vergangenen tagen - bygone days

It's so interesting when a photo or a smell evoke something from childhood.  The word Leica has a history for me and this image of the child in the straw hat makes me think of the coppertone suntan lotion ad. It's the yellow, I think.

Herman is a master at evoking the past and that malachite green on the left of the collage is 'Herman green' in my mind. It always feels like I am coming home when I get mail art from Herman!

                                                     

One of the things I equate with the olden days is cinched waist skirts.  I wanted on,e but instead of an hourglass figure, I was shaped like a boy and drawing attention to the bit that didn't do what a woman's body was supposed to do would have been silly. I  learned to sew ad sewed some things that looked goodon the pattern but on me fell flat...

It is cherry season in the UK. In fact I baked a cherry pie this weekend. Now they evoke Ukraine for me, though. This is the sleeve in which all that follows is nested.

This ledger page is folded like a book. 

We went to Normandy for our son's 30th BD so this is not only exciting for the beautiful drawings exploring the dysmorphia some of us feel and doodle about but also becaue of the handwritings, the collged images and the FRENCH. The date is also fascinating.

And Herman's fabulous notebook drawings and photos from the past make this a VERY beautiful and generous mailing. Bygone days celebrated! Thank you!

 

Medicine against War

This mailing from Herman has the push and pull of life in every pen mark and pixel. I see the infinite beauty of man and woman of them and they in the midst of the trappings of this world we share with each other. I want to run my fingers over the skin of this statue. The person it represents is long gone but in art he is immortal.

'Library After Air Raid', is so sad and so prescient. Herman made the envelope as the troops amassed at the border.  No one knew for sure what would happen next but, sadly, history repeats itself and there is nothing but beauty to take our minds away from the mirthlessness of the moment. It's hard not to read the image as anything other than a performance piece. Surely no people could do this in any world that isn't make believe. And yet. 

Luckily Herman pointed me in the direction of who this lothario was: Benajmino Gigli was a man of contradictions. An adored opera singer and yet he was aligned with Mussolini. He raised money for othersand yet was also a reknowned womaniser.  

I could win the look-like-your-pet contest. Lyra and I have wiry grey hair and love to run around the fields. Our expressions are similar sometimes.  The space between us is paper-thin. Man and animal, man and nature, ashes to ashes. Why can't we all just cohabitate, giving gifts, loving each other, satyr or not.

After all, don't we all want to be loved, admired, part of someone else's bigger picture?  But what of this power that some crave? Like the Gorgon, power to turn others to stone?  Power to raze a city to pieces of stone and wood?  

Herman and I are in  our studios gluing things,  painting others, using the salve of art to block out some of the tragedy of the moment. We are also in our gardens, caring for things, gathering leaves and weeds, recycling them, feeling joy at nature.

Herman brings the rich tapestry of life into one envelope inside another, inside another. He marries the joy of creation with a fascination for other.  His drawings embody emotion and that helps us to see the other side. Herman is empathic and makes me more so. In this mailing Herman also included some photos. The captions are what Herman wrote on the other side.  In 2007 I certainly would have turned to admire Herman if I had seen him!

Before my transformation (when I was young) 2007

when I was young, 2007

when I was young (after my transformation)  2007

Herman 2007

and theatrically, while we have the chance, we should live, dance, make aretplay statues and above all find our empathy.

 

Families and Rainwater

                                         

At about this time of year, as the temperature drops and the leaves fall from the tree. The people don their camouflage and it's creepy to walk the field edge at dusk or dawn in case you meet someone with a gun.  

Personally, I like a fleece and a deep bright blue gets my choice. It's a quandry, though.  I wash them often because I am messy and I worry that they leave their plastic fingerprints behind and what of our environment? And as for Scentlock is, it sounds like a guerilla odour.

This is the second of envelopes that  arrived from David lately. I am not an engineer and even if I were I doubt I'd be as smiley as the woman in the jump suit. Yesterday I had to help guide a bit of the landrover body over the gear shift and I was scowling. Our car rebuild is a family affair and I love David's family frolicking. 

I can't really believe that 1. David forgot his mask 2, that puddle-stain drawing was organic but who cares!  It's all brilliant.

 Thanks David.  II adore mailart from you!

Vexilogical items

Cornelius 11.7.57

Delighted to receive these beautiful letter size stamps! 

I opened this wonderful mailing from Ted a few weeks ago. It has been a very busy time for me. So I hope you forgive me. the toher things I need to apologize for is that I am not exactly sure what went were when ted sent them to me.  In other words… what was in the black envelope?  Everything is vexing, in a good way.

for someone like me, who would probably be considered colorful in mailings, Ted's pared down colour choices and preponderance of black and white causes me to pause.  It's great too.

Revel in the shapes, ghosts and overprints and then see which words you can pick out.  Fabulous.

another yhing about Ted's mail art lexicon is that it is surprising and I always learn something.

Great drawings.  Great mailing!