Forget you? No way.

It's my habit to hang onto my mail from Carina for a long time before opening it. We don't exchange mail that often these days but Carina is a very important correspondent, so I am very, very happy to get mail from her after a not very long interval. I have stamped all over her note to me because I am careful not to overshare Carina's notes.  But in it she tells me that this is a hand made stamp. This Character reminds me of a New Zealand school teacher. She is fierce, smart and determined. It is not Carina.  But can you see some wily humour?  That is Carina.

Do you know the song by the same title?

Forget me nots

Carina's post made me smile and hope she followed me with followit at the bottom of my blogger page so she knows that I have received and blogged her WONDERFUL work!  

It is darker earlier, already.  Summer is waning. The forget me nots have faded but I promise to write back before too long!

Thank you.

 

She Tried her Best and it's SOOOO good.

Carina, Carina, Carina, what could be better? We have our paintings grouped by subjects round our house. In one part of our kitchen there is pastel of Lyra, and a Harwich seagull. Soon we will have a 'silly cat'. Although, seeing this on the screen makes me think I need a text area too. And I have a black and white area (where we wash the dishes, the scullery), but the room with the animals has these sweet white walls between the uprights where this will fit in all ways, perfectly. (So much for my archiving! I will scan it and put a copy in the archive!)

I love this and can I just say that although I agree we need to struggle beyond our comfort zone in order to find new things to say... we also each have our own handwriting and motifs and you've got this babe!

I don't usually share messages from Carina, and this is only one side of our communique but I thought you'd  love to see her notelet. Carina always makes me SMILE. Hap

Hello Petsmo and thank you!

 

Try Walking in My shoes

These COVID days are a test in lots of different ways. I have had excellent training for this predicament of social distancing when I was a Peace Corps volunteer many years ago. Living in the remotest site for 2 1/2 years set me up for staying at home and filling my day constructively, shifting between work and slow home tasks, gardening to grow food, drawing what I saw around me to keep sadness of missing family and friends and the loss of a life unlike no other at bay etc… (Of course the Peace Corps was also WONDERFUL! 

I have done the personality tests and I've come out as a extrovert.  My sister says I am an introvert.  I'm not sure whether being one or the other innoculates you against the chaos of the moment, though.

It's really easy to look from our personal points of view and to be shocked by how someone else reads a situation or interprets a directive. I'd rather just tend my chickpeas (I sprouted some seeds and now have plants!) But, I am not abjectly poor.  I have space, beauty and a system for being here now. So far I don't think anyone I know has succomed to the virus, either, so whoever you are I just hope you keep well.

Carina's TRY WALKING IN MY SHOES speaks to me about tolerance, empathy and the shadowy world of shoes!  Her window from the abstract to representational echoes that feeling. I remember the heady days of DKult and how it was all about the hair and the shoes!

Carina has captured the world's shared feeling of being in the middle of the unknown: In Covid times we shop online; we bulk buy and then eat piggishly; we long for the things we used to take for granted… like dancing. Some of us might find the novelty interesting and a challenge while others experience something unpleasant.

Thanks Carina! Although these are exceptional times, your imagery makes me smile and also reminds me to consider my neighbour and others not quite like me and to imagine waling in their shoes.

What's on deck?

These three pieces of mail have arrived over the past few days. I am every excited about them but may let them sit by my computer for a few days before I blog them… or even open them. I have a few ideas for a mail art series I want to make and a bunch of people to send mail art to.  But I am trying not to rush things. so THANK YOU Voyageur Postale, Carina and Mike Dyer. 

More soon!

Ghost Mail from an Archipelago in Petsmo

In my experience, one builds friendships and collaborative relationships that are deep and lasting through mail art. Having moved around quite a bit, making friends and trying to sustain the friendship across many miles, it is familiar to me to know that I have a friend in a place but not to see that person, or hear from that person for longer than intended… For the most part, I have found that those relationships may lapse but that they carry on seamlessly once together again. My correspondents are more than simply addresses on envelopes.  To me they are friends.  When an envelope arrives I can usually identify the sender and get excited, delighted to 'pick up' again. 

Carina and I must have sent our mail to each other on about the same day after a long lapse, probably my fault, so getting Carina's envelope was extra specially exciting! 

I love Carina's prints.  She shares them occasionally on Instagram and I begin to imagine a story with the first glimpse.  I have never ACTUALLY met Carina but her charismatic characters make me wish I had and hope I will. I am delighted to have 16/22 ! It's  a beaut.

There a few things about Carina that are part of her signature: orange, boekies, and bizarre silliness. This mailing was chockblock with what I love. 

 Historical ephemera is always inspiring too! Delighted!

