Ray Johnson.

Ray Johnson's profound and unique ideas have had a great impact on the contemporary mail art movement and artist. He pushed the concept of mail art to its limits by creating the most provocative and strange mail artworks, which evolved out of his early collages. Even in these works, the concept of physical and conceptual layering can be detected. His early abstract paintings evolved into small mixed media collages or moticos. These abstract assemblages were combinations of different images and materials. Cut in strips and pasted together. Johnson also used recycled materials, a cheap photocopy machine and a throw away camera to create his mail pieces which were often combined with rhymes, puns, and riddles. Johnson's mail art was sent out to both random and specific individuals, inviting them to respond, as well as continue the thread stating, please add to, and return. Ray Johnson's Bunny. Simple, childlike line drawings of a bunny head reoccurred in many of his images, and with time, became the artist's trademark and self portrait. It is a stylized presentation that resembles a mutation between a duck and a bunny. Notice the simple white outline of the black shape that is reminiscent of a living organism due to its irregular form. The stretched, curved protrusions of the shape are evocative of the ears and nose. Due to it's irregular shape it can be characterized as biomorphic. How to draw a bunny. Johnson's challenged the recipients of his bunny mail to copy or even alter his version. In this example you see a simple diagram. Which shows the steps to draw a subjective childlike bunny depiction of Johnson's personal style. In other words, the bunny is not based on a realistic rabbit, but on Johnson's individual artistic vision. This depiction of a bunny is a unique product of his imagination and differs from everyone else's perception of what a bunny might look like.

Johnsons drew the bunny so many times and in so many ways. That with time, it became his personal symbol and self portrait that gained life and presence in the art world. Every time people saw this image they thought of Johnson. Moticos. Many of Johnson's recipients and friends received moticos in the mail. These were mixed media collages that Johnsons layered and sanded. The ones that he did not send out were often recycled to take on a new form and meaning. The untitled, David Bourdon Profile with Clock and Motics Tesserae, demonstrates Johnson's ability to juxtapose and layer images in unique ways, telling a story through each art work. The combination of geometric and organic shapes. With numbers and his signature bunnies creates a unique contrast. The variety of textures and shapes in this piece reflects the many layers that Johnson has applied to the surface of the cardboard panel.