Correspondence art (between Lyra and Sue)

When we go to Maine Sue stays at the farm. I ask her what she does with Sue but she has never given me any details, so was delighted to intercept this post!

I keep winning prizes!

Rewards for dubious endeavors keep flooding in!
In the past few days I have been the lucky recipient of a stunning hair comb from Marie Wintzer (Flamboyant winner of Who has the Best Hair Contest - Minxus Lynxus) and a book of BAD BURLESQUE from Vizma Bruns, (for some Bad Burlesque I sent)!  Boy are you in for a treat when you see what I got! Both of these artists have style that floors me!

Beyond Repair - Artist in Seine

 

The thing about Dean is he changes the way you see things.  You get this thing in the post - or you don't get it for a few days… (this is an aside: I got one of those letters, like Mail art Martha did recently, beckoning me to my local post office or encouraging me to affix a few addtional stamps to the back of a you are naughty form.  In an effort to do my part in combatting global warming, I decided to afix the stamps, but actually posted the letter at the post office, not the royal mail sorting office which was closed.  The next day I got the letter with the affixed stamps - uncanceled - and after a chat with the man on the number you can call for more info learned that the PO had goofed and I could write a note on the form or go back to the sorting office , which was closed.  The next day when I collected it, I was relieved to find that the mystery mail was from Dean… worth the effort!) 

So I took electricity and magnetism in 7th grade and built an answering machine.  I soldered things and everything, and it worked.  Unfortunately I was unable to apply the answering KIT mentality after that so this is my first careful look at a circuit board. It is VISPO! snooze, snooze, snooze 20, 880 428 CODE and then some abbreviations -  ressisters and capacitors? I pick up a tiny Nolia with just a keypad that I find in a drawer in the kitchen an wonder what it looks like inside.  Dean had altered my brain.

Other things I learned are: Dean is mr fixit.  The post office thinks about where to afix their gaudy yellow revenue protection stamps - I'm guessing the heroine is topless?Operation Condor has moved to the 'action' tray.  I also like dean's whimsical use of paint!

Many thanks!

Robert Ridley-Shackelton's window to the world

I just about begged for one of Robert Ridley-Shackleton's collages after I saw a piece he'd sent Kat.  Luckily he was forthcoming!

You can't really tell but this a very haptic piece. It's just under 4 inches square.

Robert says he works under the philosophy of his hero Robert Ryman, "It's not what to paint but how to paint". He says that all paintings are a window to a worlds - sometimes similar to ours, sometimes completly alien.  Robert rejects making hi art.  He loves objects that could be considered trash but that hold a snapshot to a fragile universe.

You can see more of Robert's work at:
http://hissingframes.blogspot.com

Wrapped postcard - Mathom House

When I first looked at this I felt I was reading a poem but not getting it, yet. And then, I see the colours of the Italian Flag.  I am eating at the Paticceria Artigiana - of course there are the best pastries ever.  I am unsure if this belongs on the MSK blog.  After all it is the full of the colours of life.

Herman Kamphuis (The Netherlands)

Love everything about this aesthetic detailed mail art from Herman Kamphuis! I have nearly caught up with my blogging so should be able to begin reciprocating soon!  Herman, if you read this, the corner of the envelope was torn when it arrived.  I think most of the pieces are in the envelope and I will do my best to repair the 'bitten' corners.  I wasn't sure if this was for Monochrome, semitone, Kodachrome.  I hope you don't mind if I hang it in the show in June?  Many thanks and delighted your mail art found me.

Where should I go on my magic carpet?

This arrived from Vizma Bruns! The weather has finally turned in england, but my roses aren't out yet.  Vizma tells me this a 'mini magic carpet.' Not sure I have to reduce or whether the carpet will miraculously grow to accomodate me, but I'd like to go to Rome to one of our favourite spots when we lived there, Al Pompiere, in the Jewish quarter, to eat carciofi ala Romana.

Dan Moeur's fine art!

Delighted to receive this package from Dan! Look at the detail and read the fine print.  Dan tells me that the paper is more than 200 years old and that's why it tears so easily.  He has used a plaster (bandaid) to suture it together. I read the words and chuckle.  I have the sense that Dan has not arbitrarily chosen the page, the words.  It even has the word BURLESQUE. All of that, some smily faces and a DKULT VA stamp.  But that is only the beginning!

 I can't tell if these are actually prints or digital prints, but suspect the later.  The caress has a plate indentation but looks like a silkscreen…  I don't know enough about Miley to know exactly why these are her friends, but the charcters make me smile anyway.

I wondered if these were for my monochrome, semitone, Kodachrome call, but Dan tells me he hadn't inteded that.  I thought that Perhaps if I posted the work here he'd send me something for the other.  Either way I suspect I won't be able to resist hanging Miley and her friends, the envelope and the caress at the show in June, though.  Thank you Dan.

Eyelash Inconsistencies - Marie Wintzer

One of the things about Marie's poetry and imagery that speaks to me is the way she mixes the intimate with the foreign, the uncomfortable with the familiar.  The cover features a dusky alley; there are chairs where people sat, will sit.  Light filters down making things sort of visible. The title 'Eyelash Inconsistencies' is full of vowels, sharp 'c's and 's'es.  I think of eyelash kisses, deformity, tears, age -  I notice that my eyelashes point down when I am tired.  How did that happen?

Yesterday, as the sun was setting, Patrick found me in the shed, with Marie's book. 'What are you doing?' he asks.  For some reason I feel the need to balance Marie's book in various places to juxtapose the pristime pages with something convoluted and a bit seedy.  I hope this isn't self-indulgent and that you can read all the words! The poem is smashing!

From James Wilkinson (Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK)

I love when I receive mail art with contents that someone has assembled for me! I take everything out and move the pieces around, I look for relationships and think like I'm solving a crossword puzzle. I wonder how the things came to belong to the person.  

James' envelope reminds me of a DVS Pullo collab. Do I need a gas mask when I am fusing plastic? I see pochahontas. I paddle down the lochs with her, arriving at the French Riviera, or some bureaucratic German town. I want my old denim jacket, the one I saved for Figgy and then she didn't want.  That owl would fit perfectly. Thank you James!