And what an envelope! BOO! I have more than enough pumkins for halloween and will practice my ghosty handwaving every day until the 31st infront of the mirror!  Thank you, Carina.  I did get my hopes up and they were certainly matched!  Thank you.

That sensation of eyes on you...

 Carina is waiting.  She is waiting for me to send her some worthy mail art, not just some doodle made on a Plane, something more substantial, something that shouts ' I care about you' or 'i'm a serious mail artist with something important and originl to say!' So I sent out eight pieces of mail art, stuff I began but hadn't completed. I am in Maine, gardening. and still I feel Carina's gaze on the back of my neck, reminding me that I am a disappointment and… of course there is more time… just do it!

I know Carina isn't actually on my case.  I know it is my own silly guilt but like the best mail art, Carina gets me thinking and i hope I can rise to Carina's brilliance!  Thanks for the gentle prod, Carina!

My magical mail artist friend

 Tomorrow I am meeting David Stafford and his wife in London!  I ncelebration of this, I opened my mail art from Carina that has been sitting by my computer for weeks. This is because time is elastic and last year when I learned to fit a little more in every day (because it was the only way I could do what was needed),  now that I should have more time, I find that I am so used to packing  my day that I never have any time to do the things I used to be able to do that were enjoyable.  On the one hand it means i get lots of my work done but on the other hand, things that I really want to do pile up. And Breathe.

I am following Carina on Instagram and I am in awe at her imagination.  This envelope is adorable.  Her doodles make me carzy with delight.

Inside the envelope is a little nod to David Stafford, Dkult asemics and the fashion.  The tonal feel of the mail art is delicious. This is a little Boekie.

And the inside of the boekie is iconic Carina,  the gesture of the characters, making things happen in a spooky sort of way.  Halloween is near and I need to send Carina a reply.  Maybe I should bring a little mail art making stuff to London so David and I can send out some stuff.

Thanks so much Carina!  I will reply.

Lyra's Tears of Joy, Kitchen Lithography and Freeze Games

Have you ever noticed that when you scan stuff orange loses its saturation?  I use orange quite a bit and scanning work is problematic, but it's only some oranges, flourescent orange, to be exact and Carina is the master of flourescent orange tape! I would've photographed this but it's dark now and I couldn't bear to go another day without opening my package and sharing it with you all, so scns will have to do. Ah Carina!

A package from Carina reminds me of the Sound of Music.  I find myself humming 'my favourite things' as I loosen the string. LYRA. As Burglar Bill would say, 'I'll 'ave that.' I mailed off the rest of my doodle pages today and I am at least one short so a spare new doodle will come in useful. Lyra! Oh I wish you could meet each other. …'brown paper packages tied up with string… these are a few of my favourite things…'

This character, a red-headed teeenage therapist belongs in the Ginger Embassy (think Elgin Mansion with red heads).  On the other side Carina tells me about her new process: 'Kitchen lithography' and this new boekie!  J'adore! In fact, I might even say one of your best.  Keep printing and I love the digital work too!

 The cover and frontispiece are like chalkboards, haptic too.  You feel like you're reading something secret yet rehearsed. The words and letters are both representational and abstract.  There is twofoldness that I love. I am a child.  I am a teacher.  I am alive.

And the monsters, KITCHEN LITHOGRAPHY, authentically child like but adult in their simplicity too.  I feel they could come to life and are also timeless. Wowzer.

And Carina wins the first in with her DKULT Doodle therapy page! Thank you Carina and thank you Joel Cohen. To be fair, as I only mailed most of the others today, she's had a bit of a head start! And I can already see how making these books is gonna be tricky. Huge thanks.

Carina's missing mail artists and body parts

What a great project but what a lame mail artist I am!  Imagine making Carina wait for months!  I promise it has nothing to do with arrogance and I have to admit that when I finally ear marked the time it was lots of fun to respond to Carina's quirky call!  I actually finished it weeks ago and even put a stamp on it but hoped to add more to the envelope.  In the end I decided to mail it from the airport and then forgot so I had the dilemna of whether to put US postage on top of the UK postage  or to wait…and in the end I saved I and mailed it earlier in the week.  Hopefully Carina received it, or if not, don't scroll down until you do, Carina!

Playing Paperdolls with Hilma Strom

Carina and I are experimenting with assembling our most exotic characters in outrageous costumes by mixing drawings and collage. I think we've been doing this in parallel, as often happens when you meet a mail artist who gets under your skin.  Carina's wonderful way of interpreting the world overlaps with my own point of view. But this pink haired creature is so full of pzazz that I might as well give up! 

As you will see, Carina reminds me that art imitates the real world and dogs are more human, or certainly more recognisable than people.