Birthday Pink

So love this beauty from Jo Hollis for my birthday! I think it's from her favourite new place to draw. Lucky me.

Fruity Booty from Katy

 A little after the New Year we got a piece of mail art from Katy, my sister. Although Katy and I have traded before, this piece was a complete surprise and the surprise continued until tonight when I finally got to it in my blogging pile… Patrick had replied that it had arrived and I meant to blog it immediately but you know.  I had seen the front and back of what I thought was a postcard, an altered postcard. Fun, energetic, and made me smile. 

I've been making fruitcake every year since we moved to England.  My grandmother used to make fruitcake and when she had her demetia and still lived on her own at home, her dementia manifested itself in tables piled with fruitcakes she had made with scrawly names on labels that I couldn't read. We always had a fruitcake in the fridge, for my dad in NYC. So, I thought Katy was remembering that and thinking of me.

And then, today, I noticed that the postcard looked as though it was coming apart. I have to admit, initially thinking that it was a case of bad glueing but on closer inspection… what I found was another world of mail art! And now I have an alter to 2019 and send so much love back to Katy for making me something so beautiful.

collage with needle threader

 Zoe Rubens is a fantastic, fantastical, creative artist who uses metal and heat to transform rubbish into wonderful and sometimes practical whimsies. You can look at her work here: http://zoerubens.com
After Christmas last year we had the good fortune of having Zoe be our artist in residence for the day, sharing her wonderful artistry to inspire us. I was mostly backstopping but Patrick, Hudson and Figgy, Jonny and Annabel took part, making some wild and wonderful creations.  Everyone was hooked on her welder!

So… was I ever delighted when we received a FABULOUS New Years card from Zoe. I Love needle threader people.  Do people still use needle threaders? I will be sending Zoe some mail art back, even if it's only to Ipswich!

vispo stamping

 Mikel's stamps and colour is always appealing. Look carefully at the textures of his stamps and the way colour seems to glow out of them. He is a true collaborator, enclosing a few  add and pass sheets in each of his letters (3). I think I'll add a few ofmy own stamps and some of the stamps I made for Herman Kamphuis from his wonderful drawings in my return… I will return!

I believe I missed a mail art call exhibition but that's inevitable when I have mail art to blog. Maybe you took part?   I notice the energy of Mikel's mail art. Mail art is active we send it out, we receive it.  We make it...and I need to take part!  

Happy New Year from Greece!

Katerina has not given up on me and sends not only New Years' greetings but also wonders how my birthday was. She and Guido were so good about birthdays! Katerina has made her New Years' card PINK this year because it's the year of the pig. So far it's been a fine start to 2019. It's got cold again here but no snow here. Thank you Katerina.

a practical quiz from Dave the Rave

Well what an existential 'pickle' we find ourselves in on the eve of the Brexit vote, while the US govt remains shut and trees that should be sleeping are budding in sync with some other clock… Dave the Rave has captured all this in collage. A postcard ceases being a postcard when it is cut into organic shapes and reconfigured to make 'mincemeat' of titles and descriptions, missing male and female parts.  I can't piece it together.

Patrick and I were trying to recall Euclid yesterday.  Now Dave has me trying to name these shapes he's created. It makes me wonder what the point of it all is. Existentially speaking it's a puzzle that doesn't fit.

Orange Barn Stable, travels in England

David Stafford came to England with Patti.  Rebecca and Figgy met Patti and David and all had fun. They saw plenty of art. David heard Rebecca speak and learned that she is not authentic.  Figgy arrived and had the right accent. We ate food and drank tea.

This lovely note from David with an orange building, reminiscent of a Matt Khan painting, arrived yonks ago and like the missing mail from Borderline Grafix and Amalgamated Confusion.  I filed it in a VERY special place. New year. New organisation scheme. I have made one mail art package so far so before too long you will get a return, David. Thank you.  I loved meeting you and Patti.

