My Mind is Empty but I've got an enve!

Karen's empty envelope inside an envelope declares itself on the back '`my mind is empty' it points.

The envelope that conjures a bill, a note, some money and is shaped like an hong pao, a red envelope, a Chinese New Year envelope, a Lai shi, is empty and it isn't red. Nevermind, empty allows me to begin thinking of ideas. 

I love it!

I WILL write, it just might take me a little while!

Thank you, Karen!

 

Give me the roses and I'll bake the bread.

These exquisite paint and ink pieces are two sides of one gift in this mailing. They are haptic, ethereal, just absolute beauties. They are both worthy of a frame… I will place them around my studio for inspiration before putting them in my archive.  Thank you Gerda! I'm sorry it's taken me a while to blog this.

I am a sucker for a handmade envelope  and I notice the femail stamp. I am slow.  I am sorry. 

And then, to cap it all off, a boekie. for Internationl Women's Day. What were you doing on that day?  In the past I have gone to a party (helped serve food) thrown by Suffolk refugees.  I wondered if it were on. Lots of music and women dancing together.Instead I was here, painting and fitting house chores in between. 

 Thank you Gerda.  A wonderful envelope full of beauty, surprises and inspiration!

Inside Those Walls

Nancy titles her bigger pieces. 'Inisde Those Walls'measures about 21 x 10 cm; the three-scrappers are smaller, 14, 11 cm tall.  I prop up Nancy's pieces for weeks.  Some live semi-permanently in my mail stand.  Sometimes they even make it into a painting.  I think Nancy's pieces are lovingly made.  They are pure joy - gifts when they arrive For ME. 

I want to read them but I also like the fact that it's not necessary to read them.  They are perfectly harmonious without being obvious.  They are challenging without being confrontational. 

I turn 'Inside Those Walls'  over, to take in the B-side and the words 'absurd conceit' hit me. The text seems to be about about an army. The title conjures up our shared Covid years, for me, too. 

I feel as if I have fund a relic, something pieced together, taped, because of its value.  It is worn, used, revered. 

This two scrap is as worked on the b-side as the main side.  The synesthesia of the visual poetry and the music are audible.

Above is folded.  inside is a note I have not shared.  Feb 02, 2022. I see two figures, dancing across a divide.  Inside walls, leaning in, breaking out, post Covid.

Nancy has filled the os and letters like holes with gold, like a tooth.  They sparkle, like lightening bugs in a hedge.

Such a delight to receive a brown envelope from Nancy. She manages to create the passage of time, a labour of love, a butterfly kiss everytime she sends me mail art. 

 

54359 Poesia

Eduardo Cardosa's haptic, natural, glue, paper, rock and roll envelope arrived in March 2022. I will consider it a New Years' greeting because inside is a piece of visual poetry that feels like a gift. Ink or liquid graphite dacne with pencil marks, Eduardo's stamp and a subtle collage to create harmony, balance and a good luck charm for the year ahead. Thank you!