These are the facts: Dave the Rave fell while doing DIY and has had some time for reading and art making and maybe even gardening?

So in his convalescence I sent Dave a brilliant link about art aesthetics.  Philospohers are helping us make sense of the process of reading a painting.  There's this thing called twofoldness and if you think about painting as a language of symbols, depending on your context and experiences, you will be able to interpret the painting. Or maybe it's just a physical response… Whatever, it's never black and white.

Now it's possible that none of this has anything to do with what Dave intends, but I suspect he's testing my ability to think laterally.  Brilliant.  I hope I passed.

Cascadia Artpost Artistamp Creators set 1 & 2

What a great project!  I love seeing all these amazing mail artists in this way.  Thank you so much for send me these collectors items! I also love that in the sea of men you have brought key women into focus! Don't we love the democracy of mail art.  

StraDADA postcard performances

Delighted to have new contact details for Giovanni and Renata and to receive a series of their splendid postcards which are like performances themselves. Notice how the stamps on the back match up with the cards! brilliant. I did check on line to see if their address is around and it is so I trust it OK to share these. If not, just let me know.

Lyra's Tears of Joy, Kitchen Lithography and Freeze Games

Have you ever noticed that when you scan stuff orange loses its saturation?  I use orange quite a bit and scanning work is problematic, but it's only some oranges, flourescent orange, to be exact and Carina is the master of flourescent orange tape! I would've photographed this but it's dark now and I couldn't bear to go another day without opening my package and sharing it with you all, so scns will have to do. Ah Carina!

A package from Carina reminds me of the Sound of Music.  I find myself humming 'my favourite things' as I loosen the string. LYRA. As Burglar Bill would say, 'I'll 'ave that.' I mailed off the rest of my doodle pages today and I am at least one short so a spare new doodle will come in useful. Lyra! Oh I wish you could meet each other. …'brown paper packages tied up with string… these are a few of my favourite things…'

This character, a red-headed teeenage therapist belongs in the Ginger Embassy (think Elgin Mansion with red heads).  On the other side Carina tells me about her new process: 'Kitchen lithography' and this new boekie!  J'adore! In fact, I might even say one of your best.  Keep printing and I love the digital work too!

 The cover and frontispiece are like chalkboards, haptic too.  You feel like you're reading something secret yet rehearsed. The words and letters are both representational and abstract.  There is twofoldness that I love. I am a child.  I am a teacher.  I am alive.

And the monsters, KITCHEN LITHOGRAPHY, authentically child like but adult in their simplicity too.  I feel they could come to life and are also timeless. Wowzer.

And Carina wins the first in with her DKULT Doodle therapy page! Thank you Carina and thank you Joel Cohen. To be fair, as I only mailed most of the others today, she's had a bit of a head start! And I can already see how making these books is gonna be tricky. Huge thanks.

Chartreuse and woes of wanted and unwanted attention - Voyageur Postal

Herman's envelope of the unwanted attention of a true romance rogue, brings me right back to teenage hours wondering what the world held in store for me…

Next I look at it from an aesthetic angle and delight in the squares of colour and the way they break up the tension of space.

For me, a day at the hairdresser would be absolute purgatory, but interestingly, Herman's hairdressing side of the envelope with it's swinging london feel and chartreuse print, exists in a parallel universe:  the radio is debating objectification and beauty and I find myself wondering if this little lady enjoys her coiffure, and is she does is that OK? Would she call herself a feminist?  One thing's for sure, the man attending to her seems to love his job. This is a very fun pair of images and quite provocative in an aesthetic way too!

Hurray for Herman! and what a wonderful muse this roman makes in his pillar of stamps. and if youask me, It looks like Herman's heart includes Falmouth, one of the prettiesst places in the southwest of the UK… and I don't blame him!

Love these moustached men!

Can you spy the collage Herman has made me in the midst of all the wonderful pieces of collage material he sent too? I nearly missed it!

 Huge thanks.  What a beautiful mail art surprise!

Calendar cut up fields of colour

One of the things that I admire about Tofu is the way he refuses to get overwhelmed with his prolific output. This card, his recycled calendar from 201,  is number 20/21.  I imagine that he was moving last year's calendar around his studio in the course of early January and on one occasion he seized on the idea to use it as mail art, cleared the decks, cut and glued and got them out and in the mail before the end of the month!  What a feat!

The result has a recognizeably vintage feel.  I love it's haptic quality and the tessolations of colour. 

I will try to emmulate Tofu and use all the stuff I move around my studio to make mail art in the future!

Life's a beach (or) Man's got to do what man's got to do - the Story of Seaglass

Great to receive this first mailing from Steve Howell in California.  The postcard has such teeny tiny writing that I needed to scan it and push plus to read it properly.  It was worth the effort.  Steve makes sea glass and WE LOVE Seaglass but it's not actually OK to make sea glass and his story explains the pains he takes to do his part to ensure that beach combers are not disappointed. 

They even have a festival of sea glass where Steve lives. And Sea Glass is also known as mermaid's tears.  Love it!

ON Cranberry Island we used to have tons of sea glass and sea pottery.  Everyone threw everything in the sea and it washed up on the shores, broken and polished.  Now we mostly get plastic. YOu can find sea glass on "sea glass beach," though, but I once saw Laurie Wadsworth throwing bottles into the sea so I see why. I think they buy their bottles with sea glass in mind down at that end of the island!

Thanks Steve, hope the festival is s a good one!