Ed's sharing his Americana with an English audience

So in about two weeks I'll be hanging the mail art I received from my international mail art correspondents in my studio during the open studios weekends. Ed Giecek's ranch will be there. and what could be more American than Bob Dylan?… and a Sticker Dude/ Ed collaboration!  Brilliant!  If DVS reads this, this a contender for your hair mail art call of yore. 

This cross section of fine stickers, stamps and angry eagle envelope, amazing musician postage stamps, trashpo and a little dose of political ire will be the perfect window onto the mail art world in Concrete Washington!  Thank you Ed.

Joel Cohen and Dostoyevsky ask for empathy

I don't think this envelope from The sticker dude could have been sent post election, but it's hard for the election not to colour everything I see and feel and hear. What I notice first is the little Dostoyevsky sticker… 'as a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naive and simple-hearted than we suppose. and we ourselves are too.'

So I told everyone I could that THERE WAS NO WAY  Donald Trump would be elected. So as I watched the election, I did notice how glib the newscasters were and I felt a tiny twinge of, this feels a little like Brexit night, and wondered if they might be a lttile sorry about their confidence in the Americans 'doing the right thing', the only reasonable thing. I guess I am naive, the newscasters were naive, so many of us just didn't sense the way things were going. Maybe Joel was sending me a gentle reminder not to count my chickens…

The frog watching the fly on the TV makes me remember when Reagan won and my confused awe that that had happened. How can this happen twice in my lifetime? No, this is much worse.

There is no doubt which way Joel wanted things to go… I will watch with baited breath to see what the hoisting looks like, because, for sure it must be coming to the president elect.

My sister is having trouble sleeping. Our daughter went to a beautiful place somewhere in Scotland to look at the view, climb a snow-capped maountain in order to escape from this post-truth life. I can't bear to hear his voice and shout at the radio when he speaks. But Joel reminds me of a few things in this mailing: 1. come uppance comes; 2. humour is the best way to get mad; 3. I don't know everything but I do believe that not everything people say is true  and I can't change the way other people feel and think, unfortunately. 

I am deciding to enjoy Obama's last month or so and am hoping the hoisting happens before the swearing in.

Below are some of the contents from another halloween/clippings/Dylan mailing.  

Celebration of the note pad, among other things...

I thought I'd celebrate the exceptional news that Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature with some mail art from Joel Cohen, AKA sticker dude, but also apparently nimble note pad maker! To begin with, I found a beautifully stickered and stamped envelope front mostly on the travel theme.  But don't miss the THE EVOLUTION OF ART sticker - a collab between Joel and Vittore Baroni.  On the back we have a DYLAN quote, and some social commentary, all aesthetically placed for maximum impact!

Below is a letter from Joel explaining athe provenance of the selection of note pad pages he incuded in my mailing!

I purposefully scanned a few of the backs so you could see that many of the illustrations are by Thomas Kerr. These are great! There is lots of fun wisdom, some stunning art and more revelations about Joel.  I love the fact that his desk is heaving under the weight of his collections of stuff.  The big propensity page is on metalic grey pearly paper! My life is one big propensity, so that one really grabs me. The dead page has a dead stamp on the back.  There's so much thought and sharing in everything Joel does! Many, many thanks and I mailed in my absentee ballot.  I must get the additional Trump stickers out to delight the postman and my mail art buddies.

Bob Dylan turned 75 - Live Ed

I discovered a few years ago when our friend Guido orchestrated a birthday project that I can't sustain birthday momentum.  It's like dieting.  I mean well and try very hard at first, but without fail I fail and then I feel guilty. However, hearing about birthdays is perfect and I must admit that even though I think BD is fab, I wasn't aware that I had missed his big day or that age is creeping up on HIM TOO.

Love all the Bob stamps and multi-use stamping that Ed use to make funny and poignant comments with. I hope no one is suggesting I'm past my sell by date in the stamping world. But nevermind, I'm going straight in and putting Freewheelin on the turntable to enjoy some timeless crooning.  Many thanks! And as for Edz Magic decoder, I've got alot to figure out, and I sure hope it helps!

Forever USA, Dylan stamps: WILD HAIR Giecek and Cohen

It's so brilliant to be on the Sticker Dude's mailing list!  Each arrival whispers in my ear in a way that I travel to a different time and remember a world I inhabited then. 

This time I am on a bus in Kenya.  I am sitting with my friend Peggi and behind me are two other friends, Lauren and Ken. We are headed north to Turkana country and we are singing Blood on the Tracks from cover to cover in unison, in the dust.  I'm in the Peace Corps.  We are young.  We are American. We might have even had a harmonica.  We may be irritating the other people around us, from Germany and France, Italy and Spain, but we are oblivious, Forever USA, Forever young.

Oh Bob what cool hair you have,!Oh Bob, oh Ed, oh Joel, thank you