Groovin redheads from 15C

Just fabulous to get some fat mail from Vizma! I love my mail art 'nickname' in lights - that burlesque thing was a highlight for me and I love that Vizma has sent this reminder! Maybe this will be the catalyst for my own wacky mail art sensibilities to return… 

 Vizma and I agreed to make four postcards each and then to send them and add to them.  We'll keep two and send two back. Can't wait to get started with these:

The back of the postcards have Vizma's stamp and signature.  They have a haptic quality and understated colour - fun to respond to.

Nothing about Vizma's mail art is ever too serious.  This card makes me wonder if some cats need glasses and whether some cats are vain?

Above is for my eyes only - silly stuff is perfect!

nd finally…this boekie is a REAL gem. It's a real tiny matchbox book, not just a zig zag book in a box!  I ADORE it.  Vizma's use of text and the way she blends her media results in the kind of book you love to hold, read and begin again. The language, inuendo and strong imagery are something special.

I finally have a few things on deck to send out and one is going back to Vizma, but I need a bit more time to respond to this wonderful mail! Huge thanks!

Inbetween Music - Subscription Opus 91

It must be quite annoying to be a musician, performing, when the audience rustles, coughs, claps or when a phone rings . I think Jude's Inbetween Music gives us an insight into what it feels like to wait between movements for a musician. I suspect musicians have their 'ticks', adjusting the music stand, turning their chair, etc... and that Jude is bringing them together, imagining them as music, recognising the gaps as something interesting too. Perhaps Inbetween is the time when the musician becomes the audience listening to the silence, or something.  Attacca, the devil! Who would deny the musician the inbetween time to hiss, tune, make funny faces or scream?

And now for a bit of Greek Dada - Remembrance of Books lost

I love when opening mailart that sits in a queue on my desk results in a link!  while Dave the Rave doesn't do dada (see previous post) Katerina Nikoltsou does.  And not only that, while Dave does pink and lots of people in power, Katerina chooses purple and focuses mostly on animals, abstractions and a hint of nature.

Katerina's boekie is folded paper bags, stapled and taped.  Inside the pouches are lots of trashpo, perhaps pieces of books lost?

in pouch one...

in pouch two...

Katerina always has a way of making me pine for the sea and wish I could visit her Greek vantage.

Dave the Rave and the dichotomy of the cigarette

I made Dave The Rave a mail artist.  I mean, Dave heard about mail art from me and started sending me pieces when he traveled. The mail art he has sent me is full of meaning, often has doodles and trashpo but is always intentional.  No dada for Dave.

Dave would like to exchange with other mail artists, so not long ago I suggested he send to TOFU for his pink call. It turns out Dave is a bit like me, he didn't read the fine print before he began and instead of making his piece postcard size, made it A3; so I am the beneficiary of his first attempt beginning for Tofu's PINK mail art call.

Dave is yet to send the real PINK piece.

This three-D piece is about Dave's father, smoking and the way we were hoodwinked into smoking by the likes of Ivor Novello in years gone by. Cigarettes had a glamour it's impossible to describe now these icons made them irresistible. 

Dave is still cut up over his father and mother's deaths - both smokers. I suspect they were both English from a different era, with different pastimes in a different kind of world.

If you would like to exchange with Dave the Rave, let me know and I'll send you his address!=

Satisfyingly Guilt Free mail Art from GU

Give me a translucent envelope that crinkles in your hand anyday and I will swoon. Add a little gymnastics and I am all aflutter. Put the Bard on it and I am putty in your hands. GU, how do you know me SO well? Although I believed life had settled down, I am sorry to say that it is still hectic at Nayland Farm, so anything declaring itself 'guilt free' is, well, about the best thing ever. Well almost... throw in a pencil that aludes to the most famous quote of all time and is really about drawing and it is pretty perfect!

I see from a recent post by DeVillo Sloan that GU is sending out altered cards of Richard Burton that are altered differently.  I adore my version.  It's FABULOUS!

Not sure if GU knows that I married into a family that comes from Stratford on Avon, but all this wonderful memorobilia has not gone amiss. Many thanks! You are on my list!