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!

backlog blog

 I am posting this image so those of you who sent me mail will know I have received it and am waiting to open it, to spend some quality time with it and hopefully be inspired to reply fulsomely! The thing is, my mum is visiting from America from Saturday and I have some work to do to get this place ship-shape before she arrives so even though I WANT to open your mailart I am holding off until I can do it justice.  My mum hasn't been to England in two Covid years.

Stay tuned.  Once she arrives I should have some more time. AND thank you. Cascadia Artpost, David Stafford, Mailart Martha, Amalgamated Confusion, Mikel Untzilla, Herman Kamphuis, Sticker Dude, Tofu, (I'm wearing a mask) and The Sticker Dude!

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.

 

Celebrating Fly Cult and Operation Cornflakes

My new correspondent, James Gillen, suggested that Chuck Welch, Crackerjack Kid, would like some of my portraits for heroes stamps, so I sent Chuck mail art from my latest series. It was thrilling to get a quick reply and some beautiful Lunar New Year mail art!

I didn't know Amalgamated Confusion was a collaborator. nor do I know much about Chuck's process.  This is my first mail art from him, I think, but I am delighted to be corresponding.

I noticed the Trump stamp and the german words and wanted to know more.  This is what I learned!

Operation Cornflakes was a morale operation by the Office of Strategic Services during World War II that aimed to trick Deutsche Reichspost into inadvertently delivering anti-Nazi propaganda to German citizens through mail.^[1]

The operation involved special planes that were instructed to airdrop bags of false, but properly addressed, mail in the vicinity of bombed mail trains. When recovering the mail during clean-up of the wreck, the postal service would hopefully confuse the false mail for the real thing and deliver it to the various addresses.^[1]

You can read more here: Futsches Reich

Of course I will send more stamps and info.  Soon!

 

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.

 

Amagamated confusion and rings of fire

The Ant Hunter

I got these postcards from Amagamated Confusion a little while ago. Who knew lockdown and unlocking could be so busy? When I look at the date, this was mailed on the 31st of July. The first wave of lightening strike fires had occurred but I suspect interpreting this in that light may be me conflating things retrospectively. Still, it creates a powerful metaphor, of accidental ramifications and the powerless we have in the face of mother nature. And then there is the simple aesthetic nature of the striking image! Little boys and magnifying glasses are a rite of passage.BEWARE!

I have included the backs of these cards so you can compare! I love the slick way Amalgamated Confusion makes his postcards, great graphics and so subtle!

Our Forest Home

This doomsday scenario may have been foreshadowing. Even a 07/08 postcard is a little premature for the ravages of the current fires.  Stay safe.  It is a fraught period! I can't tell if he's got a mask on but I love the juxtaposition of the smily face and the doom.  Those ghosts in the smoke at the window are ghoulish, hanging there POOOF.  I believe the ripped areas of both postcards are intentional, beautiful marks to enhance the composition and feel. Thanks AC.

 

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!