A library of Boekies from John M Bennett!

 John sent me three books and a postcard.  I have scanned them in their entirety and in order.  I will be taking them to bed with me tonight to read them again (and again). I have seen John's book from afar.  I am very excited to have my own copies to hold, and share.  I will be adding these books to my MSK mail art exhibition.  I don't know if that was John's intention, but I'm sure they will be admired.
I look forward to reading them aloud.  I suspect the sound of each is as special as the shapes of the graphics (words, images and asemics) on the page! Many thanks!

DRAINS - Jim Leftwich and John M Bennett

Postcard - la lumbre del futuro pasado

ififif - Diane Keys & John M Bennett

TRILCECITO - John M Bennett

TREASURE from Nancy Bell Scott

On Cranberry Island there are two boxes nestled in a protected place from my first Island Mail art show.  Nancy sent a piece for it and it was really hard not to quiety slip the piece into my personal folder.  I think about that piece often.  It is the sort of thing that is so genuine and so particulalry NANCY and for some silly reason it's there, not with me.

I suppose if I were DK I could whip one off - she's mastered the art of fake NBS, but I suspect it would go the way of me trying to impersonate an accent.  I just can't be anyone other than who I am.  Having said that, when I unwrapped these three treasures from NBS, I wished for quite a long time that I were NBS then I would be able to produce such perfection!The top piece is called " Never Let the Night Pass". Never let the night pass or else?  I suspect the rust will drip down and morph letters and words into shapes that you think you might almost be able to read but find you can't…

These are the definition of haptic.  Nancy's velum-like tissue paper (I think) places have asemic letters and scratched, peeled fields.  Here layers ripple in ambiguity.

I have to admit to having no favourite.  I share her obsession. I am certain that these are obsessive pieces.  That turquoise dot isn't an accident.  The painted tape and it's music note grape seeds are considered, never laboured but exacting. The man without Rax S.

I love every inch of every one of these treasures.  Nancy tells me I can use them for whatever - whichever show.  One thing is for sure, I won't be making the silly mistake of donating this to a museum.  These treasures need to be looked at again and again by me, and then maybe, over time I will become a bit more like NBS and make something this beautiful!

MOBMA 1st entry: David Stafford

DAvid sent me this wonderful entry for MOBMA consideration.  Anticipating Gold, David's dog is doing a shuffle across the back of the envelope.  I have to agree with David: one minute your dog is a good dog, the next he's a bad dog. and I LOVE that Mobma has entered the realm of psychology.

Apparently this bad dog was the result of a splatter interpretation - of course it's a dog splatter David, of course it is. I can't decide if this bad dog has been raging around the fields chasing (and catching rabbits) like my lurcher, of if he went after someone else's bitch and paid for it...

Whatever, it's a great submission for MOBMA, and I appreciate that David is setting the bar really high, so I look forward to equally delightful submissions during my reign as judge!  Thanks also for ignoring all guidelines.  Rule breaking rules at Mobma.

Pep Talk with Self - Nitsirk

Apparently Nitsirk is sending 'surprise art to various people' and I am one of the lucky recipients! This piece, 'Pep Talk With Self' is no 2 in the series of two.  

Do you have or have you had imaginary friends?  Nitsirk admits she has had her share. I never remember having an imaginary friend, myself,  and although our daughter didn't have an imaginary friend, per se, she did have an imaginary school bus (The Chinese New School Bus - we lived in Singapore at the time). What I remember was the way we would be whipped up into a frenzy to meet the bus, suddenly.

The green background is a wonderful dull olive colour and that character with the red hair may say more about other's opinions of us than who we really think we are… I'm curious about whether the green profile was meant to be bent and slightly torn - shredded - or whether that happened in the mail!

Thanks Nitsirk, I will send you something soon.

Svenja Wahl care package arrive

Such a lot of inspiring stuff here!   The envelope shouted Svenja and I yodeled a hooray in return!  What a beauty! As I look I wonder if all of this should be filed in MSK.  Svenja's colour tends towards the organic, the monochrome, and then there's that sweater - definitely Kodachrome.  There is an equally garish one on the other side. And that deer is actually outlined in a hot pink, which subdues in the scanner. The thing is, I will show all the stuff I receive from now until June at the mail art exhibition, wherether I file it here or there, whether it meets the brief, or not. 

I love Svenja's mountaineers climbing on the wrinkle range. Can we find that place on the map?  Those expressions must be used, but I hate to change one thing in this wonderful care package! Many thanks Svenja.  I like it all!

You may know Svenja from her creature of the month.  Where is that these days?  You can find here here:
http://amtfuerpostkunst.wordpress.com/category/artists/svenja-wahl/

Mail Art Martha on location

 Mail Art Martha tells me she sketched this mini bookie ("pretty trashy-poshy") for me on location.  WELL I HOPE SHE WASN"T AT SUTTON HOO, because if she was she was only about 50 mins from my house and she should have come by for tea or something!

The paper is actually the wrapper of a toilet roll.  We trash poets are always on the look out for dreamy backgrounds and Martha vows to pinch it all from now on.  Will she send me some?

Great to get these drawings, and a history lesson from Martha. Many thanks! I suspect Martha was only at the British Museum.  They took all the real stuff from Sutton Hoo - those Suffolk people can't manage to look after antiquity, you know.