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.