Laura's RCA Secret Experiences

Here are Laura's experiences of RCA Secret, originally posted to the yahoo group:

I've been going to the RCA Secret postcard sale for 4 years now and I do look forward to my yearly viewing, list-making (and week of refining that list), long
wait in the cold, and the slow crossing off of all my favourites in
the queue downstairs - what I come home with is often dictated by what
is left by the time I get to the tills, which is all part of the fun!

The best known artist I've acquired is Andrew Stahl, completely by
chance. It was my first year and I cut my list down to about 20, not
knowing what I was in for. By the time I'd reached the tills nothing
was left, and I would have been disappointed if I'd gone home empty-
handed after all the queuing, so I picked an available number at
random (judging by the look on the guy's face I don't think they get
that often!) - very risky as there were quite a few biro-scribbles and
the like that year if I remember correctly. I've managed to get
postcards quite high on my list since, but I don't seem to go for well
known artists.

I know next to nothing about art but I've noticed that year on year
some artists turn up in my favourites list, without me making any
effort to look out for their work. I seem to like Joy Fleischmann's
nudes although I've yet to buy one, but it was satisfying to look her
up on the internet and put a face to the name - I remember seeing a
documentary about her husband's work in which she was interviewed by
Tracy Emin.

I only buy one piece every year, although one year a friend came along but decided she wasn't keen on her choice after all so gave it to me. The artists are as
follows:

Andrew Stahl - a Google image search will give you plenty of
examples of his work. Although a chance buy, I really like the card
and some of his work so the lucky dip worked that year.

Jane Skinner - desperately wanted one of her Sindy doll pictures the
year before but they were all gone. Didn't get a chance to view the
cards but a friend (my regular partner in crime in the queue)
recognised one that I may like and took note of the number. I
queued just for that card and got it. More of her work can be seen
here.

Jo Longhurst - a gift from a friend who was new to the sale.
Wouldn't have picked this myself but I like the colours and I quite
like Jo Longhurst's whippets. She's a student at the RCA doing a
PhD in photography, and easily found using Google.

Craig Moore - has entered cards since at least 2001. His work
always appears in my friend's list, sometimes on mine. I'll put
some other cards we liked (but didn't buy) in the photos section as
I can't find any of his work online.

Maureen Lacey (pictured) - my favourite this year. The only thing I found of
hers was from a very small exhibition, which can be seen here.