Chen's California entry, the bright, comical "Silicon Valley," employs color pencil and Micron pen to portray a gaggle of cartoon people with rectangular computer heads in various expressions of confusion and contentment.

The artists, between five and 10 at the start of the project, were invited by Voltura to participate in the exhibit and also asked to recommend fellow artists from other states, with all 50 eventually coming onboard over a year and a half. Inspiring the collection, she says, was the concept of "mail art," which uses the postal service as a medium, forming an international network of artists trading everything from illustrated letters and faux-postage stamps to deco pieces and three-dimensional objects.

"I always wanted to organize something like that, because it's a really cool idea to make a piece of artwork and send it somewhere," Voltura says. "It's a bit of an underground idea -- plus it was easy shipping back and forth, and I have to watch the budget."

Techniques employed include photography, collages, metal leafing, painting, printmaking, digital prints and ink. Attitudes expressed range from pride to cynicism.

In "What We're Known For" from Michigan, Jennifer Gill draws a broken-down automobile against graffiti-stained walls, which can be interpreted as either an indictment of the auto-producing state or others' perceptions of it.

Boldly confronting a contemporary and controversial issue, New York's Harvey Weiss, in an inkjet print, portrays what appears to be a typical gift-shop postcard of the Statue of Liberty, until you look closely at the inscriptions: "Gay Marriage. Love Is a Higher Law."

"I was a little worried about that one, but it's such a good, hot topic right now," Voltura says. "If you're going to complain about it, you're going to look like a fool. I love that piece. It's one of the stronger ones in terms of message."

Local resident Justin Favela, an art student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, represents Nevada in a playful cardboard-and-papier-mache depiction of Las Vegas, as seen through the eyes of a child.

"It's a photograph of a miniature model of Las Vegas I made, based on 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,' like the little neighborhood model they had at the beginning of the show," Favela says. "I made all the little houses I remembered growing up here, though most are no longer here. I had to put Grant Hall in there from UNLV, and the Blue Angel Motel just because I grew up around there, and the (now demolished) La Concha. I just wanted an interesting image to look at."

Elsewhere, Michael Penn's Pennsylvania contribution, "My Philadelphia," is a striking black-and-white digital photo of the city's skyline under gathering clouds.

Sheri Rieth's tongue-in-cheek, open-to-interpretation photo collage, "Stayed in Mississippi a Day Too Long," reveals a spelling blooper in the church sign, "Jesus is Lord. God Still Raines."

And Alaska's Peggy Fagerstrom, like New York's Weiss, mines the headlines with an oil painting called "Global Warming," with polar bears atop melting ice floes under the arctic northern lights.

Comical or topical, the compact pieces comprising the "National Invitational Postcard Exhibit" prove that big messages can command attention on small canvasses.

And it's an artistically intriguing way just to say, "Hello from Everywhere."

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.