The Vault isn't empty

 Keith has made a new kind of skull and crossbones in this iconic image. She's a pirate, or a tomb-raider, full of charisma but without much substance, at least so we think on first glance. 

And perhaps in anticiaption of Day of the Dead?

where do ideas come from and how much do we steal from our predecessors? Not sure, but Keith has made something fresh in this journey.

Thank you Bravo!

Exquisite Corpse cut-up!

Months ago I signed up to take part in Keith Chamber's Exquisite Corpse Cut-up.  As with many of the mail art projects I have contributed to, I was a little foggy about exactly what that meant. As it turned out, Keith came up with a nifty schedule and process for each participant's contribution.  We were responding to each other, virtually.

Keith enclosed a note where one thing he said was that he was happy with the end product.  I mean, what Keith did here, taking all these disparate parts and curating them into a complete whole is astounding! And the product is AMAZING! DON'T YOU LOVE IT.

I am chuffed to have the centre-spread. Thank you thank you, Keith.  Now, the rest of you, READ,  look and enjoy. Sorry it's taken me so long to reproduce it.

I think these stamps were also in the mailing… I opened some of my 'pending' mailart and can't remember how it all went together.  More gorgeousness.

 

Essence vs substance

In early summer I signed up to take part in Amalgamated confusion's Exquisite Corpse project. These things take a long time and these two pieces above and below were Keith's stop-gap mailings before he gathered everyone's pages and put the whole beautiful thing together.  I hope to blog THAT in a few days. It arrived a few weeks ago and I was agog!

On a completely different topic, while running this morning, I figured out that mail art is what I do when I have time.  It's my pleasure, not that work: painting, isn't, or that I don't love to garden and even cook but I can rationalise all that as 'work'.  Mail art if my frivolity, although it isn't. It is playful but play is essential. I was thinking about that because I was trying to figure out why I never have time for it and Patrick has time to rebuild a car.  I couldn't answer that, but I realise I need to make time again for this pleasure.

Many thanks for all this beautiful stuff to whet my imagination and to help me play! and who knew there is a mail art day? Everyday should be mail art day!  Beautiful work, as ever.

 

Feild Observation No 2: road Trip

Amalgamated Confusion's imagination astounds me. I'm not entirely sure what the story is, here, but I know who the characters are: someone on a field trip which I think might have failed FEILD because a comet struck the vehicle barrelling down the coastal road.  Or perhaps it's extraterrestrial, or there is radiation, or Covid, as there is a man in hazmat suit.  

In the UK people took to the road in their adapted vans to wild camp during Covid.

I always love the detail of Keith's mailings. and I wonder about his process. Is this digitally painted? And I LOVE the fire extinguiser stamp and the bird of prey hovering. Thank you! You are at the top of my return list.

 

Oh give me a home!

As I write this blog I hear some Californians speaking from my Ipad, talking about how Covid is rampaging. I think the fires have died down. where have all the buffalo gone?

I guess buffalo are no longer endangerd and I wonder whether Amalgamated Confusion communes with them on the island of Santa Catalina? 'Bison aren’t native to Santa Catalina Island; Hollywood brought them. They were a prop leftover from a film shoot on the island in the early 20th century.'

whatever the story here, I love the sight of these prehistoric creatures. But I wouldn't want to meet one in a fenced area with our dog, Lyra!

As ever, Keith's sense of design makes his mailings an absolute joy. We need a little bravery these days with all the sheep in the government!

 Thanks Keith.  Glorious!

Wear your hat of sadness, Keith Chambers

I recognised the ' Portrait of a Woman by Filippo Lippi' as the starting point for one of these images. I wonder if 'Portrait of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta by Piero della Francesca' is the starting point for the image above.  

I don't know how Keith does what he does but I admire it! Beautiful fishy work and words that are like riddles that take us back to the dark ages. 

Look at the stamps and the pink puffer fish!

Beautiful work and sorry I am slow to blog.

Thank you!

stamps!