Longing to dance - the cornfield thing of dreams

 Nestled in a white collaged envelope (see below) Herman has made one of his signature envelope/folders. It is the thing of girls' dreams: a ballerina on point dances out of a magical cave under the spell of a Herfordshire cornfield with an oak tree. Stamps flitter alongside.  There is a majestic and magical quality to this scene. And another thing girls dream of is dressing in a crown, finding their visage on a stamp, hair braided around their head and diamonds. I don't know about you, but I am hooked on the Crown!

I agree, we do live in an angry world, and few characters elicit more anger that Maggie. At the moment I am pretty incensed by Moore and am hoping the vote down there goes the right way…

Herman has  a habit of sending me bits of dried plants.  These beautiful brittle leaves are this winter's offering. I always intend to dry flowers and leaves but even now the cherry leaves are beginning to rot into the stones before I find time to sweep them up or better yet, press them!

A politician? 

With his doodle creatures and characters, Herman reminds me of the joy in invention and gesture. It must be time to make more stamps! 

Where have all the postcards gone?  And when did Herman go to Wales?

Mail art on its way in the next few days!  I am well and feeling optimistic for 2018!

The Vivian girls are back…

and there is an image problem. Vivian one seems to be intolerant of the way she's being portrayed while Vivian two can compartmentalize and channel her energy into the next task.

It's amazing how the Vivian girls seem to be the perfect metaphor for the two sides of Donald Trump - irate and stupidly collected.  A musical!  but I'm not convined they will be able to sing.

To learn more about the Vivian girls visit the comments on this page: http://thepostalleger.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/return-of-vivian-girls-and-men-in-shades.html

And don't forget to stroke the matt finish of this would be book cover.  Thank you David.

Subscription Opus has me Singing E 3D.

In the spirit of chaotic rearrangement (look carefully at the way Jude number and cross numbers his movements) my computer rearranged the postcards that I had input in a certain order, tying in with the roman numerals, for some reason, and randomised them. I suspect Jude will be pleased.  Or maybe he won't.  I can't begin to pretend to know EXACTLY what goes on in Jude's head, let alone his blesseed corpse.  I love the reconfigured bodies that point to the addressee. 

In a frankly literal way, I have scanned the reverse of the postcards together, as a unit so that they spell Jude's surname.  What I noticed that I have never noticed before was that even though it spells Weirmeir, my brain wanted to read Wiremire. But that's not the point.  The point is that Jude wants us to sing the letters of his name with a chosen clef, at  a personal tempo,  with a particular vowel and a meter tha works in a venue. 

For this task you better read music not just acoss the page but around the page, pictographically, with all sorts of rules. Great stuff!

Cave Paintings from The Bowling Alley

When we were on the Orkney Islands earlier this year, we went into a burial chamber called Maeshowe.  There we learned that 800 years before some Vikings sheltered in the chamber and to entertain themselves carved stories and words on the walls - viking graffiti.  These 'cave paintings' of David's strike me as marks of a man trapped in his studio, or kitchen, or 101 year old mother's house!  Brilliant obsessed artist stuff. and long live our friend the spotted puffer.

Meanwhiile, this wonderful rendering of the nightmare of intuitve thinking reminds me of walking through a Suffolk castle. Brits in inappropriate clothing, random shaped windows, keyholes, vertebrae like stones, portholes, damsels, rats, people determined to joust, or bowl, or something and of course mediums,  birds and slightly unhelpful singage. As for the crude rendering, nothing 800 years ago about these doodles. Many thanks for another brilliant mailing!

Things your ought to know, especialy if you have an orchard, like we do.

This sweet thank-you-book was sent by Mail art Martha for my small participation in her joint mail art event (with Cascadia Artpost) Send in the Clowns.  Not long ago I looked up facts about Halloween because my class at the International Women's group where I volunteer teach English wanted to learn about it.  what I didn't learn is in thei book from Martha! Brilliant!

Fabulous, gorgeous stamps.  Could it be Mail art Martha and Jack clowns?

Many thanks Martha!

Stormy Season

Great to be introduced to Al Harris, the poet Caascadia Artpost quotes on his atmospheric but troubling card. The world is stormy, figuratively and literally: Mugabe in Zimbabwe; an earthquake in South Korea. I expect the pall of thefires still hangs around south of Cascadia, too.

In england we talk about the weather lots.  East Anglia, where I live, is the driest part of the UK.  It is drizzling at the moment.  I'm kind of high (for the barely above sea-level county) and the wind whips around often.

I got my winter clothes out today.  Before long it might even be cold enough for me to light the fire in the studio.

You can learn about Al and find his poems here: http://www.alharris.com/poems/support/storm.htm

It's Halloween and truth is scarier than fiction

I haven't dressed up in a few years for Halloween.  we live at the end of a spooky lane with hedges on both sides.  The kids just don't come to our door. Joel evokes the magical, scary world of the other worldly to help up see the evil that coexists in our lives. He brings the dressing up boxes of our imaginations to life, with the help of Thomas Kerr.

There's a programe on BBC radio 4  called 'Only Artists'.  The idea of the programme bugs me.  It is a conversation between ONLY ARTISTS, as if they are removed from the rest of us, as though they are divine, but I have to admit to actually liking most of the episodes I have heard.  They have had political cartoonists in conversation twice lately.  Today they were talking about the value of satirising politicians as a way of engaging the common man in dialogue,. 

Joel is always engaging me in dialogue with a few images, some stamps and stickers, and he and Thomas find unique ways to say alot about the state of the world. Halloween is a prime time to make our fears visual in iconic ways.

Another thing Joel does is sends me hand-picked clippings.  What with the Weinstein story, Joel has found an op ed that helps me to see how most women live in a constant state of anxiety.  Everyday is halloween for women.  We imagine ghouls and shadows because although the really terrible thing hasn't happened yet, or happened a long time ago, maybe this time it's our turn…

I am delighted to be on Joel's Halloween mailing list, even if it gives me bad dreams tonight.