16th Century George 2nd BLOCKED at the river

Jay Block has created a tapestry of trashpo that is shockingly close to a series of drawings I have been making since the start of the year... but I suspect that it's just incidental that his torn paper scraps and found poetry look like necklaces and textiles. Even the colours sing in a way that reminds me of what I choose when I reach for colour. I am 'ntranced 'by his historic allusions too, George 1st , George 2nd, King George. But what I really love, maybe most, is the way Jay Block was blocked.  AND his islands, reminiscent of Christo's islands take me to Manhattan. Lets  take the 59th street bridge across the river!

Office of blame: perpetrator and victim J Block

Apologies for not stripping the address barcode from the image... but to be honest it may have been  holding Jay's flimilsy glued masterpiece together.   

I love the simplicity of this mail art and in it I see the topical issue of freedom vs security being referenced. This passport shaped card with its mix of imagery, words and stamps, becomes a identity document, or a police record, confirming our worst nightmare - blame can be apportioned by he who shouts loudest, no matter how spurious the claims are!

The address side of Jay's postcard reminds me of the first postcard he ever sent me. Tha one delighted me and this one does too! Keep sending naked collages, Jay, but beware of light gluing… I wonder how many pieces of Jays work lives in the dead letter centre? Boo Hoo. 

It's what's inside that counts - Jay Block

Inside this inviting, whimsical and yet ever so slightly unremarkable envelope - it makes me hungry for jelly beans -  is something equally whimsical, but quite original, stunningly beautful, and salient! This takes me to a sculpture park, and invites me to look through and to inhabit a space in a personal and yet universal way. I consider the outside and realise that a chair can frame the landscape in its own specific and beautiful way, allowing its viewer to see the world differently. What is Jay telling me? 

The cut out is Picasso's Women of Alger, Version ''O''.1955, one of 12 that Picasso made (possibly) as a form of propoganda in a politically fragile moment: http://arthistorynewsreport.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/picasso-peace-and-freedom.html  Jay has put the body parts into even more unnatural poses as he's cut out a piece of Picasso's image. The landscape behind, a still life, not sure who the artist is but like,  is sculptural in a different way and it's brooding and mysterious. The two together inhabit an uncomfortable but symbiotic existence.

In light of the recent chaos in Paris, I will choose to interpret this missive from Jay as a reminder for tolerance and a hope for peace in an uncertain and volatile time. Three cheers for Jay Block's pop-up-life-landscape!

Light shines around the door.

Jay Block graffiti and Trashpo icon

Love this whimsical card from Jay Block.  Look how the stamp relates to the image on the reverse of the card!

This man looks like a Sienese characterof someone who I should know from the Uffizi but his gesture and that striped apparatus make me wonder… In fact, I'm sure those are the uniforms Diane requested for street cleaning and he is our trashpo icon.

Under Creation - Jay Block

This piece by Jay has been creeping up on me.  After a few days, I see lots of subtlety and a tension between the verticals and their lean.  The metal jacket in the background evokes the strength of the two icons on the stamps and then there is the way the shapes and colour break up the space!

I also like that Jay keeps me abreast of happenings in Massachusetts!  Many thanks, Jay.

Banana Appreciation Day 2014

Without further ado, here are this year's timely Bananas.  Others may straggle in, in fact some people are only posting their's today… I will tag them on to this blog as and when, so come back and visit later too!

You will notice Angie Cope's Mardi Gras banana headdress, some wonderful original stamps and general joy, both in spirit and colour.  I wish I could find some banana apparel!

Carina Granlund's envelope is all about men, no explicit mention of a banana,  just general silliness which we all love! And that wonderful Carina expressive style.  I feel like the banana is performing and I am part of the audience. I might even get my guitar out and start stumming and singing along. 

Dean's amusement centre is definately bananalicious! My whole studio smells like a banana.  The contraption at the bottom looks a little scary and I'm sure my bum looks fat in that mirror! 

Jay is givig me a French lesson.  How 'bout you, do you prefer peaches or bananas?  Personally I'm into pears at the moment, but we're all about bananas today, and I LOVE Jay's stamp!

Kat's tropical bananas are a welcome sight after all the rain we've had lately.  Hooray for International world Banana appreciation day!  Hooray for the banana, horray for tropical colours. 

Stripy goose couldn't resist putting a range of funky fowl on her banana missive and I wanted to do the banana with them by the end of my reading.  I can't see the moon tonight, but for sure it's a banana!  Thank you all.

Angie Cope

Angie Cope

Carina Granlund

Carina Granlund

Carina Granlund

Dean 

Dean 

Jay Block

Jay Block

Katerina Nikoltsou

Katerina Nikoltsou

Katerina Nikoltsou

Katerina Nikoltsou

Stripygoose

Stripygoose

Heleen de Vaan's banana mail arrived post blog.  It's always something of a let down when the bananas stop coming in, and Heleen;s versatility and the depth of this posting made its arrival even more special! It also reminds me to notice the banana as they are all SO different! 

Th final banana to slide in was from Mim! This expressive banana is basking in yellow and it feels utterly happy.  I want to rush in to the house to change my clothes, not sure that I have any yellow, though. Why not?  Perhaps if I strt wearing yellow I will keep smiling until 2015 World Banana Apprciation Day… 

THANKS TO EVERYONE!

Collage Graffiti and Jay Block

Following on from Marie's blog yesterday, and art that speaks another langauge, there is something about J Block's work that says graffiti to me.  This is one of those unscientific things.  I am not trying to categorise it, it's just that in my mind I feel a link. This piece by J arrived with some pieces of the collage furling at the edges, like an abandoned billboard. Thanks J.  I love it.

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At the start of the new year I was in Edinburgh and was transfixed by wall after wall of graffiti.  Graffiti is one of those things I've grown into, which is probably backwards...

Marie's work has a very different feel, but similarly makes me think about the inherent art in graffiti.