A lesson in being a good American

 Buffalo Bill was a good citizen, riding the pony express and then fighting to keep the union together. It looks like Borderline Grafix is also a good citizen, he appears to have voted. Thank  you.

Luckily, Amalgamated Confusion sent me a brain!

I had put a stack of mail art in a safe place and it wasn't until I was searching for something else that was missing that I FOUND this brain. I wonder which of the six hats below this bowler hat represents. I know one thing, AC's image is supremely aesthetic. It also makes me smile!

As I write I am half-listening to US politics.  Funny to think that Dadaland is actually more efficient than the UK or US governments! I love the Lennon stamps and the LOVE stamp .  IT's all just perfect!

Thank you AC and sorry to be so slow.

Honk if you visted Dada Triumph Motors!

 While the rest of us were rushing around buying holiday gifts, baubles and chocolate, Cascadia Artpost  had his opening of Dada Triumph Motors a 'near future representation of a small city in Cascadia at 1:87', inpired by Wof Vostell. As I look at that mug shop of Trump on the wall, I wonder whether the poster on the table in the situation room (described yesterday) was purloined from the walls of DTM. 

Also delighted to have additional promo material. I wish I lived near Cascadia so I could see the The Fender Roads Totem in the flesh, or the plastic or whatever Cascadia uses as a building material.

 And finally, one more car-based communication arrived  (in November) from Cascadia. In typical Cascadia jocular tradition, he merges the joy of driving with some more austere messages. Zoom in and see what you think! 

As ever, great stamps and great messages. New year, new hope, Brave New world...

2019, a glamour mail art makeover from the Postal Voyageur

Want to make a middle-aged mail artist happy? Herman knew that all he needed to do was to collage some glamour girls and attach my name to them! These are exquisite and they remind me of my radio show days … Jean Harlow in Reckless opened my show: 'I'm gonna go places and look life in the face!… because I'm reckless."  

Meanwhile people keep offering me their seat on the bus, so I am under no delusions but wow! This beautiful envelope was made on the page of a map.  I LOVE it.

For the past six months I have been an abysmal mail artist and still I have had some wonderful mail art drop through my letter box, although understandedly it is petering out.  Not long ago I caught up entering the mail art I'd received into my postal ledger. This arrived from Herman just before the very busy period of family visits and general holiday activity began. I still have/had a small stack of mail art to blog and I actually made some mail art but only managed to post one piece… I did send 80 or so holiday (hand-written) letters to friends around the world but my mail art community has been largely ignored and when I think about it I feel terrible. I haven't made some impossible mail art resolution but I am hoping I can make more mail art in 2019. I promised to send something to Herman between Christmas and New Year and haven't done that yet, but of course I will soon. I am very, very grateful to receive this beautiful mailing from Herman! And he has jumped to the head of my blogging queue.

Today when in London visiting a remarkable exhibit at the British Museum about 

Ashurbanipal in Assyria, I had some ideas about mail art I might want to make. There was a postal stamp (They stamped the clay tablets) in 600BC!

Another envelope, like russian dolls, stuffed with treasure.  I get the sense that Herman appreciates the complexity of women, down to their tiaras and white rabbit teeth.

I've had a wonderful holiday but all you women artists will empathise when I say no matter how wonderful family visits are, there is a certain amount of longing that accompanies this time.  Herman's images capture the sentiment of longing although I suspect these women are longing for company and not like me… longing to get back to my studio and maybe even to make some mail art!

 This is a folded book full of characters and pathos. Something is brewing here and it's up to me to find a way to use it.  Great stuff and wonderful drawing!

As ever, I am enormously thankful for Herman's beautiful work and his persistence as a correspondent. I hope those of you who I owe mail art know that if I could I would send and that I hope to send again soon. I continue to archive the mail art I receive and know who has sent, who I should mail to and suspect one day I will shift my priorities again and focus on my mail art community.